NASCAR ratings decline at Talladega for 2025 Jack Link’s 500

Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway attracted 4.041 million viewers on FOX, per Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal. That number represents a 6% decrease in viewership from last year’s spring race at Talladega.

Still, over 4 million is a good number for NASCAR. But this was also the final race that will broadcast on network TV until the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway Saturday, Aug. 23. The next four races, which includes the All-Star Race, are on FS1 before Amazon Prime Video and TNT take over for the following 10 races.

Austin Cindric edged out Ryan Preece by 0.022 seconds to win at Talladega, his first win of the season and third of his Cup Series career. Cindric has been fast at superspeedways this season and finally finished it off.

Austin Cindric takes checkered flag at Talladega

“It takes everything, and we’ve had it so many races here and you’ve got to have a little bit more. I’m just so proud of everybody on this race team,” Cindric said after the race, via Dustin Long of NBC Sports. “Team Penske, the entire shop deserves wins at these racetracks with how fast our race cars are and I’m just so proud to be able to win for John Menard and the Menards team – to get this yellow car in Victory Lane and get in the playoffs.

“… You’re waiting for it to go wrong [on the final laps], but you’ve got to stay in the zone. There are so many times at the end I was just focused on the feedback [spotter] Doug Campbell was giving me and what I knew about our car and maybe other cars I observed throughout the field today, so just an absolutely fantastic job by everybody involved.”

Cindric is the first Penske driver to qualify for the playoffs this season. 2023 champion Ryan Blaney had another DNF at Talladega, while three-time champion Joey Logano was disqualified after an initial P5 finish.