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| Brad Keselowski has won five times at Talladega. |
Next Race: GEICO 500
The Place: Talladega Superspeedway
The Date: Sunday, April 29
The Time: 2 p.m. ET
TV: FOX, 1:30 p.m. ET
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 500 miles (188 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 55),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 110), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 188)
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Keselowski Returns For More Glory At ‘Dega
More typically, the massive in size and excitement Talladega Superspeedway is a huge “have at it” as they say in big-time NASCAR racing. The unpredictability of the sport’s largest track and its restrictor-plate racing have made many competitors consider it a high-speed wild card.
But for Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski, this Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) has been a pattern of consistent glory and this season, presents a huge opportunity for him to score his first win.
A five-time winner at the 2.66-mile track – Keselowski is the winningest driver in this weekend’s field. Four other drivers are next on the list – with only two wins. His Team Penske team – including teammate Joey Logano – has won five of the last seven races – a telling statistic that defies “luck.” Count in last year’s spring winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ford has won six of the last seven races.
All three of the Team Penske drivers – also including team newcomer Ryan Blaney, 24, who’s led at least 100 laps in a race three times this year – have to be considered favorites when they roll into what’s expected to be a sunny, gorgeous Alabama weekend at one of the sport’s most exciting venues.
Keselowski, 34, has 11 top-10 finishes in 18 Talladega starts. He won in his very first start at the track in 2009. Logano, 28, has three top-fives in his last five starts - including the two wins - and he has seven top-10 finishes in his 18 starts. Blaney’s only top-five – a fourth-place finish – came in 2015 in this spring-time race.
On A Run: Kyle Busch Looks For Fourth Straight Win
Last week’s race winner Kyle Busch is on a three-race winning streak coming to one of the most challenging circuits on the schedule. Only eight other drivers in NASCAR’s Modern Era (1972-present) have won four consecutive races. And none of those winning streaks included a Talladega trophy.
Busch has one victory at Talladega – in the spring of 2008 – and his recent record is consistently inconsistent. He finished runner-up in this race in 2016 and was third last year. But he has finishes of 30th and 23rd in the fall races of each year, respectively.
Busch has five top-three finishes in 25 starts here, including two runner-up finishes and the win.
Defending ‘Dega Winner Returns Hoping To Turn Season Around
After an uncharacteristic tough luck start to his 2018 season, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. arrives at Talladega as the defending winner of this race – and on a positive note, collected his first top 10 of the year – a fourth place – at Bristol two weeks ago.
Stenhouse scored his first career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega from the pole position in 2017 and has five top-10 finishes in 10 starts at the big track – an impressive statistic. Three times he’s finished among the top-10 in the last five races here. And his overall average finish of 12.111 is best in the field.
Darrell Wallace Jr. Is Feeling ‘Sweet Home’ Alabama
This year’s Daytona 500 runner-up Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. has become a fan favorite everywhere the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series visits, but this week’s stop in Talladega is a favorite for the Mobile, Alabama, native.
It’s home.
He comes to Talladega with two top-16 finishes in the last three weeks, including an eighth-place at Texas Motor Speedway three weeks ago. He’s ranked 22nd in the driver championship standings.
This will be Wallace’s series debut on his home state track. His best showings are a pair of 13th-place finishes in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2016 and 2017. And he finished ninth after starting 27th in the 2014 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Talladega.
William Byron Is On The Rise
Wallace’s fellow Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender William Byron broke into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series top-16 standings this week thanks to a 12th-place finish at Richmond Raceway on Saturday. He is eight points behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, seven-time Monster Energy Series champion Jimmie Johnson, in 15th position and 17 points behind another Hendrick teammate, Alex Bowman, in 13th.
Byron, 20, scored his first career Cup top-10 finish – 10th at Texas – three weeks ago and he has led twice, one lap at Auto Club Speedway and one lap at Texas. Much of last week, Byron ran among the top-10 at the Richmond short track.
This will be his Monster Energy Series debut at Talladega. In his only two previous starts at the big track, he was 36th in a NASCAR Xfinity Series race last year and 10th in a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in 2016.
Talladega Taskmaster
While a lot of attention is on younger brother Kyle Busch this week as he goes for his fourth straight win, his older brother and fellow former series champion Kurt Busch boasts a particularly impressive and often overlooked resume at Talladega because he still hasn’t made it to Victory Lane there.
Busch leads all active drivers with 18 top-10 finishes and his seven top-fives ties only five-time winner Keselowski as best in the field. He has four third-place finishes. His 14.168 average finish is solid, and he has run the most laps in the top-15 (3,233 laps or 65.3 percent) of anyone racing Sunday. Plus, he has five top-10 finishes in the last seven races.
Chase-ing It
Chase Elliott picked up the eighth runner-up finish of his young three-year Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career at Richmond Raceway over the weekend. And while the near-miss – again – may have stung a bit, he does have legitimate momentum when he arrives in Talladega this weekend.
The 22-year old has two top-three finishes and the Richmond result was his best of the season – equaling the best of his career. Talladega Superspeedway may be a challenging place to expect a win, but Elliott – from nearby Dawsonville, Georgia – has proven to be exceptional on restrictor-plate tracks like Talladega. He’s done everything but win.
He’s won the pole twice for the Daytona 500 and started among the top-four in four of his five starts at Daytona International Speedway – the sport’s other “big” track. His 14th-place finish in the 2017 Daytona 500 is his best showing – and that came after he ran out of gas while leading late in the race.
Elliott also has great qualifying statistics at Talladega, including a pole position in his rookie season (2016) and three other top-eight starts. He finished fifth in his series track debut at the superspeedway in 2016 and has led 61 laps but crashed out of the past two races there.
His average running position statistic (10.122) and driver rating (93.4) are a series-best. He’s led 99 laps combined at Daytona and Talladega – pacing the field three of the four races he’s competed in at Talladega and four of the five he’s run at Daytona.
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