The NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series continue the playoff action this weekend in Alabama, each continuing their respective Round of 8s at Talladega Superspeedway. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more.
NASCAR odds are unique when the Cup Series visits drafting tracks, like Sunday’s YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC) at Talladega Superspeedway.
Ryan Blaney is the race favorite at +1000 odds, which isn’t exactly a shock, but due to the unpredictability of superspeedway racing, the 10-1 price tag is much longer than where we see favorites priced at most other tracks.
Still, I rarely take favorites at Talladega and typically opt to embrace the potential chaos with low-risk, high-upside sleepers.
However, that’s all changing today as my two NASCAR best bets for Talladega come right from the top of the odds board.
Let’s take a look.
NASCAR Odds, Best Bet Pick for Talladega
*Odds as of Sunday morning
Ryan Blaney (10-1) to Win — BetMGM
Team Penske always brings fast cars to superspeedways, and Blaney has made the most of them at this race track.
The driver of the No. 12 Ford has three career Cup Series wins at Talladega, and since NASCAR debuted the Next Gen car in 2022, you can make an argument Blaney has been the top performer at this track.
Over that span, Blaney has one win, the most top-three finishes (three) and is second in laps led (just behind Joey Logano).
Throw in the fact Blaney won the most recent superspeedway race in August at Daytona, and we have a driver very capable of scoring the win at very enticing 10-1 odds.
Joey Logano (11-1) to Win — BetMGM
Like teammate Blaney, Logano is always a factor at drafting tracks, and the numbers back that up once again this season.
Across five total races at Daytona, Atlanta and Talladega this year, Logano sports the best driver rating (by far), the top average running position, and has led the most laps (also by far).
And similar to Blaney, Logano has three career wins at Talladega, so he certainly knows how to find Victory Lane at this race track.
With both Team Penske drivers needing to run up front and potentially win to keep their championship hopes alive, it wouldn’t surprise me to see other fast Fords do all they can to help push and keep both Blaney and Logano at the front of today’s race.
Does it mean they’re guaranteed to win? Of course not.
However, at 10-1 and 11-1 odds, respectively, I’ll take chances on Blaney and Logano to maneuver their way to the front of the field as the laps wind down at Talladega.
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Justin Allgaier awaited the official word on pit road Saturday afternoon at Talladega Superspeedway, even though he was already beaming with a relatively unscathed top-five result. The bigger-picture good news came moments later with NASCAR’s confirmation: He’d earned enough points to clinch a spot in the final-four field in the Xfinity Series’ Nov. 1 season finale at Phoenix Raceway, where the 39-year-old veteran will defend his championship.
The words of congratulations came from all corners, with JR Motorsports team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. embracing his senior driver, to the No. 7 Chevrolet’s crew sharing in the modest celebration. The last note came from soon departing crew chief Jim Pohlman, who clasped hands with Allgaier and reminded him how easily he’ll breathe, carrying playoff immunity into next Saturday’s Round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway.
It’s an overwhelming luxury at this point in the season, so Pohlman didn’t have to coax Allgaier too hard into making plans to savor Martinsville’s best-known delicacy next weekend.
“I don’t even eat hot dogs, and I’d probably eat a hot dog next week at Martinsville, just because well … it doesn’t really matter,” Allgaier said. “We can go there and have fun.”
Allgaier surged to a third-place finish in Saturday’s United Rentals 250, rallying after a late fuel stop to secure his third straight top-10 result. JRM teammate Carson Kvapil made a similar comeback after also refueling before the two-lap overtime dash, finishing second and reviving his postseason hopes, turning a 22-point deficit into an 11-point advantage above the provisional elimination line.
The overall outcome left three JR Motorsports drivers on the plus side of the Xfinity Series Playoffs bubble, with rookie teammate Connor Zilisch also riding an insurmountable points edge into the Championship 4 grid. The fourth JRM pilot, Sammy Smith, has a chance to make it a clean final-four sweep for the organization after he finished ninth Saturday, leaving him an 11-point gap to close in Martinsville.
Kvapil came closest to clinching with a victory, driving from eighth to second with a head of steam on the final lap. Finishes of ninth and third at the stage breaks helped him offset his points situation, and though a pre-overtime pit stop for gas set him back in the running order, he wound up just 0.105 seconds behind race winner Austin Hill at the checkered flag.
