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:
Rank
Name
Points
Behind
T-1
Steve Luvender
284
—
T-1
Dustin Albino
284
—
3
Cameron Richardson
235
-49
4
r/NASCAR Community
219
-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!
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.
Wandering the cavernous Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Ryan Sieg was trying to find a quiet place for an interview.
At the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries’ 2024 trade show, a crowd of several thousand were jammed into an 11,415-square-foot ballroom humming at a low roar with the cacophony emanating from 350-plus exhibits.
But there was another reason it was hard for Sieg, the main character in one of NASCAR’s tightest finishes ever, to locate a peaceful corner for a phone call.
The Georgia native was getting recognized on this Tuesday afternoon in Las Vegas as he never had before during a decade of plugging away as a midpack driver in the Xfinity Series.
Shaking hands and signing autographs near a simulator car wrapped just like the No. 39 Ford that placed an agonizing second by a literal inch last Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway, Sieg was gobsmacked by an endless procession of well-wishers who wanted to talk about the highlight-reel finish.
“Yeah, a thousand times,” Sieg told NASCAR.com with a laugh during a break from this previously scheduled appearance for primary sponsor SciAps. “Everybody was saying, ‘You were just that short. We thought you had it!’ They were all pumped and thrilled.”
While he accepted their condolences and congratulations as graciously as he handled his post-race interviews, each greeting was a reminder of the “heartbreaking” fact that he remains winless in NASCAR’s national series after more than 450 starts in the last 15 years.
“Yeah, it stings,” Sieg, 36, said. “But I’ve just kind of moved on and tried not to get too upset.
“I mean, even here, it’s all over the place everywhere I go. I’ve got a lot of fans that I didn’t even really know about.”
Despite losing by 0.002 seconds to Sam Mayer in the second-closest finish in series history, Texas could mark the turning point for Sieg and a family-owned team based in Georgia that is off to a strong start in 2024. After missing last year’s playoffs, Sieg has returned to the form that had him in championship contention in 2019, ’20 and ’22 – but with an extra kick.
Ryan Sieg’s second-place car had its battle scars. (Patrick Vallely | For NASCAR.com)
RSS Racing has its largest staff (still only 14 full-time employees), its fastest pit crews and an alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing paying its biggest dividends yet. There is decided optimism heading to Talladega Superspeedway — the previous track where Sieg had finished second (on Oct. 3, 2020).
Despite his disappointment, he lingered with team members through tech inspection after Texas, sticking around “just to keep their heads in the game, and they were all excited, even though we were on the wrong end of it.
“(Texas) was a big step to run top three, and it was pretty extraordinary to unload as the third-fastest car in practice. Everything’s going in the right direction. I just have to get that one spot better at Talladega.”
• • •
It could be a blessing in disguise that Sieg will wait a little longer for his first win as his family was unavailable to celebrate firsthand in Texas. His wife, Amanda, was at their home north of Atlanta, coordinating a birthday slumber party last Saturday for the middle of their three daughters.
Olivia, who turned 9 late last month, was the first to greet Dad when he got home, offering a big hug and a reminder that “Second’s still good!”
Sieg laughs that Olivia and 11-year-old Lily (Riley, 5, is their youngest) are beginning to appreciate his day job. “They tell all their friends at school what I do and then say, ‘Oh, you’re famous!’ ”
Before jetting off to Las Vegas, Sieg got a Sunday at home with Amanda and the girls, enjoying a cookout on the lake to fete his RSS teammate and younger brother, Kyle, who turned 23 two days after his season-best 14th at Texas.
Aside from collecting a few classic cars, friends say Ryan Sieg has few hobbies outside of racing and family.
The full name of his team is “Ryan Scott Sieg Racing,” though there is Internet confusion that it stands for “Ryan Shane Sieg Racing” (Shane Sieg was Ryan’s late older brother who raced in the Craftsman Truck Series from 2003-11).
“You can say whatever,” Ryan said. “We’ve just gone with it because Shane actually had the same initials that I did. His was Rodney Shane, and mine’s Ryan Scott. So it all works out the same as RSS Racing.”
It still is appropriate to associate the team with Shane because his go-karting career (inspired by a grandfather who was a former dirt racer) was the impetus for RSS Racing, which has been anchored by the Sieg family’s longtime towing business.
