How NASCAR at Talladega was won and lost

There wasn’t a ‘Big One’ and Austin Cindric and the Team Penske No. 2 straight-up won their way into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs for the third time in four years.

Beyond that, there was a lot of fuel saving, pit strategy and grid-locked pack racing that actually played a factor into the finish for once. That’s to say that the strategic decisions made by the crew chief and manufacturers actually mattered and was not undone by a crash that wiped out a dozen frontrunners.

In other words, Cindric and Wilson won because they made the right decisions to get track position and retained it over the final five laps.

How the race was won

It took a unique set of circumstances for the race to play out that way, however. For one, a pair of Ford drivers in Cindric and Ryan Preece had the front row gridlocked ahead of the Hendrick Motorsports duo of Kyle Larson and William Byron.

There was nothing anyone could really do to generate an effective third line with these cars when everyone is 100 percent on the throttle. The three and four-wide seen earlier in the race was a product of fuel conservation.

Larson pushed Cindric out front ahead of Byron, not intentionally, but that was where the energy carried him. That run allowed Preece to get by Byron for second place and the Fords controlled the race.

“I feel like where I lost the race was just with 5-6 to go when I lost control of the front row,” Byron said. “We just got off-center down the back stretch and lost momentum. And actually, three guys on the bottom cleared us and Preece was able to get in front of me.

“So like, you're just not really able to make a move to the top. Like, with this package, if I (pull out on) Ryan through the tri-oval, I feel like we're just dragging that lane back and maybe I finished second, but I'm not going to win.”

Byron tried to at least feign a move on Preece and that might have been the difference in the battle between the two Fords.

"I think, if the momentum would've came, (Byron) shaded up," Preece said. "Like maybe he wanted to, but I don't know if he was guarding behind him.

"So, I wish I could have got that last little push but at that point you can't drag back. You don't want to give anything up. I don't know. I wish I didn't have to shade up so much to cover those runs and maybe I could have side drafted him back a little bit."

The only other choice Byron had was what he ultimately tried to do after his feints.

“I think Cindric was in the cat bird seat,” Byron said. “He knew what to do. He stayed on the bottom and Kyle gave him great pushes. So, I don't know. You're just hoping, I was hoping I could get Ryan out front and get him clear and then I can make a move.”

That chance never came.

No Big One

On one hand, the fact there wasn’t a big dozen car crash in this race was a surprise, especially at the end.

There is always a big crash.  

But on the other hand, it was a byproduct of all the things detailed above combined with some extra responsible driving too.

It was all summed up by Byron after the race.

“I mean, yes and no, because there were some weird wrecks on restarts and stuff with the timing of pushes and stuff,” Byron said. “But everyone seemed really craft today. Like, everyone was doing a really good job. I mean, it was a skilled race. Just different.”

Everyone can certainly agree with that.

Larson says everyone was so tightly boxed in behind the Fords leading the pack that there was no momentum to create runs and bad blocks that generally lead to such melees.

“I don't know. I don't really have a good answer,” Larson said. “ I don't know. I think it’s just because we were all kind of together running max velocity and I think a lot of the times the crashes happen when there’s huge runs coming and people trying to jam it in a tight spot or somebody makes a block …

“So as long as you kind of stayed square on the guy in front of you, they weren't going to crash. I'm happy there wasn't a crash. I don't like crashing here especially. But yeah, the teams got out of here without any torn up race cars so that’s nice.”

For the crew chiefs and manufactures, all their best laid plans actually paid off for once, and the race was decided on pit road and not based on a game of Russian Roulette.

Cliff Daniels, crew chief for Larson and the Hendrick No. 5 certainly would have wanted to win, but he appreciated that the results were earned too.

“I think we’ve seen a lot of signs of this in the NextGen style racing at superspeedways that the stage 1 and stage 2 completion doesn’t have a lot of trouble, so those play out kind of straightforward,” Daniels said. “Today, stage 3 played out very straightforward and a lot of the plans and strategies played out the way they were designed to.

“I thought it was good to see all the different strategies that played out from the other OEMs. That was educational and we have a lot to go back and look at too.”

Cindric’s crew chief, Brian Wilson, certainly expected a caution that could have derailed their chances to finish too.

“I don't know if it's odd or not,” Wilson said. “I know we were all on the pit box worried that a caution was going to come out. When you're in those situations, you always think about those things. Just glad it worked out.”

Disqulification

Ryan Preece and Joey Logano were disqualified for failing post-race inspection after the race.

Preece had finished second and Logano had finished fifth prior being placed at the end of the running order with only one point scored.

The RFK Racing No. 60 driven by Preece failed Rule 14.5.8.F and resulted from the spoiler having three shims instead of the required two. The Team Penske No. 22 driven by Logano violated Rules 14.5.8.E and 14.1.P for missing a spoiler bolt.

Both teams have the option to appeal.