“I’m mixed, right?” Kvapil said. “I mean, I feel like we did our job, and we did what we planned on doing coming into the weekend. We wanted to get stage points and put ourselves in position to try to win the race at the end, but also just trying to have a good finish and trying to stack the points, and I feel like we kind of did our job there.”
Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love is foremost among those keeping JRM from locking all four drivers in. Love started from the pole position and contended all race until the end, when he made the first move to step out of line with two laps remaining in regulation. His pit stop for fuel during the ensuing caution took him out of third place in the order, and he rallied to claim 10th.
He leaves Talladega with a 40-point margin over the elimination barrier, a cushion he’s not sure will be a safety net for Martinsville.
“Yes and no,” Love said. “If we get 15 stage points, then yes. If we don’t, I mean … I didn’t touch a soul there last year, ran a really clean race and then got wrecked. So I don’t know. I’m going to tell my guys to make sure that freaking whatever’s around the radiator is as strong as it can possibly be, because it’s so easy to get even just run in the back up there and pushing the guy in front of you on a restart stack-up, and the second that radiator goes, you’re done. So definitely have to be mindful of that and play it safe next week, start focusing on Phoenix without getting too far ahead of ourselves, but Martinsville is just always gonna be Martinsville.”
Faced with the same prospect of running out of gas when the race lurched into overtime and an eventual six extra laps, Allgaier and Co. make what seemed like an unsavory choice to give up track position and fill up. Pohlman was almost apologetic on the radio after making the call, much as he was three weeks ago in Kansas after a victory bid on an alternative pit strategy didn’t pan out. He promised to play it straight and deliver at Phoenix, but Allgaier absolved him, saying their chance to win Talladega was still up for grabs. That chance nearly came to pass.
“I’m just so proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish,” Allgaier said. “You know, we did what we had to do today, and it wasn’t pretty. Jim was really down on himself for making that call at the end there to pit. But look, if we run out of gas and we don’t finish, we’re not locked in. That’s our own fault. I thought we did a really good job of managing the race today, we did good in the stages and we got our JR Motorsports Chevrolet teammates up way farther (in the standings) — one in and one just outside.”
It’s the second time in this playoff march that Allgaier has clinched advancement with one race remaining in the round. He was also locked in before the Round of 12’s final at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, and now has the privilege again of competing without fretting about playoff implications in what promises to be a bare-knuckle Martinsville event.
The Talladega outcome also allows him extra time to get ready for the season’s ultimate test at Phoenix and the opportunity to become a two-time champion. Until then, he’ll spend that extra time soaking in the scene — and the chili and slaw — at Martinsville.
“Charlotte Motor Speedway was probably one of the most fun races I’ve ever had my entire life, because I knew we were locked in and I was able to go there and really just enjoy the experience, right?” Allgaier said. “You know, these races are so cool, but when you pack all the pressure of the playoffs and you pack on winning races and doing all these things, they become stressful. They become anonymous. And when you can go to the race track and know that, ‘hey, I’ve still got a shot at winning the race, but I can go there, I don’t have to worry about points, I don’t have to worry about anything else, I can just go have fun,’ it almost makes you a little bit more dangerous because you can play the strategy game, you can do things differently than you would any other time. I’m not worried as much about how good our car is for Martinsville. So I can go worry about Phoenix and prep myself for Phoenix and do a better job there for for my team.
“So there’s a lot of positives to it, but I’m definitely gonna eat a hot dog. I haven’t had a hot dog in probably 25 years, 30 years, so that’s saying a lot, too.”
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Once again, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill proved himself the driver to beat on NASCAR’s big drafting-style tracks, the veteran holding off the field on a dramatic overtime restart with two laps remaining at Talladega Superspeedway to earn the victory in Saturday’s United Rentals 250.
Hill’s No. 21 RCR Chevrolet led a race-best 48 of the 100 laps to earn a season sweep at the 2.66-mile speedway, NASCAR’s biggest track. The 31-year-old Georgia native claimed both stage wins and the .105-second victory over JR Motorsports playoff driver Carson Kvapil. The victory now gives him 10 wins at drafting style tracks – having already eclipsed the previous record set by NASCAR Hall of Famers Dale Earnhardt and Tony Stewart, who each had eight victories on that style of track.
