Posted on by Zack Albert

TALLADEGA, Ala. — The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of Kyle Larson will serve a pass-through penalty after the start of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway for an infraction found before Saturday morning’s qualifying session at Talladega Superspeedway.

Larson was not allowed to participate in Busch Light Pole qualifying after officials found unapproved adjustments made to the roof-rail section of the No. 5 Chevrolet as it was pushed to the qualifying grid. The car was pulled from the qualifying order and returned to the garage, and Larson is set to start last in Sunday’s GEICO 500 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos

NASCAR officials initially indicated that any further penalties would be announced this coming week, but amended that Sunday morning to treat the violation as an at-track penalty. In addition to Larson’s pass down pit road after the green flag, competition officials ejected No. 5 car chief Jesse Saunders.

The team declined comment.

Larson, the leader in the Cup Series standings, had won three consecutive pole positions (Richmond, Martinsville, Texas) entering Sunday’s 500-miler.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Kyle Busch returns to Talladega Superspeedway this week as the defending winner. He could use another dose of victory this year.

A two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, Busch enters the 2.66-mile behemoth of a race track in the midst of a 30-race winless streak that dates back to June 2023, where he scored win No. 63 of his career at World Wide Technology Raceway. Busch was 0.007 seconds away from winning at Atlanta Motor Speedway back in March, but he’s finished 20th or worse in four of the seven races since that third-place Atlanta finish.

MORE: Talladega starting lineup | Weekend schedule

Still, two of his last four starts have resulted in top-10 finishes — ninth at both Circuit of The Americas and Texas Motor Speedway. With Richard Childress Racing’s knack for excelling at superspeedways, Busch is optimistic about hitting the high banks of Talladega on Sunday afternoon (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“Just come out here and try to do it again,” said Busch, who starts fourth this week. “The guys at RCR and ECR have done a great job. We build really good superspeedway cars, and it’s fun when you get to come out to Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta and know that you’ve got a shot to win.”

Busch currently sits tied for 15th in the regular-season points standings with Joey Logano, another two-time Cup champion. He is not yet focused on points, though, with 17 races remaining in the run-up to the playoffs. Instead, he’s setting sights on simply building better and more consistent performance with his No. 8 team at RCR.

“I mean, points will take care of themselves,” Busch said. “If you run better and run well and can get stage points and get good finishes, then they’ll take care of themselves. So we obviously haven’t been doing that lately and I presume we’re lower than we want to be. But, you know, that’s just the nature of what we got right now.”

To produce those results, Busch knows he needs to be closer to the front of the pack. His average running position of 16.77 ranks 14th across the series, with his three top 10s tied with Logano and Denny Hamlin for 15th-best. Incremental gains from Talladega and behind will only help the No. 8 team build momentum heading toward the postseason.

Kyle Busch qualifies for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR.com

That, of course, bodes well after last week’s ninth-place effort at Texas. Busch hovered outside the top 20 for much of the event (evidenced by a 28th-best average running position of 23.29), crashing in practice, starting from the rear and contacting Carson Hocevar at Lap 114, which sent the rookie spinning. Yet he and the team maximized the day to come back and ultimately score a top 10.

“I mean, good finishes obviously help, right? Like getting things going in the right direction,” said Busch, a two-time winner at Talladega. “But ultimately, we had a pit strategy deal there where a caution came out, we cycled ahead, and we got some position. But that was everybody, right? I mean, Larson went to the back and he really didn’t do a whole lot. I know the 33 (Austin Hill) and I were racing for 35th at one point early, and then they got track position and they held it, you know? So that’s just the name of the game right now with these cars. You’ve got to execute and be up front and not make any mistakes yourself. Rely on others to make mistakes.”

There is also something to be said for having a positive mindset when climbing into the cockpit of one of these NASCAR Cup Series machines. Busch has found some of those bright sides in midweek dirt racing, which included a recent stop at Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, North Carolina, where he raced dirt micro sprints the same night his 8-year-old son, Brexton, hit the track.

“The dirt stuff is fun,” the elder Busch said. “Yeah, it’s just a little kind of kick-back, have fun. I like to go to the race, and if I’m going to be there all night, I might as well get behind the wheel and just keep my senses fresh a little bit and not get old.”

Can any habits — good or bad — stem from those dirt races?

“A little bit,” he said. “I mean, you get beat by the kids and (then) you’re washed up and you can’t do it anymore. So that always sucks. But hell, I get that a lot on Sundays too.”

