The sun always rises, and NASCAR always wads up at least a dozen cars at Talladega Superspeedway. However, Sunday’s YellaWood 500 featured an unprecedentedly massive wreck during the closing laps. This edition of the Big One involved 28 cars, a modern Cup Series record.
Austin Cindric was out in front of the field with five laps to go. The No. 2 Penske Ford Mustang was too far out in front. With no drafting partner, the pack quickly caught Cindric. Brad Keselowski attempted to push the No. 2 Mustang and smashed into Cindric’s rear bumper off-center. Cindric was punted into a spin in front of the entire field going down the backstretch. There was little anyone could do to avoid joining the pile of spinning machinery. Cindric told Racer afterward:
“I just got turned at the front of the field,” Cindric said. “Unfortunately that’s how Daytona ended for us and I think what that says is we’ve got really fast race cars and great execution. As the leader, I was trying to be as predictable as possible as far as taking pushes and it’s just a real shame. I don’t really feel like doing a whole lot of complaining about what happened or whose fault it is; it doesn’t really matter.
Cindric finished 32nd in the race as the survivors duked it out for the victory. The 2023 Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. crossed the finish line first in a photo finish, winning by six-thousandths of a second over Keselowski. The tight finish was the eighth-closest of all time. The superlatives are becoming blasé, with the top two in the record book happening earlier this year at Kansas Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway.