LINCOLN, Ala. -- It was pit strategy, not a late wreck, that led to Ford drivers taking control late in Sunday's Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Toyota drivers were in control with under 30 laps remaining in the race, but it was a pair of Ford drivers who took over in the closing laps. Austin Cindric ultimately won, and Ryan Preece finished second after they controlled the two lanes over the closing laps.
"They just had a good pit cycle and kind of reversed our strategy on ourselves," Ty Gibbs told AltDriver in the garage after the race.
Four Toyota drivers took a different approach to close out stage 2 on Sunday. Denny Hamlin, Riley Herbst, Ty Gibbs, and Chase Briscoe headed back down pit road with three laps remaining so that they could top off on fuel.
This strategy put the quartet at the front of the pack for the stage 3 restart, and they capitalized early by leading the way to the final green flag pit cycle. Gibbs spent 32 laps at the front of the pack while Briscoe led another five, taking his total to 20.
The Toyota drivers gave up control of the race on Lap 163. They headed down pit road along with the three Spire Motorsports drivers and Anthony Alfredo.
The rest of the Chevrolet and Ford drivers continued racing until Lap 170, when the majority of Ford drivers, Kaulig Racing, and Trackhouse Racing headed down pit road. One lap later, the remaining Chevrolet teams and Josh Berry made their final stops.
This strategy of heading down pit road seven laps later was the key to Cindric's win. His team pulled off the fastest final stop, per writer/IMSA crew member Bozi Tatarevic, and they received some assistance from a slower Ross Chastain nearly causing a wreck by pulling in front of the cars who pitted on Lap 163.
The finish of the race was basically decided in this single frame with 17 laps to go as Cindric has an excellent pit stop while Chastain moves up to block an entire line of cars on track in the same moment that ends up holding them back. https://t.co/TIYkUcBGHr pic.twitter.com/rnq9VewAwT
— Bozi Tatarevic (@BoziTatarevic) April 27, 2025
Once the green flag cycle ended on Lap 172, Cindric was in the lead on the lower line. He remained there until the end of the race on Lap 188.
"We try to look at what the lap times are if somebody does short-pit," Brian Wilson, Cindric's crew chief, told AltDriver. "You try to watch and see where they're going to cycle out. As a group, I think there's a lot of great communication between the Ford camp.
"Absolutely, we saw what (the Toyota drivers) were doing, I think we reacted very well to it, and then really it comes down to executing on pit road. Every step of that, I think we did really well."
The move to run long paid off for multiple reasons. The Toyotas used more fuel running hard at the front of the pack while Cindric and other drivers further back were able to use less throttle and conserve. This shortened the amount of time spent on pit road.
Cindric also avoided the big wild card. This race at Talladega did not have any cautions during the final stage. In fact, NASCAR Insights noted that the 62-lap green flag run to end the race without a last lap wreck was the longest at a drafting track since July 2004 at Daytona.
Said Cindric, "That (Toyota) group, I think, did probably the most organized effort of kind of changing the way the race looked, and I feel like it took a lot of guys off-guard, and it took me a minute to really analyze where the strengths and weaknesses in that were going to be.
"I feel like they probably don't have the best advantage on fuel mileage -- I feel like they picked their speed up. I feel like they played their hand, and it's the ability to counter it. They used a lot of fuel to lead a lot of laps."
The pit strategy gave Cindric the lead, but the Toyota contingent tried to mount a late comeback. Gibbs kept attempting to create a third lane as the laps clicked down, but he remained unsuccessful. He didn't have enough help, nor did he have the ability to create the runs on the outside.
Gibbs led the most laps in the field (32), but he ultimately settled for a 19th-place finish.
"The package just doesn't like it," Gibbs said about creating a third lane. "It only works when we're all saving, so that's why you see all these lanes start going once everybody starts saving.
"Then once nobody's saving and we're all hammered down, it's either single file and the guy's six rows back, or they can get a run and get the lead, and they fall back. It seems like that's all we get out of this package."