Posted on by Staff Report

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Any hard-luck feelings among the back half of the top five in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway were drowned out by hugs up and down that section of pit road. Promising rookie Jesse Love from the speedway powerhouse of Richard Childress Racing wound up in Victory Lane, but the celebration from multiple underdogs was no less vibrant.

Anthony Alfredo, Leland Honeyman Jr. and Brennan Poole — third through fifth place in that order — emerged to find welcoming embrace by their delighted crew, family and friends after Saturday’s rough-and-tumble Ag-Pro 300. Alfredo matched a career-best finish from nearly four years ago, Honeyman established a new high-water mark for his Xfinity career just 17 starts in, and Poole snagged his first top five in a year.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos: Talladega

Ryan Sieg also rounded out the cheers for the upset specials with an eventful 17th-place result that claimed the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash prize as the top finishing driver among the eligible quartet. His payday was a boost for his family-owned team, helping to slightly soften the sting from an ultra-narrow loss by 0.002 seconds to Sam Mayer last week at Texas Motor Speedway.

Love had the strongest car in the field once RCR teammate Austin Hill was eliminated by a crash that set up a string of overtime attempts. But his challenges came from a host of punchers making the most of their survival instincts and their spots near the front of the field.

Alfredo was tops among them across the start/finish line, recovering with remarkable moxie after his No. 5 Our Motorsports Chevrolet sustained significant damage in the multicar crash that snared Hill. The right-front crumpling didn’t keep him from making a veered-out move through the tri-oval on the final lap, forcing the action into a four-wide frenzy.

The third-place result marked Alfredo’s best finish of the season and of his second tour with the Chris Our-owned team.

“That race is the epitome of our season, right?” Alfredo said from pit road. “We just have never given up, even when things aren’t looking so good. We just stay in the fight till the end, and we had another shot to win the race. We were in a perfect position before that accident happened in front of us, but we came back and had another one. So just beyond thankful to be here. Blessed to have the opportunity to do what I love for a living with great people. We’re punching above our weight this year, and we’ll just keep exceeding expectations. That’s what we’re here to do. We want to be a playoff team, we know we can do it and finishes like these certainly help.

“It stinks being that close in a way because of how important a win is, but just the guys we’ve been racing all year, we have to be beyond proud of that.”

Leland Honeyman Jr. stands next to his car after the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega.
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR.com

Honeyman was also beaming after bettering his previous career-best finish, an 11th-place run at Phoenix Raceway earlier this year. His first full national series season coincides with his Young’s Motorsports team’s expansion into the Xfinity Series; the longtime Craftsman Truck Series operation scored its only two wins here at Talladega with Spencer Boyd in 2019 and Tate Fogleman two years later.

“Finishing in the top five for us is very big as a team standpoint,” Honeyman said. “Prize money is more, it helps us get further ahead, and that’s what we want to keep doing is picking off all these top fives and top 10s as we can. Our goal every week is to finish inside the top 20, and I think we exceeded that very much so today.”

Poole seemed to pose the biggest threat to Love’s victory hopes, building momentum with his No. 44 Alpha Prime Racing Chevrolet as the field barreled through Turn 4 for the final time. He actually inched ahead of Love’s No. 2 Chevy in the high groove, but couldn’t keep the pace in the last stretch to the stripe.

Saturday’s outcome was the latest brush with an Xfinity win at Talladega, where the journeyman flirted with victory in a further-review finish in 2016.

“It’s just one of those deals where it’s just so close,” Poole said. “I mean, leading the race off of Turn 4, I feel like this place owes me one. Again, I’ve been so close to winning one of these races, and I want to win one so bad. This year, we’ve had a heck of a year. I mean, we’re running on a quarter of the budget of what most of these teams are, and I know we were 16th in points headed in here this weekend, and we’re really close to being a top-12 car.”

Sieg outlasted fellow Dash 4 Cash qualifiers AJ Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier and Mayer. The latter two — both JR Motorsports drivers — were eliminated by early crashes, one of which also damaged Allmendinger’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet. That left Sieg sitting in a prime spot to pocket the $100,000 bonus, until he scraped the outside retaining wall and made an unscheduled stop for a flat right-front tire with 23 laps left in regulation.

