You know what’s perfect after a peaceful, quiet Easter Sunday? The roar of 39 cars circling the high banks around a 2.66-mile oval at one of NASCAR’s baddest tracks.
Tranquility will be hard to find on the race track for drivers, though. Last time at ‘Dega, 28 cars were collected in a late-race wreck — setting a Cup Series record. While Stage 2 has run caution-free in each of the last five Talladega races, chaos seems to find its way to strike late; there have been 19 overtime finishes at Talladega, second most behind Daytona International Speedway with 25.
Mayhem and unpredictability here have led to nine different drivers winning the last nine races at this track — its longest streak without a repeat winner. Not to mention the driver who’s led the most laps in each of those nine races has failed to win. To boot, nine of the last 16 Talladega races ended with a last-lap pass. In 12 of the previous 20 drafting track races in the Next Gen car, the pass for the win came in the final two laps. Which begs the question: Will we see calamity in the closing laps or a moment of brilliance from a driver to snatch a win?
The biggest thing to keep in mind this week is that just about anyone has a puncher’s chance to reach Victory Lane. The eventual winner has started 10th or worse in nine of the last 10 ‘Dega races. There have been numerous surprise winners here in the past, including 12 drivers who earned their very first Cup Series win at Talladega. Plus, for drivers who haven’t won in a while, it’s not uncommon for them to see their drought end in Alabama, with 17 winless streaks of 30 or more races ended at Talladega and 10 of those streaks being 50-plus races.
BRAD KESELOWSKI: While past champions like Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott are at the top of the list as ones to watch, Keselowski is an intriguing one to follow. The 2012 champ currently sits 31st in points and has a best finish of 11th this season. He’s a six-time ‘Dega winner, though, and was at the front of the field both times last year in runner-up efforts.
KYLE BUSCH: I’ve hit on Busch’s winless streak countless times — currently at 66 races — and while he only has one drafting track win since 2022, he has three in his career at the Cup level. The main thing: He has seven career wins after an off-week.
RICKY STENHOUSE JR.: The most recent Talladega winner. Similar to Keselowski, Stenhouse is one of the best around ‘Dega, with an average finish of 14.5 at the track, including a fourth-place finish in the race a year ago.
MICHAEL MCDOWELL: Not only did McDowell win both poles at Talladega last year, but he had the third-most laps led on drafting tracks since the start of 2024 (171). He also has three top 10s over the last eight Talladega races.
NOAH GRAGSON: A good candidate to add his name to the list of first-time winners at Talladega. Gragson finished third in this race last year, which stands as his best Cup Series finish. He also won at Talladega in the Xfinity Series in 2022.
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE JACK LINK’S 500
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results. Updated on race day with practice and qualifying factored in.
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Jesse Love went to check on two fellow drivers after a chaotic last lap to Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. A dominant day ended in defeat for the young Richard Childress Racing talent, but he made touching base with others one of his priorities.
His first stop was a fist bump on pit road with Jeb Burton, who was to his inside in the decisive three-wide battle when the final yellow flag froze the field and ended the race. Burton’s No. 27 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet was half a car-length in front of Love’s No. 2 Chevy, but ruled to be the runner-up — just a hair behind Love’s RCR teammate, Austin Hill in the No. 21 Chevrolet.
Love’s second stop was the infield care center, where his friend and fellow competitor Connor Zilisch ended up after their final-lap contact sent the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevy sliding out of the lead and hard into the inside retaining wall. Zilisch exited his car gingerly after the heavy impact, but he was evaluated and released from the infield care center.
Love’s ultimate stop was in third place in Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300, an afternoon showdown where he led a race-best 50 of the 113 laps. It was in this race last year that Love scored his first Xfinity Series victory, and his defense of that win nearly brought a measure of redemption after an apparent triumph last weekend at Rockingham Speedway was overturned by a technical violation.
Alongside Burton, he waited for the official ruling from the scorers’ tower, but that decision relegated him to the last step on the podium.
