Talladega all about finding right dance partner

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Happy Hour at Talladega Superspeedway is unlike nearly any other practice session on the Sprint Cup circuit. Because the past three winners of the fall race here started outside of the top 20, setting up a car for one fast qualifying lap is secondary to getting your car to handle in a multi-car draft.

And based on the past few visits to the 2.66-mile oval -- particularly with a spoiler and restrictor-plate package that resulted in 88 lead changes and 29 leaders in April -- drivers were much more fascinated Friday with how their cars might react to a two-car breakaway.

Carl Edwards had a front-row seat in 2009 when he and Brad Keselowski teamed up to blow by a line of cars, resulting in one of the wildest finishes in Talladega history when Edwards' car flipped into the catchfence. And in April, it was Kevin Harvick making a slingshot move on Jamie McMurray at the stripe after those two used a two-car draft to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the field.

"If you look at the last laps of the last couple of these races, it's been two cars breaking away -- two cars over here and two cars over there -- kind of separating themselves," Edwards said. "If there are a couple groups of those two-car things going on during that last lap, it could be a pretty amazing race.

"But everybody realizes that's the deal now, so that's what everybody is gonna be looking for, I think. They're gonna be looking for somebody's bumper to push on hard for the last lap."

Certainly that was the case in Friday's final 60-minute session, as drivers teamed up for duets to see how their cars would handle, and if they could make appreciable gains in speed. It worked for Gibbs teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch at the end of the first practice, when they turned a final lap over 201 mph.

Happy Hour speeds were slightly slower, with six cars over 197 mph. Mark Martin led the final practice with a fastest lap of 197.814 mph. The top five included Jeff Burton, Kurt Busch, Hamlin and David Reutimann. Only 38 cars went back on the track, as Chase contenders Jimmie Johnson and Harvick opted to avoid getting caught up in an accident that might force them to a backup.

For Busch, it's all about finding the right dance partner when the final tune gets played. And practice is about getting your car prepared for 500 miles of close-quarters racing.

"You're just trying to make sure there's no rubs, your splitter height is right," Busch said. "You're getting the [spring] travels. You're making sure your car is set to its optimums that you look for every time you come to Daytona or Talladega.

"And then once you get out there in the race, you pick who you can run well around. Does my car draft well with [Denny Hamlin] or doesn't it? If it doesn't, I'm probably not a guy that he's going to want to come find at the end of the race. I'll try to find the other guys that I tend to run well and see what happens."

But even though a two-car breakaway was the trend du jour six months ago, some drivers aren't sold on the idea that it'll work as well this time around.

"I think everybody has learned from that and everybody is going to be trying to do that," Clint Bowyer said. "And the more people that are able to do that, it's going to probably make it not as important and stand out as much as it did in the spring.

"... Everybody watched that happen in the spring and was successful, so you'd be a fool not to try that and experience that and see what you can get away with. But again, the right scenario has to happen again and at a place like this, history doesn't repeat itself."

And, according to Burton, that scenario doesn't always include teammates.

"Some of it is timing," Burton said. "Some of it is you catch a guy at the right time. If you are third in line and your teammate is behind you, he can push you all you want. You aren't going any faster than the guy that is in front of you.

"You have to be in a position where you can have a breakaway and that is very difficult to fabricate. That is something that kind of happens on its own. If you are leading the race, I think you can fabricate that pretty well. If you are the first two cars in a line, you tend to make that thing happen. but if you're not in the front of the pack, it is really hard to put all that stuff together to be able to take advantage of it."

That was certainly the case for Bowyer in April. When it's all about being in the right place at the right time, Harvick was and he wasn't.

"Kevin and I were back there riding around and we each had a lap where we thought we could get to the front," Bowyer said. "His was 50 [laps to go] and mine was 30 and I just waited too long. He went up and won the race and I don't even know where I finished.

"But we got up there. We just didn't get up there far enough. I wasn't in position when I wanted to be. So it's just one of those things."

Talladega has been described as a "three-hour chess match at 190 mph." And Busch admits his brain is worn out by the time he climbs from the car.

"Here at Talladega, and I'm sure a lot of drivers have said it, too -- when you're done here, you are mentally exhausted," Busch said. "You literally are. You get to the airplane, if you don't have a headache, you're lucky. And if you can go to sleep and rest your brain for a few hours, then it's not a bad thing."