{"id":51095,"date":"2025-04-27T20:55:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T01:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=51095"},"modified":"2025-04-28T08:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T13:29:11","slug":"austin-cindric-wins-wild-talladega-race-with-last-lap-pass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/27\/austin-cindric-wins-wild-talladega-race-with-last-lap-pass\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Cindric wins wild Talladega race with last-lap pass"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Austin Cindric, driver of the #2 Menards\/Quaker State Ford, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27, 2025 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013 Austin Cindric\u2019s dramatic last lap pass provided exactly the sort of Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway thrill that NASCAR fans have come to expect at the sport\u2019s biggest track, earning the 2022 Daytona 500 winner Cindric \u2013 and Team Penske \u2013 their first trophies of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Austin Cindric, driver of the #2 Menards\/Quaker State Ford, takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Cup Series Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27, 2025 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Logan Riely\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Cindric\u2019s No. 2 Team Penske Ford pulled ahead of Roush Fenway Keselowski driver Ryan Preece\u2019s No. 60 Ford by the length of a front hood to claim a .022-second victory in Sunday\u2019s Jack Link\u2019s 500 \u2013 the two Ford Mustangs exchanging the lead five times in the final six laps.<\/p>\n

However, the Fords driven by Preece and fifth place finisher, Cindric\u2019s Penske teammate Joey Logano were subsequently disqualified following post-race inspection for technical violations. NASCAR officials found an illegal spoiler on Preece\u2019s Mustang and a spoiler violation on Logano\u2019s No. 22 Mustang that also violated Overall Assembled Vehicle Rules.<\/p>\n

The disqualifications moved Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron into second and third place in the race\u2019s final standings.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Austin Cindric, driver of the #2 Menards\/Quaker State Ford, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27, 2025 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so proud of this team from the [pit] cycles to the fast cars to the fuel-only stops,\u2019\u2019 said the 26-year old Cindric, whose team – with 17 laps remaining – turned in the fastest final pit stop putting him back out front and able to contend for the win in a race that featured 67 lead changes among 23 drivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely wasn\u2019t easy,\u2019\u2019 Cindric said of holding off the Hendrick teammates for the checkered flag. \u201cI give a lot of credit, Kyle [Larson] did a lot to take care of me, pushing me at the right times in the tri-oval and as mad as I was at him after Atlanta [race], I feel like we\u2019re good now. That was great and having a photo-finish at Talladega and get in the Playoffs in front of this amazing crowd, beautiful day in Alabama.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"

A general view of racing during the NASCAR Cup Series Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27, 2025 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Logan Riely\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Hendrick teammates Larson and Byron acknowledged lapped traffic in front of the lead pack, looming just beyond the finish line, certainly created an extra consideration. Yet the runner-up showing for Larson, who won Stage 1 and led three laps on the day, was a career best effort at Talladega. It was a major move forward for the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion drafting tracks such as Talladega, Daytona and Atlanta \u2013 all venues where the 31-race winner has yet to earn a trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to take it, but just felt like the gap was too big,\u2019\u2019 said Larson, who ran directly behind Cindric in the closing laps, adding. \u201cI was just second row inside and just going to do everything I could to try and advance our lane and maybe open it up so maybe then I could get to the outside, but we were all pushing so equally that it kept the lanes kind of jammed up.<\/p>\n

\"\"

A general view of racing during the NASCAR Cup Series Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27, 2025 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI needed something else to kinda happen, maybe them to get blocking each other or something, but still a great day. A stage win, P3 in the second stage and P3 in the final, so great points day and best career finish on a superspeedway so happy with the performance in the Hendricks.com Chevy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cindric is the 10th<\/sup> different winner in the last 10 Talladega races \u2013 a record streak at the iconic 2.66-mile high-banked track. Yet Sunday\u2019s race was relatively calm compared to some previous editions at the high-action drafting track. It marked the fourth time a Tallladega race had only four caution flags \u2013 two of which were scheduled stage caution breaks.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Zane Smith, driver of the #38 TitleMax Ford, leads the field to the green flag to start the NASCAR Cup Series Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27, 2025 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Logan Riely\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

With the two disqualifications, Front Row Motorsports\u2019 Noah Gragson and Hendrick\u2019s Chase Elliott round out the top-five.<\/p>\n

Chevrolet drivers, Spire Motorsports\u2019 Carson Hocevar and Hendrick\u2019s Alex Bowman finished sixth and seventh with former Talladega winner, and Sunday\u2019s Stage 2 winner Bubba Wallace eighth in the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota. Trackhouse Racing\u2019s Daniel Su\u00e1rez and Richard Childress Racing\u2019s Austin Dillon completed the updated top-10.<\/p>\n