“I don’t know, I probably have to watch it a few times,” Love said, “but at that point, man, like all you can do is put yourself in position at these races, and we do that, and we do it a lot, and the 21 has done it for a lot longer. So yeah, I think that there’s definitely going to be things I could have done differently. I think I’m more upset that I turned the 88 around than I ran third. Just a bummer on that part, but I still feel really proud of our guys. We ran a really good race today and were up front. I feel like as much as you can dominate these things, we dominated as much as we could.”
Love and Zilisch had parried hard near the front of the pack as the final stage drew to a close, and Zilisch shucked Love out of line in an especially tense contest with 22 laps to go. In the last five laps, Love’s No. 2 tried to find momentum in the top lane, racing three- and four-wide at times and eventually closing to Zilisch’s back bumper after the white flag. When Love dipped low, Zilisch went to block, and the two tangled.
Zilisch walked out of the infield care center, saying he was grateful to be OK and that his X-rays were all clear, but that he’d be sore in the coming days. He said he’d seen one replay of their encounter, and that he was trying to keep Love in his mirror. In retrospect, Zilisch said he could have opted not to block Love’s charge, but he was most appreciative of his friend’s visit to check on him.
“He was crying in there. He just wanted to make sure I was OK,” Zilisch said. “He doesn’t want to hurt his best friend, and I wouldn’t want to do that to him. I’m grateful to have someone like Jesse, who we race hard on the race track, but we care about each other off the track.”
Burton was also emotional post-race after coming just inches away from his third Xfinity Series victory, which would have matched his previous Talladega triumphs in this race from 2021 and 2023. The 32-year-old journeyman had pumped his fist inside his car on the cool-down lap, thinking he had prevailed. Afterward, his voice cracked in post-race interviews, and he was consoled by family, including Ward, his father.
“I’m just frustrated because we don’t have a ton of opportunities to win, and these are the tracks that we can win at,” Burton said. “My guys did a great job all day, brought us a fast race car, and we did all we could, and I feel like the angles I keep seeing, we won the race, but maybe there’s a different angle that I haven’t seen, but before we leave here today, I’m definitely going to see proof.”
The day marked the end of an eventful week for Love, who went from Rockingham’s Victory Lane to a disqualification, absorbed a Wednesday loss for his team in a penalty appeal hearing and then crested to the pole position in Friday’s qualifying at the 2.66-mile track. Saturday’s performance wasn’t quite the winning outcome the No. 2 RCR team was after, but it provided some comfort in knowing that the speed and the persistence were there.
“It’s been pretty stressful, you know,” No. 2 crew chief Danny Stockman told NASCAR.com. “It’s pretty bad heartache, to be honest with you, after last week, and it was hard. It was a tough week on me — mentally, personally — when you have a car as good as we did last week, and it kind of just gets taken away from you, that hurts pretty bad. So these guys been working their butts off. We’ve been working a lot of hours, and we’re trying to be to where we can dominate races, and I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
Track: Talladega Superspeedway Location: Talladega, Alabama Track length: 2.66 miles When: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET Where to tune in: FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Race purse: $11,055,250 Race distance: 188 laps | 500.08 miles Stages: 60 | 120 | 188 Defending winner:Tyler Reddick, April 2024 Starting lineup:Zane Smith claims Busch Light Pole
Ten races, ten faces?
At a track where the unexpected regularly takes place, the one thing to count on in recent years at Talladega Superspeedway is new faces in Victory Lane.
The last nine races at the Alabama speed palace have produced nine different winners, and the specter of another no-repeat outcome looms large in Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 (3 p.m. ET FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). That nine-race Talladega span precedes the advent of the Next Gen car in 2022.
Denny Hamlin began that string in October 2020, and since then (in chronological order) the winners’ list has welcomed Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Can someone new add their name to the record books Sunday? The prospects for the Cup Series going 10 for 10 with another different winner are high.
“The field is so close, right, that it just opens up a lot of opportunities,” said Josh Berry, driver of the Wood Brothers’ No. 21 Ford. “A lot of these races just kind of come down to circumstance, and you find the same players up front a lot, but ultimately, it kind of is left up to fate a little bit on how obviously missing the wrecks and executing and it just opens the door for opportunity. So it’s definitely a bit of a wild card, I think, from a driver’s standpoint.”