Although Hill has been eliminated from contention for the driver’s title, his win Saturday does guarantee his RCR team a car in the 2025 owner’s championship.
“If you have any questions and it’s green-white-checkered, you probably just go to the bottom [of the track] because of how crazy the second and third lane was there at the end,’’ an elated Hill said after climbing down from the hood of his Chevy, where he waved his hands and encouraged the huge crowd’s loud reaction.
“Being able to race for Richard Childress is always special, and to be able to deliver wins like this,’’ Hill continued. “As the playoff started and us getting knocked out the way we did, it stung a lot, but once we knew we were still in it for the owner’s championship, I decided I’d do it just like I would going for a driver’s championship.
“To be able to lock ourselves in and go to Phoenix knowing we’re going for an owner’s championship and be able to try and deliver one to Richard Childress Racing means the world to me.”
Kvapil’s JR Motorsports teammate and fellow playoff driver Justin Allgaier finished third, significant in that it boosted the reigning champion’s points total enough to clinch one of the four Championship-eligible entries for the Nov. 1 season finale at Phoenix.
Another JR Motorsports teammate, rookie Connor Zilisch, had a rough outing Saturday. His No. 88 JRM Chevy finished 23rd, three laps down after being collected in a late-race accident. But the good news for the series 10-race winner and regular season champion was that his outing earned enough points for him to officially claim a Championship 4 bid. While it ended a series record streak of 18 top-five finishes for the young phenom, it was still good enough to allow him a shot at his first NASCAR title.
Additionally, Joe Gibbs Racing driver William Sawalich was also involved in the crash that claimed Zilisch and was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.
The final two championship positions will be decided next week at Martinsville Speedway, although the JR Motorsports team certainly showed the intensity and purpose it’s carrying forward in hopes of deciding the championship completely among themselves.
Sammy Smith, driver of the No. 8 JRM Chevrolet, finished ninth, moving him from last place among the eight playoff drivers entering Saturday’s race to fifth place, only 11 points behind Kvapil, who moved into that all-important fourth-place transfer spot.
Hill’s RCR teammate Jesse Love, who led 19 laps – second only to Hill Saturday – finished 10th after a decision to give up track position to pit for fuel during the caution period leading into the overtime restart. He raced back through the field for that top-10 effort, but had been running top-three behind Hill and Allgaier before topping off for that fuel. He goes to Martinsville third in the standings, a healthy 40 points above the playoff cutoff line.
“Just a bit mundane,’’ Love said of his result, conceding how difficult the call to get fuel was in the closing laps. “Nothing crazy good or bad, but obviously we’ll never know if that was right call to come down and take fuel, but I had to trust my gut and I didn’t know if I was going to make it or not.
“It was honestly kind of close. … It does stink because I think we had as good a car as the 21 (Hill). I think he was a little bit more aggressive than I was, but we did what we needed to do and didn’t beat ourselves today.’’
Overtime was necessitated when Smith – running in the middle lane trying to make a late move for the win – just nudged his No. 8 Chevrolet’s right front bumper from the middle lane into the left rear of Aric Almirola’s Toyota in the outside lane. The result was a five-car accident that eliminated last week’s race winner Almirola and brought out the final two-lap overtime session to decide the trophy.
On the other side of the afternoon, there was almost immediate trouble at the start of the race for a trio of playoff contenders. Both Haas Factory Team cars driven by Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer were eliminated from the race after suffering significant damage in 10-car pileup at Lap 15. They finished 34th (Creed) and 38th (Mayer). JGR’s playoff driver, Brandon Jones, was also involved in the accident to a lesser degree and was able to keep his No. 20 Toyota running, albeit several laps down. He finished 26th.
Jones now sits sixth in the standings, 20 points below the cutoff line heading into Martinsville. Mayer dropped from fourth place to seventh place – 22 points behind Kvapil, the first time he’s fallen below the elimination line this playoff run. Creed is now 41 points below the transfer line in eighth place, needing a clutch victory at Martinsville to continue his championship hopes.
On the upside of Saturday’s Talladega results, Kaulig Racing rookie Christian Eckes finished fourth, his sixth top five of the year. And veteran Caesar Bacarella’s fifth-place run in the No. 5 Alpha Prime Racing Chevy was a career-best effort.
