NASCAR Cup Series: Who won the Jack Link's 500 at Talladega?

Following Kyle Larson's dominant win at Bristol and the only off-weekend of the season, the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series made the trip to Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday for the running of the Jack Link's 500, which saw Austin Cindric get his first victory of the season.

It was the 10th race of the season and the first of two trips to the 2.66-mile Alabama track before a return trip to the track in October for the middle race in the Round of 8 in the playoffs.

Front Row Motorsports' Zane Smith led the field to green after scoring his first career Cup Series pole on Saturday. The first caution took place as drivers tried to get organized making a green-flag pit stop late in Stage 1. Veterans Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch got together on Lap 43 and collected Ryan Blaney and Alex Bowman. Moments later on the Lap 52 restart, Christopher Bell got a bad push from Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin, spinning across the nose of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing's Chris Buescher and hard into the inside wall on the backstretch. After getting a great push in the middle lane, Larson would hold off his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron to win an eventful Stage 1.

Stage 2 would go caution-free, but still produced some interesting developments. Beard Motorsports' Anthony Alfredo led 19 laps, which were the most in one race in the team's history and the most for any car numbered 62 since Frankie Schneider in 1958, per the Fox broadcast. Richard Childress Racing's Kyle Busch made an unscheduled stop on Lap 99 due to a vibration and HMS driver Chase Elliott was too fast on pit road during a green-flag stop on Lap 109. With a big push from Team Penske's Austin Cindric, 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace would go on to win the stage.

NASCAR Cup Series: Austin Cindric captures win at Talladega

The biggest story of a caution-free final stage at Talladega was the race's final pit sequence. While the race shockingly did not have a big wreck as it typically does, the Toyotas seemed to have the race in hand, holding down the top six spots. With Trackhouse Racing driver Ross Chastain breaking up the momentum of the Toyotas after they returned to the track from their final stops, plus a timely pit sequence from the Fords, Cindric went from 25th to first following the cycle. From there, he would hold off RFK Racing's Ryan Preece by 0.022 seconds to win his third career Cup Series race, his first at Talladega and his first of the season. In post-race inspection, though, Preece and Joey Logano were disqualified due to spoiler violations, relegating them to 38th and 39th, respectively.

Full Jack Link's 500 finishing order and points results

The NASCAR Cup Series shifts its focus to Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 4 for the running of the Wurth 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Elliott is the defending race winner.