By Talladega Superspeedway’s usual standards, Sunday’s (April 27) NASCAR Cup Series race was rather orderly. The event ran caution-free for the final 62 laps. There was no Big One, and, for once, the race ended with a green flag finish at its scheduled distance. Even the winner, Austin Cindric, was not a surprise. Cindric won the Daytona 500 in 2022 to earn his first Cup victory, and he has been knocking on the door of another drafting track win ever since. Cindric finally captured the checkered flag after a tight battle with Ryan Preece in the closing laps, edging Preece at the finish line by 0.022 seconds.
However, the story of the race did not end there. Hours after Cindric finished his victory burnouts, both Preece and fifth-place finisher Joey Logano were disqualified. Preece and the No. 60 team were found to have three spoiler shims on their car instead of the mandated two. Having an extra shim could have changed the angle at which the spoiler sits, providing the No. 60 with an advantage in the draft. In Logano’s case, the No. 22 was missing a spoiler bolt, which is a violation of NASCAR’s vehicle assembly rules. Instead of their top-five finishes, Preece and Logano were placed at the back of the field, 38th and 39th, respectively, and awarded just one point each.
Disqualifications like this happen in NASCAR from time to time. This season’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway ended with winner Parker Kligerman getting disqualified, elevating Corey Heim to the top spot. In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Jesse Love’s victory at Rockingham Speedway last week was overturned on a disqualification and awarded to Sammy Smith instead. The Cup Series has not had a race winner disqualified since 2022, and Erik Jones, who originally finished deep in the field at Martinsville Speedway, was the only DQ of the season until Sunday.
What makes the Talladega disqualifications stand out is how much they could impact the race to the playoffs. Neither driver may have won the race, but the double DQ cost Preece 39 points and Logano 40 points. Instead of leaving Talladega 33 points above the playoff cut line, Preece falls below the cutoff by 14 points. Logano could have left Talladega with a comfortable 78-point advantage on the cut line, but now he is just 36 points ahead. Those are massive point swings for one weekend of racing, and they could loom large if Preece and Logano are unable to win a race before the playoffs begin.
In Preece’s case, you have to imagine that the sanctioning body is breathing a sigh of relief. If Preece prevailed over Cindric, he would have won his first Cup Series race. Such a victory would have been an enormous triumph for Preece, vindicating his place in NASCAR’s top division and RFK Racing’s selection of him as the driver of its new third team. All of that would have been wiped out by the disqualification, making the ending of a lackluster race even more sour.
To be sure, the rule is clear. Teams are allowed two spoiler shims, not three, and there is no way that the No. 60 team could have argued its way around the violation. But disqualifications are harder to swallow when they get in the way of a good story. The popular support Kligerman received from fans after Daytona proved as much.
For Logano, the disqualification stings because it wipes away his only top-five finish of the season. It is also a violation where the No. 22 team has more plausible deniability than the No. 60. The simplest explanation for a missing spoiler bolt is that the piece flew off or broke off during the race. It is not hard to imagine how, after three hours of bump drafting, small parts and pieces on the car could work themselves loose. When viewed from that perspective, disqualifying a driver over something so minor feels like a harsh penalty.
But before you feel too much sympathy for Logano, remember Alex Bowman’s disqualification last year at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. Bowman’s No. 48 was found to be underweight in post-race inspection, resulting in the team’s disqualification from the race and elimination from the playoffs. Video evidence from the race suggested that Bowman’s car dropped debris after hitting a curb, which could have explained why the car was underweight. Yet in that instance, NASCAR stuck to the letter of the law and penalized Bowman, resulting in Logano returning to the playoffs after getting eliminated and ultimately winning the championship. At Talladega, NASCAR judged the No. 22 team by the same standard it used against the No. 48 team. Sometimes you live by the DQ, and sometimes you die by it. Team Penske’s decision to accept the disqualification indicates that the organization understands the situation.
On the flip side, several drivers benefited from the double DQ. Chase Briscoe, Chris Buescher, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. all surpassed Preece in the playoff grid. Allmendinger becomes the new bubble driver by six points over Busch, who is just a single point ahead of Stenhouse. Logano lost positions to Ryan Blaney and Bowman and is tied for 12th in the playoff grid with Ross Chastain (though Chastain holds the tiebreaker). Briscoe and Buescher are 25 and 20 points ahead of Busch, respectively, creating a tight playoff battle that should last well into the summer.
The best thing that Preece and Logano can do at this point is win a race. A victory would negate the worst effects of the DQ, just like Cindric’s win on Sunday eased the impact of a 50-point penalty issued to him earlier in the season. Preece feels closer than ever to his first win, while Logano has had plenty of speed in 2025 but struggled to get good finishes. Wins by either driver would only heighten the pressure on what is shaping up to be a close playoff battle. But without wins, the Talladega disqualifications could easily play a role in who makes the playoffs and who gets left out.
Bryan began writing for Frontstretch in 2016. He has penned Up to Speed for the past eight years. A lifelong student of auto racing, Bryan is a published author and automotive historian. He is a native of Columbus, Ohio and currently resides in Southern Kentucky.