Blaine Perkins, Parker Retzlaff, Leland Honeyman, Smith and Love rounded out the top-10.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series moves to Martinsville Speedway for next Saturday’s all-important IAA and Ritchie Bros. 250 (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Almirola is the defending race winner.
NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage concluded without issue, confirming Hill as the race winner. No cars will return to the NASCAR R&D Center in Concord, North Carolina.
William Sawalich, driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, was released from an Alabama hospital, according to Joe Gibbs Racing.
Sawalich was initially sent from the infield care center to a local medical facility for further evaluation following a crash Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway. The JGR team account posted on social media that he was released around 2 a.m. local time.
Sawalich followed up by posting on social media that he was thankful for the support of the racing community, his team and the doctors, nurses and medical staff at UAB Hospital:
Appreciate all the messages and calls last night. Finally made it back home from Talladega — a little sore, but feeling better and thankful for all the support. Grateful for my team, the racing community, the NASCAR medical staff, nurses and doctors at UAB Hospital, friends and…
At Lap 45 in the Round of 8 playoff race, Leland Honeyman got turned around entering Turn 1, contacting Connor Mosack and Connor Zilisch before Mosack shot up the track and into Sawalich. Dean Thompson and Jeb Burton were also involved.
Sawalich, along with Mosack and Thompson, was unable to continue, and both Mosack and Thompson were evaluated and released from the infield care center.
The 19-year-old Sawalich has three top fives and nine top 10s in his rookie Xfinity Series season. He failed to make the playoffs despite runner-up finishes in the final two regular-season races.
Track: Talladega Superspeedway Location: Talladega, Alabama Track length: 2.66 miles When: Sunday, 2 p.m. ET Where to tune in: NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App Race purse: $9,797,935 Race distance: 188 laps | 500.08 miles Stages: 60 | 120 | 188 Defending winner: Ricky Stenhouse Jr., October 2024 Starting lineup: Michael McDowell on pole at Talladega
Team Penske’s playoff plight is a Talladega squeeze
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Team Penske is in a spot. Or as team driver Ryan Blaney put it earlier in the week, “unjustifiably in a position I’d rather not be in.”
That also applies to teammate Joey Logano, another longtime Penske pilot and also a past NASCAR Cup Series champion. For them both to have an opportunity to add to their title tally, they’ll need to emerge from the postseason cellar in the next two weeks.
The cream may well rise in Sunday’s YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) at Talladega Superspeedway, the site of the middle race in the playoffs’ Round of 8. It’s an ever-fast place that has alternately been a springboard to drivers striving for postseason advancement, but also a potential playoff pitfall where title hopes perish.
Team Penske has had at least one driver in the Championship 4 field in each of the last three seasons, and in each of those years, the organization has hoisted the Bill France Cup — twice with Logano (2022, ’24) and once for Blaney (2023). The team’s knack for performing with the title on the line at Phoenix Raceway is a known quantity, and other teams may turn the last two races of the year into a game of keep-away to avoid having to face them with a championship on the line in the Nov. 2 season finale.
“As we know, the last thing anybody wants to see is a Penske car at Phoenix again,” said Paul Wolfe, crew chief for Logano’s No. 22 Ford.
Right now, both are pinned below the provisional elimination line, and opponents would prefer they stay there. Logano sits 24 points below the bubble, and Blaney — who crashed out of last week’s Round of 8 opener in Las Vegas — is minus-31. On the positive side, they both have a history of success at Talladega. Logano and Blaney have each won here three times, and fellow Team Penske mate Austin Cindric was the victor in the Cup Series’ most recent Talladega trip in April.
The Penske group also has a tendency for clutch performances at the 2.66-mile track, from Logano’s clincher here in 2015 to Blaney’s 2019 Talladega win that rescued him from the bubble’s depths. That history of responding in high-pressure situations may be needed again on Sunday.
“I think it’s confidence more than anything,” Wolfe told NASCAR.com. “For myself and for Joey, with him behind the wheel, he has the confidence that he knows that his team can perform at a high level when there’s a lot on the line. Then, the same thing for me: I know we’re going to get the best out of Joey in this situation as we do any other time in the season.”
