TALLADEGA, Ala. — This may sound familiar: An Earnhardt-powered black No. 3 captured the pole at Talladega Superspeedway.
Driving the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Jeffrey Earnhardt topped the qualifying leaderboard Friday. Jeffrey is the grandson of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt, who made the No. 3 iconic.
“I’m taking the moment in, man,” Jeffrey said. “I’d be lying if I said there was no pressure, honestly. What the black No. 3 means to me is, you know, the champion, the man himself, my grandpa. He was my superhero.
“So, there’s definitely pressure. But I’m just honored to even have this opportunity to be out here in this car.”
The P1 starting position for Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300 (4 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM) marks Jeffrey’s first pole in 135 career starts. Jeffrey has competed in four races so far in 2022, posting a best finish of 13th at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which used the same rules configuration that will be in place for Talladega.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
Of his 22 career poles in the NASCAR Cup Series, Dale put his No. 3 out front 17 times total from 1985-96, three of which came at Talladega. Sixty-seven of his 76 wins came in the No. 3, including nine of his 10 total at Talladega. Dale died in 2001.
“It’s been pretty amazing,” team owner Richard Childress said. “Just to see the black 3 car back on the track with an Earnhardt in it, it’s just kind of touching to me anyway because I was always a big Earnhardt fan. And this is Earnhardt country.”
Dale’s crew chief is back, too. Larry McReynolds, now a FOX Sports broadcaster, will be atop the pit box this weekend for Jeffrey, making his return after nearly 22 years away. McReynolds has 23 NASCAR Cup Series wins to his name, including a Daytona 500 victory with Dale in 1998.
“It’s cool to be back down here,” McReynolds said, “trust me.”
Jeffrey’s best-career result in the NASCAR Xfinity Series dates back to 2019 – third at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Mooresville, North Carolina, native has made nine starts at Talladega, with a 12th-place high in 2015. He averages a 21.3 finish around the 2.66-mile Alabama track.
This is his first-ever run with Richard Childress Racing.
“It’s incredible,” Jeffrey said. “It just really has me speechless. I didn’t… This is what we hoped to happen, but I didn’t know for sure that I would be capable of it. Obviously Richard brings fast cars and I feel like I’m a good driver, but you never know until you’re given the opportunity. I think we were able to put it all together today and hopefully we can do the same tomorrow.”
There was a feeling that came over Bubba Wallace last October as he prepared to race again in his home state. He’d had that same sensation once before in his racing career several years earlier, but now it was back. He told Amanda Carter, his fiancée, matter-of-factly what it was – a momentous hunch that he relayed during the most mundane of tasks.
“Amanda and I were brushing our teeth to go to bed or something, and it was like, ‘Yep, it’s gonna happen this weekend. We’re gonna win,’ ” Wallace said this week, recalling the events of last fall. “And we kept saying it throughout the weekend.”
That grand premonition had to wait. A washout of Sunday’s scheduled start at Talladega Superspeedway pushed the Yellawood 500 to a Monday show. Work obligations forced Carter to return home, leaving Wallace and their dog, Asher, at the track. “So it was just me and ol’ Asher Dasher the dog, chillin’ Monday morning,” Wallace said, “and I still had that feeling.”
That intuition is now 2-for-2. Last Oct. 4, Wallace put 23XI Racing into Victory Lane for the first time and etched his name into the history books with his first NASCAR Cup Series win.
That only other time such a strong expectation washed over Wallace? That occasion marked off another historic first, in another October eight years earlier. At the time, he was a 20-year-old prospect just getting started in the Camping World Truck Series, still going by his given name of Darrell Wallace Jr. instead of his more commonly used nickname. But when he entered Martinsville Speedway on that chilly race weekend, he felt he couldn’t lose.
“We raced on Saturday, so it was probably Friday night, Thursday night,” Wallace says. “And this was when I was still living by myself in my apartment, and it was like, ‘Yep, this is when it happens.’ ”
NASCAR is back this weekend in Talladega, the star-crossed track where some of stock-car racing’s most enduring memories have been created and where Wallace will forever be linked. Wallace, now 28, is a self-proclaimed “live in the moment” type – not prone to the uncertain hysteria of looking too far ahead, yet able to appreciate the past without dwelling in it. But it’s difficult not to reflect when the racing calendar makes a return trip to the site of such emotion, the place where the list of Black winners in the Cup Series – stuck at one for nearly 60 years – grew to two.
What it meant for a trail blazer’s legacy, for an upstart race team, and for Wallace’s triumphant return, some six-plus months later … much like Talladega itself, it’s worth revisiting.
