Saturday Talladega Superspeedway Notebook

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Front Row Motorsports is living up to its name.

Zane Smith, piloting the No. 38 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for the team, rocketed around the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday morning to capture the pole for Sunday’s running of the Jack Link’s 500.

Smith, who returned to the team this season, laid down a lap of 52.565 seconds, 182.174 mph, to capture the first pole of his Cup Series career.

“We obviously had a lot of speed in the TitleMax Ford,” said Smith. “It wasn’t a whole lot of my doing, but just off of pit road making sure I hit my lights. I know my up to speed laps were pretty good, so that’s the main thing we focus on and just trying to be as smooth as possible.

“I’m just really proud of how our whole team has really been working together before our one week break, and I felt like that one week break was perfect for us to not really reset but digest and think about what we need to build on.

“We’re off to a great start for this next long stretch, so I’m proud of the speed and everything we’ve been doing. We just need to execute a little bit better, but I have a ton of speed this weekend. It’s a long race tomorrow and a lot of things are gonna happen and go on, but obviously we’ve got the speed to do it. We’ll see how it goes.”

Kyle Busch joins Smith on the front row as he aims to break a winless streak dating back to June of 2023 at Gateway. Busch also won the spring race at Talladega that season.

Joey Logano and Ryan Preece will start third and fourth, followed by Austin Dillon, Chris Buescher, Austin Cindric, Josh Berry, Ryan Blaney, and Ty Gibbs to round out the top-10 starters.

Drivers Concur Fuel Mileage Racing Here to Stay on Superspeedways

Sometimes, it’s hard to put the Genie back in the bottle.

That is even more evident in the Next Gen era of superspeedway racing, in which fuel mileage racing and the aerodynamic properties of the car that has been in place since the start of the 2022 season, have changed the way drivers race at tracks like Talladega and Daytona. For better or worse.

Of the active drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series on superspeedways, Denny Hamlin could be considered one of the best, but in the Next Gen era, he has had to learn a completely new skill set to try and regain the advantage he once had on these types of tracks.

“Listen, I used to love superspeedway racing, but it’s just, I have my shoelaces tied together right now,” Hamlin said.

“You can’t run, you can’t, you know, go all out. Like you want to, you can’t use skill sets that you grew up watching and learning. So, it’s just it’s just a product of what we got and now you’ve gotta adapt to what makes this car go, what makes a successful superspeedway [race].

“And I feel like I’ve gotten better in NextGen over time learning to just be more patient, just staying in line, things like that. And it obviously put us in a great spot to win the 500, but, you know, am I looking forward to tomorrow? I’m always looking forward to an opportunity to win and I feel like I have as good a shot as anyone.”

Hamlin added that in this generation of racing on superspeedways, luck plays as big a role as ever in determining who will come out on top when the checkered flag falls, and he doesn’t see that changing anytime soon.

“It’s more now certainly than it’s ever been in history,” Hamlin said. “But, you know, it’s always had a role. It’s just those numbers have grown, you know, from, I don’t know, 20% back in Dale Junior’s day to 30, 35% back in 10 years ago, 15 years ago. And now the numbers probably pretty high.”

Michael McDowell, who has been in position to win at both Talladega and Daytona, both with his old team at Front Row Motorsports and now with Spire Motorsports, explained that it would be hard for teams to unlearn what they have about fuel mileage racing on superspeedways and doesn’t foresee that aspect going away anytime soon.

“I think that the fuel mileage is here to stay. I mean, it is. There’s just no way around it,” said McDowell.

“You can look at it a lot of different ways. But the fact of the matter is that if you can shorten up your pit stop, it’s going to gain you track position later. I mean, it just is. So, it’s going to be a part of what we do. It always just depends on where those cautions fall.

“But you still go into it with the mindset of, I want track position. I want to be in control of the race. But I don’t want to use more fuel than everybody else. And so it’s this constant battle of, are you using too much or if you’re not.”

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., who won at Talladega last fall, concurred about the advent of fuel mileage racing being a part of superspeedway races now and into the future. Now it’s just part of the game.

“Yeah, because tires don’t mean anything, for the most part, especially here at Talladega,” Stenhouse said. “The only thing that matters is how much fuel you have in your car.

“So, I guess, no matter what, if you shorten the Stages and you can make it all the way on fuel, you are still trying to save so that your stop between the Stages is shorter.  Because you can put four tires on it faster than you can fill it full of fuel.  So, no matter what, people are still going to save fuel and try and make it through your pit stops as fast as possible.

“Yeah, I don’t see a way that you can drastically change it to not ride around and save fuel.  I haven’t really thought about it either, I just play the game that we have.”

Preece Hopes ‘Law of Averages’ Turns His Direction at Talladega

Recently at superspeedways, Ryan Preece has been auditioning as a pilot more than a race car driver with two harrowing airborne crashes in this year’s Daytona 500 and in the August 2023 race at the same track.

As the Cup Series heads to Talladega this weekend, he is hoping that his car stays grounded this time around.

“Jamie McMurray put it really well in yesterday’s qualifying broadcast for Xfinity, the Law of Averages. We’ve wrecked, I think three in a row and haven’t had the best finishes, I think in five or six super speedways or maybe even eight. So eventually it’s gonna turn around,” Preece said.

He added that he is confident that NASCAR is working on a fix that will help keep the cars from getting airborne, but for now it’s really a wait and see approach to see if and when that will come to fruition.

“I think that we’re certainly trying,” Preece said. “We’ve all been in those meetings where they’ve asked us or kind of told us what they’re working on. So, my hope as a driver is that it’s effective and that it’s gonna work. So, that’s all you can really do. I know I’ve got a couple more airborne attempts than a few other guys, so I hope that I’m done for a little while.”

Preece continued, noting that even with the prevalence of the crashes he has found himself in at these types of tracks, it hasn’t shifted his mindset when Daytona or Talladega come around on the schedule.

In fact, he views these races as opportunities, not only for himself, but also all of RFK to be able to turn their season around before getting into the summer stretch and the grind toward the Playoffs.

“It doesn’t change anything. I mean, we’re crazy enough as it is, right? I think, for me, you know, we come to Talladega, we go to Daytona, it’s an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to go win. And I feel like we’ve been in position to have great days at superspeedways,” Preece said.

“Superspeedways are our strength not only for Brad, but for Chris. And I always feel like I run pretty well at them. So, we have really, really fast Ford Mustangs and that’s all you can do. And I feel like we’ve put a lot of emphasis into this race on all sides. You know, qualifying, the race, the stages, and this is a great opportunity to get some momentum and head in the right direction. I think that’s something we can do.”