“They would tow Shane’s go-kart on the back of a tow truck to the race track,” Ryan said with a laugh. “And it all just started and kept going from there. For a little while, my uncle was my crew chief when we were in the Truck Series, and he started me off in late models. It’s all family.”
Parents Rod and Pam own the team but are fairly hands-off (with the towing business still to run). Ryan and Kyle Sieg and Mike Scearce (Kyle’s crew chief) handle the day-to-day operations.
In addition to he and his brother handling interior work and putting in their own cars’ seats (as well as sometimes applying wraps and clear coating), Ryan is at the shop daily to stay on top of mundane tasks such as answering emails and ordering parts.
Danny Dugan, the team’s marketing director who has worked in various roles at RSS Racing over the past 10 years, has witnessed Ryan “come out of his shell the last couple of years” as a leader.
“He was really reserved and kind of kept to himself,” Dugan said. “He’s old-school and just wants to drive and work on the car. But he’s definitely come a long way in opening up. He’s just a good guy, a good dad, a good husband. And that’s probably one of the reasons I’ve been with him for as long as I have. Not only him but the whole family. They’re just good people, and that’s tough to find in the racing industry. Things can go bad real quick, and that’s when people start stabbing each other in the back. That’s not who they are and who he is.”
For Ryan Sieg, racing is a family affair. (Getty Images)
RSS Racing’s infrastructure fosters a certain collegiality. After moving to a larger shop in Buford (about 45 minutes from Atlanta), the team added an eight-bedroom apartment with a kitchen, living room and showers to attract team members from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Some team members stay at the shop Monday through Wednesday and then drive home to Charlotte to fly to races. Another team member makes a weekly round-trip drive to Charlotte (sometimes twice) to help get parts.
“It’s not a very fun drive with all the construction,” said Sieg, who has made the trip up I-85 twice recently for simulator sessions at the Ford Performance Technical Center in Concord. “We have to make sure we have everything in advance, so it is more difficult out of Georgia. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Without the convenience of Charlotte-based charter flights, it also can be a bigger hassle flying commercial from Atlanta. On the way to Texas, crew members tried to take the first flight at 5:30 a.m. Friday (to save a night in a hotel). But a 2:30 a.m. wakeup call was followed by a morning of delays, and they didn’t reach the track until a few hours after the garage opened.
The team has overcome its distance from NASCAR’s hub in other ways. A switch to Jordan Anderson Racing’s Trackhouse-affiliated pit crews has been a vast improvement this year. And after initial growing pains from a switch to Ford in 2021, RSS Racing’s alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing (which supplies data and cars) has borne fruit in the past three seasons.
Sieg said Matt Noyce has been a difference maker since taking over as the No. 39 crew chief for the final four races last season. Through two previous stints at Stewart-Haas, Noyce already knew the team’s processes and was an ideal liaison for RSS.
“He can get the most out of the information that they provide,” Sieg said. “He’s made everything a lot better, especially on my team. That’s why we brought Matt to get more advanced on our setups. That’s why we do the alliance. So it’s all paying off now.”
• • •
Ryan Sieg forced himself to watch the Texas finish during his Monday flight to Las Vegas. Other than the hindsight of knowing a harder turn to the right might have prevented Mayer from taking the checkered flag, there still are no regrets.
“I was like, ‘Oh, I think I’m going to have enough of a run (to win),’ and then the air just slowed our full momentum down,” he said. “We were just on the wrong end. I thought I did all I could do.”
Sam Mayer and Ryan Sieg put on a show at Texas Motor Speedway. (Patrick Vallely | For NASCAR.com)
He lingered a little longer than typical in his car before dejectedly but politely answering every question.
“I’ve been in those situations a few times, and you try not to get too upset about it,” he said. “I just couldn’t believe we were that close and didn’t get it. And everybody (on the team) were just like, ‘It’s all good.’ They knew that I just did all I could do.”
It was his second top 10 in eight races, but Sieg believes he should have at least twice as many (he led 12 laps at Daytona and got in an incident at Martinsville after qualifying eighth).
“We’re getting the car the way I want it to drive,” he said. “We’ve been working hard, and Matt gets the most out of the guys.”