There’s some historical relevance for Talladega’s good fortune smiling on an array of winners. The track’s “fall” race was traditionally called the Talladega 500, and the first 13 runnings were won by 13 different drivers. That variety and the track’s growing reputation as a place where anything can happen fed into the speedway’s promotions, where marketers touted “13 races, 13 faces” as a selling point.
Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip was one of those 13 faces, etching his name in Victory Lane in 1979. He nearly broke the streak in 1981, but Ron Bouchard slipped by him for an upset win within sight of the checkered flag. The next year, Waltrip sealed the deal as a Talladega 500 repeater, then showed up for a promotional event for the 1983 race wearing a shirt that read: “14 races, 13 faces. Sorry about that.”
The other common thread to the unpredictable nature: the driver leading the most laps has failed to win each of the last nine Talladega races. In both races here last year, that hard-luck leader was Michael McDowell, who crashed out in multi-car tangles — another Talladega trademark — each time.
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
Superspeedway strategy is as much driven by how drivers work the aerodynamic draft as how teams work in tandem across manufacturer lines. Automakers typically hold pre-race meetings to formulate a game plan for attacking Talladega, developing the best course for how to stick together, pit together and move forward — also together.
That spirit of teamwork — among organizations and the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) — should permeate Sunday’s 500-miler, the first of two stops this season at the massive 2.66-mile circuit.
“It’s not really set in stone what the plan or path is for how we approach the race set by the OEM, but we do communicate with the other Chevrolet guys during the race, and more than anything else, we just try to be mindful of each other’s situation,” says Luke Lambert, crew chief for the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevy driven by Carson Hocevar. “Chevrolet has so many cars that they kind of split it up into two different groups of cars that work more closely together, but as you know, the way these races are, cars get eliminated, those numbers can dwindle down and then the plans kind of change in the middle of the race.
“Primarily, we’ll be working close with the Spire guys, that’s our intentions, and then try to work and cooperate with the Chevrolets. When we have the opportunity to do things that benefit each other, as far as working together in lines, and then also how we pit, we try to do that as much as possible.”
Chevrolet’s contingent makes up 18 cars in the field of 39 starters, the most of any manufacturer; Ford has 12, Toyota nine. Managing that number is tricky, but to Lambert’s point, the ability to call audibles and have some amount of flex or give in the strategy is critical.
“The bigger the group, the harder it becomes to execute this stuff, because everybody’s running their own race and has different things that pop up as the race goes on, based on how much fuel they’re using, or how the car is handling, or possibly having a short fill at one point in time, they get out of sync with the other cars,” Lambert said. “So you can’t really be too locked in. You have to kind of be fluid in how we approach the race. But primarily for us, our approach is to run our race really mindful of what’s going on around us and how we can work with other guys and what we can expect for them to do as far as working with us when the opportunity arises.”
Toyota teams may not have the strength in numbers, but the size of their group — four cars from Joe Gibbs Racing, three from 23XI Racing and two from Legacy Motor Club — may be more manageable. Charles Denike, first-year crew chief of the No. 23 Toyota for 23XI’s Bubba Wallace, said that their strategy wasn’t necessarily manufacturer-mandated, but that collaboration stemmed mostly from a team level — save for trying to stack their numbers when executing green-flag pit stops together.
“Very much, you have to remain flexible,” Denike told NASCAR.com. “So there’s kind of two things: You always stay ready for if a caution comes out, and then when you can pit under green varies based off of how fast the pace is going and how much fuel you’re burning. So it’s a bit of a moving target there on what you want to be prepared for if you need to put under green, and then you always stay ready with your answer of, ‘if the caution comes out, now, what would I do?'”
Expect Penske fingerprints at the front. Just two drafting-style tracks have hosted races this year (Daytona and Atlanta in February), but Team Penske and its affiliated Wood Brothers Racing team have zoned in on the front of the pack. The Penske/Wood Brothers power combo has run 175 laps in first and second place this season. The next closest on that list is Trackhouse Racing, a distant second with 14 laps running 1-2.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
RICKY STENHOUSE JR. The Hyak Motorsports veteran has just one top-five result this season, but that total could grow after Sunday’s showdown. Stenhouse won here to play playoff spoiler last fall, and two of his four career Cup Series victories have come at Talladega. The 37-year-old has eight top-five finishes here — the most of any track in his Cup career.
