NASCAR / ARCA Race Weekend Recap (Talladega)

Winners: Austin Cindric (Cup); Austin-Hill (Xfinity); plus Lawless Alan (ARCA)

Recap Graphic by Rolando Ramirez - RTR Graphics

NASCAR Cup

Austin Cindric Edges Out Ryan Preece, Captures Talladega Victory

 

Austin Cindric’s dramatic last-lap pass provided exactly the sort of Talladega Superspeedway thrill that NASCAR fans have come to expect at the sport’s biggest track, earning the 2022 Daytona 500 winner Cindric — and Team Penske — their first trophy of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

 

Cindric’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford pulled ahead of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver Ryan Preece’s No. 60 Ford by the length of a front hood to claim a 0.022-second victory in Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 — the two Ford Mustangs exchanged the lead five times in the final six laps and ultimately finished side-by-side holding off a pair of hard-charging Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet teammates just behind in Kyle Larson and William Byron.

 

“I’m just so proud of this team from the [pit] cycles to the fast cars to the fuel-only stops,” said the 26-year old Cindric, whose team — with 17 laps remaining — turned in the fastest final pit stop putting him back out front and able to contend for the win in a race that featured 67 lead changes among 23 drivers.

 

“It definitely wasn’t easy,” Cindric said of holding off the Hendrick teammates for the checkered flag. “I give a lot of credit, Kyle [Larson] did a lot to take care of me, pushing me at the right times in the tri-oval, and as mad as I was at him after Atlanta [race], I feel like we’re good now. That was great and having a photo-finish at Talladega and get in the playoffs in front of this amazing crowd, beautiful day in Alabama.”

 

Grabbed what he came for.#JackLinks500 pic.twitter.com/CWCuw4tCXP

— Talladega Superspeedway (@TALLADEGA) April 28, 2025

Pole: Zane Smith

Click Here for Race Results

Next Race: The Cup Series will return on Sunday, May 4, 2025 at 3:30 pm ET for the ‘Würth 400 presented by LIQUI MOLY’ at Texas Motor Speedway.

 

NASCAR Xfinity

Austin Hill Tames Talladega

 

Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill prevailed in a three-wide photo finish in the Ag-Pro 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway — edging ahead of Jeb Burton and his RCR teammate Jesse Love at the time the field was frozen with an electronic timestamp approaching the checkered flag.

 

The caution flag and checkered flag flew simultaneously after Love’s No. 2 Chevrolet made contact with the rear of then-race leader, JR Motorsports rookie Connor Zilisch’s No. 88 Chevrolet just after the white flag came out signaling one lap to go. Zilisch’s car spun down into the track apron, hitting the wall, leaving Hill, Burton and Love to sort out the trophy.

 

“Man, we really had to work for that one,” said Hill, who now has a series-best three victories this year and 13 in his career. “It just seemed like our car was really good. Everyone at RCR and RCR engines are bad to the bone, like always. We had to work. I thought the 2 (Love) was really good and when we got the push from the 2 going into [turn] one, he got inside of me and I thought that was a bad mistake and I should have covered it. So I thought we were done. But I just locked in and kept pushing the heck out of the 2 car.

 

“I knew it was either me or the 27 [Burton],” he said of the photo finish. “Man, to win them — any way you win them is always great — and finally to conquer Talladega, that’s something I’ve really wanted to do for a long time.

 

“We’ve won at all these other superspeedways and to finally get it done at all the different superspeedways we go to, it just shows the 21 team can win at any of them and we’re really good at this style of racing.”

 

King of the Hill … and the superspeedways. 👑 pic.twitter.com/crQWfLkCFI

— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) April 26, 2025

Pole: Jesse Love

Click Here for Race Results

Next Race: The Xfinity Series will return on Saturday, May 3, 2025 at 2:00 pm ET for the ‘Andy's Frozen Custard 300’ at Texas Motor Speedway.

NASCAR Trucks

No Truck Track Action Last Weekend

The Safelite Foundation welcomes @FosterLove alongside @CoreyHeim_ for a four-race collab, turning his truck blue to support National Foster Care Month this May! 🩵

Every 2 minutes a child enters foster care in the U.S., so now’s the time to make a difference 🫶 pic.twitter.com/Eg7IxhgpXx

— TRICON (@TRICONGarage) April 28, 2025

Next Race: The Truck Series will return on Friday, May 2, 2025 at 8:00 pm ET for the SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway.

ARCA

Lawless Alan Captures First ARCA Menards Series Win

 

When Lawless Alan joined Venturini Motorsports at the start of the 2025 season, his goals were simple.

 

He wanted to win races and contend for the ARCA Menards Series championship. After just three races, he can put a checkmark alongside one of those goals.

