Busch, Stewart chasing points, checkers at 'Dega

Talladega Superspeedway is at once the great equalizer and the great unknown -- a restrictor-plate track that can make or break a driver's afternoon in the blink of an eye.

• Purchase tickets
• Book your travel

Dale Earnhardt was the master of the draft at 'Dega, winning 10 times in 44 races (23 percent). And proving the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Dale Jr. is on pace to eclipse his dad's record -- five wins in 18 starts (28 percent). However, Junior is winless in the past eight races at the 2.66-mile track and has not won at Talladega since Oct. 3, 2004.

Feast or famine seems to be the rule of thumb, at least for the Earnhardts. Examining their Talladega records, you can hum Ray Stevens' The Streak as background music:

Earnhardt
• 0-for-9, won two of three, 0-for-10, won five of nine, 0-for-9, won three of final four starts -- including his last Cup Series victory on Oct. 15, 2000.

Earnhardt Jr.
• 0-for-3, won five of seven -- including four in a row between Oct. 21, 2001, and Oct. 3, 2004 with second-place finishes in the other two races -- and now currently on an 0-for-8 skid.

Jeff Gordon, Earnhardt Jr. and Mark Martin, who have combined for 13 victories -- are the only full-time drivers with multiple wins at Talladega. Moreover, only six other drivers in the field have victories at the track.

But while Junior continues to struggle -- only two top-10 finishes in eight starts this year -- the on-track spotlight should be kept on Kurt Busch and Stewart, who are separated by six points in the standings. Among full-time drivers, they have the best average finish at Talladega. (Video: Preview Show)

"I'm always excited about Talladega," Stewart said. "We've always run really well there. We've got a great history there. We won the Nationwide Series race last year in the spring, and then we won the Sprint Cup race in the fall, so it was a pretty cool year for us.

"Daytona is a handling track and Talladega is a speed track. Nobody has a bad-handling car at Talladega," he added. "They all drive well, whereas at Daytona, 90 percent of the battle is getting your car to handle well. It's more of a chess match at Talladega, and that's because the place was repaved just a couple of years ago. It's such a smooth track. Daytona is old. It's got bumps in it and the surface is worn out and it takes grip away, and that's why the mechanical setup of the car is so much more important.

"At Talladega, because it's so smooth with such a fresh surface, it's got a lot of grip to begin with. Bumps are what normally take grip away. As soon as you start having to work on your suspension, that's when you give up grip. With Talladega being so smooth, it doesn't matter. You can go anywhere you want to go and you have grip."

That fall victory in the Cup Series race came with a bit of controversy; Stewart actually crossed the finish line second, behind Regan Smith, who contended that he was forced below the yellow line before he passed Stewart coming to the stripe.

"I've lost Daytona 500s and I've lost races at Talladega because somebody blocked," Stewart said. "That's the name of the game. Last year's race wasn't any different than the last 19 races I'd run there. There's always been people blocking. The nice thing is that, for once, I was actually on the right end of it.

"Trust me, I have no regrets about what I did. I did exactly what I needed to do to win the race, and it worked out."

• NASCAR disallows Smith's pass

Busch's average finish of 12.5 is the best among the drivers in this weekend's race -- but he's never won a plate race. He's 0-for-16 at Talladega and 0-for-17 at Daytona. And he has a couple of theories regarding the new race car versus the old model in regards to racing on restrictor-plate tracks.

"One of the biggest differences centers around the rear wing [on the new cars] versus the rear spoilers [on the old cars]," Busch said. "With the old cars, you had much more of a side draft and it affected the car running by you. With these new cars, the side draft doesn't slow the other guy down.

"The other big aspect involves the bump-drafting. With these new cars, it's easier to bump-draft and you can do it so much harder than before. I don't think NASCAR realized that fact entirely when the car was on the drawing board. With the old car, it became a situation that policed itself. If you bump-drafted too hard, you bent stuff and made your car overheat. That's not the case with these cars. You can go at it as hard as you want without that worry. And the bump-drafting factor is different at Talladega than it is at Daytona. It's really made Talladega easier and Daytona harder. You can bump-draft at Talladega all you want and not pay a penalty [in the car's performance] because the track is so wide and it's all about speed. At Daytona, it's made it even more of a handling track. You can't do the bump-drafting there so much like at Talladega because there is such a big premium on the handling of your car."

That said, crew chief Pat Tryson likes his driver's chances on Sunday. "Without a doubt, Kurt is the best-ever restrictor-plate racer yet to win one of these things," Tryson said. "I don't think there's anybody in the garage that would argue about that. Given an equal playing field, I'd put him up against anybody out there. Even if you come in with a slight disadvantage, Kurt is so good in these races that his talent can make up for a lot of what might be lacking elsewhere.

"It's worth the price of a radio or scanner just to listen in and watch him do his magic. With about 10 laps to go in the race, he'll come on the radio and ask me to start counting down the laps. What he does with our car is incredible."

Stewart hopes his recent string of good fortunes continues at Talladega. In his first season as owner-driver, Stewart is fourth in points -- behind Gordon, Johnson and Kurt Busch -- and he has six top-10 finishes, including a current three-race streak.

"The last three weeks have just been amazing. I mean, it's been so much fun," he said. "We've been in contention. We've led laps. We're doing everything right. It's just a matter of time. We're consistent now, and that's what you've got to be in order to be successful.

"It's been refreshing. When you've never had a start like this to the season, after 10 years of this, it's nice to finally have one. It's amazing to think that with a new team we can go out and have this kind of a start to the year."