Cindric Narrowly Breaks Through in Talladega Win Over Preece
UPDATE: Ryan Preece, the initial runner-up finisher, and Joey Logano, the fifth-place finisher, were both disqualified following post-race inspection after the Jack Link's 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Both cars had infractions related to the rear spoilers. Preece is credited with a 38th-place finish, and Logano is now credited with a 39th-place finish.
After missed opportunities in the season-opening Daytona 500 and again at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and a 50-point penalty following an incident at Circuit of the Americas, the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season had begun to turn into a frustration for Austin Cindric and the No. 2 Team Penske team.
The 26-year-old wiped out the frustration with a photo finish win over Ryan Preece in the Jack Link's 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday.
RESULTS: Jack Link's 500 at Talladega
"It's kind of been a rollercoaster, it's kind of been one thing keeping us from excellence in a lot of weekends in a row," Cindric explained. "And I think there are a lot of different avenues you can take."
Cindric, who has gained the reputation of being one of the best superspeedway racers in modern NASCAR, has found bad luck in recent outings at this style of race. On Sunday, he finally found the avenue back to victory lane.
"We finally finished one of these, so that was cool," Cindric quipped in his post-race press conference. "No, just to be able to win at this track, and to win in the [NASCAR] Cup Series, such a challenging thing to do, and a total team effort every step of the way for that final Stage for us to be able to get that done."
For Cindric, this marks the third win of his 125-race NASCAR Cup Series career. And with the win, Cindric has chiseled his place into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field for the second consecutive season, and third over the last four years.
Ultimately, it was pit strategy that dictated the way the field was positioned to battle for the race win.
After the final round of green flag pit stops, the Ford and Chevrolet teams found themselves at the front of the field as they won out over the Toyotas, who were stalled out by Ross Chastain, who blocked them as they were approaching quickly.
On the final lap, it was Cindric in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford at the front of the inside line, receiving shoves from Kyle Larson, while Preece was up top in his No. 60 RFK Racing Ford, receiving shoves from William Byron. The battle for the win turned into a 2.66-mile long drag race.
Cindric would pull an advantage down the backstretch, with massive help from Larson, but as they reached the end of the backstretch, Byron gave another massive bump to Preece, which allowed Preece to pull even with Cindric in Turn 3.
Off of Turn 4, Cindric and Preece were essentially in a dead-heat, and as they approached the finish line, Cindric was able to pull a slight draft off of Kyle Busch and Josh Berry, who were attempting to cling to the lead lap. That was all Cindric needed to win by roughly three feet over Preece.
The runner-up finish was a career-best for Preece, topping his previous best of third, but the 34-year-old racer in his first season with RFK Racing wasn't in any mood to celebrate falling short of his first career win.
"That's just me as a racer, I hate losing more than I love winning," Preece said. "It's just something that you want to win. That's what we come out here to do, we don't come out here to just be in the show and blend in. We come here to win. You know, over the past six years or five years, I've done a lot of freaking losing. I feel like the dues are paid."
While it was a heartbreaking way to miss out on a win, Preece feels he and his No. 60 team are going to be real contenders for several wins down the stretch this season.
"We're getting closer and closer, I think. I don't really know if people kind of write me off because of the past previous years, but I think we're proving we're going to be a threat," Preece explained. "We're going to be a threat at short tracks, we're going to be a threat at mile-and-a-halfs, superspeedways, and road courses. As a group, we're going to keep pushing and work on the details. I feel like we did everything right, but we needed that little bit."
Stage 1 winner Kyle Larson, who delivered the race-winning shoves to Cindric, would finish third, and he was followed to the line by his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron, who was shoving Preece. Joey Logano, Cindric's Team Penske teammate, would finish fifth.
Byron maintained his NASCAR Cup Series regular-season point lead with the fourth-place finish. The point lead is now 32 points over Larson, and 53 points over Denny Hamlin, who finished 23rd.
Noah Gragson, Chase Elliott, Carson Hocevar, Alex Bowman, and Stage 2 winner Bubba Wallace rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
While there wasn't a traditional "Big One" during this race, a couple of on-track incidents wiped out a few top contenders early in the race.
As teams were attempting to get to pit road for the first round of green flag pit stops in the race, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski got together, which sent Keselowski spinning through the infield grass.
Ryan Blaney would get swept up in the incident as well. The crash would spell the end of the day for Keselowski and Blaney, who finished 38th and 39th, while Busch soldiered on.
Busch would work his way at one point back inside of the top-10, but a late-race speeding penalty ruined any chance of a good finish. Busch would be scored with an ultra-disappointing 29th-place run.
On Lap 52, a bump draft gone wrong from Denny Hamlin onto his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell impacted the day for Bell and Chris Buescher, who were battling for the race lead at the time.
The contact from Hamlin sent Bell spinning to the inside of the track. Bell would collect Buescher, and as Buescher collided with the inside wall, Bell went head-first into the barrier. Both drivers would fortunately walk away from the crashes, but would retire from the race.
Anthony Alfredo, who drives the No. 62 Beard Motorsports "Open" entry impressed mightily as he led the race on seven occasions for a total of 19 laps. But on the final lap of the race, Alfredo's fuel tank ran dry, and he coasted across the line for a 30th-place finish.
Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. That race is scheduled for Sunday, May 4 and will be televised by FS1. Television coverage of that race will kick off at 3:30 PM ET.
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Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.