Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega may have lacked the Big One that fans come to expect, but it extended a historic streak of different winners when the checkered flag waved.
Team Penske’s Austin Cindric won his third career Cup Series race by 0.022 seconds over Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Ryan Preece, who was later disqualified, alongside Cindric’s teammate Joey Logano, for spoiler violations.
The unpredictable nature of Talladega was on display once again as Cindric became the 10th different winner in the last 10 races at the track, dating back to Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Denny Hamlin’s win in 2020. The 10 different winners in a row is a new track record.
Seven different organizations have won in that span, which speaks to the parity the track can produce on any given weekend.
There were multiple cautions for incident – one coming to pit road and the other on the subsequent restart late in Stage 1 when Denny Hamlin bumped teammate Christopher Bell coming out of Turn 2.
The thrilling action, from constant three and sometimes four-wide racing in the pack to the 67 lead changes among 23 drivers, are what fans expect when NASCAR visits the popular Alabama track.
Something else that is not just expected, but usually a near-guarantee at Talladega, is the Big One, which is when a big crash takes place from all the close-quarter, side-by-side pack racing. On Sunday, that shockingly did not happen over the course of 500 miles.
The race ended with a 62-lap green-flag run to the finish. Per NASCAR Insights, that is the longest run to end a drafting-style race without a last-lap accident since the 2004 July Daytona race.
