In a celebratory fashion, Austin Cindric wore Talladega Superspeedway’s traditional victory wreath around the track after securing his first win of the season and giving Team Penske their first NASCAR victory of the year.
“Feels like I just won the Indy 500,” Cindric said of Sunday’s race. “I’m trying to walk on the plane with this.”
Despite teammate Joey Logano’s frustration over the radio during the second stage, when Cindric didn’t push him and allowed Bubba Wallace in a Toyota to win the segment and its valuable bonus points, Cindric remained unconcerned about any potential issues with Logano on the Penske plane.
“I think that would be very immature,” Cindric said. “I don’t see him doing that. We’ll see.”
Cindric held off a large pack of challengers over the closing lap in a relatively drama-free day at Talladega Superspeedway. “Rock on, guys,” he said over his radio. “Rock and roll. Let’s go!”
Ford drivers initially went 1-2, with Ryan Preece finishing second. However, Preece and Logano were disqualified following post-race inspections due to spoiler infractions. Logano had crossed the finish line in fifth.
After the disqualifications, Kyle Larson moved up to second, and William Byron took third for Hendrick Motorsports. The two Chevrolet drivers pushed Cindric and Preece from the second row rather than pulling out of line on the final lap to create a third lane in an attempt to win.
Larson, who recorded his best career finish at Talladega, said he wanted to make a move to try to take the win from Cindric, but there was never any room. “I wanted to take it but I felt like the gap was too big,” Larson explained. “I was just stuck inside and just doing everything I could to advance our lane and maybe open it up to where I then could get to the outside. But we were all just pushing so equally that it kept the lanes jammed up.”
Noah Gragson ended up fourth in a Ford, while Hendrick driver Chase Elliott finished fifth, two spots ahead of teammate Alex Bowman, with Carson Hocevar of Spire Motorsports sandwiched between them. Wallace was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in eighth.
The race featured season-highs in lead changes (67) among different drivers (23), and only five cars failed to finish from the 40-car field, with a remarkable 30 drivers finishing on the lead lap.
Cindric’s win marked the 10th consecutive different winner at Talladega, extending the track record of no repeat winners. By the end of the race, Logano seemed to have calmed down, saying, “About time one of us wins these things. When you think about the amount of laps led by Team Penske and Ford in general, just haven’t been able to close. To see a couple of Fords on the front row duking it out, I wish one of them was me, in a selfish way. But it’s good to see those guys running up there and being able to click one off.”
In other notable moments, Kyle Larson set a new NASCAR record for stage wins with his 67th career stage victory, breaking a tie with Martin Truex Jr. Additionally, Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin, who combined to win five of the first nine races this season, had a collision on a restart that ended Bell’s chances of winning his fourth race of the season.
NASCAR races next week at Texas Motor Speedway, where Elliott scored his only win of the 2024 season last April.
