Five to Watch: Key story lines for 2020 Talladega playoff race

NASCAR Cup Series drivers are set to take on Talladega Superspeedway in Sunday's YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the second race in the Round of 12 for the playoffs. Talladega has hosted a postseason race since the inception of the playoffs in 2004, with this being the fourth consecutive year for the fifth race in the Cup Series postseason. Brad Keselowski, who leads all active drivers with five Talladega victories, is one of eight Round of 12 playoff drivers who has gone to Victory Lane at the 2.66-mile track. Ford has won nine of the last 10 races with Chase Elliott winning for Chevrolet in the 2019 spring race.

"The superspeedways and the short tracks have been a strong spot for us,” said Keselowski, who is currently fourth in the playoff standings (+16 points). "Thankfully, we have the superspeedway this weekend and a couple short tracks coming up in the next round, so we need to kind of maximize our strengths and minimize our weaknesses, and this weekend is certainly looking like a strength for us. We have high expectations."

TALLADEGA PRESENTS OPPORTUNITY: Billed as a "wild-card" race where anything can happen, Talladega presents itself with opportunity for not only drivers battling in the playoffs, but also the entire field. Three of the four drivers currently below the playoff cutline -- Kyle Busch, Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer -- previously have visited Talladega's Victory Lane. When it comes to superspeedway wins -- Talladega and Daytona International Speedway -- among the Round of 12 Playoff drivers, only Martin Truex Jr. and Alex Bowman, who is currently on the bubble, have yet to win at either track.

"For us and where we're at, we don't have anything to lose," said Busch, who is nine points below the cutoff. "We have to go race. We can't just sit there and ride and protect a cushion like we have been able to do in the past. We're going to be on the outside looking in, so we have to go for broke and do all we can do to get those stage wins and points and try to get a race win to automatically punch your ticket to the next round. We have been good at the superspeedway races so far this year, but none of them have turned out to be great finishes."

HAMLIN 'SUPER' IN 2020: Denny Hamlin is not only having a great season overall, but he's also looking to continue a stellar season on the superspeedways in 2020. Hamlin has yet to finish worse than fourth in the three superspeedway races this year, that included his third career Daytona 500 victory. Hamlin, who will start from the pole, has combined to lead 106 laps in the three races, which ranks first among all drivers.


"Obviously, by starting on the pole, we will be up front for the first portion of the race, and hopefully, I can set the tone, set the line from where I want to run, but it's likely, especially with this package that we have at the superspeedways, where there is a big pocket of air, we are going to get passed," Hamlin said. "We are going to get passed pretty early in the race and hopefully we can make that pass back and keep control of the race. I think that keeping yourself in the top four spots, although not safe, is a safer place to be."

PENSKE POWER: Team Penske drivers have won eight of the last 12 races at Talladega, including five of the last six in the playoffs. Four of Brad Keselowski's five Talladega wins have come with Penske, while Joey Logano has three victories with the team. Ryan Blaney, who was eliminated from the playoffs in the first round, has won the last two Talladega races and is looking to join Buddy Baker and Dale Earnhardt Jr. as winners of three straight at the 2.66-mile track.


"The Penske speedway program has been good for a long time, a handful of years, and that says a lot," Blaney said. "Just being in the right place at the right time at the last two Talladega races and winning them by a combined two feet. You are going to be on the good side of those and the bad side of those, and I have been on both sides of them. It is a testament to fast cars and executing on all sides, not only my sides but my spotter at the end of these races and being very aware of what is around us and making the right moves that pay off."

DIFFERENT APPROACH FOR DILLON: Austin Dillon comes to Talladega with a different approach after a mechanical issue at Las Vegas Motor Speedway dropped him from eighth to 12th in the playoff standings, 32 points below the cutoff. The last time Dillon won at a superspeedway came in the 2018 Daytona 500 on the 20th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt's win in "The Great American Race." This year's Talladega fall race happens to mark the 20th anniversary of Earnhardt's 76th and final Cup Series win.


"For me, from Lap 1, I'm racing and doing what I can to be aggressive and keep track position to show everybody around us that we're there, we have a fast car to work with us, and just kind of prove a point from the beginning of the race on that we're going to be a contender at Talladega," Dillon said. "A little different approach than what we probably would have approached it with a little bit of a points gap -- trying to play out and see how things go in each stage and go from there. But the way we're sitting now, I think we need to win both stages and try to win the race."

FIRST TIME: Over the years, Talladega has produced 11 first-time NASCAR Cup Series winners with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. becoming the most recent in the 2017 spring race. This weekend, Talladega can also continue a superspeedway streak of "firsts" as the last 11 races at Daytona and Talladega have produced a driver scoring their first win of the season. William Byron extended that streak with his first career win in the regular-season finale at Daytona. Among the drivers with multiple top 10s at Daytona and Talladega this year, Chris Buescher is looking for his first win since 2016 and Brendan Gaughan is seeking a breakthrough win in the final Cup Series start of his career. A win by a non-playoff driver would take away an automatic Round of 8 berth from a title contender.


"We’ve had a great season so far," said Gaughan, who has a 12.0 average finish in his three superspeedway starts this year with Beard Motorsports. "We've had a good run and see if we can't go out on a high note."