Geico 500 Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Erik Jones will not be racing in this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Dover, following his hard crash at Talladega last Sunday. Corey Heim will take up the relief driver role in the No. 43 Toyota, Legacy Motor Club said in a statement Tuesday. Jones was involved in a four-car pileup at the 2.66-mile superspeedway on lap 157, in which his car was sent head-on into the outside SAFER barrier in Turn 3. Though Jones was able to climb from his car under his ownRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – Like a Michael Jordan drive to the basket, Tyler Reddick channeled his 23XI Racing co-owner on the final lap at Talladega, weaving his way through the chaos to get to the finish line first and score the win in Sunday’s GEICO 500. Heading into the final lap, it was shaping up to be a battle of the Fords and Toyotas, with pole-sitter Michael McDowell and six-time Talladega winner Brad Keselowski leading the Blue Ovals on the bottom lane, with Reddick leading what wasRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – Michael McDowell has been a force to be reckoned with in qualifying on superspeedways this season and he was back at it again at Talladega, banking his second pole position of the season. With a lap of 52.609 seconds, 182.022 mph, McDowell put his No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford on the front row for the third time on a superspeedway in 2024. For teams like Front Row and drivers like McDowell, Talladega is one race that they circle as an opportunity andRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – To fuel save or not to fuel save, that is the question. Coming out of the Daytona 500, one of the major talking points was the rising prevalence of fuel saving at superspeedways and the effect it is having on the racing at those types of tracks. It appears more of the same will be true when the green flag drops on Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega. The overwhelming consensus from the driving corps will be that fuel saving will be the dominantRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. — From deep in the heart of Texas to Sweet Home Alabama. Following last weekend’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, the NASCAR Cup Series is on to the biggest and baddest track on the circuit – the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway for Sunday’s running of the GEICO 500. Since opening its doors in 1969, the track just off Interstate 20 in Eastern Alabama has been a wild card on the schedule with the unpredictable nature of superspeedway racing on full display over the past half-century,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – Kyle Busch found himself in the right place at the right time Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, scoring his second win of the season after a crash in overtime brought the GEICO 500 to an early end. The driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was running third in double overtime when Bubba Wallace and Ryan Blaney, who were running first and second, made contact, sending Wallace spinning and allowing Busch to ascend to the lead. As Wallace’s Toyota spun back throughRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – It appears the days of just riding around at superspeedways and biding your time until the end of the race are over. In the Next Gen era, track position has become even more important at the majority of the tracks on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, especially on superspeedways, where it now takes an aggressive, concerted team-based effort to move forward in the pack instead of a driver being able to take the race into his own hands and power to the frontRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – Denny Hamlin will have the best seat in the house when the green flag waves on Sunday’s Geico 500 at Talladega after scoring the pole. The two-time winner at the 2.66-mile superspeedway propelled his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to the top of the scoring pylon with a lap of 52.979 seconds, 180.751 mph to capture the first superspeedway pole of his NASCAR Cup Series career. “This was the first one for sure. I was well aware this was my first speedwayRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. — From the smallest track on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule to the largest. Following last weekend’s race on the flat half-mile of Martinsville, it’s on to the biggest and baddest track on the circuit – the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway and Sunday’s running of the GEICO 500. Since opening its doors in 1969, the track just off Interstate 20 in Eastern Alabama has been a wild card on the schedule with the unpredictable nature of superspeedway racing on full display over the past half-century,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor TALLADEGA, Ala. – For the second day in a row, it was déjà vu for the No. 3 car. After Jeffrey Earnhardt piloted a Richard Childress Racing No. 3 Chevrolet to second-place in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race, Austin Dillon was dealt the same outcome when he climbed behind the wheel of his RCR No. 3 car in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega. Coming down to the checkered flag, Dillon appeared to be well on his way to a top-10 result, running fourth on the bottomRead More