There are echoes of Jeremy Clements Racing, another family-owned team that keeps grinding away and has won twice in Xfinity with its namesake driver. Sieg actually made the first two starts of his Xfinity career with JCR in 2013 before going full-time at RSS the following year.
But he admits wondering what his results would be at an established team with direct Cup affiliation. Multiple times, Sieg has posted top 10s in Xfinity with cars that came directly from Cup shops. Before the proposed deal “went sideways” a few years ago, he considered taking sponsorship to Richard Childress Racing for a part-time Xfinity ride and the possibility of Cup races.
“It’s like, sometimes you want to just win,” Sieg said. “You know what I mean? You almost want to go to a different team that’s capable of winning. And then you’re also like, ‘Well, I just don’t want to leave what I’ve started here. I want to see it through.’ And you’re on the fence of do I just bring sponsorship somewhere else or just keep plugging away with what we have and get more sponsorship? And that’s what we’ve done.”
Dugan said the phone at RSS Racing has been ringing with prospective sponsors since Texas. Sieg is also eligible for the $100,000 Xfinity Dash 4 Cash bonus at Talladega.
“We’re trying to turn what is a gut-wrenching loss into a positive,” Dugan said. “(Texas) definitely created some buzz. You get caught in running 10th to 20th, and people kind of get used to that. So anytime you finish second and have an exciting race like that and get more eyeballs, there’s obviously a ton of people that come out. It sucks you lost by an inch, but there are a lot of positives that come with it.”
The timing was very good to capitalize on the Vegas show for SciAps, a Boston-based company that specializes in handheld portable instruments to help sort scrap metal. Sieg said the sponsor already seems committed to returning in 2025, but he’d like to leave no doubt by making the Xfinity title race in Phoenix – a lofty goal he believes is attainable.
“We just got to keep the momentum going,” he said. “At least we want to make it all the way to the end, that’s one of our goals. We just got to at least make it to the first round. If we keep doing what we’re doing, I feel like we should be able to achieve that by winning a race here soon.”
Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is the host of the NASCAR on NBC Podcast and also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
Editor’s Note: Racing Insights’ playoff projections use a combination of current standings and historical performance at upcoming tracks to determine the probability of each driver winning or making the playoffs on points.
With the Cup Series Playoffs on the mind throughout the season, what if there was a way to project how the 16-driver field could look before each race weekend?
It now exists via Racing Insights. From now until the start of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, ‘The Field of 16’ will give fans a weekly look at where their favorite drivers could potentially land in the postseason field – and the likelihood of having a shot at the Bill France Cup.
Here’s this week’s update on the projections heading into Talladega.
DRIVERS LOCKED IN
With multiple wins in 2024 already, William Byron and Denny Hamlin are safely into the Cup playoffs with 100% probability. Both drivers now have their eyes set on the regular-season title and the 15 bonus playoff points that come with it. Hamlin currently sits third in the Cup standings, 28 points behind Kyle Larson for the top of the table. Byron is 38 points behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammates in fifth.
DRIVERS LIKELY IN
There’s another shakeup to the playoffs compared to last year as Chase Elliott returns to the postseason following his Texas victory. With Elliott and Daniel Suárez winning in 2024, that will leave at least two drivers out from last year’s field.
Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell also locked in provisional spots after their respective wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Phoenix Raceway. Larson currently stands as the points leader and would be the regular-season champ with the extra 15 playoff-point allotment in the bank.
On points alone, and with a rich history of good performances, Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Blaney sit in healthy spots a quarter of the way through the season and have favorable tracks coming up at Talladega Superspeedway and Dover Motor Speedway.
LAST 4 IN
Here’s where the Suárez and Elliott victories are really going to make this fight for the final playoff spots interesting.
Currently, three Cup champs sit among Racing Insights’ projected Last 4 In, with Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch all barely on the right side of the bubble. Last season, only Ty Gibbs missed the playoffs among this group, but he’s off to a hot start in 2024, sitting sixth in points.
The driver that should be hovering over the panic button is Busch. While he’s the defending winner of the spring Talladega event, he only has three top 10s and a single top five nine races into the season. Coming up short to Suárez by just 0.007 seconds at Atlanta Motor Speedway could loom large for Busch’s playoff hopes if the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team doesn’t turn its season around soon.