Talladega has had a presence in the Cup Series Playoffs each year since the format’s 2004 debut, but Sunday’s 500-miler represents a first with the track’s debut appearance in the Round of 8. The circuit will go from its largest oval to one of its shortest next week at the 0.526-mile Martinsville Speedway, which will host the round’s finale for the sixth consecutive year.
For as fickle as Talladega’s high banks can be and as many underdog first-time winners as they have produced, playoff drivers have sped to Victory Lane in nine of the elimination format’s 11 seasons. Seven of those playoff-eligible winners were at or below the postseason cutline heading into the event. Logano hopes to add his name to that list on both counts.
“I guess like cautiously optimistic, right?” Logano said Saturday before Cup Series qualifying. “Like everyone says that, but I’d say it’s kind of where we’re at. It’s been a good track for us. We’ve led a lot of laps, won a lot of stages, won a few races here. With that said, it’s also gone the complete opposite here, but I’m pretty sure that’s the same for everybody in the field at some point here in Talladega. So as much as I feel confident in what our ability is and what we can do as a team all the way through, I think we’re very ready for the race, but I think from that standpoint in my mind, I feel like we’re the favorites to win this thing. But at the same time, all it takes is one mistake or a mistake on someone else’s part, and all of a sudden, you’re spun around backward. So it happens really quick here, so like I said, cautiously feeling very optimistic.”
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
Talladega races typically lean on two major strategy points — gaining ground by working within the aerodynamic draft and pitting with other cars in sequence to have drafting help after leaving pit road. Both of those depend heavily on manufacturer solidarity, sticking together along team and company lines.
With the stakes higher and Talladega’s autumn race deeper in the playoff schedule, crew chiefs expect that concentration on manufacturer teamwork to be even more intense than in the springtime event.
“I think the manufacturer alliances are stronger in this race because everybody knows the specific eight cars that they’re trying to help,” said Rudy Fugle, crew chief for William Byron’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “Generally, this race has been in the Round of 12, so there were 12 cars, and now it’s an even eight. So it should be harder sometimes to burst that bubble of the cars that have the track position potentially. So I think that could be something to look for. That’ll be tough. Generally, the Fords have been qualifying the best and bursting that bubble. They’re going to be trying to really help the 12 (Blaney) and the 22 (Logano) a lot. So, trying to get in and mix them up, and can do our thing.
“In the first race (in the spring), everybody’s trying to get a win. You know, it’s early in the year, I think it was race seven, everybody’s trying to get a win and get locked in, so it’s kind of every man for himself. Once it comes probably at an earlier point in the stages and the end of the race, here I think there’ll be some more loyalty to the cars that are trying to advance.”
Manufacturers typically meet pre-race to discuss and formulate that plan of action. Pit stops are typically well-coordinated, with each automaker approaching pit road in groups. The reward is a pit-lane departure in a pack and the chance to retain that aerodynamic edge. The risk is the clog and challenge that sometimes occurs when multiple cars try to slow together from 190 mph to a pit-road speed limit of 55 mph on entry.
In recent years, the pivotal last pit stop has been a quick one. The last five Talladega winners have taken fuel-only in their final stops, all of which lasted five seconds or less.
In terms of on-track tactics, drivers who might cut a fellow competitor from another auto group a break may be in shorter supply — especially when it directly impacts the postseason implications.
“We sat down and tried to understand how we really think the race is going to play out,” Wolfe said. “Obviously, this is the first time it’s been in this round, so it may race differently because of that, and we’re expecting there to be a lot more teamwork probably this race than maybe what you may see in the earlier rounds or when we’re not in the playoffs, right? So I think understanding that’s going to be out there, and you’re going to have a lot less guys willing to work with you or help you, I’m assuming, with alliances and where the other manufacturers are. So as far as how we race it, I think still we’re going to try to race up front, score points, as many as we can, and hope we’re around at the end.
“I think just being mindful that you’re probably going to get less help from other manufacturers. Maybe in the past where guys work well together, even if they’re a little different manufacturer, I think you’re going to probably see a lot more alliance amongst the manufacturers. And maybe it’s not only working together, but being mindful of they’re going to race us harder, maybe than what they would typically.”
