Sunday’s Cup Series in the Talladega Superspeedway featured 67 lead changes among 23 drivers. It went by without any major accidents and delivered a clean spectacle for fans, with Austin Cindric making it to the Victory Lane. This impressed veteran driver Jeff Burton a great deal as he came down hard on those throwing criticisms against NASCAR’s product.
Advertisement
He said to Steve Letarte on Inside The Race that teamwork has become a huge role in the sport for the better and the final pit stop of the day is what decides who wins the race.
Multiple drivers have the chance to win because of the current race format till the end and this is something that he loves. He believes that the need for strategies such as fuel-saving bring out the spirit that is at the core of racing.
His words went, “Drivers and teams finding a way to win races no matter what it takes. At the end of the day, you’ve got to take the track position at the right time and race your guts out to win. I can’t imagine what’s wrong with that.”
He also lauded the end of the stages and defended himself by pointing out that the same people found themselves at the front because they had special skills.
“I don’t understand who has a problem with this racing, it makes no sense to me whatsoever” @JeffBurton on the racing we saw @TALLADEGA pic.twitter.com/HNZn4TeROk
— Steve Letarte (@SteveLetarte) April 28, 2025
Not everyone agreed with his view.
One frustrated fan asked, “So, you don’t see the difference between Xfinity and Cup? They were not even trying to pass each other in the closing laps because they couldn’t. The absurd amount of drag makes it impossible to pull out and make moves. It’s painfully obvious these cars can’t race on these tracks.” He wasn’t alone in this line of thought.
Kyle Larson was not okay with how difficult passing was in the final laps as well. He even suggested working on reducing the drag in his post-race interview.
Another revealed that they couldn’t stand to watch the event till its end. “I watched two and a half races this weekend,” the comment said. “The ARCA race was better than Sunday’s. The Saturday race was excellent. What are we doing here?”
The idea that the Xfinity Series produces a better racing spectacle than the Cup Series has been running around for a long time now. More comments touched upon this rather blatantly.
One fan had a challenge for Burton. They wrote, “Watch the last five laps of the Xfinity race vs the Cup race and tell me which product is better.” Burton might want to rethink his opinion before accepting the challenge.
One fan had an issue with the veteran’s contention that the best superspeedway drivers were winning the stages and the race. Fuel-saving has become the most crucial strategy on drafting-style tracks, much to the dismay of many. The fan made it clear that the driver who saves fuel the best is NOT the best superspeedway racer.
the talent here is about which driver is able to save fuel the best and which fueler does their job the best…
the problem is this is NOT the talent of being a good superspeedway racer
best fuel saver ≠ best superspeedway racer
— DennyDeliversYT (@DennyDelivers2) April 28, 2025
They said, “The talent here is about which driver is able to save fuel the best and which fueler does their job best. The problem is this is NOT the talent of being a good superspeedway racer. Best fuel save ≠ best superspeedway racer.” Notably, Cindric took the lead off the final pit stop only because his crew was extremely quick with their work.
So, where does this land us? Was the race at the Talladega Superspeedway a good one? Opinions are mixed. A strong case cannot be made for the argument that the Next Gen car is as good as the Xfinity Series car. However, it has to be admitted that Sunday held one of the best superspeedway races in recent times.
