At the season’s quarter mark, Harvick has half as many top-five finishes (seven) as he did in his championship campaign last year (14). All signs point to him matching that figure by the halfway point.
Hendrick Motorsports
RELATED: Harvick’s post-race thoughts
Johnson is on pace for the worst average starting position of his career (17.3). Considering he has two wins and sports a better average finish (12.0) than last year (15.3), if the 48 team can get better on Fridays, watch out.
Team Penske
The defending winner of the spring Richmond race, Logano couldn’t capitalize on his pole position with a victory. A top-five finish — his fifth — with 94 laps led ain’t too shabby, though.
RELATED: Logano’s post-race thoughts
Gordon is enjoying a six-race top-10 finish streak, but it could be in danger this weekend at Talladega. Despite having six wins at the superspeedway, the Hendrick Motorsports driver hasn’t finished in the top 10 there since 2012 and suffered finishes of 39th and 26th last year.
For the second week in a row, Keselowski is the most recent winner at a track. Richmond didn’t go so well for the No. 2, however, as it lost a cylinder and wound up 17th.
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It was only a matter of time. We knew that. The 41 has routinely been one of — if not THE — fastest cars out there each weekend so it’s no surprise to see it wind up in Victory Lane.
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Hendrick Motorsports
Three drivers have eight 2015 top-10 finishes: Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and, you guessed it, Martin Truex Jr. No other driver has more than six.
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Joe Gibbs Racing
Take it for what it’s worth, but Matt Kenseth has run the most laps of anyone this season at 3,060, finishing on the lead lap a series-best eight times.
Richard Childress Racing is known for its superspeedway program, and it has paid off for Newman in his first two races at ‘Dega with the organization. With an average career finish of 20.9, the No. 31 driver averaged a finish of 11.5 last year.
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Kurt Busch may have had the fastest car at Richmond, but Kahne had the most impressive race. After a bizarre starting position of 40th, Kahne picked up the most spots to finish sixth and stands sixth in points.
A 14th-place finish could’ve been a lot worse for Earnhardt after a run-in with Tony Stewart sent the SHR driver’s No. 14 car reeling. Junior rebounded, but still fell two spots in the standings.
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Stewart-Haas Racing
Hamlin punched his ticket to the Chase at this Talladega race last year. Coming off a disappointing run at Richmond, it’ll be interesting to see how he races at the Alabama track, given that his 2015 Chase spot is all but locked up already.
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Stewart-Haas Racing
McMurray’s winless streak continues, but a fourth-place finish does a lot for a team looking to hang around in the points picture. Still, the series moves to the site of his last points win, so that 49-race drought could end Sunday.
Edwards never seemed to take advantage of Roush Fenway Racing’s strong restrictor-plate program in his decade with the organization — zero wins in 21 Talladega starts — but it’ll be interesting to see how that could change with his new Joe Gibbs Racing outfit.