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles. • NASCAR at Talladega: Key information, links, results through the weekend | Read more
• Keselowski ‘clawing’: RFK driver/owner aims to maximize No. 6 team’s potential | Read more • Crew chief change-up: Spire, Rodney Childers go separate ways | Read more
• Racing Insights: Full finishing order projections for Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 | Read more
• Turning Point to Talladega: Forecasting a Championship 4 … already? | Read more
• At-track images: Best photos, scenes from a full weekend at Talladega | View gallery
• NASCAR Classics: Rewind with full-race replays from the ‘Dega video vault | Watch races
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh designs ready to tackle Talladega | View gallery
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill prevailed in a three-wide photo finish in the Ag-Pro 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway — edging ahead of Jeb Burton and his RCR teammate Jesse Love at the time the field was frozen with an electronic timestamp approaching the checkered flag.
The caution flag and checkered flag flew simultaneously after Love’s No. 2 Chevrolet made contact with the rear of then-race leader, JR Motorsports rookie Connor Zilisch’s No. 88 Chevrolet just after the white flag came out signaling one lap to go. Zilisch’s car spun down into the track apron, hitting the wall, leaving Hill, Burton and Love to sort out the trophy.
It marks the ninth superspeedway victory for Hill, making the 30-year-old Georgia native the Xfinity Series’ all-time winningest driver on drafting-style tracks such as Talladega, Daytona and Atlanta — breaking a tie with a pair of Hall of Famers, Tony Stewart and the late Dale Earnhardt.
“Man, we really had to work for that one,’’ said Hill, who now has a series-best three victories this year and 13 in his career. “It just seemed like our car was really good. Everyone at RCR and RCR engines are bad to the bone, like always. We had to work. I thought the 2 (Love) was really good and when we got the push from the 2 going into [turn] one, he got inside of me and I thought that was a bad mistake and I should have covered it. So I thought we were done. But I just locked in and kept pushing the heck out of the 2 car.
“I knew it was either me or the 27 [Burton],’’ he said of the photo finish. “Man, to win them — any way you win them is always great — and finally to conquer Talladega, that’s something I’ve really wanted to do for a long time.
“We’ve won at all these other superspeedways and to finally get it done at all the different superspeedways we go to, it just shows the 21 team can win at any of them and we’re really good at this style of racing.’’
It was an especially tough outcome for Burton, who had two previous wins at this 2.66-mile high-banked Talladega track — NASCAR’s largest — and still felt after the race that his No. 27 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet was leading the field at the time of caution — although ultimately video did confirm Hill’s win.
“I felt like we did everything we could today, so just frustrated,’’ said an emotional Burton. “Every angle I see, we won the race.
“Just appreciate my guys,’’ he continued. “We do a lot with a little team. We don’t have a lot of chances to win, you know. That’s what’s frustrating.’’
The defending race winner Love, who was scored third, led a race-best 50 of the 113 laps on the day, but conceded the last lap was a typical superspeedway all-out rush to the checkered flag.
“I’m pretty sure I wrecked my best friend, I’m going to owe him an apology,’’ Love told the Motor Racing Network of contact with Zilisch, who was checked out in the infield care center and released post-race.
“I just got really good pushes there at the end and I was able to lift enough off of [turn] two to get really good pushes. I kind of thought we’d made our bed and were not in position to win, but I was able to get Austin [Hill] connected to me and he was able to give me a push down the backstretch and get rolling again.”
Reigning Xfinity Series champion, JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier, finished fourth, followed by Viking Motorsports’ Matt DiBenedetto. Anthony Alfredo, Blaine Perkins, Harrison Burton, Sheldon Creed and rookie Daniel Dye in the top 10. Zilisch, who led nine laps, was credited with 27th place.
Of note, Katherine Legge became the fourth woman in history to lead an Xfinity Series race — and the second at Talladega. The sports car and IndyCar veteran led Lap 75 in the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet, equaling Danica Patrick’s one lap out front in 2012 at Talladega.