Although their teammates ran well and earned stage points, it was a frustrating afternoon for Penske\u2019s Ryan Blaney and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing\u2019s Brad Keselowski.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 Advance Auto Parts Ford, signs an autograph for a NASCAR fan prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27, 2025 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Logan Riely\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

The two former champions and past multi-time Talladega winners were collected in an accident on lap 43 during a pit stop cycle before the first Stage break. Keselowski and Chevy\u2019s Kyle Busch collided on track as Keselowski was moving to pit road for a stop \u2013 their contact collected Blaney spinning him out as well. <\/p>\n

The owner-driver of the No. 6 Ford, Keselowski, who was already mired in a disappointing early season, finished 36th<\/sup> and is now ranked 32nd<\/sup> in the championship standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just a stack of guys trying to come to pit road as fast as they could and we were kind of the ham in the sandwich that got squeezed.\u2019\u2019 said Keselowski, who leads all active drivers with six Talladega wins. \u201cI waved down the backstretch to let everybody know I was gonna pit and I came off of four and everybody was so tight behind me that I didn\u2019t even have a chance to turn left.  I hate that it ruined not just our day, but several other people\u2019s day. I don\u2019t think I could do anything different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 Amazon Prime Video Chevrolet, greets fans as he walks onstage during driver intros prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on April 27, 2025 in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Blaney, who drives the No. 12 Team Penske Ford was scored as 37th<\/sup> \u2013 ahead of the two disqualified drivers. It marked his fourth DNF in the 10-race season, but the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion has led 198 laps on the season and is still ranked eighth in the standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother DNF – it just sucks,\u2019\u2019 Blaney said.  Just when we were kind of getting our momentum and didn\u2019t even get to race today.  We\u2019ll just move on to Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his third-place finish, Byron continues to lead the championship standings, now 31 points ahead of his teammate Larson. Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Denny Hamlin, who had been second in points going into Talladega is now ranked third, 52 points behind Byron.<\/p>\n

The NASCAR Cup Series now heads West to Texas Motor Speedway for next Sunday\u2019s Wurth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Elliott is the defending race winner.<\/p>\n

NASCAR Cup Series Race – Jack Link’s 500<\/strong><\/p>\n

Talladega Superspeedway<\/strong><\/p>\n

Talladega, Alabama<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunday, April 27, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

                  1. (7)  Austin Cindric, Ford, 188.<\/p>\n

                  2. (25)  Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 188.<\/p>\n

                  3. (16)  William Byron, Chevrolet, 188.<\/p>\n

                  4. (27)  Noah Gragson, Ford, 188.<\/p>\n

                  5. (30)  Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 188.<\/p>\n

                  6. (28)  Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 188.<\/p>\n

                  7. (18)  Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 188.<\/p>\n

                  8. (20)  Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 188.<\/p>\n

                  9. (24)  Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 188.<\/span><\/p>\n

                  10. (5)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 188.<\/span><\/p>\n

                  <\/span>11. (14)  Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 188.<\/p>\n

                  12. (35)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 188.<\/p>\n

                  13. (12)  Cole Custer, Ford, 188.<\/p>\n

                  14. (26)  Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 188.<\/p>\n

                  15. (17)  Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 188.<\/p>\n

                  16. (15)  Todd Gilliland, Ford, 188.<\/p>\n

                  17. (10)  Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 188.<\/span><\/p>\n

                  18. (34)  Erik Jones, Toyota, 188.<\/span><\/p>\n

                  <\/span>19. (1)  Zane Smith, Ford, 188.<\/p>\n

                  20. (32)  Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 188.<\/p>\n

                  21. (13)  Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 188.<\/p>\n

                  22. (23)  Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 188.<\/p>\n

                  23. (21)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 188.<\/p>\n

                  24. (19)  AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 188.<\/p>\n

                  25. (37)  Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 188.<\/p>\n

                  26. (8)  Josh Berry, Ford, 188.<\/p>\n

                  27. (2)  Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 188.<\/p>\n

                  28. (31)  Anthony Alfredo(i), Chevrolet, 188.<\/p>\n

                  29. (36)  Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 187.<\/p>\n

                  30. (29)  John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 187.<\/p>\n

                  31. (33)  Cody Ware, Ford, 186.<\/p>\n

                  32. (39)  JJ Yeley, Chevrolet, 186.<\/p>\n

                  33. (38)  BJ McLeod, Chevrolet, Overheating, 71.<\/p>\n

                  34. (6)  Chris Buescher, Ford, Accident, 51.<\/p>\n

                  35. (11)  Christopher Bell, Toyota, Accident, 51.<\/p>\n

                  36. (22)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, Accident, 42.<\/p>\n