FIRST 4 OUT
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., a 2023 playoff driver, is well outside the playoff picture at the moment, but the surprise could be Michael McDowell getting left out, with a probability under 20% according to Racing Insights. Still, with a good chunk of road courses on the regular-season slate, there’s plenty of opportunity for the No. 34 driver to return to Victory Lane.
Then, there’s Alex Bowman. After missing the playoffs last year, 2024 is a big year for the Arizonan, and he’s been on a bit of a hot streak over the last month with three top 10s in the last four races before crashing out last Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. However, with the depth of the Cup field and as strong as Gibbs has been to start the year, it will be a challenge to see the No. 48 make the postseason without grabbing a checkered flag.
WHO CAN SHAKE UP PLAYOFF PICTURE AT TALLADEGA?
The correct answer is anybody eligible for the postseason.
From Truex to Zane Smith, every playoff-eligible driver will have a shot to take a playoff bid Sunday at Talladega (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Bubba Wallace and both Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing drivers in Chris Buescher and Keselowski jump out as those likely to be next to punch their tickets to the 16-driver dance. Others will say Blaney, but don’t think the defending champion qualifies as a true “playoff shakeup.” If you want a long shot for the weekend, Todd Gilliland was strong at both Daytona and Atlanta before getting collected in wrecks. If both Front Row Motorsports Fords have speed, look out.
Before each race weekend, check back into The Field of 16 to see the latest projections of the 2024 Cup Series playoff field.
Throughout the 2024 NASCAR season, Ken Martin, director of historical content for the sanctioning body, will offer his suggestions on which historical races fans should watch from the NASCAR Classics library in preparation for each upcoming race weekend.
Martin has worked exclusively for NASCAR since 2008 but has been involved with the sport since 1982, overseeing various projects. He has worked in the broadcast booth for hundreds of races, assisting the broadcast team with different tasks. This includes calculating the “points as they run” for the historic 1992 finale, the Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
The following suggestions are Ken‘s picks to watch before this weekend‘s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Rain delayed the 500-mile event at Talladega from May 7th to the following week, which promptly landed on Mother’s Day. NASCAR’s struggles with Mother Nature forced them to move the Music City 420 at Nashville Fairgrounds out of its spot on the May schedule and to be completed later in the season.
Once the green flag eventually waved, the 41-car field put on a show for everyone in attendance. The race featured 44 lead changes, with all of them coming from drivers who were named to NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023.
One driver did not lead the race for more than 17 consecutive laps, and 14 of the lead changes lasted just one lap.
Cale Yarborough, who led the most laps on the day, passed Buddy Baker exiting Turn 4 to take the checkered flag.
Dave Marcis inherited the point lead after finishing eighth. He left Talladega with just six points up on Benny Parsons.
Benny Parsons put his Harry Ranier-owned Pontiac on the pole for the race with a lap over 200 MPH.
The story of the day was a mix between parity at the front of the field and attrition.
13 different drivers found their way to the front of the field at some point in the day, with 51 lead changes occurring along the way. From 1981 NASCAR Cup Series champion Darrell Waltrip to rising star Terry Labonte to Lennie Pond to Steve Moore, the front of the field was always changing as the laps slowly passed.
18 of the 40 starters in the field picked up a DNF due to many issues, the majority of them being mechanical issues. Only five drivers finished all 188 laps, and only 16 of them completed at least 180 laps.
It all came down to another classic Talladega finish.
Parsons took the lead with three laps remaining but lost the top spot on the final lap as he attempted to break the draft of the cars behind him. Waltrip led a contingent of cars past Parsons on his way to Victory Lane.
A handful of contenders were caught up in an early accident triggered by contact between Jimmie Johnson and Elliott Sadler. This ended the day for Mark Martin and Dale Earhardt Jr. and left Michael Waltrip’s car flipping two times.
Later in the race, Scott Riggs’s No. 10 car tumbled end over end after contact between Ryan Newman and Casey Mears.
Dale Jarrett captured the 32nd and final victory of his NASCAR Cup Series career, in a race that featured the final hurrah for not only Jarrett but also a handful of others.
It was also the 57th and final victory for his car owner, Robert Yates, and his team.
