NASCAR unsure of what to improve upon following Talladega backlash

NASCAR official, Elton Sawyer, spoke on the criticism against NASCAR not having a competitive field at Talladega. He pointed to the number of lanes drivers have to take and the number of lead changes in the race.

Austin Cindric captured a dramatic victory at the Talladega Superspeedway in the 2025 Jack Link’s 500 after beating Ryan Preece by just 0.022 seconds in a photo finish. The race heavily featured lead changes, with 67 changes among the 23 drivers. The majority of the caution sections of the race happened in the first two stages, with the final stage being majorly green-flagged, causing the race to be decided by pit strategies and fuel management.

Early in the first stage at lap 43, a multi-car crash took out major contenders for the race like Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski, causing a big reshuffle of the field. Later, Christopher Bell suffered a heavy hit after Denny Hamlin turned him. Stage one was captured by Kyle Larson.

Bubba Wallace won Stage Two in a three-wide dash. Austin Cindric and Ryan Preece were swapping leads in the final stages and did it five times, all the time holding off Kyle Larson and William Byron. However, Cindric used the draft from the lapped traffic to propel him into the first position when he crossed the checkered flag.

In a race that saw 67 lead changes among 23 drivers, NASCAR official Elton Sawyer (Senior Vice President of competition) pointed out to the number of lanes drivers were taking at the Talladega Superspeedway. He claimed that the level of competition was up to par:

"When you're sitting in race control and we're standing up and watching, our fans are standing on their feet," Sawyer told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio during his weekly appearance.

He added:

"We're four wide, in some cases we're five wide, then they're back to single file. Our fans are standing up, they're cheering. Then you get looking at the metrics and you look at the stats after the race, and you have 67 lead changes among 23 different drivers. So, when we look at all of that, it's like, what are we trying to fix? What's not going the way we would like it?"

The next stop in the NASCAR calendar is the Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway set to take place on May 4th. The main oval is 1.5 miles long with 20 degree banking in turns 1 and 2 along with a 24 degree banking in turns 3 and 4.

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NASCAR viewership numbers from Talladega set a worrying precedent for the sport

NASCAR's recent viewership numbers from the Talladega Superspeedway Cup Series race have raised concerns within the sport. The 2025 Jack Link's 500 at Talladega attracted 4.041 million viewers, which is about 266,000 fewer than the previous year - a 6% decline. Adam Stern, motorsport reporter of Sports Business Journal, wrote:

".@FoxTV got 4.041 million viewers for Sunday's Cup Series race at Talladega, down 6% from last year. Talladega marked the final race on network TV for NASCAR's premier series until the August 23rd event at Daytona on @NBC."

This continues a troubling trend, as the race’s viewership has dropped each year since 2021. It resulted in a total loss of approximately 660,000 viewers over five years.