A week hasn’t passed, and yet Talladega is giving nightmares. NASCAR visited the 2.66-mile Alabama track last week with zest, but left with bruises and memories to forget. Ranging from Connor Zilisch’s back injury to Austin Cindric getting an unhealthy tirade from his teammate, a lot of unpleasant encounters happened. Yet the penalties were the highest, as they just kept piling on top of each other.

They started off with the Cup Series, where Ford top-five finishers Ryan Preece and Joey Logano were disqualified. Then this punishing trend filtered down to the lower series. The latest to be affected are a group of ARCA Menards Series icons, whose penalties were not at all soft.

NASCAR launches a series of blows at rising stars

Well, Talladega Superspeedway can be exciting and scary at the same time. Cleetus McFarland, the renowned YouTuber, made his second ARCA start at the largest oval with assistance from Dale Earnhardt Jr and Greg Biffle. He overcame massive obstacles like powering through a valve train issue to dodging multi-car wrecks to finish in a remarkable 9th place. Yet the ecstasy of McFarland, aka Garrett Mitchell, was short-lived. The Rette Jones Racing No. 30 driver was fined a whopping $5000 for violating the driver’s personal safety equipment rule. What is even worse, he was placed on probation for the rest of the season and is required to complete driver safety training as directed by ARCA.

This was only the first infraction that NASCAR recorded. Isabella Robusto, who finished 3rd in Talladega, saw her crew chief, Larry Balsitis, get a $3500 fine. Her team lost 18 championship points after the Venturini Motorsports No. 55 violated rules regarding the NACA duct vent and spring seat mounts. Then Thad Moffitt, who wheeled the No. 46 Nitro Motorsports team to a runner-up finish, also caught fire. His crew chief, Jim Long, has been penalized $2500 for violating minimum/maximum heights in the rulebook. Lastly, Kevin Ingram, crew chief for the Moyer Petronino Racing No. 88, has been fined $1.000 and placed on probation. His penalty stems from the rulebook violation of Window Net.

This was the most recent round of penalties to hit NASCAR. A day earlier, a pair of Xfinity Series teams got L1 penalties. Matt DiBenedetto and Austin Green’s teams were penalized for faulty rear-bumper covers. DiBenedetto, driving the No. 99 Viking Motorsports Chevrolet, finished Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300 in a career-best fifth place. The penalty did not affect his finishing position but cost him 20 points. Austin Green, driving the No. 87 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevy, got this devastating blow after he failed to qualify for Saturday’s event.

Clearly, Talladega memories will haunt all these drivers for some months at least. Meanwhile, in the Cup Series, a three-time champion lamented about his situation.

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Defying the ruling

Well, it was a dramatic weekend for Joey Logano at Talladega Superspeedway. The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series champion caught fire among fans and an MLB legend after launching an unhealthy barrage of profanity against his teammate. Then karma hit back at him twice. That teammate, Austin Cindric, went on to pick up Team Penske’s first victory of the 2025 season. Logano was happy to settle for 5th place, but even that slipped from his hands. His No. 22 Team Penske Ford violated a rule that covers spoiler braces that are used at superspeedway events. Accordingly, Logano’s fifth place dropped to a miserable 39th-place finish. Team Penske released a statement claiming that it “accepts the disqualification.” Yet Logano is not willing to let go without some rants.

Joey Logano explained what happened in a post-race press conference. He said, “Essentially, the nut came off the bolt back there on the brace, and the bolt was still in there, but it does cause a little deflection, I’m sure, in the spoiler. Does it give you a competitive advantage? I’m sure it does, a little bit. Did it change where we finished in the race? No, because I was locked down with two wide so it doesn’t make a difference.” Then he lamented: “The penalty hurts. There’s no doubt. It’s a 41-point penalty. That’s the way I look at it… not to mention the financial impact from finishing fifth to last. There’s a pretty big impact there. Then the image of it isn’t good either, so you’ve got to navigate that too. It’s not ideal.”

Logano’s tricky season saw a positive uptick at Talladega, as it was his first top-5 finish of the season, but it looks like the #22 can’t catch a break this season. He has led the 4th most laps in the Cup Series this year but sits with an average finish of 19.7! A puzzling inability to finish races well sees Logano sit 11th in the drivers’ standings as he chases a playoff spot. The defending Cup Series champion would hope some luck goes his way in upcoming races, as a DQ after his season-best finish is not what he needed at Talladega.

Evidently, NASCAR drivers are still nursing their wounds from Talladega. Yet a fresh weekend offers renewed purpose and hope, so let us see how these affected drivers rebound to glory.