Legge looked to be turning in a solid Talladega debut — her second Xfinity Series start this season — and was running 15th on Lap 100 when she was collected in an accident triggered by NASCAR veteran Aric Almirola, who later apologized, saying miscommunication with his spotter led to the high-speed miscue.
Allgaier’s runner-up showing was enough for him to maintain a 79-point advantage over Hill atop the standings.
The Xfinity Series moves to the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway for next Saturday’s Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 (2 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Haas Factory Team driver Sam Mayer is the defending race winner.
NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage concluded without issue, confirming Hill as the race winner.
TALLADEGA, Ala. – With Team Penske’s superspeedway program being so superb in recent years, it seems like a prerequisite that being part of the powerhouse organization is the ability to achieve success at drafting-style tracks.
Short-track ace Josh Berry, driver for the Penske-aligned Wood Brothers Racing, would beg to differ. While the results haven’t been immediate, the Tennessee native has put in the effort to improve at drafting tracks and led a career-high 56 laps, including an opening stage victory, in the most recent trip to the drafting-style Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Although it’s been a brief tenure so far, being in the Penske pipeline has elevated Berry at these types of venues.
“One thing that helps is we’ve been qualifying really well,” Berry said. “That puts you in a good position and gets you a better pit stall. Things are starting to make a little more sense to me as to how to approach these races. I felt I worked really well with [Penske] in Atlanta and tried to piggyback off that coming here.”
Three-time Cup champion Joey Logano led the way for the Penske brigade and will start in third position for Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (3 p.m. ET, FOX). Austin Cindric slotted in seventh, with Berry and Ryan Blaney ranking eighth and ninth, respectively. Ford dominated the session, as Zane Smith from Front Row Motorsports – another Penske affiliate – earned his first Cup Series pole.
Between the season-opening Daytona 500 and Atlanta, the three in-house Penske cars have combined to lead 256 of 467 laps (54.8%). Both Logano and Cindric have already reached triple-digit laps out front on superspeedways in 2025. Add in Berry’s 56 laps led at Atlanta and the number increases to 312 of 467 (66.8%).
The finishes have been another story.
Blaney has the organization’s lone top five on drafting tracks, rebounding from a late spin to place fourth at Atlanta. Cindric was wrecked while battling for the lead in both races with under five laps remaining and has a best effort of eighth. Logano led a race-high 83 laps at Atlanta, but has yet to earn a top 10 in the opening two superspeedways in 2025 (best finish is 12th). Dating back to 2022, the No. 22 team has a best finish of 19th in the six Talladega races in the Next Gen car.
“There have been a lot of wrecks lately on the superspeedways – and they’ve been big,” Logano, who was in the middle of a 28-car pileup – the largest in NASCAR history – last fall at Talladega, said. “Unfortunately, if you look at the best speedway racers, you can probably count six or seven, they don’t win that often. They win stages and score a lot of points and lead a lot of laps, but they don’t always win. It’s because everybody wrecks and gets caught up in them. It’s the nature of the beast right now.
“The pushing is so aggressive with the cars, and the bumpers are round, and the cars don’t take the pushes very well, with the way everyone is sitting on the stops these days. Everyone is going to get more aggressive because you can get there because [the cars] handle so well. It’s just a recipe for disaster. It’s going to happen again, you just hope you’re in the right place and you get through it.”
Knowing the nature of superspeedways, Cindric doesn’t let himself get emotional over these races, believing it could be “counterproductive.” But having led double-digit laps in nine straight superspeedway starts, Cindric is always a factor.
“We’ve led a ton of laps, whether it’s this year or other years and have had really fast race cars,” Cindric said. “Anytime you have that combination, you feel frustrated with not achieving the result that matches the performance.”
Dating back more than a decade, Penske entries have combined to win 10 of the last 21 Talladega races (four of those came from Brad Keselowski). Two of its current drivers have been honored in recent seasons — Logano on Friday evening — by being inducted into the Talladega Walk of Fame. Blaney received the award in 2023.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Ty Gibbs is coming off his best showing of the 2025 season — a third-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway — as he arrives at the series’ biggest track, the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway.
