Bob Pockrass
FOX Motorsports Insider
TALLADEGA, Ala. — The races at Talladega Superspeedway typically end with dicey moves that result in big blocks and wrecks — or near wrecks.
None of that happened on Sunday, as drivers out front stayed in a two-by-two formation all the way to the finish line.
It’s not like none of the drivers who crossed the finish line after winner Austin Cindric weren’t prepared to make the moves. They just could never push their way into position.
Did Ryan Preece (who crossed the line second but ended up disqualified following technical inspection), Kyle Larson (second) or William Byron (third) let a potential win slip away?
It didn’t appear so.
Larson, pushing Cindric in the inside lane, never pushed Cindric far enough ahead of Preece (on the outside) where Larson could then cut in front of Byron. Byron couldn’t push Preece far enough ahead of Cindric, where Preece would then likely cut down in front of Cindric with Byron then hoping for a push from behind for the win.
Preece — the leader by inches on the outside going into the final lap — did the best he could to get the push he needed to beat Cindric by inches. But Cindric beat him by 0.022 seconds.
“If I won, I’d be drinking beer and celebrating with friends,” Preece said before learning about the disqualifications. “And instead, I’m going to jump in my motorhome and drive six hours thinking about what I could have done in that last half-lap.”
Preece said he’ll be thinking about all the what-ifs on his drive home to North Carolina. But he also said he didn’t know what he could have done differently.
In the end, maybe it was a blessing for Preece, whose car was disqualified for his rear spoiler using three shims instead of the maximum two. The fifth-place car of Joey Logano was also disqualified for having a missing bolt on his spoiler brace.
The teams can appeal the disqualifications.
Cindric’s car passed tech, and he is officially the winner. And he won with a car that could handle a push exceptionally well.
“We were both doing a really good job of pushing the guys in front of us,” Larson said about himself and Byron. “And their cars were very stable, too, so it made it easy to kind of push them.
“I guess I wasn’t surprised. I was trying there for the final 10 laps to shove him out to where I could get clear, but I just really only had one chance at that. I was doing everything I could do to … advance my lane.”
Byron also felt he did all he could.
“I felt like I needed to push him clear, and I never got him clear enough to make a move,” Byron said. “He was already behind Cindric coming through the tri-oval [toward the finish line] so my job is just to push him back even and hope that I can finish third.
“I don’t think at that point I ever really thought [I could] win. Because if I just go top of three [wide], like I did last year, it looks good, but you’re just behind.”
Byron was leading with seven laps to go when the other lane got a run and shuffled him back to fourth.
“Once I lost control of the front row, I knew I was kind of screwed,” Byron said. “I felt like that was my chance to win.
“I was really frustrated at that, my decision-making and the timing of the momentum. … Once I lost that control, I felt like I was just having to push him and having to do a good job getting him to the line.”
At least he was up front in hopes of making something happen. Denny Hamlin finished 23rd, after it seemed like the Toyotas had a solid strategy of pitting first among the manufacturers. But Ross Chastain threw a block as the Toyotas came upon the lead pack and stalled their momentum.
“I didn’t know how far up we were actually going to be able to get, but certainly [Chastain] making a move there to kind of wreck us was not ideal,” Hamlin said. “But he’s trying to do everything he can to stop the run.
“It’s just the variance of speed there was crazy. The Toyota group tried to give the fans a show at least. We were the only ones willing to just race this thing out, run wide open and see what happens and try to make a show of it.”
Austin Cindric’s post-race interview after winning Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway
Just like the leaders, Hamlin said he was stuck without a move to make over the final laps.
“When you’re behind the two-by-two, there’s nowhere to go, so there’s nowhere to race,” Hamlin said.
The one driver who wasn’t disappointed was Cindric, who earned his first win of the season.
“Having that [Preece] car clear and basically having two Hendrick pushers, at that point, those guys are selfishly trying to get points and push the line forward to where they can get clear,” Cindric said. “I thought that was pretty critical because I feel like those guys always find a way to the front together.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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