Team Penske, a force on NASCAR’s superspeedway wars, brought their A-game and capitalized on an impressive recent record. They have been a 2025 superspeedway terror, dominating draft tracks throughout the season, with 54.8% laps led (256 combined) since the Daytona 500 through Atlanta, with Joey Logano and Austin Cindric achieving triple-digit laps led. Surprisingly, they were yet to taste victory lane until Talladega Superspeedway. However, at Talladega, it was Hendrick Motorsports’ four drivers—Kyle Larson, William Byron, Chase Elliott, and Alex Bowman—who controlled much of the race, only to have Cindric take the win. Why?

Well, the Fords are just so good to draft with that sometimes, OEM relations go out of the window, and Kyle Larson spoke about this after his third place finish at the Jack Link’s 500. Larson’s unvarnished observations of the last laps show the frantic, calculated craft of drafting that gave Penske another superspeedway victory.

Team Penske impressed Kyle Larson

In a jaw-dropping 0.022-second photo finish, Austin Cindric edged Ryan Preece out for the victory. In a race featuring 65 lead changes by 23 drivers and four cautions for 22 laps, it was just two Fords side-by-side vying for the win; no come-from-behind overtake could stop them. And as much as Larson tried, all he could do was admire Team Penske’s drivers.

The last 10 laps were a frantic whirl of aggression and strategy. By lap 185, Cindric led Preece by a mere 0.001 seconds, with William Byron 0.083 seconds back in third, per race data. Kyle Larson, pushing from the top five, fought desperately to advance his lane. He described the effort with raw intensity: “I just think we [Larson and William Byron] were both doing a really good job of pushing the guys in front of us, and their [Ford] cars were very stable too, so it made it easy to kind of push them… I was trying there for the final 10 laps to shove him [Austin Cindric] out, clear to where I could get clear, but I just really only had like one chance at that.”

Then Bob Pockrass asked Larson whether he felt awkward drafting with a driver from a different OEM, Larson being a Chevrolet and Cindric being a Ford. And Laron’s response was straightforward. “I was just trying to do everything I could to win and get clear… I wasn’t really thinking about any of that at the moment, I was just trying to do what I could to advance my lane,” said Larson. Kyle Larson was right on Cindric’s tail as the latter fought with Ryan Preece for the lead. And while Larson made multiple attempts to bump him out of the way, it was the aero of the Net-Gen car that stood in his way, making it yet another ‘so close, yet so far’ moment for Larson at superspeedways.

Kyle Larson, running in the top pack, grappled with the NextGen car’s limitations, later saying, “I started the race in the back and couldn’t go anywhere. Some things got jumbled up… You need moments like that for the field to get kind of choked up and fanned out, and then you can get lucky and pick your way through for, like, a straightaway and then kind of settle back in.” 

Cindric’s data—33 laps in the top five, 75 in the top 10, and a best lap of 48.826 seconds (196.125 mph) on lap 120—highlights his ability to maintain position, aided by a perfectly timed draft. The 0.022-second victory margin over Preece underscored Larson’s point: stability and momentum were king.

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Larson’s lowest-finishing teammate laments Sunday’s events

Alex Bowman, finishing ninth, shared the frustration. “Not a great day,” said Bowman, who lost out on a top-five at the very end. “I felt like most of the moves I made throughout the day were a net loss. Just one of those days where none of it worked out. There at the end, the 24 [Byron] kind of zigged left down the backstretch as I got to him, and that broke us apart and let the 60 [Preece] get up and take control of the race from there. Hate that for everybody from HMS. I thought we were sitting in a good spot, and unfortunately, it just didn’t work out.”

Bowman (seventh) and Elliott (fifth) ran strong, but Larson and Byron were “mere pushers” in the final sprint, unable to seize the lead. Earlier chaos, like a lap 63 pit cycle where Larson emerged first among lead-lap cars, added layers of complexity, yet Hendrick’s drivers remained poised.

Kyle Larson’s whirlwind week—WWE appearances, IndyCar testing, a dirt race win, and now second at Talladega after Ryan Preece was disqualified – showcased his versatility, but superspeedways remain his nemesis. His strong finish marks progress, yet his own words reveal the race’s harsh truth: even the best drivers must bow to the draft’s unforgiving math when the lanes align against them. Rick Hendrick’s men fought valiantly, only to concede to NASCAR’s drafting kings.