It’s a significant uptick for Gibbs, who has jumped from 34th place in the championship standings three races ago to 20th coming into Sunday’s contest (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio) thanks to that Bristol result and a ninth-place finish in the preceding race at Darlington Raceway. It marks the first back-to-back string of top-10 finishes in 2025 for the 22-year-old past NASCAR Xfinity Series champion and first instance since last summer when he scored a third-place finish at Michigan International Speedway and a fifth at Daytona International Speedway.
Most importantly, it shows a notable sign of improvement for his No. 54 JGR Toyota team, which has a new crew chief this year in Tyler Allen and several new crew members. He was the only Toyota driver to advance to the second round of qualifying Saturday at Talladega and will roll off 10th in Sunday’s race.
“For us, I feel the results have shown for sure,’’ Gibbs said of the recent change in tide. “But there is not a time where I’ve felt I was down on my team or was bummed out. I just think it’s part of the process, we have a new team and I think our guys are really good and I have a lot of faith in our guys. There’s a lot of things behind the scenes and everyone makes a judgment call, but I know I can run good and that our team is capable of that.
“Sometimes it takes time, and we’ll get there. I have confidence in our team.’’
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Being busy is the way of life for Kyle Larson.
He began the week at WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas and sprinkled in a two-day open test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for next month’s Indianapolis 500. It was the first time he turned laps in an IndyCar since finishing 18th in last year’s 500-mile extravaganza.
After Wednesday’s open test at Indianapolis, Larson’s No. 17 Arrow McLaren car was scored sixth on the speed chart. Thursday told a different story.
After completing his first full lap at speed in Thursday morning’s session, Larson wrecked exiting Turn 1. The session included extra boost in engines that the teams will apply for qualifying next month.
“It was just unfortunate to get into the wall in practice,” Larson said on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, site of Sunday’s Cup race (3 p.m. ET, FOX). “I would rather get it out of the way in April than in May.”
Larson stated on Wednesday that he felt rusty on the IndyCar side. The No. 17 car was tight – oversteer – through Turn 1, not allowing Larson to complete the corner. Following the incident, Larson remained at IMS, chiming in on the debrief with Arrow McLaren. He eased his mind with a workout before checking out Rico Abreu’s race shop and catching dinner.
Larson impressed in his IndyCar debut last year, frequently spending time near the top of the leaderboard, but a late pit-road speeding penalty derailed his chance of snagging an adequate finish. His preparation for the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600 double hasn’t shifted from last year.
“I wouldn’t say it differs any from before,” Larson said. “For you guys (the media), I get asked a lot less about it than I did last year. For me, I don’t get too far ahead of myself in preparation and things like that because I have so many races between now and [then]. I think I [will] race 10 more times before I go back in May. I don’t think it’s fair to look ahead too far.”
The countdown is on, however, with only 29 days remaining before Larson makes his second attempt at the 1,100-mile day. He will return to Indianapolis following the race weekend at Kansas Speedway in two weeks for opening day practice on Tuesday, May 13. The series practices each day that week before qualifying on Saturday, May 19. If Larson slots in among the top 12 in speed during qualifying, he will remain in Indy for Sunday’s final qualifying session before jetting to North Wilkesboro Speedway for the Cup Series’ All-Star Race.
In between wrecking on Thursday and getting to Talladega, Larson won the 40-lap World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series race at Jacksonville Speedway in Illinois. He arrived at Talladega late Friday night ahead of the race weekend. He qualified 25th for Sunday’s race.
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Ryan Sparks’ hiatus from atop the pit box lasted all of nine NASCAR Cup Series races. The Spire Motorsports competition director had shed his crew-chief duties in the offseason to focus more on his primary role, helping to shape an organization that’s grown steadily and aggressively in recent years.
Now, at least in the interim after a personnel shake-up, he’s back in a familiar place.
Justin Haley heads into Talladega Superspeedway with a new-look No. 7 Chevrolet crew behind him for Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 (3 p.m. ET FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). The team parted ways with veteran crew chief Rodney Childers after the Cup Series’ off weekend, ending their partnership just a quarter of the way through the Cup Series season.
