TALLADEGA 1
Saturday, April 25 – NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, 4 p.m. ET (CW)
Sunday, April 26– NASCAR Cup Series, 3 p.m. ET (FOX)
Austin Cindric is the defending winner of this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway, continuing a decade-long streak of success for Ford Racing and Team Penske. Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 is the headline event of the weekend, following Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Ag-Pro 300.
CINDRIC GOING FOR REPEAT WIN
Austin Cindric came out with the lead following a late-race green flag pit cycle and was able to outduel fellow Ford driver Ryan Preece at the finish line to win last year’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Cindric and Preece exchanged the lead five times over the final seven laps with Cindric driving the inside lane and Preece the outside. Cindric, who led five times for seven laps, ended up winning by .022 seconds. The win also marked the 200th Cup Series points victory for Roush Yates Engines.
TALLADEGA GOOD FOR FORD AND BLANEY
Ford’s Ryan Blaney has won three times at Talladega Superspeedway, which is a personal best and one of five tracks where he has registered multiple victories. Phoenix, Daytona, Martinsville and Pocono are the others with two wins each. Blaney’s streak started with consecutive triumphs, winning the playoff race in 2019 and then the following event in the spring of 2020. He capped off the streak in 2023 with a dramatic photo finish victory over fellow Ford driver, Kevin Harvick. The win marked Ford’s 12th win at the superspeedway in the previous 19 races, which included a seven-race winning streak from 2015-18.
DECADE OF EXCELLENCE
Ford and Team Penske have won 11 of the last 23 NCS races at Talladega Superspeedway. Brad Keselowski started this run by winning in 2014 and registered four victories at the track before joining Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing in 2022. Joey Logano won in back-to-back seasons (2015-16) while Ryan Blaney followed suit, winning three times in a five year span (2019-23). Austin Cindric became the fourth Team Penske driver to reach Victory Lane when he won this event a year ago.
TEAM PENSKE WINS AT TALLADEGA SINCE 2014
2014 – Brad Keselowski (Talladega 2)
2015 – Joey Logano (Talladega 2)
2016 – Brad Keselowski (Talladega 1)
2016 – Joey Logano (Talladega 2)
2017 – Brad Keselowski (Talladega 2)
2018 – Joey Logano (Talladega 1)
2019 – Ryan Blaney (Talladega 2)
2020 – Ryan Blaney (Talladega 1)
2021 – Brad Keselowski (Talladega 1)
2023 – Ryan Blaney (Talladega 2)
2025 – Austin Cindric (Talladega 1)
KESELOWSKI ACTIVE TALLADEGA WIN LEADER
Brad Keselowski is the winningest active driver at Talladega with six NASCAR Cup Series victories and is tied for second on the all-time list with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon. In 34 career starts at the Speedway, Keselowski has 17 top-10 and 12 top-five finishes, including a pair of back-to-back second-place runs in 2024. The track’s all-time winner is Dale Earnhardt Sr., who won 10 times during his NASCAR Hall of Fame career.
SITTING ON 749
The next Ford win will be its 750th all-time in NASCAR’s top series. Ned Jarrett is Ford’s win leader with 43 while Bill Elliott is second with 40. Shirtless Jimmy Florian scored the Blue Oval’s first series victory when he upset the likes of Lee Petty, Curtis Turner and Joe Weatherly at Dayton Speedway on June 25, 1950. Florian earned his nickname after getting out of his 1950 flathead Ford without a shirt. Overall, 91 drivers have won at least one series race with Ford, including notable drivers Mario Andretti, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, A.J. Foyt, Richard Petty, and Dale Earnhardt.
RYAN BLANEY
THE SUCCESS YOU HAVE HAD AT TALLADEGA. WILL THAT CHANGE WITH NASCAR BREAKING UP THE STAGES? “I don’t know if it’ll change much. I think you just have to figure out a new approach to how you want to go about it. How do you want to go about the different lengths and stuff like that. You’re still gonna be wanting to come out in the top three or four rows. I mean, that’s just kind of what it is there, so we’ll adjust to it and try to figure out the best way to do it and you just hope you hit it right. One thing I do know is that we’ve been consistent there because we’re bringing really fast cars and that’s a huge part of it. I have no doubt we’re gonna do that again and then just hope we hit the strategy side right and hopefully I do my job correctly on that side.”
DO YOU THINK THERE WAS TOO MUCH RIDING AROUND IN THE EARLY STAGES? “Yeah. I personally despise the fuel save stuff. I think any driver does. It’s an interesting strategy play, but, to me, it’s like you’re not racing the whole time. You are racing, but not 100 percent and you’re forced to do it because it’s what everyone else is doing and you have to do that to keep track position. That’s the game that it has become, but I’m not a big fan of that. I hope what NASCAR is doing by taking action on it is good. We’ll see where that goes.”
MARTIN LEFT HIS MARK
Mark Martin is the only Ford driver to have won in all three of the major series offered by NASCAR at Talladega. Martin won the Cup series race in 1995 and 1997, O’Reilly in 1996 and lastly in the Truck series’ debut 2006 event. Current blue-oval branded driver Joey Logano (2015 O’Reilly) has won in both the Cup and O’Reilly series, most recently sharing a sweep of the 2018 Cup doubleheader. David Ragan is also a part of the list, having won a Cup race in 2013 and an O’Reilly event in 2009.
DAVEY ALLISON’S FIRST WIN
Ford has had many milestone moments at Talladega Superspeedway, including the first NASCAR Cup Series win for the late Davey Allison, who won the Winston 500 on May 3, 1987. The race came down to a restart with 10 laps to go in which Allison found himself behind Dale Earnhardt in the outside lane. Earnhardt bolted to the lead when the green flew and Allison tucked in behind him through turns one and two. As they came off the second corner, Allison went to the inside and easily passed Earnhardt for what proved to be the winning move. Terry Labonte ended up finishing second with Earnhardt third. Allison went on to win 19 NCS races, including three at Talladega.
ROBERT YATES RACING’S FINAL WIN
When Dale Jarrett won the UAW-Ford 500 on Oct. 2, 2005 it marked his final trip to victory lane for Robert Yates Racing. This race came down to a green-white-checker restart, where Jarrett was positioned fourth. He was still in that spot when they came around to start the final lap, but quickly moved to the outside as Tony Stewart grabbed the lead on the inside lane. The two drivers battled side-by-side down the backstretch before Jarrett powered his way in front. Seconds after getting the lead, Kyle Petty was involved in a single-car accident that brought out the caution as the cars entered turn three. Jarrett was declared the winner after NASCAR verified that he was in front at the time the yellow flag was thrown. The win was RYR’s 57th triumph in the NASCAR Cup Series, and came six years after the team won its only championship with Jarrett in 1999.
FORD’S NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS
AT TALLADEGA
1975 – Buddy Baker (Sweep)
1976 – Buddy Baker (1)
1979 – Bobby Allison (1)
1983 – Dale Earnhardt (2)
1985 – Bill Elliott and Cale Yarborough
1987 – Dave Allison and Bill Elliott
1989 – Davey Allison and Terry Labonte
1992 – Davey Allison (1)
1994 – Jimmy Spencer (2)
1995 – Mark Martin (1)
1997 – Mark Martin (1)
1998 – Dale Jarrett (2)
2005 – Dale Jarrett (2)
2009 – Jamie McMurray (2)
2012 – Matt Kenseth (2)
2013 – David Ragan (1)
2014 – Brad Keselowski (2)
2015 – Joey Logano (2)
2016 – Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano
2017 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Brad Keselowski
2018 – Joey Logano and Aric Almirola
2019 – Ryan Blaney (2)
2020 – Ryan Blaney (1)
2021 – Brad Keselowski (1)
2023 – Ryan Blaney (2)
2025 – Austin Cindric (1)
FORD’S NOAPS WINNERS AT TALLADEGA
1995 – Chad Little
1997 – Mark Martin
2002 – Jason Keller
2009 – David Ragan
2015 – Joey Logano
2017 – Aric Almirola
The Ford Mustang is the world’s best selling sports car and one of its most popular race cars. With Mustang-based race cars competing in international sports car competition (GT3 and GT4), NASCAR, NHRA, Formula Drift, in Supercars, at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and in its own bespoke regional one-make series – Mustang Cup and Mustang Challenge – the platform has an unprecedented global reach. This weekend, 23 Mustang race cars are scheduled to race across all disciplines. Learn more about Mustang at www.FordRacing.com .