The race also marked the seventh and final NASCAR Cup Series start for Kerry Earnhardt.
Tony Stewart finished second after leading a race-high 65 laps, which had him leading the point standings by four over Ryan Newman with just seven races remaining on the schedule.
Rusty Jarrett | Getty Images
You can watch these three races and hundreds more by visiting NASCAR Classics.
When it comes to racing on the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway’s high banks, everyone on the grid typically feels like they stand a chance to hoist the big trophy. This brand of all-out, pedal-down racing is a specialized artform for the drivers and Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300 (4 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is always a fan favorite, must-see event.
There are only two former race winners among the season’s NASCAR Xfinity Series field. Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger won in 2022 and Jordan Anderson Racing’s Jeb Burton is a two-time winner, including last Spring when he triumphed over Sheldon Creed in a tremendously exciting overtime finish.
Both Allmendinger and Burton arrive in Alabama highly motivated, racing for their first victories of the year. In Burton’s case, he’s competing for his first top-10 finish of the season after several hard-luck finishes.
As so often happens racing on superspeedways, the finishes in this race are typically wide-open with an anyone-can-win feel. That may be a good thing for several of the 2024 championship leaders, who have not typically fared particularly well at ‘Dega.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chandler Smith brings a 19-point advantage atop the Xfinity Series driver standings over reigning series champion Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer. He has a 33-point lead on Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill and is 56 points ahead of JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier.
Smith, the driver of the No. 81 JGR Toyota, has crashed out in both of his previous starts at Talladega with finishes of 38th and 25th place. Custer, the driver of the No. 00 SHR Ford, is batting .500 with two top-10 finishes in four starts. He finished fourth last year.
Hill has been a victim of Talladega’s aggressiveness, with zero top-10 finishes in four starts—twice he’s crashed out. His best finish was 14th place in 2022. However, Hill has started on the front row in the last three races and won pole position in the last two.
The sustained qualifying achievements certainly show Hill – who has three wins at the series’ other big track, Daytona International Speedway – knows his way around a superspeedway. And he is optimistic about his chances on Saturday working with rookie teammate Jesse Love, who won pole position in the Daytona season-opener that Hill won.
“So, I think that going into this weekend, a lot of guys are going to do all they can to split the 2 (Love) and the 21 (Hill) up and try to keep us from leading the field,” said Hill, a two-race winner this season. “Because if we’re leading the field, him and I both, we do a really good job of stringing the line around. Yes, we have fast race cars, but we know what to do with them as well.”
This week marks the third race of the season’s Dash 4 Cash incentive program. Last week’s Texas winner, Sam Mayer (No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet), his Texas runner-up Ryan Sieg (No. 39 RSS Racing Chevrolet), Allgaier (No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet) and Allmendinger (No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet) will compete for the money this week. The highest finishing driver among this quartet pockets an extra $100,000 check. The top four eligible finishers will then qualify for the final leg of the Dash 4 Cash program next week at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway.
There is no practice session for the field at Talladega. Qualifying is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET on Friday (FS1).
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR today announced the launch of the NASCAR Alumni Network, a program that will help the sport — and its fans — stay connected with former competitors.
The program is open to past NASCAR competitors with a focus on those who competed in more than 100 races in their careers. Members of the NASCAR Alumni Network will have the chance to engage with current and past industry members through exclusive networking opportunities, including an annual at-track reunion.
Amber Wells, a 25-year NASCAR veteran who manages the NASCAR Hall of Fame for the company, has been named executive director of the NASCAR Alumni Network.
“The relationships built in NASCAR are very special,” Wells said. “We’ve seen tremendous fellowship in the connections rekindled through the NASCAR Hall of Fame and we want to extend that to all past competitors. Our hope is that this program will not just connect members with us, but also with former teammates and competitors.”
The inaugural NASCAR Alumni Network reunion will be held at Darlington Raceway during the Goodyear 400 on Sunday, May 12. The public appearance schedule of those in attendance will be announced at a later date.
Former drivers, crew chiefs, team owners, team members and other industry competitors are invited to apply to join the NASCAR Alumni Network at www.nascar.com/alumninetwork.