Haley heads into Sunday’s 500-miler ranked 23rd in the Cup Series points, with one top-10 finish (10th at Homestead-Miami) through the opening nine races. That stretch included at least a promising run to 13th place at Bristol Motor Speedway in the circuit’s most recent event, but besides the performance, the 25-year-old driver said the move was an unexpected change, indicating that chemistry was a prime factor in making the move and saying, “it was a fit thing.”
“Nothing super wrong that stood out,” said Haley, who starts 37th in Sunday’s 39-car field. “I think at the end of the day, we’re in the Cup Series to compete, and on a Sunday in the Cup Series, everything has to be right. If one little thing isn’t right, you’re not going to win races, and that’s what we’re trying to do. That’s what Spire is trying to do. They’ve been putting some much time, effort and resources, money, ability, put people in the right places to try to win races. I don’t think they’re scared to do anything to win a race. …
“We had to onload a lot of people, and through that, there’s going to be differences, not direct Lego pieces that go together. I’m thankful for my time with Rodney, who taught us a lot as an organization. He’s a super-great person. I really enjoyed getting to know him and work with him. At the end of the day, it’s a business and just trying to be successful on Sundays.”
Haley said he was notified of the shift after the team’s Tuesday morning meetings, indicating that he did not have input in the personnel decision. Childers had arrived at Spire for the 2025 season after signing a multiyear deal last summer, one of several sizable shake-ups in the organization’s evolving driver/crew chief roster. His credentials were and still are impressive, with 40 Cup Series wins and the 2014 championship with Kevin Harvick. Syncing with a new group was another matter.
“You know, there’s never a good time for this, right? But all I know is us at Spire, we don’t waste time,” Sparks told NASCAR.com. “So we saw or felt what we think wasn’t going to work long-term, and it was really just a fit thing. The 7 just came off a great run of Bristol, so it’s more of just a fit and personality deal moving forward for long term, so we’re looking to the future more than anything. Like I said, not really performance-related or nothing directly related to Rodney at all. His time here was well-spent. We appreciate it and everything like that, but we’re just thinking about the future.”
Spire has seemingly been looking forward ever since it started as a fledgling one-car outfit during Haley’s first stint with the team in 2019. The organization grew to a two-car operation in 2021, then expanded to three full-time cars last season. Haley was phased back in full-time after a seven-race audition at the end of 2024, and Spire signed veteran Michael McDowell as another key piece to the driver rotation. Spire’s longest-tenured driver is relative newcomer Carson Hocevar, who earned Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors last season.
Beyond that, Spire has expanded its footprint in the Craftsman Truck Series. When the organization purchased the assets of Kyle Busch Motorsports in the fall of 2023, it was here at Talladega where team co-owner Jeff Dickerson explained the reasoning behind the move, saying he understood the sometimes-healthy skepticism, but adding: “I don’t know how many more of these deals we have to do before people know we’re for real.”
Sparks referenced that message here this weekend, noting the team’s willingness to take bold measures, but also the seeming urgency to reach Victory Lane.
“We’ve pretty much improved at every race track, but I know for people to take us seriously, we’ve got to win,” Sparks said. “So I mean, that’s all we’re focused on is winning. This is hard. It’s the Cup Series. I mean, we’re racing against the greats and companies that have been in business for over 50 years. So we feel like we’ve hired the right people and put them in the right places to be able to accomplish that quicker than most would expect. It’s not going to be easy, and they’re not going to give it to us. I tell people all the time, they don’t give these things away. You’ve got to want it more than them, you’ve got to work harder than them, so that’s what we’re going to try to do. There’s no guarantees, right, but we’ve just got to stay focused, stay positive, and like I said, we’ve got all the right puzzle pieces in place, and we just … time to rock and roll.”
The crew-chief swap is just the latest in what’s already been a season of change for the No. 7 group. After the seventh race of the year, Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 5 team swapped in four pit-crew members from Spire’s No. 7 bunch, sending a quartet of over-the-wall personnel to Haley & Co. through their pit-crew development arrangement.
“Our relationship with Hendrick Motorsports, we get our pit crews from those guys, so we trust their process,” Sparks said. “The coaching staff over there is great. They’ve got an awesome facility. We’ll go be a part of pit practice whenever we can, for behind-the-wall support, and they’re a big part of our team on Sundays. So we make sure our car suits their needs on Sundays and they can do their job, but yeah, no complaints there. We love that relationship and hey, we ain’t getting any slouches, I can tell you that. So they’re hungry, and they want it more than ever, so that’s pretty exciting to have a mad pit crew.”
Haley was familiar with Sparks from his first stay with Spire, and the two paired together for the final seven races of 2024 — including the playoff race at Talladega. Their bond, Haley says, has clicked back into place, and Sparks says he’d made efforts to help his driver open up.
“He’s just fun and bubbly,” Haley says. “He pushes me to be better, and we had good communication at the end of the season. It was fun yesterday being in the garage and hauler with him and cutting it up. At least I have something I know to expect.”
Sparks noted that 27 weekends remain in the Cup Series schedule, including 17 races before the cutoff for the 16-driver playoff field. That’s where that overriding urgency also stands out.
“There’s one goal, and that’s to put it in the show, so we don’t take it lightly,” Sparks says. “There’s been a lot of movement at Spire and a lot of effort to make these cars faster. I think we’ve seen that a lot on Saturdays (in qualifying), but not carried over to Sundays as much as we would like. So, I’m gonna bring the vibe and we’re going to make it happen.”
TALLADEGA, Ala. – Front Row Motorsports maintained its strong position out front at Talladega Superspeedway with 24-year-old driver Zane Smith convincingly claiming the first pole position of his NASCAR Cup Series career — the third consecutive at the track for his team.
Smith, the 2022 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion, will lead the field to the green flag in Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at the sport’s biggest track with two-time series champion Kyle Busch starting alongside Smith on the front row — his best start since earning pole position at Dover Motor Speedway last spring.
Smith earned his first pole position with a lap of 182.174 mph in the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford — bettering Busch’s time by a slight 0.132 seconds on the 2.66-mile circuit.
“Obviously a lot of speed,’’ said Smith, who was fastest in opening-round time trials and improved that time in the final round. “Just really proud of how our whole team has been working together before our one-week break [last week], and I feel like that one-week break was perfect not to reset but to digest and think about what we need to rebuild on.
“And now we’re off to a good start for this next long stretch. Proud of the speed and everything we’ve been doing, just need to execute a little bit better but a ton of speed this weekend. Long race tomorrow and a lot of things are going to happen and go on, but obviously we have the speed to do it. We’ll see how it goes.’’
Seven Fords, a pair of Chevrolets, and a single Toyota advanced to that 10-car final round.
Reigning series champion and Team Penske’s Joey Logano, along with Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Ryan Preece, will start from row two.
Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon, RFK’s Chris Buescher, Penske’s Austin Cindric, Wood Brothers Racing’s Josh Berry, Penske’s Ryan Blaney and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs (the only Toyota) rounded out the second-round qualifiers.
Defending race winner Tyler Reddick will roll off 26th in the 23XI Racing No. 45 Toyota. Championship points leader and Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron will start 16th on the 39-car grid.
The No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet for driver Justin Haley failed pre-qualifying inspection twice Friday at Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR officials announced.
As a result, car chief Doug Powers has been ejected for the remainder of the event weekend at the Talladega, Alabama track. The No. 7 team will also lose pit selection for Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Spire Motorsports announced earlier this week that it parted ways with crew chief Rodney Childers, effective immediately. Competition director and former No. 7 pit boss Ryan Sparks will once again be atop the box for Haley in Sunday’s race and for the foreseeable future as interim crew chief. Childers joined the Spire organization in the offseason after 11 years at Stewart-Haas Racing, which folded at the end of the 2024 season. Spire signed him last July to a multiyear deal, and he began this year working with Haley.
The Indiana native, currently 23rd in points, has a pair of top 10s at Talladega in 10 starts, each coming in the past three races at the track. 2.66-mile facility. His lone Cup Series victory came at another drafting track, Daytona International Speedway, in 2019.
