 |  | | Tony Stewart has the best average finish at Talladega among full-time drivers. Credit: Autostock |
By Josh Pate, NASCAR.COM
October 5, 2006
09:39 AM EDT (13:39 GMT)
Fumes weren't the plan last week, but Tony Stewart will take it. He'll take a victory any way he can get it. Especially at Talladega. After coasting to the checkered flag last week at Kansas, Stewart heads to the 2.66-mile Alabama superspeedway chasing his own trophy as the 11th-place finisher. He's 270 points ahead of Greg Biffle for the million-dollar prize. Stewart has 15 starts at Talladega and has collected 10 top-10 finishes, eight of which were top-fives. His average finish is 11.3, the best among full-time drivers. But it doesn't stop there. Stewart has nine top-10 finishes in his last 10 restrictor-plate races. Six of his last seven have been top-fives. He's had two wins at Daytona, and for the past three Talladega races he's been spying another wall to climb. What you didn't know
|
2 -- Position Tony Stewart finished in the past three Talladega races. Stewart has been runner-up six times at the superspeedway. He has led 137 laps at the track, the most among full-time drivers who have not won. |
|
Driver Rating: UAW-Ford 500
|
107.1 -- Jamie McMurray, No. 26 Roush Racing Ford. McMurray has recently had two fifth-place finishes sandwiched around a 12th. He's led 56 laps the past three races at the track, and he has run inside the top 15 for 500 of the 572 laps in that span. |
|
NASCAR's driver rating combines the following categories: wins, finishes, top-15s, average lead-lap running position, average speed under green, fastest lap, led most laps and lead-lap finish. Statistics based on current and past year at track. Maximum rating: 150 points. Numerology Sunday's UAW-Ford 500 (1:30 p.m. ET, NBC) will be the 75th race at Talladega Superspeedway. Twenty-six drivers have won restrictor-plate races. Jeff Gordon's 10 victories are the most among active drivers and one shy of the all-time leader Dale Earnhardt with 11.
|
2 -- Drivers with an average running position inside the top 10 in the last three Talladega races: Matt Kenseth (8.133) and Jamie McMurray (8.309). Kenseth has an average finish of 16.4, while McMurray's average finish is 14.6. |
|
3 -- Full-time drivers with more than one start at Talladega without a DNF: Kevin Harvick (11), Jamie McMurray (eight) and J.J. Yeley (two). |
|
3 -- Drivers who have competed in all 75 restrictor-plate races since 1988: Mark Martin, Ken Schrader and Michael Waltrip. |
|
5 -- Laps led by the past two Talladega winners. Dale Jarrett led two laps in his victory last October, while Jimmie Johnson led three there in May. |
|
5.7 -- Average finish of Jeff Burton in the three Chase races this year. His average finish at Talladega is 17.6. He was fourth in May. |
|
6 -- Finishes of 25th or worse for Mark Martin in the past nine Talladega races. He finished sixth and 15th in the 2004 races, but has since finished 33rd, 41st and 35th. |
|
6 -- Times a driver has swept both races at Talladega in a season: Pete Hamilton (1970), Buddy Baker (1975), Darrell Waltrip (1982), Dale Earnhardt (1990 and 1999) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2002). |
|
6.93 -- Average starting position for Talladega winners. The last 12 races have been won from the 20th starting spot or better, as just four races have ever been won from worse than 20th. Fifty-four of 74 races have been won from a starting position inside the top 10. |
|
7.73 -- Average starting position for winners in the 75 restrictor-plate races. |
|
9 -- Former Talladega winners who will be in the field for Sunday's race, led by five-time winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
|
11 -- Car that has been the all-around fastest at Talladega the past three races. With Denny Hamlin, it was the fastest early in a run (190.938 mph) and late in a run (190.347 mph), and was second-fastest on the backstretch (191.052 mph) and during restarts (183.493 mph). With former driver Jason Leffler, it was fastest on the frontstretch (190.755 mph). |
|
12 -- Worst starting position for Elliott Sadler in the past seven Talladega races. Sadler has three poles, including the last two. He only has two top-10 finishes. |
|
14 -- Victories by Chevrolet in the last 15 Talladega races. Chevys won 13 in a row between Dale Jarrett victories in 1998 and 2005. Chevrolets have also won 20 of the last 23 restrictor-plate races. |
|
12.5 -- Average finish of Jimmie Johnson at the remaining seven tracks in the Chase, the best among the top-10 drivers. Johnson won at Talladega in the spring. |
|
35.1 -- Percent of laps Jeff Gordon has led during the past three Talladega races. Tony Stewart is the closest with 13.6 percent. |
|
35.12 -- Percent of passes made on the frontstretch in the past three Talladega races, the most popular place to pass. Just 41.38 percent of passes were made in any of the turns. |
|
35.3 -- Average finish of Kyle Busch in his three Talladega starts. He crashed his first time there and blew an engine his second trip. In May, he finished 32nd, 38 laps down. |
|
53 -- Races at Talladega since the surface was last repaved. Sunday's race will be the first on the newly paved asphalt. The 2.66-mile track was last resurfaced in 1979. |
|
190.789 -- Average green-flag speed of Reed Sorenson at Talladega, the fastest average among all drivers in the last three races there. His only start at the superspeedway came in May, when he came from 41st to finish 26th. |
|
702 -- Laps led by Jeff Gordon at Talladega, more than any other full-time driver. Gordon has four victories there but finished 37th and 15th in the past two races. |
|
1,148 -- Passes Jeff Burton has made at Talladega in the last three races, more than any other driver. His average start in that span is 17.0, while his average finish is 16.3. |
|
• Matt Kenseth is expected to make his 250th Nextel Cup start
• Scott Riggs is expected to make his 100th Nextel Cup start Heading to the fourth stop in the 2006 Chase, just 96 points separate the first five drivers in the standings. It's the closest the top five have been after three Chase races in either of the previous two years. In both editions of the playoff, the points leader leaving Talladega went on to win the championship. Chaser wins: 12
Chaser top-fives: 37
Chaser top-10s: 66
Chaser average finish: 19.6
| Chase Watch |
| Talladega statistics for Chase drivers |
| Rank |
Driver |
Wins |
Top-5s |
Top-10s |
Avg. Finish |
| 1. |
Jeff Burton |
0 |
2 |
10 |
17.6 |
| 2. |
Denny Hamlin |
0 |
0 |
0 |
22.0 |
| 3. |
Mark Martin |
2 |
10 |
21 |
15.7 |
| 4. |
Matt Kenseth |
0 |
2 |
5 |
16.4 |
| 5. |
Kevin Harvick |
0 |
3 |
5 |
14.4 |
| 6. |
Jeff Gordon |
4 |
11 |
14 |
15.1 |
| 7. |
Dale Earnhardt Jr. |
5 |
7 |
8 |
12.2 |
| 8. |
Jimmie Johnson |
1 |
2 |
3 |
20.7 |
| 9. |
Kyle Busch |
0 |
0 |
0 |
35.3 |
| 10. |
Kasey Kahne |
0 |
0 |
0 |
26.6 |
|
|
| |
All External sites will open in a new browser window. NASCAR.COM does not endorse external sites.
© 2008 NASCAR | Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
NASCAR.COM is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network
