Austin Powers Through at ‘Dega!

Penske’s Austin Cindric punched his ticket to the playoffs, winning in a photo-finish from RFK’s Ryan Preece at Talladega Superspeedway, Alabama.

An intense run to the line saw Crindric take his first victory on the high banks of Talladega at the seventh time of asking to break a 30-race winless streak.

Note: this article was written before Preece and Logano were disqualified for spoiler infringements during post-race inspections.

The Talladega Superspeedway is the largest by area in NASCAR – a 2.66-mile behemoth which can fit multiple other NASCAR tracks inside it. Since its inaugural race in 1969, this track has hosted some of the biggest wrecks, the greatest drivers, and the closest finishes in NASCAR history.

With zero laps of practice, Front Row Motorsports’ Zane Smith began the 500-mile behemoth from the pole position with RCR Chevy Kyle Busch beside him.

It took only two laps for the field to find themselves three-wide – and just one more to go four-wide – around the high banks of Talladega.

McDowell, Preece, Buescher and Berry traded places at the head of the field to control the race and save fuel.

By lap 30, a row full of Toyotas pushed to the front, led by Chase Briscoe. Collectively, they pushed the pace of the field to entice everyone to use more fuel.

A total of 14 cars, including the Toyotas who broke away for the lead, came to pit road on lap 41. Just two laps later, Kyle Busch hit Brad Keselowski as the field condensed trying to enter pit road. They clashed, and collected Ryan Blaney.

With the caution closing pit road, some drivers were dangerously low on fuel – some even taking to the apron to shorten their distance as much as possible.

Following pit stops under caution, the RFK Ford duo of Buescher and Preece led the field to green. With stage points on the line, the pack began pushing hard – immediately.

Christopher Bell took a hard push from his Joe Gibbs team-mate Denny Hamlin with help from Buescher as his car swiped across the road and smashed the inside wall hard. He confirmed via radio he was okay after the impact. In a later interview he said: “It’s just speedway racing, that’s what it is… it’s a shame we only made it 50 laps.”

The field returned to green with only four laps to go in stage one (57 of 60) with Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace up front. Hamlin co-owns the team Wallace drives for, will loyalty play a factor in the ending of stage one?

Wallace slipped back after missing some critical blocks at the front of the pack; and with a huge push led by the Hendrick Chevrolets, Kyle Larson took stage one from Byron, Stenhouse and Elliott.

Unusually, during the stage caution, Carson Hocevar changed helmets during a second pit stop because the helmet was too tight and painful.

On lap 109, a group of Chevys pitted, with Shane Van Gisbergen failing to slow down sufficiently, which earned him a penalty, and stopping in the wrong pit stall. Chase Elliott was penalised for being too fast exiting pit road.

On the following lap, a group of Fords and more dive for pit road. Daniel Suarez in the #99 Wendy’s Chevy overshot his pit stall after also speeding.

A huge pack headed to pit road the following lap. John-Hunter Nemechek spun coming out of pit road over the weepers (water from the cracks in the racetrack). The caution did not come out as the pack merged with a handful of laps to go.

At the head of the field, reigning Cup Series champion Joey Logano raced beside Bubba Wallace. A group of cars, including Hamlin, Ty Gibbs, Riley Herbst and Chase Briscoe pit with a couple laps to go in stage two, to flip the stage with no need to pit under caution.

Bubba Wallace took the stage two win over Logano and Larson. Logano was certainly upset at his Penske Ford team-mate, Austin Cindric, for not pushing Logano to the line. Cindric had such a huge run up to the back of the #22 he had to lift and break out of line to prevent a wreck.

Briscoe, Gibbs, Herbst and Hamlin, after topping off for fuel a few laps before, beat everyone off pit road to kick off the final stage with 62 laps to go.

With 25 laps to go, the line of Toyotas plus all three Spire Chevrolets pulled into pit road for the “money stop” of the day – the pit stop that matters most of all. With 18 to go, a group of 10 cars – mainly Fords – came to pit road. Almost everyone else goes in the following lap. Josh Berry and Kyle Busch were booked for too fast exiting pit road.

The field merged in turn, with Cindric and Byron side-by-side leading the two lines. With only a dozen laps to go, everyone waited in anticipation of ‘The Big One’.

Ryan Preece cycled to the front to compliment the Ford of Cindric. Hendrick team-mates behind in the form of Larson and Byron were prepared to make bold moves onto the final lap of the race. Teamwork kept the Fords locked out on the front row, and as the inside line came up to some lapped cars, they took advantage of the draft.

A last lap pass for the win helped Cindric break a 30-race winless streak at Talladega Superspeedway.

An elated Cindric said in his post-race interview: “I’m just so proud of this team, from the cycles to the fast cars, to the fuel-only stops, Doug [Campbell], my spotter. I’ve been trying for probably 3-4 years trying to get a Cup win for Menards and John Menard – that bright yellow car looks great up front!

“It definitely wasn’t easy, Kyle [Larson] did a lot to take care of me, pushing me at the right times in the tri-oval… as mad as I was at him after Atlanta, I feel like we’re good now!

Austin Cindric scored his first win of the year and stamped his ticket to the post-season Playoffs. Berry and Cindric winning before Logano and Blaney was not on my bingo card for this year – showing how competitive and intense the Cup Series can be – especially at Talladega.

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Texas next Sunday for 400 miles in the Lone Star State.