TC Daily Pit Stop: Austin Cindric Shoots to First Talladega Win in Photo Finish; Preece, Logano Disqualified for Spoiler Infraction

TC Daily Pit Stop: Monday, April 28th, 2025

Apr 28, 2025

During his short tenure in the NASCAR Cup Series, Austin Cindric has developed into a superspeedway savant, and although the wins hadn’t necessarily followed suit, Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 was a different story.

The Mooresville, North Carolina-native captured the victory in Sunday’s 500-mile event at Talladega Superspeedway by the smallest of margins, beating Ryan Preece to the start-finish line by 0.022 seconds, in an incredible photo finish.

During the closing laps of the event, Cindric had a fantastic push from 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson which propelled him out in front of the pack on multiple occasions, and in the end, bettered the push that Preece got, which came from another Hendrick Motorsports driver, William Byron.

On the final lap, as the field quickly approached the lapped cars of Kyle Busch and Josh Berry, Cindric was able to sniff a draft off the cars coming to the checkered, which may have been enough to just put him in front of the No. 60.

Preece, Logano Disqualified From Top-Five at Talladega

While Austin Cindric and Team Penske can celebrate their victory from Talladega Superspeedway, there’s one faction of individuals from the championship-winning organization that is focused on some bad news.

Ryan Preece and Joey Logano, the second and fifth-place finishers from Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, have been disqualified from the event and will be relegated to finishes of 38th and 39th place, respectively.

According to an inspection report from NASCAR officials, both Preece and Logano violated Section 14.5.8.F of the NASCAR Cup Series Rule Book, which references the team’s spoilers. Despite falling under the same section, the two teams were disqualified for two different violations.

After originally being credited with a career-best second-place finish, Preece was disqualified for having too many spoiler shims on the rear-end of his No. 60 CELSIUS Ford Mustang Dark Horse. Logano, on the other hand, was disqualified for missing a spoiler bolt on the rear-end of his No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

Video: Austin Cindric Beats Ryan Preece By 0.022 Seconds at Talladega

Austin Cindric is now a three-time winner in the NASCAR Cup Series.

In an incredible, and clean, finish to Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Cindric beat fellow Ford Performance driver Ryan Preece to the start-finish line by 0.022 seconds to secure the victory, after several laps of side-by-side racing.

It’s the 29th closest finish in NASCAR Cup Series history, and the 90th NASCAR Cup Series event to feature a margin of victory measuring at less than a tenth of a second.

Despite a 62-lap green-flag run to the finish of the event, the pack remained extremely tight over the race’s final laps, with the top-19 drivers all finishing within 0.650 seconds, and the top-22 finishing within two seconds.