 

Alan, driving the No. 20 Toyota, was the leader on the final lap when a multi-car crash brought a premature end to the General Tire 200 at Talladega Superspeedway and Alan was declared the winner.

 

“First thing I’ve got to say is God is so good,” Alan said after his first ARCA Menards Series victory in his 10th start. “I didn’t have any sort of plan after Phoenix last year. Then Toyota called me, and we put this deal together with Venturini and AUTOParkIt and I am so thankful to them.”

 

🎉 THERE’S NOTHING LIKE THAT FIRST WIN FEELING!

🥳 CONGRATS @lawlessalan25! pic.twitter.com/BsAwArJzPM

— ARCA Menards Series (@ARCA_Racing) April 26, 2025

Pole: William Sawalich

Click Here for Race Results

Next Race: The ARCA Series East will return on Saturday, May 3, 2025 at 8:30 p.m. CT for the ‘Music City 150’ at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway

source: NASCAR Media

#NASCAR Daytona 500 to Start Earlier

Daytona 500 Coverage Starts at 1:30 p.m. ET

 

The 2025 Daytona 500 is here. After rain pushed last year's Great American Race to Monday, NASCAR pre-emptively moved up the start time of this year's running with more bad weather looming. The green flag is now expected to drop about 1:30 p.m.

 

Fast Facts

• Track: Daytona International Speedway
• Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
• Track length: 2.5 miles
• When: Sunday, 1:30 p.m. ET
• Where to tune in: FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Race purse: $30,331,250
• Race distance: 200 laps | 500 miles
• Stages: 65 | 130 | 200
• Defending winner: William Byron, February 2024
• Starting lineup: Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric on front row

Click Here for Daytona Speedway Weather 

It's finally here.

Today is the #DAYTONA500 pic.twitter.com/kjQOAG1N2Q

— Daytona International Speedway (@DAYTONA) February 16, 2025

 

source: NASCAR Media

Busch, Reddick and Cindric Complete First Day of Goodyear Tire Test

Then Take in Some Downtown Austin Culture

 

Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick and Austin Cindric officially got the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) preseason underway Monday with a two-day Goodyear Tire test at Circuit of The Americas (COTA). Reddick and Cindric also got a step on the competition for Texas fashion when they return for the March 26 EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix.

 

The opening day of the Goodyear Tire test was highlighted by the fresh looks of Busch and Reddick, who open this season with new teams, car numbers and engine manufacturers, as well as Cindric looking to build off last season’s rookie-of-the-year campaign with Team Penske.

 

Busch was behind the wheel of the No. 8 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing (RCR) after spending 15 seasons with Joe Gibbs Racing driving the No. 18 Toyota. Ironically, it was the No. 8 RCR entry that Reddick departed after three seasons to settle in the No. 45 Toyota Camry TRD with 23XI Racing.

 

TEST DAY EXCERPTS (Click link above for full audio files of the interviews):

• Busch (on last year’s race and fan support in the market): “The fans here have been really great and been able to come out and support the NASCAR ranks. It’s been really, really cool to see that and seeing a lot of people in the suites and in the grandstands. We need that support. We need the fans’ support to be able to come out here and put on a good show. I think last year’s show was one of the best ones we had for much of the year. There was a lot made of that last lap and all the great racing that was going on.”
• Reddick (on the first day of the test): “Here at COTA, it’s always a blast. It’s one of the most fun racetracks from a driver’s perspective just racing the surface itself. It’s a really challenging racetrack but certainly for me this team waited a long time to get to the track. Thankfully this tire test was on the schedule for us, and we were able to come out here thanks to Goodyear and take our first laps in a Toyota Camry TRD. For a first day, it went really well. We learned a good bit about how the differences of the car and excited to see how tomorrow goes and hopefully we can learn some more.”
• Cindric: “Our cars its quite challenging; there is tire wear, the layout is a bit challenging, but you actually don’t run the conventional lines. You use a lot of the runoff. From a bird’s eye view, you kind of have to know the line to take, it’s not very intuitive on where to go. … You can be distracted visually by different lines or paint because you go up the hill and the esses and it’s just massive expanse of asphalt, but you have to do something with it. You have to keep inside the track and inside the curbs and not upset the car. So there’s quite a lot of areas on the racetrack that are that way which I feel like for me makes it fairly unique. In my opinion, fairly European-style circuit compared to some of the other road courses we have state side. I don’t think we get that in too many tracks we go to.”