The last caution period finally put his No. 39 RSS Racing Chevy back on the lead lap, and his marching orders from the team over the radio for the final two-lap stint was simple: “Race everyone in front of you.” He ended up two spots ahead of a flagging Allmendinger, which perhaps helped soothe some of the heartache from last week’s photo finish.

“It’s huge for our small team and sponsorship’s hard to come by, and this just makes everything that much easier,” said Sieg, “so hopefully I get some of it.”

Ryan Sieg smiles in front the Dash 4 Cash banner after winning the bonus after the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega.
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR.com
Posted on by Holly Cain

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Jesse Love earned his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory Saturday in a typically wild double-overtime finish in the Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Superspeedway — crossing the line by a slight 0.141-seconds ahead of Riley Herbst.

In many ways, it was victorious redemption for the 19-year-old Californian, who earlier this season was leading the race in overtime at Atlanta Motor Speedway only to run out of fuel before the checkered flag. Love’s win in the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet makes him only the seventh driver to score his maiden win at the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“Just a great group of guys [on my team] and it’s been such a journey to get to this point,’’ a grinning Love said before thanking a litany of people that helped him in his young career to date.

“I had PTSD flashbacks from Atlanta,’’ Love acknowledged, adding: “I love Talladega. I love the speedway and I love the fans.”

Love certainly earned this first win — starting on the outside of the front row next to his veteran RCR teammate Austin Hill, winning his fourth stage of the season (Stage 1) and leading 28 of the 124 laps. He ran top five for most of the afternoon and when he needed to go on that final restart, he went, jumping to the lead at the overtime green flag and holding off the field when it mattered most.

His RCR teammate Hill, the polesitter, led a race-best 41 laps and was out front with two laps remaining in regulation when he was hit from behind by Parker Kligerman. The incident sent Hill’s car into the wall and ultimately collected nine cars, including many that had been running toward the front much of the afternoon — putting the race into overtime.

On the ensuing overtime restart, Kligerman was eliminated in a four-car crash at the front as various cars started running out of gas. Love lined up on the front row for the final restart among eight drivers racing for their career first wins.

Herbst’s runner-up finish in the Stewart-Haas Racing Ford was his best showing of the year. Our Motorsports’ Anthony Alfredo finished third, followed by Young’s Motorsports rookie Leland Honeyman Jr. and Alpha Prime Racing’s Brennan Poole. Alfredo tied his career best mark and Honeyman had a career-best finish.

Jesse Love takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega.
James Gilbert | Getty Images

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sheldon Creed, Alpha Prime Racing’s Caesar Bacarella, Viking Motorsports’s Matt DiBenedetto, Jordan Anderson Racing’s Jeb Burton (the 2023 Talladega winner) and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer rounded out the top 10.

There were 34 lead changes among 16 drivers in a typically Talladega afternoon.

Ryan Sieg, who lost to Sam Mayer last week at Texas Motor Speedway in a photo finish by 0.002-seconds, won the Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonus.

An 11-car accident on Lap 65 proved critical to several race frontrunners as well as Dash 4 Cash eligible drivers.

MORE: ‘Big One’ strikes in Final Stage | Allgaier spins, crashes early

Herbst hit Justin Allgaier’s No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevy with only two laps left in the opening stage – both vying for a top 10 and some early stage points. It eliminated Allgaier from contention. Mayer was eliminated in a later multi-car crash and that left an intriguing battle between Sieg, who had to make a green flag late race pit stop because of a flat tire and AJ Allmendinger, whose car was damaged in a crash.

Sieg and Allmendinger lined up 19th and 20th — respectively — on the second overtime re-start and Sieg was able to pull away, finishing 17th with Allmendinger 19th.

“This is huge for our team,’’ Sieg said. “It was a rough one. I thought I threw it away, but were lucky enough to get the caution at the end and come back and beat the 16. So it all worked out and is pretty extraordinary for our small team.”

Not only does he win the Dash 4 Cash paycheck, but Sieg will compete against Love, Herbst and Alfredo next week at Dover for the final race of the incentive program.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chandler Smith, who finished 25th, still holds a 14-point lead over Custer atop the championship standings.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series moves to the 1-mile Dover Motor Speedway next week for Saturday’s BetRivers 200 (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Ryan Truex is the defending race winner.

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Jesse Love as the winner. The Nos. 8 and 81 will be taken to Concord, North Carolina for wind tunnel testing.

