RICK WARE RACING
Jack Link’s 500
Date: April 27, 2025
Event: Jack Link’s 500 (Round 10 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway (2.66-mile oval)
Format: 188 laps, broken into three stages (60 laps/60 laps/68 laps)
Race Winner: Austin Cindric of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 1 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Bubba Wallace of 23XI Racing (Toyota)
RWR Finish:
● Cody Ware (Started 33rd, Finished 33rd / Running, completed 186 of 188 laps)
RWR Points:
● Cody Ware (36th with 52 points)
RWR Notes:
● Ware finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points.
Race Notes:
● Austin Cindric won the Jack Link’s 500 to score his third career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Talladega. His margin of victory over second-place Ryan Preece was .022 of a second.
● This was Ford’s 743rd all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory and its second of the season. Josh Berry won for the Blue Oval March 16 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
● This was Ford’s 33rd NASCAR Cup Series victory at Talladega. Ford got its first win at Talladega on May 4, 1975 with NASCAR Hall of Famer Buddy Baker.
● This was Roush-Yates Engines’ milestone 200th NASCAR Cup Series victory with Ford Performance. Matt Kenseth scored the first win for Roush-Yates Engines when he drove his Ford Taurus to victory on Feb. 22, 2004 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham.
● There were four caution periods for a total of 22 laps.
● All but nine of the 39 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● William Byron remains the championship leader after Talladega with a 32-point advantage over second-place Kyle Larson.
Sound Bites:
“Today we showed from green flag to checkered flag that we were a race-winning contender. I’m really proud of the pit crew and the road crew and everybody back at the shop for building a super fast Arby’s x AC Barbeque Sauce Ford Mustang. I’m really dejected with how the day ended. I sped leaving pit road, but we also ran out of fuel too, so our fate was kind of sealed after that last pit stop, no matter what. We just need to move forward knowing that we can do this. We just have to keep digging.” – Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 Arby’s x AC Barbeque Sauce Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Würth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY on Sunday, May 4 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.