In the small town of Lincoln, Alabama, there is a place where twice a year, “Country Coachella” occurs in the infield of one of NASCAR’s most storied tracks. Talladega Superspeedway hosted it’s first of two races this year, and the fans turned out in droves to see action-packed 200 MPH 4-wide racing.
Talladega Boulevard, built on runway 04 of the old Anniston Air Force Base, is the Mecca of tailgating. Campers and RV’s line the famed road, and when NASCAR is in town, it is a party like no other.
This year’s race was somewhat of an anomaly, the famed “Big One” wreck did not occur. No 7+ car pileup, only 2 cautions for incident the entire race. The margin of victory was just .022 seconds, however 2nd place driver Ryan Preece was disqualified after the race.
The race was won by the lesser-known third Team Penske driver, Austin Cindric captured only his third career win, and his first since Gateway last season. He has now won at Daytona and Talladega, the two “superspeedway” tracks. He is the first of the three Team Penske cars to win a race this year.
When the Toyotas were cycling to the lead after pit stops, Ross Chastain was part of a pack who was trying to get up to speed after their pit stops, Chastain made a block on the Toyota line, and cost them a chance to win. Some were critical of this move, some were perfectly fine with the move. All it was is a product of racing.
Joey Logano, teammate of Austin Cindric, was very critical of Cindric after the checkered-flag, and used some choice words over the radio. This move was criticized by MLB legend Chipper Jones. He went on a rant on X, bashing Logano’s actions, and said “Good teammates are hard to come by”. 7-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Richard Petty was defensive of Logano, saying “you gotta be selfish as a driver”.
With Logano and Preece’s Disqualification, let’s take a look at the points standings. William Byron still holds the points lead, with 389 points on the year. Kyle Larson overtook Denny Hamlin for second place in the standings this week. Joey Logano took a fall, and now sits tied with Ross Chastain in tenth place.
Next week’s race is the Würth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway. It’ll be run on Sunday, May 4th at 3:30 PM EST on FS1.
