Jack Link’s 500: Austin Cindric goes to Victory Lane at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Team Penske’s Austin Cindric had a great day behind the wheel of his No. 2 Menards/Quaker State Ford, earning his third career NASCAR Cup Series victory and first of the 2025 season in the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Cindric, known for being one of the best superspeedway racers in the Cup Series, used his talent in the draft to find Victory Lane after never finishing better than 21st in the Talladega spring race before winning on Sunday.

“It takes everything and we’ve had it so many races here and you’ve got to have a little bit more,” Cindric said. “I’m just so proud of everybody on this race team. Team Penske, the entire shop deserves wins at these race tracks with how fast our race cars are and I’m just so proud to be able to win for John Menard and the Menards team — to get this yellow car in Victory Lane and get in the playoffs.”

The initial runner-up finisher was RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece, who had one of the best showings in his entire Cup Series career. Unfortunately, he was disqualified after the race.

“We did all we could,” Preece said before his disqualification. “I felt like we executed Stage 3 exactly like we needed to. We came out in the front of our group and worked our way through that traffic. We had the opportunity to get to the top lane and then from there it was just managing those cars behind us and not giving up what we gained. I’m really proud of everybody at RFK for this race car.

“I’m just really super appreciative from Jack, Brad, the Fenway Group for this opportunity. Honestly, without Kroger and BAM and Celsius and a lot of the other partners today, I’d probably be back in Connecticut. I’m really excited about the rest of this year. It’s a great day, but I wanted to win.”

This would have been the ninth closest finish in Talladega history if Preece had not been disqualified.

Both Preece and Joey Logano were disqualified after post-race technical inspection. Preece was found to have three shims on his spoiler instead of two, and Logano was missing a spoiler bolt. Preece went from second to 38th place, and Logano dropped from fifth to 39th place.

Kyle Larson is not a driver that many expect to be toward the front at superspeedway races, but the Hendrick Motorsports driver showed why he can be a threat at any track on any given Sunday.

Larson finished second, scored 54 total points (most in the race) and picked up a victory in Stage 1. Now, Larson has the most stage wins (68) in Cup Series history.

“I will take a third-place finish,” Larson said before the disqualification. “We had a great day, points-wise, for this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. Winning the first stage was a bit unexpected, and then finishing third in the second stage from where we were on the final restart was also unexpected. Just a really good day, overall, for the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy.”

Results from the 2025 Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

There were no cautions after the end of Stage 2 and the race only had a total of four cautions. During the most recent Talladega Superspeedway race, which was won by Ricky Stenhouse Jr., there were also just four cautions total.

The previous Talladega spring race, won by Tyler Reddick, and the fall race before that where Ryan Blaney won also only had four cautions.

According to NASCAR reporter Seth Eggert, the 34 cars running at the end of the Jack Link’s 500 was the most NASCAR has had at Talladega since the debut of the Next Gen car.

Also, Eggert said 19 of the initial top-20 finishers (before the disqualifications) ran their fastest lap of the race on the final lap. The only one who did not was Michael McDowell, who ran the Xfinity Fastest Lap of the race in Stage 2.

Austin Cindric is the 10th straight different winner at Talladega, extending the longest streak in track history without a repeat winner. Before Cindric, the most recent winners at Talladega were:

• Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Tyler Reddick (2024)
• Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch (2023)
• Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain (2022)
• Bubba Wallace and Brad Keselowski (2021)
• Denny Hamlin (2020)

In the No. 62 Fortify Building Solutions Chevrolet, Xfinity Series regular Anthony Alfredo led 19 laps for Beard Motorsports. This is not only the most he’s led in his Cup Series career, but it is the most laps the No. 62 has led in a Cup Series race since Frankie Schneider at Old Dominion in 1958, according to NASCAR Insights.

With Ryan Preece’s disqualification, all of RFK Racing’s drivers finished 34th or worse. Chris Buescher was 34th, followed by Keselowski (36th) and Preece (38th).

There were 67 lead changes among 23 drivers.

 

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