                  37. (9)  Ryan Blaney, Ford, Accident, 42.<\/p>\n

                  38. (4)  Ryan Preece, Ford, 188.<\/p>\n

                  39. (3)  Joey Logano, Ford, 188.<\/p>\n

Average Speed of Race Winner:  157.203 mph.<\/p>\n

Time of Race:  3 Hrs, 10 Mins, 52 Secs. Margin of Victory:  .022 Seconds.<\/p>\n

Caution Flags:  4 for 22 laps.<\/p>\n

Lead Changes:  67 among 23 drivers.<\/p>\n

Lap Leaders:   Z. Smith 1-3;J. Berry 4;J. Logano 5;M. McDowell 6-7;J. Berry 8;M. McDowell 9-10;Z. Smith 11;J. Berry 12-14;R. Preece 15;M. McDowell 16;R. Preece 17;M. McDowell 18-20;Z. Smith 21;J. Berry 22;K. Busch 23-25;C. Briscoe 26-40;C. Custer 41-42;J. Logano 43-48;D. Suarez 49;C. Buescher 50-51;D. Hamlin 52-58;B. Wallace 59;K. Larson 60-62;C. Hocevar 63;*. Yeley 64;*. Alfredo(i) 65;W. Byron 66-69;*. Alfredo(i) 70-73;R. Chastain 74;J. Nemechek 75;*. Alfredo(i) 76;R. Chastain 77-80;*. Alfredo(i) 81;R. Chastain 82-83;*. Alfredo(i) 84-85;R. Chastain 86;D. Suarez 87;*. Alfredo(i) 88-93;R. Chastain 94-95;*. Alfredo(i) 96-99;R. Chastain 100;J. Logano 101-108;C. Hocevar 109;J. Logano 110;B. Wallace 111;M. McDowell 112-113;C. Hocevar 114;J. Logano 115-119;B. Wallace 120-122;*. Yeley 123;C. Elliott 124;C. Briscoe 125-127;T. Gibbs 128;C. Briscoe 129-130;T. Gibbs 131-161;J. Logano 162-164;J. Berry 165-166;T. Dillon 167;J. Berry 168-171;A. Cindric 172-174;W. Byron 175;A. Cindric 176;W. Byron 177-181;A. Cindric 182;R. Preece 183-185;A. Cindric 186;R. Preece 187;A. Cindric 188.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Ty Gibbs 2 times for 32 laps; Joey Logano 6 times for 24 laps; Chase Briscoe 3 times for 20 laps; * Anthony Alfredo(i) 7 times for 19 laps; Josh Berry 6 times for 12 laps; Ross Chastain 6 times for 11 laps; William Byron 3 times for 10 laps; Michael McDowell 5 times for 10 laps; Denny Hamlin 1 time for 7 laps; Austin Cindric 5 times for 7 laps; Ryan Preece 4 times for 6 laps; Zane Smith 3 times for 5 laps; Bubba Wallace 3 times for 5 laps; Carson Hocevar 3 times for 3 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 3 laps; Kyle Larson 1 time for 3 laps; Daniel Suarez 2 times for 2 laps; Chris Buescher 1 time for 2 laps; Cole Custer 1 time for 2 laps; * JJ Yeley 2 times for 2 laps; John Hunter Nemechek 1 time for 1 lap; Ty Dillon 1 time for 1 lap; Chase Elliott 1 time for 1 lap.<\/p>\n

Stage #1 Top Ten: 5,24,47,9,23,11,16,51,35,10<\/p>\n

Stage #2 Top Ten: 23,5,2,77,45,34,38,21,7,16<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala. \u2013 Austin Cindric\u2019s dramatic last lap pass provided exactly the sort of Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway thrill that NASCAR fans have come to expect at the sport\u2019s biggest track, earning the 2022 Daytona 500 winner Cindric \u2013 and Team Penske \u2013 their first trophies of the 2025 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":51102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[526,16,208],"class_list":["post-51095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-austin-cindric","tag-nascar","tag-talladega-superspeedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/GettyImages-2212300273.jpg?fit=1802%2C1192","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-di7","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51095"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51109,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51095\/revisions\/51109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}