Posted on by Zack Albert

GEICO 500

(⏰ Sunday, 3 p.m. ET | FOX | MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Weekend schedule | TV schedule | Weather tracker | NASCAR 101

Location: Talladega, Alabama
Track length: 2.66 miles
Cup Series race purse: $8,234,125
Race distance: 188 laps | 500.8 miles
Stages: 60 | 120 | 188
—
Starting lineup: Michael McDowell to lead field to green flag
Pit stall assignments: See where drivers will pit 
Defending winner: Kyle Busch, April 2023

Key things to watch

Saturday session

Michael McDowell set the pace in Saturday’s only on-track activity for the NASCAR Cup Series, notching his second pole of the season and of his Cup career. The 39-year-old driver posted a final-round lap of 182.022 mph in the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford, just ahead of fellow Ford driver Austin Cindric in his Team Penske No. 2 Mustang and third-fastest Todd Gilliland, his Front Row teammate.

The session was an eventful one before it ever fully started, with the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet pulled from the qualifying order after competition officials noticed an unapproved adjustment to the roof-rail section as the car was pushed to the grid. The Cup Series points leader will start last in the 38-car field. | Full Saturday recap

Big story line

Friendly territory for Ford?

The debut of Ford’s new Dark Horse Mustang body this year has come with some unexpected sticker shock, with a bare cupboard in the win column in the season’s early going. The 10th race of the Cup Series campaign — treacherous as it might be — holds some hope for the Blue Oval faithful, who have a roster stocked with some of the most capable superspeedway drivers vying to break through in Sunday’s 500-miler at Talladega.

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney is the most recent Cup Series winner at the 2.66-mile track where he’s won three times. That triumph snapped a three-race streak here by Chevrolet drivers, but the Ford camp also boasts multi-time Talladega winners in RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski (six wins) and Joey Logano (three) — both adept at navigating the aerodynamic draft at NASCAR’s largest oval.

The emphasis on teamwork across manufacturer lines will be at a premium this weekend as automaker alliances will help the standouts rise in the tightly-woven pack. In the last seven races at drafting tracks, Ford has been a force, leading 965 of 1,452 laps, winning 11 of 14 stages, and claiming 13 of the last 14 front-row starts.

History tells us…

The last seven Cup Series races at Talladega have been won by seven different drivers, so dominance along the order of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s four-in-a-row run through the 2001-03 seasons hasn’t been a trend. Before Blaney’s victory in a Ford here last fall, three consecutive Chevrolet wins briefly gave that automaker the upper hand. Slightly further back in time, Ford had a near-monopoly on the place, with seven straight wins (2015-18) as part of a 10-out-of-12 run of success.

Even further back in the yellowing pages of the history books, Talladega has had a reputation as a one-off kingmaker for stock-car racing underdogs. Richard Brickhouse, Dick Brooks, Lennie Pond, Ron Bouchard, Bobby Hillin Jr., and Phil Parsons scored upsets with the only wins of their Cup Series careers here.

He may not be the betting favorite to win, but watch out for…

Erik Jones. The Legacy Motor Club driver ranks a pedestrian 19th in the Cup Series standings, but the optimism for Jones’ first top-five finish — or better — of the season has risen at Talladega, belying his 30-1 opening odds.

Jones has led laps in six of the last seven Talladega races, and he has finished among the top 10 in six of his last eight starts here. Jones’ resume also has a drafting-track victory, his 2018 breakthrough at Daytona during his time with Joe Gibbs Racing. Slightly further down the ledger, pole-sitter McDowell made the betting board as a 40-1 shot on the opening list. | Talladega odds

Speed reads

Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles. 

• Turning Point: Trends from Texas, arriving in Talladega | Read article
• Spotter skillset: Extra emphasis on eyes in the sky for ‘Dega | Read article
• Gilliland a good get: Third-year driver carries Talladega momentum | Read article
• The Field of 16: Last four in, first four out for Cup Series Playoffs | Latest projections
• Looking out for No. 1: Ross Chastain moves past Byron bump | Read article
• Byron’s Texas fallout: No. 24 driver also set to move on after Chastain tangle | Read article
• Sieg stays the course: Xfinity regular creates buzz after 0.002-second defeat | Read article
• Dash 4 Cash back in action: Xfinity Series’ four-race initiative continues at ‘Dega | Program overview
• Through the years at Talladega: Take a trip through legendary moments | Photo gallery
• NASCAR Classics: Picks to click from our Talladega video archives | Read article
• 36 for 36: NASCAR survivor pool picks for Talladega | Read article
• Fearless prediction: Racing Insights projects Sunday’s final race results | Read article
• Fantasy Fastlane: Lineup pointers for Talladega | Sleepers, drivers to avoid
• Paint Scheme Preview: Springtime designs in bloom at ‘Dega | Pick your favorite
• No. 45 Jordan Brand car dazzles: Reddick’s ride among fresh looks | Read article
• Power Rankings: Brad Keselowski rises in updated top-20 list | Latest driver rankings

Fast facts ⏩

Race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.

