By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
More than 2.5 hours after the checkered flag fell at Talladega Superspeedway, two of the race’s top finishers were disqualified.
Ryan Preece, who crossed the finish line in second place was DQ’d due to a spoiler infraction. Specifically, the car was found to have three shims instead of two on its spoiler.
Meanwhile, fifth-place finisher Joey Logano was stripped of the position after his No. 22 was also found with a spoiler violation (Section 14.5.8.E and Section 14.1.P under General Vehicle Assembly), missing a spoiler bolt.
Before the penalty, Logano had scored his first top-five finish of 2025 in his reigning season as champion. The three-time title owner is now credited with 39th.
“One of the 18 bolts on the surface of the spoiler that connect to the base was found to be loose, and NASCAR penalized the team as a result,” said Team Penske in a statement. “This was not intentional and happened throughout the course of the race event. Team Penske accepts the disqualification.”
For Preece, the DQ strips him of a career-best finish. The first-year RFK Racing driver missed the race win by only 0.022 seconds behind Austin Cindric, adding a silver lining to what could have been a race win DQ.
Preece will be credited with a 38th-place finish, joining RFK teammates Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski at the tail end of the finishing order in 34th and 36th, respectively.
“Over the past five years, I’ve done a whole lot of freaking losing. I feel like the dues are paid and I’m putting in a lot of work,” Preece said postrace prior to the announcement of the DQ.
“We are getting closer and closer [to win]. I don’t know if people write me off because of my past years. But I think we are proving that we will be a threat. We’ll be a threat at short tracks, 1.5-mile, superspeedways and road courses.”