What Happened?
Once again, Talladega Superspeedway came down to a photo finish.
This time, Austin Cindric just beat Ryan Preece, who later got disqualified in post-race inspection, to the line to get his third career Cup Series win and first win at Talladega.
While Sunday’s (April 27) finish looked close, both Fords had Chevrolets behind them, who stayed in line until the end. Kyle Larson finished second, his best superspeedway result, and William Byron ended up third. With a Joey Logano disqualification, Noah Gragson finished fourth, and Chase Elliott slid into fifth.
What Really Happened?
The race actually had a lot of storylines that could become talking points throughout the week.
Pit road was actually the most treacherous spot of the race, with drivers crashing and speeding trying to get slowed down.
Coming in hot! 🫣 pic.twitter.com/8J4C9T40nv
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 27, 2025
In a classic Ross Chastain moment, the driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet made a major block that hampered Denny Hamlin and the Toyotas in their bid to climb back to the front after the final pit stops.
Cindric finally got another superspeedway win after being so good across the board, and Preece had yet another near miss.
Plus, a shocking no call took place when John Hunter Nemechek spun onto the racing surface leaving pit road — while cars thundered toward him.
One storyline missing from this Talladega race? There was no Big One.
Just invoking the phrase brings to mind millions of dollars flushing down the drain with angry driver comments about unsafe circumstances and “real racing.” Like it or not, the lack of the Big One has a major outcome on what the finish ends up looking like.
No Big One means there was a lack of carnage. If you ask me, that’s a great thing. However, less cars in the field at the end of a superspeedway race drastically changes how the drivers race.
When drivers are two by two with around 30 cars in the main pack, there’s a ton of risk for anyone inside the top 20 to pull out and make a move. Despite Byron, Larson, or even Alex Bowman being around each other as teammates, any move out of line had too much of a risk factor to take them from a top five to outside of 20th.
In these situations, the only guys trying to generate runs in another lane are too far back for anything to matter. At the same time, anyone that stays in line sees a free position open up when a car in front moves out of the way.
On the flip side, a smaller field leaves guys with more guts to make moves because they have less to lose.
It’s the blessing and the curse to having most of the cars survive to the finish.
Unfortunately, discourse around lackluster finishes seems to just devolve into, “you just watch for the carnage,” or “you just don’t like the driver that won.”
That is not necessarily the case.
After a historic pileup in the previous race at Talladega last October, and after the field wadded up on the last lap at Daytona International Speedway, it was refreshing not to see a mass of cars sitting junked on the backstretch.
In a time when races seem to exclusively end in short dashes to the finish, it was also nice to finally see one of these superspeedway finishes actually come down to strategy and a green-flag finish, rather than who had the best luck and wreck avoidance.
At the same time, the lack of crashes at a place like Talladega – and even going back to the Bristol Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway races – show just how easy this Next Gen car is to drive.
This is the 4th consecutive Talladega Cup race with only 4 cautions#NASCAR #JackLinks500
— Dalton Hopkins (@PitLaneCPT) April 27, 2025
I’m no fan of big crashes with cars flipping over into the field. My heart rate goes through the roof even now at the finish with every bump, and I wince every time a car goes slamming into the wall like Christopher Bell or Connor Zilisch in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race.
Race cars shouldn’t be out of control, but they should be hard to drive. A byproduct of a challenging racing series is that people occasionally step over the line. They make one too many lane changes, or a last-second, desperate block.
They should be getting runs on one another, having the ability to pull out without the fear that they will be punished for their boldness.
Not every race has to have multiple crashes, or one big crash, to make it good. But the more races that go on without drivers making mistakes continues to show that it’s too hard to pass, the cars are just too even, and overall too easy to handle and drive.
Otherwise, I'm at least glad they finished under green, but no one could make a freaking move.
— Wyatt Watson (@WyattWRacing) April 27, 2025
Who Stood Out?