Hmm… that looks new 👀 pic.twitter.com/croP44n9zs

— NASCAR at COTA (@NASCARatCOTA) January 16, 2023

Following Monday’s first day of the test, Reddick and Cindric were hosted by NASCAR at COTA Executive Director Bryan Hammond at downtown Austin’s Maufrais specialty shop to select and customize their own cowboy hats. Reddick chose a natural-colored Stetson 20x Beaver fur felt with a classic pinch front and a hair-on-hide band with silver pheasant and partridge feathers. Cindric went with a Dunn-colored Stetson 40x Beaver fur felt hat shaped with a pinched front. He customized it with a Western-style hitched horse band with a Reeves pheasant feather and had it torched to give it a worn-in look. Both also got their initials on the underside of their hats.

 

The trio returned to the track today to complete the second and final day of the tire test on the 20-turn, 3.41-mile permanent road course.

 

 

source: NASCAR at COTA Media

2022's Most Loved and Hated NASCAR Drivers

Hearts for Daniel  / Boos for Bubba

• Gambling.com reveals the Internet’s top 10 most loved and hated NASCAR drivers during the 2022 regular season.
• The report names Daniel Suarez as the most loved driver, with Bubba Wallace coming in as the most disliked.
• With 12 drivers left in the 2022 playoffs, how do these stars fair in the ranking?

One month on from the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series regular season, the team at Gambling.com have looked back to reveal which drivers received the most love and hate online last season.

 

By utilizing the social listening tool Linkfluence, positive and negative online sentiment data, for every active NASCAR driver, was acquired over the regular season (between 1st February – August 31st). These figures were then ranked to find the top 10 most loved and hated drivers for 2022.

 

 

The Top 10 Most Loved NASCAR Drivers of 2022:

Rank	NASCAR Driver	Positive Sentiment*
1	Daniel Suarez	44.7%
2	Austin Cindric	42.4%
3	Kyle Larson	36.6%
4	Kevin Harvick	35%
5	Alex Bowman	34.8%
6	Ryan Blaney	31.8%
7	Martin Truex Jr.	31.2%
8	Joey Logano	30.4%
9	Chase Briscoe	29.6%
10	Kurt Busch	29.6%

 

Coming in the number one spot as 2022’s most loved NASCAR driver is Daniel Suarez, with 44.7% of all tweets praising the Mexican racer.

 

Diving into the data, the majority of these came during his win at the Toyota/Save Mart 350 event, where 62% of all tweets about the driver were positive.

 

Daytona 500 winners 🤯😁 pic.twitter.com/xS6rGHScSn

— Austin Cindric (@AustinCindric) February 21, 2022

Ohio’s Austin Cindric falls just behind, placing 2nd on the ranking (42.4%). Following a similar pattern to Suarez, it was Cindric’s win at the Daytona 500 in February which delivered him the most love online.

 

 

The Top 10 Most Hated NASCAR Drivers of 2022:

Rank	NASCAR Driver	Negative Sentiment*
1	Bubba Wallace	30.1%
2	Cody Ware	18.9%
3	Ty Dillon	17.2%
4	Denny Hamlin	15.1%
5	Justin Haley	14.7%
6	Cole Custer	13.9%
7	Daniil Kvyat	13.5%
8	Jacques Villeneuve	13.4%
9	Kyle Busch	12.5%
10	Austin Dillon	12.3%

Unfortunately, its Bubba Wallace who came out as the most disliked driver over the course of the 2022 regular season, with almost 1 in 3 tweets made about him being negative (30.1%)

 

It was his second-place finish at the Firekeepers Casino 400 which received the most negativity online, with one tweet reading:

 

“You could pull ten random strangers off the street and they would all beat Bubba Wallace in a race”

 

With Wallace sitting clear at the top of the ranking, Cody Ware (18.9%) and Ty Dillion (17.2%) make up the top 3 most disliked drivers last year.

 

Which Drivers in the Playoffs Received the Most Love?

Most Loved Overall Rank	NASCAR Driver	Positive Sentiment*	Negative Sentiment
1	Daniel Suarez	44.7%	3.9%
2	Austin Cindric	42.4%	3.8%
3	Kyle Larson	36.6%	10.1%
5	Alex Bowman	34.8%	6.4%
6	Ryan Blaney	31.8%	10.9%
8	Joey Logano	30.4%	10.1%
10	Chase Briscoe	29.6%	7.5%
12	Chase Elliott	28.6%	7.1%
14	William Byron	26.4%	8.1%
18	Ross Chastain	24%	10.8%
25	Christopher Bell	21.6%	9.7%
27	Denny Hamlin	20.9%	15.1%

*Percentage of all Twitter posts made which were deemed positive between 1st Feb -31st Aug.

 

If you’d like to find out more about Gambling.com, please visit the site here: https://www.gambling.com/us 

 

 

source: NASCAR Media