The program launch coincides with “NASCAR Legends Presented by GEICO,” a four-week campaign that centers on telling stories of notable traditions and prominent pieces of NASCAR history. The campaign begins this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway and continues for four weeks, culminating at the NASCAR throwback race weekend at Darlington Raceway May 10-12. Fans can visit www.nascar.com/legends for more information.
With Talladega Superspeedway on the horizon, spotters will be in full song as they guide their drivers through close-quartered, three-wide racing around the 2.66-mile behemoth.
Drivers are ultimately the ones who put their cars in Victory Lane, but spotters can make or break whether a driver can keep their car spotless from green to checkered or get collected in a multi-car pileup.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski have all had their fair share of success at tracks like Talladega and Daytona, the most recent victor being Stenhouse in the 2023 Daytona 500. While Stenhouse is big on trust with his spotter Tab Boyd, he also keys in on a spotter’s cadence and listening to them.
“Luckily for me, I’ve only had in my whole career, like four spotters, and I feel like I’ve had some really good spotters and I think you got to trust them,” Stenhouse told NASCAR.com. “But you also have to enjoy listening to them, right? You have had spotters here and there, different races where you go back and listen to races and radio communications of other teams, and you close your eyes, you’re like, ‘Man, there’s no way I can listen to that spotter.’ So you got to be comfortable, you got to enjoy them, but you got to trust them as well.”
Boyd jumped over to Stenhouse and the No. 47 JTG Daugherty team after the 2021 season, and while the two haven’t strung together consistent results on superspeedways yet, Stenhouse said he’s enjoying having the longtime spotter as his eyes in the sky.
“Tab Boyd’s been spotting for me for a while now and I think we got a great relationship,” Stenhouse said. “He knows what I’m looking for and you just continue to build that relationship up and that trust. They’re super important, especially in this day and age where, you know, an inch here or there when you’re clear, is very vital to track position. It takes them doing their job to, you know, to be on it.”
Whether it’s running three or four wide inches apart at Talladega or spread out and having multi-second gaps between your competitors at a road course, Stenhouse said he always wants his spotter to have the same tone no matter the scenario.
“I think you want a spotter that’s the same all the time,” Stenhouse said. “I think that’s key. The drivers get excited enough. You want your spotter pretty calm and so whether you’re battling for the win at Daytona or at Bristol or a road course, you want a guy that it’s going to be the same.”
Since his early days in NASCAR, Denny Hamlin has had only two spotters. Outside of his breakout 2006 victory in the pre-season shootout at Daytona, Hamlin hadn’t won a superspeedway race until Chris Lambert joined the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team.
While Hamlin has been a perennial title contender throughout the majority of his career, he noted the differences between his spotters and how each one made him a better driver in various aspects.
“[The first] was Curtis Markham early on. He was more of a driver coach when I came into JGR in my early years,” Hamlin said. “And then once we switched over to Chris Lambert in 2012, or 13, he was just a really sought-after guy, and in my eyes, from what I’d seen, the work he had done, I think that he kind of made me a better superspeedway racer.”
Together, Hamlin and Lambert have won five superspeedway races, two of them at Talladega, and what is probably the most impressive feat of Hamlin’s career, three Daytona 500 trophies.
As motorsports continue to evolve and technology becomes a greater aspect both away and at the track, relationships among race teams have to evolve and adapt with the times.
Brad Keselowski, the winningest active driver at Talladega (six), broke down how the roles of spotters have changed over the course of his career.
“Probably the biggest thing is when SMT came in, and all this technology came in, the spotter went from being somebody who could almost work it as a part-time job to someone who has to study every week and really focus hard,” Keselowski said. “Not that it was a part-time job before, but it was different. It seemed like the garage experience, at least from a spotter perspective, was more about being at a race track for four or five days a week and now it’s, as the schedules change, more about being at the race track, two days a week, but studying for two days a week. So it’s a different balance for those guys for sure than what it was a decade ago.”
Regardless of where the sport goes in the future, the spotter’s importance will never fade and the role will be at its most pressure-filled this weekend.
To get a perspective of the driver-spotter relationship, here’s how to access the scanners this weekend to listen live to spotters navigate their drivers around the high banks of Talladega.
As the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series slate enters its second quarter this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Ford Performance is stuck in its longest dry spell to start a season since 2010 — but there’s a high chance it ends on the high banks Sunday.