Rough go for repeats. The last 10 Talladega races in the NASCAR Cup Series have all been won by different drivers. Of that list of 10, only three are currently playoff-eligible — Denny Hamlin (the October 2020 winner who started the 10-race streak of variety), Chase Elliott (Oct. 2022) and Blaney (Oct. 2023).
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. The defending race winner has reason for optimism when the circuit returns to Talladega, where he has notched two of his four career Cup Series wins. Besides his victory here last fall, the 38-year-old veteran has been among the most consistent finishers — his 10.8 average finish position over the last five races here is second only to William Byron’s peerless 4.4. | See Stenhouse’s projected finish
Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
•NASCAR at Talladega: Key info, qualifying reports and more | Read more
• Fantasy Fastlane: Advice for your battle-tested Talladega lineup | Read more
• Bubble Watch: Three JGR drivers on the plus side on playoff picture | Read more • Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh ‘Dega designs ready for 500 miles | View gallery
• ‘Macho Man’ Blaney: Randy Savage references inspire No. 12 driver | Read more
• Talladega’s rightful place: Round of 8 gets a crucial piece | Read more • Remembering Grant Lynch: Former track president leaves lasting legacy | Read more
• At-track photos: Trackside sights, scenes from Talladega | View gallery
• Turning Point to Talladega: Chase Elliott makes his Phoenix case | Read more • Power Rankings: Sizing up where playoff drivers stand | This week’s ranks • Neil Paine: Bridging the gap in the postseason picture| Read more
• Playoff Pulse: Who’s hot, who’s not ahead of Talladega | Read more
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch has been on the hunt for a new crew chief over the last month. He has found his next commander-in-chief of the No. 8 Chevrolet.
After spending the last three seasons calling the shots for Justin Allgaier in the Xfinity Series with JR Motorsports, Pohlman will return to Richard Childress Racing in 2026 for his rookie campaign as a full-time crew chief in Cup. Replacing a departing Randall Burnett, it was about finding the best leadership skills for Busch, with him believing that quality supersedes everything.
“I would say his passion and the leadership conversations that we had,” Busch said on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway about what set Pohlman apart in auditions. “You are not hiring a guy based off results in a Cup car. That is yet to be seen and made, but hopefully he’s the guy that can lead us in the right direction with not just the 8 car, but RCR as a whole.”
Fresh ideas were needed for the No. 8 team. RCR brass, which consisted of team owner Richard Childress, team president Mike Verlander, executive vice president Mike Dillon, Busch and Austin Dillon, had conversations with a few different individuals. Pohlman’s resume jumped out compared to other candidates.
“I know he’s done some great things the last couple of years in the Xfinity Series with Justin, and I hope this doesn’t take away from that for them for the remainder of the year,” Busch said. “It would be nice to have a two-time championship leader coming back over to RCR, as he was with us years prior in the early years of development with the Next Gen car.”
Pohlman was among the leaders of RCR’s research and development program during the initial campaign of the Next Gen car in 2022 before moving to JRM. Having prior history with RCR was crucial in bringing him back in-house.
“We know what kind of a person he is, what kind of a worker he is,” Austin Dillon said on Saturday. “His attitude is infectious. We missed him when he left. I think remembering what it was like having him here and some of the things that he did for our organization made it a great fit to come back at the right time with Kyle. I’m really excited to get him in the building and helping build the 8 team, so the 3 and 8 teams can work together next year really well and try and start the season off with more speed than we have so far this season.”
Through a pair of one-hour meetings, Busch noted Pohlman had interchangeable personality traits, as some of his prior crew chiefs with whom he had success. The duo has had limited interactions despite being in the same garage for more than two decades.
“I’ve been in this garage since 1998, and Kyle has been here since 2003. We’ve raced and crossed paths, talked here and there,” Pohlman told NASCAR.com on Friday. “I wouldn’t say Kyle and I were best buds and haven’t had a whole bunch of conversations. I would say mostly at the professional level.”
Busch kept falling back to leadership being the point of emphasis, which Dillon added, Pohlman is a “leader among men.” In the Next Gen era, the 63-time Cup victor believes that trait trumps anything, building a relationship away from the race track.
“Speed comes from the race shop – it starts there,” Busch noted. “It doesn’t happen at the race track. Crew chief, driver relationships now, with 25 minutes of practice, is pretty much just dial in your balance and try to make it as good as you can. Make the right adjustments into qualifying to qualify good and then make the right adjustments going into the race so you come out of the gate strong in that.