Front Row Motorsports has shown speed at times in the early part of races throughout the season. While they haven’t been as stout on superspeedways as they were in 2024, Gragson finally found the front at the finish of one of these events.
The driver of the No. 4 Ford put his car in the top 10 at the end, and he moved up to fourth after two drivers in front of him were disqualified. The result is Gragson’s third career top five, his second-best finish ever, and the best he’s finished since Talladega last spring.
After a strong run at Bristol, Carson Hocevar finally put the finishing touches on a race, finishing sixth, and Bubba Wallace‘s eighth-place finish has him at an impressive seventh in the points standings.
But I wanted to highlight Michael McDowell. The driver of the No. 71 Chevrolet finished 11th, not exactly notable for someone who nearly won the spring race last year. In fact, McDowell tied his best finish of the season. He’s finished in position 11 three times now this year.
However, McDowell earned the fastest lap this weekend, which is also the third time he’s done that this season.
McDowell almost recorded a 200-mph lap – he gets the bonus point with a 199.930 mph.
— Stephen Stumpf (@stephen_stumpf) April 27, 2025
McDowell now has the most fastest laps of all drivers, and he’s currently 19th in points. Down the stretch, the fastest lap bonus points could make a difference in potential efforts to point his way into the Playoffs.
Who Fell Flat?
Unfortunately for Brad Keselowski, his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year continues. The six-time Talladega winner has no top-10 finishes this season, and an early crash took away what could have been a good day.
Keselowski is only ahead of four other full-time drivers in the points, and his average finish is worse than 26th, which would be his worst average finish ever.
While his two Team Penske teammates finished first and fifth, bad luck Ryan Blaney struck again. The No. 12 team has four DNFs in 10 races, the worst in the series. He finished last after getting caught by Keselowski in the same crash, but he later moved up to 37th following the Preece and Logano disqualifications.
Better Than Last Time?
The racing and storylines in the first two stages were quite compelling. The four-wide fuel savings started super early, and pit road kept everyone on their toes.
Additionally, the Toyotas tried their best to keep everyone honest, and they even tried to run hard and gap the field.
Overall, I’d rank this race ahead of the last Talladega event, having similar type of racing with better storylines and the lack of carnage. Ultimately, though, fuel savings continue to be a major part of the game, even though it doesn’t guarantee track position at the end.
Three of the drivers who finished in the top 10 were running inside the top 15 before the final pit stop sequence began. Meanwhile, the other seven top-10 finishers were running outside the top 15 before the final pit stop, and five were hovering outside of the top 20.
You can try and credit their finishing positions to fuel savings. At the end of the day, I say it’s just superspeedway racing.
Paint Scheme of the Race
There weren’t too many new looks on the track this weekend. However, the top one that caught my eye was the Daniel Suarez Wendy’s scheme – and not just because I love a good Frosty.
A paint scheme fit for a 🏆 (and some victory swirls!🍦) Rolling off p24 in our @Wendys Chevy! Tomorrow 3pm ET on FOX. pic.twitter.com/908EjoVXoA
— Daniel Suárez (@Daniel_SuarezG) April 26, 2025
The wavy, colorful pattern was something unique, and it definitely stood out in the pack.
I also have to give a nod to the No. 78 car. Normally, BJ McLeod has a very limited color scheme. This weekend, however, the car had some bright blue and yellow on top of the black highlighting the Pigeon Forge Racing Coaster – partially owned by McLeod.
Unfortunately, due to mechanical issues, we’ve had to retire from the race. pic.twitter.com/2VuKdfwYTq
— Live Fast Motorsports (@teamlivefast) April 27, 2025
While we didn’t see the car much during the race, it was a great look for Live Fast Motorsports.
What’s Next?
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Texas Motor Speedway for the only time this season. The Wurth 400 is scheduled for Sunday, May 4 at 3:30 p.m. E.T. on FOX Sports 1.
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!