Austin Cindric needed the least chaotic finish in recent Talladega history to have a chance to win the Jack Link’s 500NASCAR Cup Series race on April 27 at Talladega Superspeedway.
He got it somehow, out-drag racing Ryan Preece to the finish line to win for the third time in his Cup Series career.
Cindric and Preece were able to hold off several Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets behind them, not leaving either William Byron or Kyle Larson any room to draft around them in the final laps.
Unlike the earlier stage finishes in the race, no third lane emerged late. And very unlike recent superspeedway races, no late-race cautions or crashes impacted the finish.
Here are the winners and losers from Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega:
THE TALLADEGA IMPOSTER: The long Talladega con: How L.W. Wright talked his way onto NASCAR’s fastest track
NASCAR Talladega winners and losers: Austin Cindric holds off the field to win
Winner: Austin Cindric
The first Team Penske driver locked into the NASCAR playoffs: Austin Cindric, who won by a nose at the line at Talladega.
Cindric was able to emerge as the leader of the pack after green-flag pit stops with about 15 laps to go and stayed tucked in closely with a pair of Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets instead of trying to own both lanes. Ryan Preece, another Ford, led the top line but neither could get a clear advantage.
Cindric got just enough of a pull from lapped cars on the final lap through the tri-oval and managed the win by 0.022 seconds over Preece.
The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford entered the weekend 22nd in points but is now locked into the postseason. Despite some mediocre stretches, Cindric now has wins in three of the last four regular seasons. That’ll work.
Winner: Ryan Preece
We don’t always like to pick out the top two finishers for the winners portion of this weekly exercise, but Preece comes out of Talladega with a strong runner-up finish despite not grabbing the win.
Of course, Preece would not have to worry about the points standings had he won on Sunday. But the driver of the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford had a good points day overall and sits 12th in the regular season standings and 14th in the playoff picture.
Preece now has four top-10 finishes in 10 races this season, which is a really good start to his first season with Roush Fenway Keselowski.
Loser: Ryan Blaney
Ryan Blaney suffered his fourth DNF in 10 races this season with a 39th-place finish at Talladega after getting caught up in the Stage 1 crash between Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski.
Blaney was an innocent bystander in the crash, getting clipped in the side by Keselowski who had spun with Busch as they tried to slow down coming down to pit road.
Blaney had to have high expectations coming to a track that he has won at three times.
An important thing to note: Blaney is still one of the championship favorites and has run well for the majority of the first three months of the season. But the results aren’t reflecting it yet.
Still, there’s a history of Penske drivers with challenging regular seasons surging to the top when it matters most.
Loser: Chris Buescher
10 races in, it’s fair to start looking at the points standings to get a good vision of who is likely going to make the 16-driver field and who will not.
Last year, Buescher was the first driver out of the playoffs after some late-regular season winners bumped the cutoff up. He was clearly one of the better drivers in 2024, ninth in average finish and in top-10 finishes.
This year, Buescher was 12th in regular season points coming into Talladega but 13th in the playoff picture. It was not a good time for the first DNF of the season for the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford, but that’s exactly what happened when Buescher and Christopher Bell crashed on the backstretch while leading the lines during a restart late in Stage 1.
Much like Blaney, Buescher was a bystander while another car’s issue took him out of the race. A bad bump off of turn 2 by Denny Hamlin turned Bell into Buescher, and the pair spun down to the inside and pounded the inside wall.
Buescher finished 36th, his worst of the season.
He should be OK for now in the playoff picture, but it’s those kinds of results that could put the No. 17 driver in a similar position as last year.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR Talladega winners and losers: Austin Cindric wins in a photo finish
Austin Cindric needed the least chaotic finish in recent Talladega history to have a chance to win the Jack Link’s 500NASCAR Cup Series race on April 27 at Talladega Superspeedway.
He got it somehow, out-drag racing Ryan Preece to the finish line to win for the third time in his Cup Series career.
Cindric and Preece were able to hold off several Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets behind them, not leaving either William Byron or Kyle Larson any room to draft around them in the final laps.
Unlike the earlier stage finishes in the race, no third lane emerged late. And very unlike recent superspeedway races, no late-race cautions or crashes impacted the finish.
Here are the winners and losers from Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega:
THE TALLADEGA IMPOSTER: The long Talladega con: How L.W. Wright talked his way onto NASCAR’s fastest track
NASCAR Talladega winners and losers: Austin Cindric holds off the field to win
Winner: Austin Cindric
The first Team Penske driver locked into the NASCAR playoffs: Austin Cindric, who won by a nose at the line at Talladega.
Cindric was able to emerge as the leader of the pack after green-flag pit stops with about 15 laps to go and stayed tucked in closely with a pair of Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets instead of trying to own both lanes. Ryan Preece, another Ford, led the top line but neither could get a clear advantage.
Cindric got just enough of a pull from lapped cars on the final lap through the tri-oval and managed the win by 0.022 seconds over Preece.
The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford entered the weekend 22nd in points but is now locked into the postseason. Despite some mediocre stretches, Cindric now has wins in three of the last four regular seasons. That’ll work.
Winner: Ryan Preece
We don’t always like to pick out the top two finishers for the winners portion of this weekly exercise, but Preece comes out of Talladega with a strong runner-up finish despite not grabbing the win.
Of course, Preece would not have to worry about the points standings had he won on Sunday. But the driver of the No. 60 RFK Racing Ford had a good points day overall and sits 12th in the regular season standings and 14th in the playoff picture.
Preece now has four top-10 finishes in 10 races this season, which is a really good start to his first season with Roush Fenway Keselowski.
Loser: Ryan Blaney
Ryan Blaney suffered his fourth DNF in 10 races this season with a 39th-place finish at Talladega after getting caught up in the Stage 1 crash between Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski.
Blaney was an innocent bystander in the crash, getting clipped in the side by Keselowski who had spun with Busch as they tried to slow down coming down to pit road.
Blaney had to have high expectations coming to a track that he has won at three times.
An important thing to note: Blaney is still one of the championship favorites and has run well for the majority of the first three months of the season. But the results aren’t reflecting it yet.
Still, there’s a history of Penske drivers with challenging regular seasons surging to the top when it matters most.
Loser: Chris Buescher
10 races in, it’s fair to start looking at the points standings to get a good vision of who is likely going to make the 16-driver field and who will not.
Last year, Buescher was the first driver out of the playoffs after some late-regular season winners bumped the cutoff up. He was clearly one of the better drivers in 2024, ninth in average finish and in top-10 finishes.
This year, Buescher was 12th in regular season points coming into Talladega but 13th in the playoff picture. It was not a good time for the first DNF of the season for the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford, but that’s exactly what happened when Buescher and Christopher Bell crashed on the backstretch while leading the lines during a restart late in Stage 1.
Much like Blaney, Buescher was a bystander while another car’s issue took him out of the race. A bad bump off of turn 2 by Denny Hamlin turned Bell into Buescher, and the pair spun down to the inside and pounded the inside wall.
Buescher finished 36th, his worst of the season.
He should be OK for now in the playoff picture, but it’s those kinds of results that could put the No. 17 driver in a similar position as last year.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR Talladega winners and losers: Austin Cindric wins in a photo finish