“It seems like those are areas that we’ve not been as strong as we’d like. If you look at every single race, we get better throughout and we’re finally OK in the final stage but it’s too late. It’s about making the right educated decisions with the squiggly lines on the computer.”
Busch confirmed that the bulk of the No. 8 team will remain the same. Currently, Pohlman is the only change. The No. 8 team is amid a 90-race winless drought dating back to midway through the 2023 season at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. He earned his first top-10 finish since mid-July last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Sam Mayer had a sense that Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race might go squirrely. Something about the pre-race scene at Talladega Superspeedway gave him that hunch, planting a seed of doubt in the thought that the middle race in the playoffs’ Round of 8 might go smoothly.
His premonition ended up being painfully accurate.
“The lanes and the runs were weird today so far, and I said going in that the energy level just felt up, like up on the (driver) intro stage, everyone was kind of antsy getting ready to go,” said Mayer, in the midst of his fourth Xfinity postseason appearance. “So I was like, ‘man, it’s either going to be a really great day or a really bad day for everybody,’ and obviously it’s not a very good day for everybody so far.”
A Stage 1 crash put a damper on Saturday’s matinee at Talladega, snaring three of the eight remaining championship-eligible drivers in the Xfinity Series Playoffs. The carnage was a 2-for-2 disaster for Haas Factory Team’s postseason efforts, with Mayer and teammate Sheldon Creed joining three other drivers on the sidelines after completing just 15 of the 94 scheduled laps.
Creed was at the center of the trioval melee that thinned the 38-car field, with his No. 00 Ford breaking loose after a substantial shove from Jeb Burton’s No. 27 Chevrolet.
“He checked up, I think, because of whoever checked up in front of him, and then I couldn’t stop and I hit him,” said Burton. “So that was frustrating to wreck him. That was the last thing I wanted to do, and then it wrecked myself.”
That collision sent Burton’s car swerving into the No. 20 Toyota of fellow playoff driver Brandon Jones, who sustained damage but was able to keep going to square off a 26th-place finish.
“Just a dumb product of superspeedway racing, unfortunately,” said Jones. “I mean, this is why I just … I’ve never, ever figured out quite how to just be ahead of all this stuff whenever it happens. Starts with just being able to lead the whole race, obviously, for one. But I don’t know, just unfortunate.”
The cars of Ryan Seig, Jeremy Clements and Brendan “Butterbean” Queen were not as fortunate as the ricochets continued, and that trio was also out of the race.
“Well, he got me loose, which was no big deal,” Creed said of Burton, after a check at the infield care center, “but yeah, I don’t know why he shot up the race track and got the 20 (Jones) in the left-rear. I don’t know if that upset his car or if he wasn’t paying attention. I don’t know. I don’t know why he went up, but yeah, it ruined our day.”
Clements said his spotter had directed him to go lower in the groove to avoid the chaos, but his window to safety closed quickly.
“We had a three-wide pack, and I don’t know, it looked like the 20 got jacked up somehow and then they just started crashing, and I’m just right there,” Clements said. “So man, unfortunate. I don’t even think I started sweating yet, so that really sucks. Nothing I can do.”
Mayer said he briefly saw the same avenue to potentially escape. “Honestly, I didn’t see a whole lot,” Mayer said. “It was kind of a weird wreck, like everyone got together it felt like right in front, and then it kind of opened up, and so I saw a clear path out and I was gonna be OK. And then someone came down off the wall, I feel like, so just unfortunate.”
Mayer entered Saturday’s race with an eight-point cushion relative to the provisional playoff bubble. Jones was minus-8 heading into Talladega, and Creed faced a 21-point deficit. The margins they’ll be facing for the Round of 8 finale next Saturday at Martinsville Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) shifted dramatically, with Jones now minus-20, Mayer minus-22 and Creed minus-41, unofficially. Creed indicated that the 250-lapper presented a must-win scenario. His teammate hinted as much, with a nod to Martinsville’s famed trophy.
“I mean, I have a space in my house for a grandfather clock,” Mayer said, “so might as well fill it up.”
