NASCAR expert firmly defends Austin Cindric’s decision amid scathing backlash from Joey Logano

NASCAR expert Jeff gluck backed Austin Cindric amid his heated moment with Joey Logano at Talladega Superspeedway. The reigning Cup champion blamed his Penske team mate for letting 23XL's Bubba Wallace secure a stage win over him at the 500-miler.

On Sunday's Jack Link's 500, Logano was battling Wallace for the lead on the final lap of Stage 2, while Cindric slotted behind in his draft. The No.22 driver expected his team mate to bump him and help overtake Wallace, but instead, Cindric backed off the gas and stepped aside, leaving Wallace with the lead on the inside line.

After Wallace picked up the win, Logano went on a tirade against Cindric for backing off the fight. While bump drafting has it's advantages in high-speed tracks like Talladega, its margin of error can be razor-thin, as a misaligned bump can easily trigger a multi-car wreck.

Reflecting upon the same, Gluck appeared on The Teardown podcast and weighed in on the debacle.

"Good call, because he ended up saving his car to win the race. So, I think once cooler heads prevail, I would suspect that once Joey gets that explanation, he would probably be more chill about that because Cindric wasn't like i'm gonna bail on you here like Logano probably thought. It was I'm just to not like turn you into the wall and wreck up the whole field, which again, good decision. So, I think i'm team Cindric on that one," he said. (38:15)

Austin Cindric went on to earn the checkered flag after fending off Ryan Preece in a thrilling last-lap pass. The two drivers finished side-by-side, with the No.2 Ford narrowly ahead with a 0.022 second lead. The win marked Cindric and Team Penske's first win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

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Austin Cindric reflects on his win at Talladega

Austin Cindric bagged his third Cup Series win at Talladega superspeedway after a grueling 188 laps that saw 67 lead changes among 23 drivers. Notably, Cindric exchanged the lead with Ryan Preece five times during the final six laps. His team also logged the fastest pitstop with 17 laps remaining, which kept his No.2 Ford among the frontrunners.

Talking to the media post-race, Cindric shared how it's not easy to pull-off a victory at a Superspeedway.

"For that to go green at the end, have a car capable, a team capable, have it all come together, it’s really gratifying. It’s definitely a relief given how a lot of these have gone. Doesn’t make me any special or different. These things go up in flames for most," he said [00:30]

Austin Cindric took his first Cup Series win at the 2022 Daytona 500, another Superspeedway track. Grabbing the honours in his rookie year, Cindric similarly won with a narrow margin of 0.036 seconds in an overtime finish, beating Bubba Wallace.