Talladega likes to However together with the excessive, arduous one, there’s an occasional curveball.
Resembling Sunday’s comparatively clear Jack Hyperlink’s 500, which went with out a Huge One, even on a crowded closing lap with some drivers fairly hungry Simply two wreck-fueled cautions, each early, one with 5 vehicles and the opposite three, and simply 12 whole laps below yellow.
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After-school pickup lanes are extra aggressive.
You not often lose by taking the “below” on Talladega’s over/below on warning laps.
And bear in mind, this got here simply six months after final October’s playoff race at Talladega when, three laps from the top, a backstretch calamity included 23 vehicles.
So, it may be finished. On uncommon events. It’s fairly telling after we discuss a observe producing so few accidents.
Austin Cindric crosses first below the checkers whereas all hell DOESN’T break free behind him.
A lot of the ugliness happened nicely after the checkers, again within the bowels of the storage. Extra about that in a bit, together with a record-book replace involving Dale Earnhardt (EARNHARDT!) and a climate report from America’s Crossroads.
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Let’s undergo the gears.
First Gear: Austin Cindric typically contends however not often wins
Cindric’s win is nice for him, in fact, and welcome information for individuals who prefer to see the underdogs win at times. However you need to surprise.
Is Cindric actually an underdog on the superspeedways? He’s nearly at all times within the combine. He’s led laps up to now seven races at Daytona/Talladega, however earlier than Sunday, he’d had simply two top-10s in his 9 earlier superspeedway begins — six of his finishes have been between twenty second and thirty seventh.
Why rehash all that? Simply to remind everybody, for the umpteenth time, there’s an entire lot extra that may go incorrect than proper in an car race.
That explains Cindric’s unbridled pleasure when he uncorked himself from the cockpit after the checkers and rattling close to ran via Fox’s Regan Smith within the tri-oval. At Daytona/Talladega, in addition to trendy Atlanta, you’ll be able to go from 18th to 3rd in a lap, which implies the alternative can be true.
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Oddly sufficient, Cindric can be a extremely good road-course racer, however lo and behold, he by no means significantly contends at them. He positive did in Xfinity — 5 of his 13 wins have been on roadies.
If he can get the street mojo again, going alongside along with his superspeedway acumen, you’re taking a look at a 3rd of the schedule that slides into his favor.
Second Gear: This ain’t the Dairy Queen sort of DQ
Simply after we have been feeling good for Ryan Preece, who’s been seeing some constructive indicators this season at RFK Racing after a number of seasons of racing for 18th or twentieth. Certain, it was Talladega, the place such issues can occur for practically any driver, however a runner-up end was nonetheless purpose for celebration.
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Proper up till the Boys in Tech bought all nosy. Again there on the spoiler, a spot that ought to be occupied by two shims, three have been current. And three’s a crowd for that tech bunch.
DQ, and a end of thirty eighth as a substitute of second.
However distress loves firm, and Joey Logano’s Penske group supplied it. Once more, it’s the spoiler, besides we’re speaking bolts, not shims. And man, discuss technicalities.
The spoiler is hooked up to the automobile with 18 bolts. NASCAR stated a kind of 18 bolts was lacking. Only one, however guidelines are guidelines, say the rulemakers.
Besides the Penske group’s assertion stated the bolt was free, not lacking. There’s a delicate distinction between having a free screw and a screw that’s fully absent — on and off the observe.
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So Joey’s season of distress continues. His fifth at Talladega was simply his second top-10 of 2025, proper up till it wasn’t.
Third Gear: Dale Earnhardt, Tony Stewart left behind
Guess you by no means anticipated to find that Dale Earnhardt and Tony Stewart had been left within the mud by none apart from Austin Hill.
That’s proper, Austin Hill simply pulled forward of the Intimidator and Smoke.
However you would possibly need to attain into the software field and discover your bundle of asterisks. Oh, and possibly a celebration hat, since as we speak is Earnhardt’s birthday — he would’ve been 74 as we speak.
Together with his photo-finish, at-the-yellow Talladega win, Hill now has 9 profession Xfinity Sequence wins on the “plate tracks,” a document he shared — at eight — with Earnhardt and Stewart.
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However take note, Hill has three of these tracks out there — Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta — whereas the 2 Corridor of Famers had simply Daytona and Talladega throughout their outdated Busch Sequence forays. And Hill has actually capitalized on Atlanta turning into a plate observe in 2022: He’s gained 5 occasions in seven begins.
His different Xfinity wins, all since 2022, have come at Vegas, Homestead, Pocono and Martinsville, so he’s not only a plate-race jockey.
Looks like a great time to level out how total productive Hill has been the previous seven-plus seasons. He’s gained in ARCA, then Vehicles, now Xfinity. At 30, it is perhaps previous time for an trustworthy shot in a Cup automobile for the North Georgia native.
Fourh Gear: Kyle Larson exams the fence at Indy
Right here’s a technique of taking a look at it.
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“All proper, right here we go. We’ll see if it feels means worse than hitting the wall in NASCAR.”
That’s what Kyle Larson recalled telling himself within the fraction of a second he had between dropping his Indy-car and broadsiding the skin SAFER Barrier between Turns 1 and a couple of at Indianapolis final week.
It was Day 2 of a two-day Brickyard check for Larson and all others pointing towards late-Might’s Indy 500. There might be extra Indy work for Larson, primarily in a simulator to assist him get cozy with the dashboard wizardry in these vehicles.
Let’s level out the plain: This looks as if a number of lifting for a extremely funded effort that’ll be totally weather-dependent. There might be no skipping the second half of the famed double — the Coke 600 in Charlotte — if rain delays the Indy begin because it did final yr.
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NASCAR’s new “Kyle Rule” nonetheless features a attainable playoff waiver for a driver who misses a race for one thing apart from medical causes, however that driver will lose all present and future playoff factors, which tremendously will increase the diploma of issue within the postseason.
In the meantime, let’s see what the Outdated Farmer’s Almanac says concerning the Month of Might in Indy and the remainder of the Ohio River Valley: “Temperatures and rainfall above regular.”
Sorry I requested.