• Two Cup Series drivers share the longest active streak of top-10 finishes at Talladega with three — Ryan Blaney (1st, 2nd, 2nd in the last three races here) and Daniel Suárez (10th, 9th, 8th in that span).
• The leader at the white flag has gone on to win Talladega just once in the last seven Cup Series races here. That happened last fall, when Blaney led the last two laps.
• William Byron holds the current mark for most Cup Series wins at drafting tracks since the Next Gen car’s 2022 debut with three. The most recent came in this year’s Daytona 500.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Ross Chastain opened Saturday’s media scrum at Talladega Superspeedway with praise for one former driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and spent the rest of the availability discussing its present occupant.

Chastain spoke of his days idolizing Jeff Gordon, the Hall-of-Fame four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, when asked who his racing idol was growing up. But he had to follow that by noting he has moved forward after last weekend’s race-ending crash with the modern-day No. 24 driven by William Byron at Texas Motor Speedway. The Trackhouse Racing pilot was setting sail for a podium finish in double-overtime before contact from Byron exiting Turn 2 sent Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet into the outside wall, spinning across the track and ultimately into a 32nd-place finish.

MORE: Photos from Talladega

A former winner at Talladega, Chastain said Saturday that he and Byron are “buddies” and that the two are putting the incident behind them.

“I don’t have any opinion of how it all happened,” Chastain said. “Nothing I want to talk about.”

Byron said in a Tuesday roundtable he extended a phone call to Chastain, which Chastain has since returned, resulting in a two-minute conversation.

Chastain is no stranger to on-track contact, the glowing example being a yearlong rivalry with Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin that eventually resulted in a Hamlin penalty for intentional contact in 2023. This latest conflict puts the evolution of driver interactions back at the forefront of the conversation, even if Chastain remains unbothered by Byron personally.

“They definitely evolve,” Chastain said of those relationships. “We all are learning each other and remembering things. We’re people. We’re humans. We make mistakes and we make really good calls or really bad calls, and really good decisions or bad decisions. So I don’t think twice about last week or anything.”

Ross Chastain drives during a NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas.
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images

Of course, just because he’s putting the incident in his rearview mirror doesn’t mean he didn’t have any immediate reactions post-race, where he declined to comment after his evaluation and release from the infield care center.

“Of course in the moment, I was super mad and still am that we got wrecked,” Chastain said. “That’s not how anybody wants it, but as far as moving forward, I don’t lose any sleep over it. I’m in a spot now where I know I’ve got a job and I know I’ve got a lot of races ahead of me, and it’s not going to do me any good to dwell on that.

“So I’ve had a great week and a good week of just getting ready to come to Talladega. I promise you William Byron has not been — this is the most I’ve talked about or thought about him.”

Chastain will start Sunday’s GEICO 500 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) from 32nd position, exactly where he left off a week ago at Texas. Byron will start 13th.

Posted on by Holly Cain

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Ford led qualifying for Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), with Michael McDowell earning the second pole position of his career Saturday.

McDowell’s No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford made a dramatic run in the final round of qualifying, with a speed of 182.022 mph around the 2.66-mile high banks, just edging fellow Mustang driver Austin Cindric, whose top speed in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford was 181.739 mph. It was a dramatic birthday nod for the Ford Mustang, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this week.

Superspeedway racing has been a strong suit for 39-year-old Phoenix native McDowell. He started on the outside of the front row for the season-opening Daytona 500 and won his only other pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March. Sunday will mark his fifth top-10 starting spot of 2024.

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos

“I think we all felt that pressure knowing how strong we were at Daytona and Atlanta to come here to Talladega and repeat and have a really good starting spot,’’ said McDowell, the 2021 Daytona 500 winner and last year’s Indianapolis Road Course winner.

“The guys put a lot of energy and effort into all the little extra details it takes to get that speed so excited for tomorrow and feel good about what we’ve been able to do this year with our superspeedway program.

