Talladega is the ultimate wild card. Just about any car can win Sunday’s GEICO 500 (3 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Eleven drivers in the field have managed to win, which is a diverse list. However, Brad Keselowski tops the list with his six wins, only trailing the legendary Dale Earnhardt at the track. And while there are multiple-time winners throughout the field, including Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney, all of whom are going for their first win of the season, statistical success doesn’t translate.
Ross Chastain won the Talladega spring race last year, but he’ll be the first to admit that he lucked into that win.
“In the April race last year,” Chastain said, “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I held the wheel straight and people wrecked around me and we won the race.
“That doesn’t always happen at superspeedway tracks though,” he said. “You have so many things out of your control that you have to have a little bit of luck at them.”
One driver who really needs a win is Martin Truex, who’s been winless for two seasons now, despite a victory in the non-points-paying Clash. He’s still fifth in the points standings despite that, although he failed to make the Playoffs last year despite having the second-most points without a win. A win this year would take that pressure away.
“Still trying to figure out how to get that first win at Talladega,” Truex said. “We’ve been close there before and ran really strong there last year with our Bass Pro Shops Camry, so just looking to build on that and focus on what it’s going to take to try and get our first win there.”
Truex’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and season points leader Christopher Bell is also racing for his first Talladega victory. He won the pole for both Talladega races last year, but his best race ended with no better than a fifth-place finish, and that’s his only career top ten at the track.
Truex might be concerned about ending up in the same situation as last year if he doesn’t get the win. There are only two repeat winners so far this season, in William Byron and Kyle Larson, both from Hendrick Motorsports, and seven drivers have found victory lane in the first nine races.
Talladega is a likely candidate for a first-time season winner, or, as Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Bubba Wallace did, a first-time career winner.
“It’s really hard to win at Talladega,” said Aric Almirola. “It is such a tough place. The opportunity to get involved in a wreck is really high, so you’re constantly trying to battle risk versus reward – how hard you’re going to work to get aggressive and make moves, trying to lead the draft versus playing it safe. It’s a really tough place to win because you can so easily have the fastest racecar and get taken out of the race. However, Talladega is certainly an opportunity race for us.”
Qualifying for the GEICO 500 is Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and televised live on FS1. There is no practice for either series this weekend.
NASCAR Xfinity Series battle for the win and the cash at Talladega
After weeks of short track action, the NASCAR Xfinity Series moves to the biggest track on the schedule, the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway for Saturday afternoon’s Ag-Pro 300 (4 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Neither of last year’s Talladega race winners – defending champ Noah Gragson nor A.J. Allmendinger – are competing this weekend making Jordan Anderson Racing’s Jeb Burton the only former Talladega winner in the field. And the second-generation NASCAR driver has top-10 efforts in half his six starts on the big track.
Current championship points leader – and last week’s Martinsville (Va.) Speedway winner – John Hunter Nemechek is making his first Xfinity Series start at Talladega since 2021. His best finish in three Talladega Xfinity races is sixth place in 2019.
With the victory in Martinsville last weekend, however, the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota brings plenty of momentum to the big track. Nemechek is one of only two multi-race winners this season (also Austin Hill), has led the most laps (340) and is tied with JR Motorsports driver Josh Berry for most top-fives (three) and top-10s (seven).
Hill, who trails Nemechek by 21 points heading into Saturday’s race, has certainly been strong at Talladega, but never had his efforts rewarded with a trophy. This year’s three-race winner led the most laps in both Talladega Xfinity races last season only to suffer a DNF in the spring race and a 14th-place finish after winning pole position in the Fall race. He has a pair of top-10 finishes and led laps in four of this five NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series start at the track.
The coveted $100,000 Dash 4 Cash prize will be awarded Saturday afternoon. In addition to Nemechek – who won last week’s money at Martinsville – Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer and Nemechek’s JGR teammate Sammy Smith and JR Motorsports Josh Berry are eligible for the bonus. Whoever finishes highest among those four will take home the money. And the top-four Dash 4 Cash-eligible drivers out of Saturday’s race will then contend for the check in next week’s race at Dover – the final race the six-figure incentive bonus is awarded in 2023.
Those same four drivers should make it very interesting, considering their season to date. Berry is ranked fifth in the championship, only 43 points behind Nemechek. Smith, who won at Phoenix, is seventh in points and Custer, a former two-time Xfinity Series championship runner-up is eighth in the standings.
Custer says that adding the money to the mix at Talladega is a chance “to kind of leave it all out there and take some risks for it. You know it’s going to be a crazy one at Talladega, in general, and now you add this factor in. I think some guys are going to do some crazy stuff to go for not only the win, but the money, so you better bring your ‘A’ game this Saturday.”
Qualifying for the Ag-Pro 300 is Friday evening at 5:30 on FS1.
NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: GEICO 500
The Place: Talladega Superspeedway
The Date: Sunday, April 23
The Time: 3 p.m. ET
The Purse: $7,857,314
TV: FOX, 2 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 500 miles (188 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 60),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 120), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 188)
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Next Race: Ag-Pro 300
The Place: Talladega Superspeedway
The Date: Saturday, April 22
The Time: 4 p.m. ET
The Purse: $1,438,641
TV: FS1, 3 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 300.58 miles (113 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 25),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 50), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 113)
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