Though winless through the first nine races this year, the manufacturer’s entries at drafting tracks have been unparalleled in speed recently, collecting six of the past seven poles (and 13 of 14 front-row starting spots), 11 of 14 stage wins, 965 of 1,452 laps led and three of the past seven race wins.
The eyes then look to a particular Ford driver who’s led the most drafting track laps of any driver this year (74) and has been there at the end of the past few races down in Alabama to put together a splendid 9.67 average finish in the last three ‘Dega races.
Ford’s streak-snapper? Well, it might just be No. 38 Front Row Motorsports driver Todd Gilliland.
“I think there’s definitely been a tough start to the season just as far as not being able to win with the Ford yet, but we know our Dark Horse Mustangs have a lot of speed, and I definitely think they’re all-around the best cars when they show up to the superspeedways,” Gilliland told NASCAR.com. “Obviously, we still have a long ways to go in every area — as racers, we’re really never satisfied, I would say — but this weekend, we definitely feel like we should be strong.”
Of course, having speed and knowing what to do with it are two separate parts of the equation, but Gilliland has shown early in his Cup Series career that superspeedway racing and working in the draft come naturally to him. Maneuvering around drafting tracks is as much about getting to the front as it is picking up what your car is capable of within the pack itself, and as laps tick off, the game becomes a tug-of-war between learning and surviving.
Scoot through the wrecks, know what your car can do on that last lap and who your friends are and maybe, just maybe — you’ve got a shot.
“Really, these races just start from the drop of the green flag, even if it’s just semi-riding around, but you’re really just learning what your car is capable of and what everyone else is feeling out there; just trying to build a good notebook for the end of the race,” said Gilliland, currently in his third year of full-time Cup competition. ” … For me, it’s kind of about balancing expectations. It’s pretty unpredictable. You have a pretty good chance, I guess, of kind of getting caught up in a wreck, right? Whether it’s your doing, someone else’s doing. But at the same time, I definitely have a lot of high expectations that we’re gonna bring fast Ford Mustangs to the race track again, just like we started out the season really strong at Daytona and Atlanta.”
And honestly, that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Tim Nwachukwu | Getty Images
Front Row has consistently proven to be among the most competitive teams on drafting tracks, and Gilliland has two of the more respected racers of the past decade-plus at those venues as direct resources in teammate Michael McDowell and his father, David Gilliland — a former driver for Front Row and Daytona 500 pole winner himself. They’ve both offered the younger Gilliland a bevy of advice on how to last in these races and position yourself for a strong finish.
Each mentor has contributed to Gilliland’s superspeedway acumen in unique ways.
“The advice from my dad was more kind of just early on as far as bigger picture things for superspeedway racing, but really, I feel like I have picked it up fairly easy,” said Gilliland, who has led the second-most laps for Ford in 2024. “And I really do think that’s just from watching him all those years. He always seemed to just run well at them, for whatever reason. And for me as a kid, that’s what was always super exciting — when we would go to the race track and, in my heart as a 10-year-old, I really thought he had a good chance of winning. And I’d watch those races that much more closely. And I’m sure I’ve picked up on random stuff along the way, as far as that goes.
“But I would say nowadays, for sure, Michael is probably the main point of advice whether it’s any race track, right? He’s the one driving the car right next to me, and he knows what he’s going through and can relate to what I’m going through better. But as far as superspeedways, we’ve really been working on, probably last year and a half, taking care of each other out there; as far as, if someone’s in trouble, letting them back in line, trying to stick together for the majority of the race. And it’s funny, sometimes it works out better than others, but it’s just good to have that game plan, at least. It’s hard to have anybody’s back out there, but as teammates you do cut them a break here or there.”
The mentorship between Gilliland and McDowell appears to be paying off for both of them, with the 23-year-old North Carolinian rounding into form as he shakes off the rookie and sophomore newness and the grizzled veteran from Arizona keeps turning in his best seasons as he rounds the corner to his age 40 campaign. At some point — likely years down the road as McDowell continues to get stronger and stronger — it’s conceivable that the former “Great American Race” winner will toss the proverbial baton to Gilliand as Front Row continues its rapid development into a leading organization for Ford.