“This is a good week for us to get a win,’’ McDowell added with a smile, noting the Ford Mustang anniversary.

Ford, which has yet to secure a trophy in the season’s nine races, certainly stacked Talladega qualifying. McDowell’s teammate Todd Gilliland – who has led the most superspeedway laps this year – was third fastest in the No. 38 Ford, followed by Richard Childress Racing teammates Kyle Busch in the No. 8 Chevy and Austin Dillon in the No. 3 Chevrolet. Busch is the defending race winner.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. was the top Toyota in qualifying and his No. 19 Camry will roll off sixth. Team Penske’s Joey Logano will start seventh in the No. 22 Ford Mustang, followed by Ford teammate Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Chris Buescher, last week’s race winner Chase Elliott in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and Christopher Bell in the No. 20 JGR Toyota.

Of note, NASCAR Cup Series championship leader Kyle Larson will be starting last in the 38-car field.

His No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet wasn’t allowed to qualify Saturday because team members were seen tampering with the roof rails while pushing the car to pit road. NASCAR deemed it an unapproved adjustment and immediately disallowed a qualifying attempt.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Ryan Preece will start 11th in the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford – his best qualifying run, by far, this season. Also of note, Hendrick Motorsports William Byron, a series-best three-race winner this season, will roll off 13th, alongside 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, who earned his first career victory here in 2021.

Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Penske Racing’s Ryan Blaney – who has three Talladega victories including last Fall in the Playoffs, will start 21st.  Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, a two-time winner at the track, will start 23rd.

Posted on by Steve Luvender

NASCAR.com’s 36 for 36 continues at Talladega Superspeedway.

With 36 races and 36 full-time Charter cars, our players select one car per race, but there’s a simple twist: once they’ve made the pick, they can’t choose that car again for the rest of the 36-race season. Yes, that means every car will be selected exactly once … a survivor pool, by another name. 

Follow along weekly as our panel of pickers — Dustin Albino from Jayski, along with Steve Luvender and Cameron Richardson from NASCAR.com — embarks on a season-long journey to think like strategists and prove their picking prowess. 

We’ll also feature a fourth “community” 36 for 36 pick each week, as decided by fan vote on the r/NASCAR subreddit. Can the collective vote topple our trio of full-timers?

Current Standings:

RankNamePointsBehind
T-1Steve Luvender284—
T-1Dustin Albino284—
3Cameron Richardson235-49
4r/NASCAR Community219-65

Race 10 of 36: Talladega

A wild race at Texas last week resulted in three top-10 finishes for our pickers and tightened up the points battle. Points leader Steve Luvender ended up with 13 points after his pick, Harrison Burton, finished 28th Sunday, the lowest-earning total on our panel. The r/NASCAR community selected Carson Hocevar, who picked up his best-ever finish (10th) and 27 points — a good call by the “hivemind.” Dustin Albino’s strategic choice of Daniel Suárez netted him 32 points from the No. 99’s fifth-place effort, while Cameron Richardson moved into second place overall after his pick of Brad Keselowski finished second with 40 points. 

Now, our pickers face Talladega Superspeedway, a track where truly anything can happen. With our panelists all within 49 points of each other, it’s possible for anyone to leave ‘Dega with the points lead.

Jayski’s Dustin Albino: No. 21, Harrison Burton

Dustin’s pick last week: No. 99, Daniel Suárez
Points earned last week: 32 (fifth-place finish)
Total season points: 201 (fourth place)

Dustin: There has been little to cheer about through the first quarter of the 2024 season for Burton and the No. 21 team. However, he does drive a Ford that is affiliated with Team Penske, an organization that has seen plenty of success at Talladega for more than a decade. And though Atlanta Motor Speedway is a different beast than Talladega, many of the same principles apply. Atlanta is the site of Burton’s only top-25 finish this season, where the No. 21 car placed 11th.

NASCAR.com’s Steve Luvender: No. 38, Todd GillilandSteve’s pick last week: No. 21, Harrison Burton
Points earned last week: 13 (28th-place finish)
Total season points: 250 (first place)

Steve: My points lead is shrinking, and Talladega makes me nervous. But, nonetheless, it’s Todd Time! Todd Gilliland has finished 12th or better in the last three Talladega races, which is no easy feat. And let’s not forget his recent performances on drafting tracks, too, including 16 laps spent pacing the field in the Daytona 500 and 58 laps led the next week at Atlanta. 

