Talladega Superspeedway Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Despite sustaining damage in an early wreck, and despite leading only one lap in Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, Brad Keselowski nailed down an opportunistic overtime victory in the 10th event of the NASCAR Cup Series season. Surging to the front on the final lap, after fellow Ford driver Matt DiBenedetto abandoned the bottom lane and gave Keselowski a clear run to the front, Keselowski claimed his first victory of the season, the 35th of his career and his sixth at Talladega, tyingRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor When the NASCAR Cup Series goes superspeedway racing at Talladega, it’s not a matter of if someone is going to get turned and sent for a ride, it’s just a matter of when. In the closing laps of the first stage of Sunday’s GEICO 500, the inevitable crash broke out, with Joey Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford getting the worst of it with an airborne tumble in Turn 3. Running in third place behind leader Matt DiBenedetto and teammate Ryan Blaney, Logano was biding hisRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service A thunderstorm pelted Talladega Superspeedway at just the right time for Jeb Burton. After a seven-car wreck on the backstretch, Burton held the lead under caution when the rain intensified. After NASCAR brought the Xfinity Series cars to pit road, the clouds opened and made a first-time winner of the driver of the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet. Burton’s win in Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300 was the third straight at Talladega for Kaulig Racing, which swept last year’s two events with driver Justin Haley. “Unbelievable,Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After a three-race stretch of short tracks, the second quarter of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series schedule begins with a visit to Talladega Superspeedway for Sunday’s running of the GEICO 500. The first nine races of the season have embodied unpredictability, with eight different winners in the first quarter of the season. That trend is likely to continue this weekend as superspeedway racing, especially at Talladega, is all about unpredictability. Since opening its doors in 1969, the 2.66-mile track just off Interstate 20 in Eastern AlabamaRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor As the Beatles’ song goes, “I get by with a little help from my friends.” If there was one line from a song that illustrated the final laps of the 1991 Winston 500 at Talladega, it would be that one after a controversial push from teammate Rick Mast helped ensure teammate Harry Gant had enough fuel to make it to the finish and claim the victory. As the second half of the 188-lap race played itself out, fuel mileage would be the name of the gameRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Last year’s Xfinity Series Rookie of the Year Harrison Burton will make his NASCAR Cup Series debut at Talladega Superspeedway next Sunday. He’ll be piloting the No. 96 DEX Imaging, Inc. Toyota Camry for Gaunt Brothers Racing. The 20-year-old broke the news to NASCAR Race Hub on FS1 Thursday, saying the deal had just came together. Already he has visited the race shop and interacted with the No. 96 team, who are running a partial schedule this season. The game plan is slowly being built onRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service For the second time in as many seasons, Denny Hamlin broke Matt DiBenedetto’s heart, before NASCAR removed the pathos from the situation with a post-race ruling. At the end of a third overtime at Talladega Superspeedway, Hamlin beat DiBenedetto to the finish line to win by .023 seconds—roughly two feet—in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race at the 2.66-mile track. But NASCAR erased the close call by penalizing DiBenedetto for forcing William Byron below the yellow line separating the racing surface fromRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor One wild card race down, one to go. A crazy afternoon at Talladega, as expected, wreaked havoc on the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff field, putting a number of championship contenders in dire straits with just one race remaining before the postseason field is cut from 12 drivers to eight. Heading into the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, only Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin are truly safe having already clinched their spots in the next round. Busch automatically advanced with his win at Las Vegas, while Hamlin punchedRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Let me make this clear about Sunday’s Yellawood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, I’m not holding back. Denny Hamlin wins a long and controversial 200-lap, three-overtime saga by just 0.023 seconds over Matt DiBenedetto and like last August at Bristol, the racing crowd jeered the now 44-time NASCAR Cup Series winner at the expense of Matt D coming up short of a maiden win. Gutted for DiBenedetto, but that’s just the way life is sometimes. Stuff isn’t meant to be and will have to wait another weekRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The final two races that make up the second round of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs will be a gauntlet for the drivers still in championship contention with races at Talladega and the Charlotte Roval set to wreak havoc on the Playoff field. Sunday’s Yellawood 500 at Talladega is the first wild card race that will have to be dealt with, as the unpredictable nature of superspeedway racing will likely throw a wrench into even the best laid plans and leave some of the Playoff driversRead More