He’s not quite ready to take the handoff, but it’s in his purview.
“Certainly hope so. I think, you know, (becoming the leader at Front Row) is something I’m working toward, for sure. Just as far as being a better leader for myself, right? Like that’s just a life skill that McDowell, whether it’s more natural to him or he’s been doing it much longer than me, he’s definitely better at it. That’s one thing that I feel like he does really well; he gets the most out of the people around him and pushes everyone to be better. Every year he’s been here, he’s probably improved his average finish position by two or three or four spots. That’s really tough to do, and he’s continued to do it up through the mid-20s to teens to be able to become a playoff contender.
“So definitely, what he’s doing here is really special. And yeah, that’s my goal; to hopefully take over at some point. Long ways to go, obviously; he’s really solid on the race track and just a super, super solid guy off the race track. But that’s definitely my goal one day.”
The short-term goal for this weekend, though? Putting one on the board for the blue ovals.
FORT LIBERTY, N.C. — In advance of the 65th running of the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend, Charlotte Motor Speedway launched its 2024 Mission 600 campaign Wednesday, visiting the 82nd Airborne at Fort Liberty, with Coca-Cola Racing Family driver Daniel Suárez and his Trackhouse Racing crew chief Matt Swiderski.
Now in its seventh year, Mission 600 pairs NASCAR drivers with regional military bases in an effort to educate the NASCAR community about the day-to-day lives of the men and women who serve in the U.S. Armed Forces and to build meaningful connections between the worlds of motorsports and the military.
“We are so thankful for these guys; if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have the freedoms that we are able to enjoy,” said Suárez. “To be able to spend some time here and be able to learn about what they do, how they do it, their specialties, the guns, everything, it’s mind-blowing.
“The guns, to shoot, all that stuff is cool. But the coolest part is to get to know them. Like, who are these individuals? What do they do on a weekly basis? How did they get to this point? Obviously, I have so much respect for them. Some of them have been here for 29 years. That’s half a lifetime. It’s quite impressive, and I have learned a lot from these men and women today.”
As part of Mission 600, Suárez and Swiderski, alongside Charlotte Motor Speedway Executive Vice President and General Manager Greg Walter, spent the day learning about the equipment and training that members of the 82nd Airborne receive. The trio toured Fort Liberty in Infantry Squad Vehicles and fired an M119A3 Howitzer, a 105mm weapon that uses a six-man team — much like a NASCAR pit crew — to aim and fire. The group also dined with service members in Fort Liberty’s Warrior Restaurant and participated in live-fire exercises with an M4 Carbine. The exercises, designed to simulate shooting in combat environments, are aimed at testing a soldier’s ability to calm themselves after rigorous activity.
“It’s amazing (shooting a Howitzer). You don’t really know what to expect when you pull the handle, probably one of the coolest experiences I’ve had,” Swiderski said. “You try to appreciate what all these people do and the families behind these people. You come out here and actually get to meet them and see their personalities; it’s really impressive what they put on the line and how hard they work to protect our families.”
Fort Liberty is the largest military installation by population in the U.S., providing the infrastructure and training that enables a ready, capable force to fight and win the nation’s wars. The 82nd Airborne Division is America’s immediate response force — ready to deploy and answer the nation’s call in 18 hours.
At Charlotte Motor Speedway, Memorial Day Weekend provides the opportunity to pay tribute to the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces, particularly those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. With the support of the U.S. Department of Defense, the patriotic Coca-Cola 600 pre-race show includes representation from all six major branches of the military.
“The Sunday before Memorial Day is the greatest day in racing, but we also want to be sure that we set the right tone and timber — that we’re on the eve of Memorial Day, which is a very solemn holiday for us as Americans,” Walter said. “We actually pause the race halfway for a moment of remembrance. The fact that we have the 600 Miles of Remembrance, where the name of a fallen service man or woman is on the windshield. We have Gold Star Families there and we love on them. Our fans appreciate the words of service, duty, and sacrifice. It sets the right tone, and our fans appreciate that.”
Steve’s pick last week: No. 21, Harrison Burton
Cameron’s pick last week: No. 6, Brad Keselowski
r/NASCAR’s pick last week: No. 77, Carson Hocevar