NASCAR.com’s Cameron Richardson: No. 51, Justin Haley
Cameron’s pick last week: No. 6, Brad Keselowski
Points earned last week: 40 (second-place finish)
Total season points: 211 (second place)

Cameron: Some would consider this a burn pick for a wild-card track like Talladega, but don’t be fooled, Justin Haley is an absolute unit on superspeedways. Call it luck, but Haley has finished on the lead lap and inside the top 20 in six of his eight Cup starts at Talladega. The No. 51 also found itself up toward the front early in the Final Stage of the Daytona 500 in February. Five of Haley’s eight national series victories have come at superspeedways, and if he has a clean race heading toward the frontstretch on the final lap, expect Haley to be up there battling for the win.

r/NASCAR Community: No. 51, Justin Haleyr/NASCAR’s pick last week: No. 77, Carson Hocevar
Points earned last week: 27 (10th-place finish)
Total season points: 207 (third place)

The r/NASCAR community selected Justin Haley for Talladega in this week’s voting thread. He’s considered a solid underdog pick for Sunday, and Reddit agrees. 

u/FridgusDomin8or: “Haley is known as a great plate racer and now he’s in a Ford with a solid alliance with RFK. Rick Ware has run good on these tracks in the past. He’s our guy this week”

u/ProjectMobius: “Has a Ford, at a superspeedway. This is one of his best chances this year, and we have to pick him at some point.” 

u/SeattlePassedTheBall: “This is my pick. He was known for being one of the best super speedway racers in Xfinity and this is his best chance to punch above his weight in that car.”

u/Number9Rocks: “I think this is a good track to use for Justin Haley he is a great Superspeedway racer and he has shown a lot of speed in that Rick Ware car this year.”

Check back next week to see how our pickers fared at Talladega as the season-long 36 for 36 journey continues.

And, if you’ve got a competitive itch beyond meticulously managing your Fantasy Live lineup each week, feel free to save or print your own 36 for 36 sheet and see if you can beat our pickers and the Reddit community!

Posted on by NASCAR Official Release

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Liquid Death, the healthy beverage platform and one of the fastest-growing non-alcoholic brands, is now officially a NASCAR partner. The brand will be on-site this weekend in Talladega to jumpstart the partnership with an interactive display featuring the “Thirst Hearse” and offering fans samples of select iced tea flavors.

As part of a wide-ranging, multi-year agreement that makes Liquid Death the “Official Iced Tea of NASCAR,” fans will see Liquid Death iced teas at select NASCAR-owned race tracks, including social and digital content, on-site experiences, activations and more.

“Liquid Death is a healthy beverage brand that not only produces high-quality iced tea but also looks to bring death to plastic bottles by using humor and entertainment,” said Jeff Wohlschlaeger, NASCAR senior vice president and chief sales officer. “With so many synergies between our companies, this partnership is a perfect fit. We’re thrilled to have them on board.”

Iced tea, one of the company’s newest product lines, saw tremendous growth throughout 2023. Shortly after the line’s launch, Liquid Death’s iced tea now holds the #1 best-seller position in the RTD tea beverage category on Amazon as defined by total retail sales. The brand’s line of low-calorie, low-sugar iced teas contain B vitamins and a microdose of caffeine and comes in five flavors: Green Guillotine, Slaughter Berry, Grim Leafer, Rest in Peach and Dead Billionaire. All cases of iced tea also include limited edition art on the bottom of each case.

“This is our first official iced tea sponsorship, and NASCAR is the ideal home for it,” said Ryan Heuser, Liquid Death’s senior vice president of experiential marketing. “We’re thrilled to be bringing our infinitely recyclable, ice-cold cans of Liquid Death to the extremely passionate NASCAR fanbase. We’ll be carried at select NASCAR tracks, campgrounds and tailgates across the U.S. and can’t wait to kick off our partnership at the iconic Talladega Superspeedway.”

Liquid Death uses comedy and entertainment to promote both sustainability and healthy products. Liquid Death’s social following captures more than 8 million followers across TikTok and Instagram, making it the third most followed beverage brand globally. A portion of proceeds goes to nonprofits as part of their partnership with 5Gyres and the Thirst Project.

The NASCAR season continues this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway when the NASCAR Cup Series hits the track for the GEICO 500 on Sunday, April 21 at 3 p.m. ET. All the action will air live on FOX, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, with additional coverage on NASCAR.com.