LINCOLN, Ala. — In yet another close finish at a track notorious for them, Austin Cindric edged out Ryan Preece in a photo finish to win the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Cindric, the 2022 Daytona 500 champion and one of the best superspeedway racers in NASCAR, earned his first Talladega win and the third win of his Cup career.
After executing on his team’s strategy and a quick final pit stop by his crew, Cindric found himself in the lead in the final 15 laps, leading the inside line and first battling fellow Daytona 500 champion William Byron for the win before Ryan Preece, seeking his first Cup victory, boldly swung to the top line to take the fight to Cindric for the win. Come the checkered flag, the two crossed finish line side-by-side with Cindric ahead by 0.022 seconds — about half a carlength.
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Preece, as well as fifth place finisher Joey Logano, was later disqualified after his car failed post-race tech inspection. Preece’s car was found to have three shims on the rear spoiler instead of two, while Logano’s car was found to have a spoiler bolt missing.
As a result, Kyle Larson ended up being credited with a second place finish, followed by William Byron, Noah Gragson, and Chase Elliott rounding out the top five. Carson Hocevar, Alex Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Daniel Suarez and Austin Dillon made up the rest of the top 10.
Time and time again, Cindric had found himself in position to win on superspeedways in the past year — including February’s Daytona 500, which he led coming off turn 2 on the final lap — only to either get wrecked or have circumstances go against him in some other way. This time, the law of averages would finally work in Cindric’s favor as he held on to cross the finish line at the head of the lead pack.