Austin Cindric steals Talladega race win from Ryan Preece with narrow 0.02 second lead

RFK Racing veteran Ryan Preece lost the Talladega Cup race to Ford teammate Austin Cindric, in a photo finish.

Austin Cindric steals Talladega race win from Ryan Preece with narrow 0.02 second lead

Austin Cindric and Ryan Preece (Via IMAGO and @Ryan_Preece/X)

The NASCAR Cup garage produced one if the most impressive Talladega race of all time, as the race had a photo finish and no big one. Team Penske Racing’s Austin Cindric won the race, defeating RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece on the final lap, with a small margin of 0.022 second, marking the first win for Penske and only the second in for Ford this year.

On the final two laps, Ryan Preece found himself in the outside lane with William Byron pushing him and Austin Cindric on the inside with Kyle Larson pushing him. Both racers traded leads on every turn, before the No:2 Ford Mustang took advantage draft he got from the lapped cars ahead of them to edge the fellow Ford on the finish line.

But it was good the RFK driver didn’t win the race, as after the post-race inspection, he was disqualified from the race alongside Cindric’s teammate Joey Logano. So, the second-place finish went to Kyle Larson, while his teammate William Byron took P3 ahead of the third HMS racer Alex Bowman at P4.

Talking about the impressive victory, the third one of his Cup careers that features the 2022 Daytona 500 win, Cindric admitted that he is proud of his team for their effort that gave him the edge at the end. The playoff entry of Cindric might inspire Logano and Blaney to step up their game for the upcoming events.

It takes everything and we’ve had it so many races here and you’ve got to have a little bit more. I’m just so proud of everybody on this race team. Team Penske, the entire shop deserves wins at these racetracks with how fast our race cars are and I’m just so proud to be able to win for John Menard and the Menards team – to get this yellow car in Victory Lane and get in the playoffs.

Austin Cindric said after the race.

Ryan Preece was happy with the rescinded P2 finish

Following the loss, Preece talk to the media and admitted that he is happy with the team’s overall performance, though the result was disappointing. If he had side drafted Cindric more at the end, he could have had the edge, but with the DQ it would have been worthless.

Ryan Preece, SHR
Ryan Preece, SHR (Credits: Toby Christie)

I’m happy but as a racer, you want to win. I felt like coming through the tri-oval, we’re all staying together and no one was really leaving me. I wish I didn’t have to shade up so much and maybe side-draft Austin [Cindric] to pull him back.

Ryan Preece said.

He then went onto dedicate his performance to the modified series fans that always had his back and helped him to get back to the elite stock car racing division. Now with the momentum on side, despite the DQ which they can appeal, RFK Racing will be expecting more front row finishes from the veteran.

Also Read: (Video) Aric Almirola causes a massive wreck involving Katherine Legge at Talladega