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway produced one of the odder crashes in recent stock-car memory. The outcome stuck in William Byron’s memory, too, and now the circuit’s Regular Season Champion is striving to blot it out.
Byron enters Sunday’s YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) at Talladega Superspeedway with a 15-point deficit to overcome in the postseason picture to keep his hopes for a first Cup Series title alive. His position in the pecking order has much to do with his Vegas results in the Round of 8 opener, where his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet careened into Ty Dillon’s No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevy in a wild pit-entry mixup that severely damaged and ultimately sidelined both cars.
Byron’s 36th-place day — his worst finish of the playoffs — meant a 19-point downward swing from the plus side of the bubble to the wrong side of elimination with two races remaining in the round: Sunday’s 500-miler and a tense 500-lap finale the following week at Martinsville Speedway. Rather than wallow in the result, Byron allowed himself a brief moment to dwell before trying to turn the page.
“Yeah, I mean, just reflection and just looking at everything for a day or so, and then really just diving into Talladega and trying to look ahead,” Byron said Saturday before qualifying a lucky 13th for Sunday’s start. “I feel like there’s never a truer time to embrace one week at a time than now. We’re just really trying to dive into the details of this weekend and see how I can do a better job in the draft, and so far, I feel good about my preparation. Last spring was a good race for us. But yeah, spent a couple days kind of stewing on it a little bit, but then get past it and move on.”
Even with that approach, the wreck still merited some evaluation — mostly because of its out-of-the-ordinary nature. Byron was running among the top five with 30 laps remaining in the South Point 400 when Dillon’s No. 10 slowed dramatically in front of him in an attempt to enter pit road. Byron had little time to take any evasive action and barreled in, with both cars sustaining terminal damage in the impact.
The miscommunication among spotters ultimately cost Joe White his job as the eyes in the sky for Dillon, who will have Frank Deiny atop the spotters’ stand for him this weekend after a Kaulig Racing personnel shuffle. Byron said he didn’t want to overly second-guess his reaction time, Dillon’s pit-road approach angle or how any signals might have been crossed.
“But in the moment, there were no signs that that was happening,” Byron said. “So in a split second like that, once you realize it, it was too late. But when you go back and you know that that’s going to happen, it’s a lot different to evaluate it and look at it. So you have to make sure you’re not too critical of yourself in that instance because you didn’t have any expectation that that was going to happen, and that’s why it played out the way it did and that’s why it was such a violent crash. From inside the car, there was no sign … there was no wave and there was no difference in (Dillon’s) line. Just looking at the closing rate and seeing him start to slow down, maybe I could have realized that sooner, but that’s all Monday morning when you know looking back that that’s going to happen.
“So in the moment, I just saw a car; I thought he missed the bottom, and I thought, man, and then as soon as I realized he was slowing, boom, it’s too late. I tried to miss him, and that’s why I got a little sideways and on the brakes. But yeah, once I knew he was slowing down, I was maybe four car-lengths back. Just a very, very tough situation, but I’ve moved on from it and feel really good about this weekend.”
Rudy Fugle, Byron’s longtime crew chief, said he was operating on the same timetable as his driver.
“I just spent some time with it on Monday,” Fugle told NASCAR.com. “Obviously, on the way home from Vegas, it’s a long flight, so you get to think about it for a long time. But by five o’clock on Monday night, we were moved on fully and focusing on what to do for the final three races. So just trying to claw our way back into the hunt.”
Byron said he didn’t make any significant alterations to his weekly regimen before Sunday’s event, scheduling no additional needed distractions to help put Las Vegas behind him. He added that his initial reaction to the crash was a natural one, with no ill will behind it.
“Yeah, I actually wasn’t bitter. I was just probably in a bit of shock, is what you guys saw after the race,” Byron said. “I just couldn’t believe it. Like, I mean, we do this so often … we pit so often. We do these things. It’s so routine, and it was so not routine that time. The result was not what I expected, so I think that was the emotion … it was shock. But then during the week, it’s just, how do you dive into next week? Yes, there are things I do off the track that get my mind away from the sport. But it’s really just about doing the things you’ve been doing and the routine you’ve been doing. It doesn’t just go away in one day. It just kind of slowly as we get towards Sunday, it’s like, hey, you know, we’ve got another race Sunday and it’s time to get going here.”
