Austin Cindric, your Talladega winner over Ryan Preece

• Austin Cindric snapped a 30-race winless streak with a victory at Talladega Superspeedway.
• Kyle Larson earned his best career finish at Talladega (third).

Wait. What is this?

Clean racing late at Talladega Superspeedway?

The conditions felt ripe for mayhem during Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 — No. 1, because conditions are always ripe for mayhem at ’Dega, and No. 2, because the Cup Series drivers could’ve been a little rusty and a little antsy after NASCAR paused for Easter last week. 

It was competitive. Twenty-three cars led laps.

But the Big One never arrived, and the final minutes went off without a hitch. Austin Cindric beat Ryan Preece by a foot or two to take the checkers.

And a Kyle Larson third-place finish at a superspeedway?

Let’s talk about it.

1. Austin Cindric wins at Talladega

In his No. 2 Ford, Cindric claimed the lead after the fastest pit stop in the last stop of the race and prevailed by 0.022 seconds over Preece. He fronted the pack for seven total laps.

The 26-year-old also snapped a 30-race winless streak dating back to his victory in last June’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway. His first career win came in the 2022 Daytona 500.

Prior to Sunday, he had tallied two top-10s in six career Cup Series starts at Talladega.

“We talk about in every single one of those meetings why we haven’t won one of these races,” said Cindric, who began seventh. “Just really proud of the effort.”

2. Kyle Larson turns in trend-bucking superspeedway performance

Larson gave Cindric a rear bump on the final lap, trying to create a window for a winning move.

It didn’t work. Larson trailed Cindric on the inside and settled into third. But it was a step in the right direction.

Larson, who won two weeks ago at Bristol, entered this weekend with 42 Cup Series starts at Talladega and its sister track, Daytona International Speedway.

With zero wins and just two top-fives.

Sunday, he secured his first career stage win at Talladega, capturing Stage 1, and submitted his best finish ever at the track. Not too shabby.

3. From Talladega to Texas for NASCAR

It doesn’t slow down next week as NASCAR turns left and heads west to Texas Motor Speedway.

The track in Fort Worth is 1½-miles around, more than a mile shorter than Talladega, but get this: It’s faster. Why? No restrictor-plate rules.

Anyway, all three series — Cup, Xfinity and Trucks — waltz across Texas next week. And while it’ll be faster in a miles-per-hour sense, it’ll be a little more sane without the plate-racin’ rules package.

— Ken Willis contributed to this story.