Who… should you be talking about after the race?
Talladega Superspeedway usually evokes a picture of chaos and carnage, at least in recent years, when finishes have been decided by inches and attrition measured in double digits.
It didn’t play out that way in the Jack Link’s 500, though. The race featured 67 lead changes but just four cautions, two of those for stage breaks and no crashes collecting more than a small handful of cars.
The win came down to timing the final pit stop and holding track position on the final run — and a drag race down the frontstretch to the line.
Austin Cindric has a reputation of being a solid superspeedway driver, and he was exactly that on Sunday (April 27), leading five different times including the one that mattered the most—the final lap.
A message from today’s winner. pic.twitter.com/C0aQoIhdqe
— Team Penske (@Team_Penske) April 27, 2025
Cindric had to avoid a couple of lapped cars on the last lap but was able to hold off a hungry Ryan Preece, who later got disqualified in postrace inspection, by .022 seconds for his third career win and first at Talladega.
On the other hand…
If it’s not one thing, it’s another for Kyle Busch. Busch started on the front row next to polesitter Zane Smith and led three laps on the day, but that’s as good as it ever got for Busch.
He sustained some damage in a lap 43 incident triggered by Brad Keselowski, but was able to continue. The No. 8 team made repairs, and Busch was able to continue, though he didn’t place in the first two stages. He got back onto the lead lap after the incident and still had the opportunity for a strong finish, but a pit road speeding penalty set him to the back of the lead lap again, and Busch finished 28th.
Busch has had speed at times, but luck has been harder to come by. The speeding penalty was of his own making, but the crash? Nothing more than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s easy to say that he’d have avoided it if he’d been ahead of it, but strategy at Talladega isn’t that simple.
Trouble coming to pit road for Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch! 👀 pic.twitter.com/EjTuTcPhyw
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 27, 2025
It’s hard to believe that Busch won’t snap this funk, because he’s simply too good to fade into obscurity seemingly overnight. But with every week that goes by, the frustration mounts for Busch and his fans. Something’s gotta give.
What… does this mean for the points standings?
William Byron remains on top of the standings, gaining two more points’ worth of an advantage over second place. He now leads by 31 points, but this week it’s his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson in second spot, replacing Denny Hamlin, who drops to third after finishing 21st. Chase Elliott moves up a spot to fourth, and Christopher Bell drops to fifth after a brutal crash on Sunday.
Tyler Reddick moves up to sixth, with 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace in seventh. Ryan Blaney drops to eighth after a three-car crash relegated him to a last-place finish Sunday. Alex Bowman goes to the ninth spot, and Ross Chastain rounds out the top 10.
Cindric made the biggest gain on the strength of his win, climbing from 22nd to 14th overall.
The biggest drop of the week came from John Hunter Nemechek, who loses five spots to sit 26th after finishing 30th on Sunday.
Where… did he come from?
Starting in the back half of the field isn’t as detrimental at Talladega as it is at most other tracks, and five of the top 10 this week stared 20th or worse on Sunday. Overall, Elliott gained the most positions on the day, finishing 23 spots better than his 30th-place start, but the biggest surprise of the day?
How about Noah Gragson? Gragson started 27th, avoided trouble (something he’s not always successful at doing) and finished a solid fourth, his best result of 2025 and his second top 10 of the year.
What stands out about Gragson’s finish is that it was sneaky. He didn’t win a single stage point Sunday. He didn’t lead a single lap, either. (Neither did Bowman, but he has been just under the radar all year).
Gragson didn’t get a lot of airtime on the broadcast, and his 2025 season has been a struggle overall, with just four finishes inside the top 20. But Sunday, he put it all together and it paid off.
When… was the moment of truth?
Cindric won the race because he had track position in the closing laps. It wasn’t because of a bold move (nobody even tried to make one). It wasn’t because of a crash either, a rarity at Talladega recently.
The finish was a close one, measured in inches instead of car lengths.
But if we’re talking truth…Cindric won because he really only had to race one other car and lapped traffic kind of stalled that out.
Cindric didn’t have to hold off a charge when a driver behind him made a move, because … well, they couldn’t.
Kyle Larson said both him and William Byron could push well and the Fords seemed so stable that they never could get in a position to make a move sot the Hendrick drivers had to settle for third and fourth. @NASCARONFOX pic.twitter.com/TJUnTtHjEz
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) April 27, 2025
There was room for a run at the top, but there wasn’t enough momentum for anyone to mount a charge. Usually at superspeedways, that is masked by someone doing it anyway, triggering a huge crash and an overtime finish or three that create even more chaos, and everyone goes home thinking they saw a great race.
This time, the finish was solid and close but anticlimactic. Nobody was willing to make the move and trigger the crash.
That was a smart decision overall because of no crash, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s not a good thing when drivers settle for third or fourth because they know a move to try and win is futile.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
It seems like just yesterday the season was barely underway, but suddenly, there are 10 races in the rearview. The Coca-Cola 600, which marks the halfway point of the regular season, is just four weeks from now, one of which is the non-points All-Star race.
For teams already locked into the playoffs, it might be time to try a few things to file away for the postseason. That could mean different strategies or setups, which sometimes looks like they’re out to lunch, but usually, it’s all part of the plan.
That could mean it’s a great time for those not locked in with wins to double down and get one. It might also mean they try something a little different to make that happen.
As April rolls into May, it’s also time for struggling teams to hit the panic button. That doesn’t mean teams just outside the points cutoff, or even in the top 25 if they’re running well. Some of those teams are simply running where they should, while a few just need a little luck.
So who should be worried? At the top of the list is the No. 6 RFK Racing team of Keselowski. A playoff team in 2024, the No. 6 group entered the weekend 31st in points without a single top 10. Keselowski’s early exit on Sunday after a stage one crash only puts an exclamation point on his season to date.
It isn’t an organization-wide issue; both Chris Buescher and Preece have been fairly solid, though winless, this year. Sometimes when it’s the whole organization, it’s easier to find a fix because there’s a common goal there, but for one team, it’s less clear.
How… did this race stack up?
How this race compares to other recent events at Talladega depends on what kind of racing you want to see.
This race played out naturally, featured over 60 lead changes, and the field avoided the Big One.
There was no overtime finish, no last-lap pileup … but the race illustrated how hard it is for the current car to pass on superspeedways without crashes to shake things up. When the drivers were racing at full throttle, there was little to no chance for a third or fourth lane of traffic to open up. There was no real opportunity for the drivers behind the leaders in the closing laps to make a move to get by them.
Byron and Larson didn’t even try.
On the other hand, there wasn’t a giant crash swallowing up half the field, meaning the best cars were still in it at the end with an opportunity.
And because of that, a lot of fans will call it boring.
What hurt the finish the most was the lapped traffic the field caught coming to the checkered flag, because they kept the leaders from having the fill width of the track to decide things, which was a shame.
If you don’t like the multi-car pileups, this was an ok race, compared to recent superspeedway races and to races this year in general. If you do, it will probably be one you won’t remember by next offseason.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.