Talladega Superspeedway Tag

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Writer CONCORD, N.C. – Winning two out of three plates should make Stenhouse a favorite heading into next weekend’s race at Talladega Superspeedway. However, Stenhouse is not counting on winning and is focusing on points. Taking the finishes of those in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs at the first Charlotte, Kansas, and Talladega races, Stenhouse would move on to the Round of Eight on points alone. However, stats alone still do not guarantee that Stenhouse and his No. 17 SunnyD Ford Fusion team anRead More

It’s that time of the year again. After the 16 driver field for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs was set last weekend at Richmond, the intensity of the season is about to ramp up over the final 10 weeks of the season as we’ll whittle the championship field down to four at Homestead to see which driver will walk away with the title at season’s end. As a refresher, there will be three rounds of eliminations before the Championship Four is set. The Round of 16 will includeRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor With his rookie season in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series headed toward its finale in a couple of months, Ty Dillon’s future just got much brighter as he and Germain Racing announced a multi-year contract extension to keep him behind the wheel of the No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet for the foreseeable future. Along with Dillon and Germain announcing their deal, GEICO, which has sponsored the team since 2008, also announced that they will be a permanent fixture on the livery of Dillon’s car forRead More

By Aaron Bearden, NASCAR Contributor Phew. The last few weeks sure have been fun, haven’t they? Ever since the conclusion of the West Coast Swing – another solid stretch of the schedule – NASCAR has gone on a tour of many tracks that fans and media alike seem to clamor for, often putting on thrilling races in the processes. The past five races have seen all three of the schedule’s short tracks, a superspeedway race and just a single 1.5-miler, which was itself interesting due to the wild-card nature ofRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor The number of crew chiefs suspended from this weekend’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway has now grown to three as Drew Blickensderfer, crew chief for Aric Almirola, was penalized for post-race inspection issues after last Sunday’s race at Talladega. After Almirola finished fourth in the GEICO 500, NASCAR announced that the No. 43 team had failed the post-race rear wheel steer on the Laser Inspection Station, which is the same issue that Brad Keselowski’s team encountered after their top-five finish atRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service TALLADEGA, Ala. – There’s no longer a goose egg in the win column next to Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s name. With a last-lap pass in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Stenhouse collected his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory in his 158th start and delivered the first win for Roush Fenway Racing since Carl Edwards triumphed at Sonoma in June 2014. “This is for all the guys at the shop–we’ve been terrible for a long time,” an exuberant Stenhouse said of the Roush renaissance.Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor A front-row start at Talladega should have led to one of the best finishes of the season or even a win for Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who has won at the storied track six times in his career, right? Well, not so fast. Starting the day on the outside of the front row alongside eventual winner Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Earnhardt was never able to power his way into the lead as he battled handling issues with his No. 88 Chevrolet throughout the day, noting on hisRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor “Talladega: World’s Fastest Junkyard,” quipped FOX Sports announcer Mike Joy after an 18-car crash broke out on the backstretch of the 2.66-mile superspeedway with 19 laps to go in Sunday’s GEICO 500. Couldn’t have summed it up any better. After a relatively quiet race by Talladega standards through the first 170 laps, the inevitable “Big One” was coming and when it came, it certainly was big. Coming off Turn 2, AJ Allmendinger, who was running third, made contact with the second-place driver, Chase Elliott, turningRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After scoring his third NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Talladega on Saturday afternoon, Aric Almirola parlayed the momentum from the day before into Sunday’s GEICO 500 as Almirola tied his best finish of the season with a fourth-place run, matching his finish from the season opening Daytona 500. “I thought I was right where I wanted to be,” said Almirola.  “My car was really good through the middle of the pack and I didn’t want to get shuffled to the bottom.  I was adamant aboutRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Anytime the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series visits the restrictor plate tracks of Talladega and Daytona, Jamie McMurray is always a threat and in Sunday’s GEICO 500, McMurray was once again a threat, but came up just short with a runner-up finish. Even though he didn’t get the win, McMurray’s second place run at Talladega marks his best finish of the season. Starting the day in 23rd, McMurray had his work cut out for him when the green flag flew, but as he has alwaysRead More