Brian Lawdermilk | Getty Images
‘It was his moment’
Wendell Scott’s lasting legacy may be twofold, one a nod to his life spent as a pioneer in the racing community as NASCAR’s first Black winner in its top division but the other as a father with a close-knit sense of family. Those relatives have carried on his memory since his death in 1990, but they have also brought in Wallace as one of their own.
The family’s support has come from all corners, but Wallace may have had his tightest connection with Wendell Scott Jr., who died in February. “My uncle, Wendell Jr., absolutely adored that man,” says Warrick Scott, grandson of the NASCAR Hall of Famer. “I mean, they were the closest of all our family.”
Says Wallace: “He was the one texting me just about after every weekend. We’d go a few weeks without talking, but man, he was always watching. And even if it was a bad race, he was like, ‘Man, I see what you were doing in Turns 3 and 4. That was sexy. That was cool.’ And it was like, I appreciate that, that’ll definitely be missed.”
Robert Laberge | Getty Images
The Scott family had been there in force to celebrate Wallace’s repeat Truck Series win at Martinsville in 2014. The group made the short drive west from the family’s hometown in Danville, Virginia, to watch Wallace dominate in a one-race switch to the No. 34 and the powder-blue paint once favored by their patriarch.
Plans had been sketched out for the family to be at Talladega last August, Warrick Scott says, but that so much travel in the weeks and months leading into the race made them press pause. Even watching from home, the Scotts felt no less connected, watching Wallace put his No. 23 Toyota in position to win once the rain – which had already forced a one-day delay – halted the race and made the outcome official.
“I think what gets lost in the moment, is the dynamic drive that he did leading up to that moment,” says Warrick Scott, the Wendell Scott Foundation‘s CEO. “He had to be in first to be declared the winner, and then his dominance or his proficiency at superspeedways. And so to see it all kind of come together at the same time, it just really felt like you know … the Scotts, we’re spiritual people. And we just really believe that my grandfather’s spirit, just in this totality, Darrell had obtained favor from the Lord above. And it was his moment.”
But it was at least a moment that the family shared as well, given the activity spike on Warrick Scott’s phone. Friends, family and well-wishers had come calling, but so did the interview requests into the foundation — local and national outlets, but also several outside the continental U.S. He rattles off the list of international media asks – Germany, Turkey, Sweden among others.
It was a spotlight Wallace was happy to share.
“The Scott family as a whole has been really good to me,” he says. “And it’s been fun, you know, carrying the torch that their father had ignited. So I’m just carrying it further until someone else comes along to carry it even further than that. So it’s just very humbling and special.”
Candidates are already lining up to be that next torch-bearer that Wallace mentions. Rajah Caruth, 19, is in his first ARCA Menards Series season and made his Xfinity Series debut earlier this month at Richmond Raceway. Fellow teenager Lavar Scott has followed the same short-track route, driving a Rev Racing entry with Wendell’s No. 34 with some early success.
Warrick Scott says he wondered what sort of impact Wallace’s win might have on the talent pool of Black drivers rising through the ranks this season. Now he’s watching that influence unfold.
“Now we’re in the following year talking about it, so you’re seeing an uptick in the opportunities that they’re getting,” Scott says. “I’m not saying that Bubba’s victory is solely the reason, but you’ve got to feel like internally, those guys can look at him and see a form of success that they can touch and connect to. They can only read about and watch my grandfather, watch about what my grandfather did and read about them.
“But to be able to get some real tutelage or guidance from that guy, about many things that probably don’t even have to do with the actual action of racing, the stuff leading up to the race — who you have to be socially, who you have to be culturally — to be able to have a tour guide. It just felt like a powerful moment in sports history that I am glad that my grandfather’s legacy wasn’t a footnote. It was, it felt as though he was a part of that moment, even from the grave.”
Upstart to winner
It had been barely more than a year since the launch of 23XI Racing, announced by friends turned business partners Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan, by the time Talladega’s October race arrived.
In some ways, the operation was still a start-up finding its way through its first season together. By Talladega, 23XI was three races into its first major reorganization – crew chief Mike Wheeler in his new role as competition director, and fellow veteran Bootie Barker taking his spot making the race-day calls. They oversaw a still-new group tasked with making the No. 23 go. When Talladega arrived, there was a collective release mixed with fulfillment.
“I think the reality was for us just watching the team come together and actually get rewarded for all of its efforts from scratch,” Wheeler told NASCAR.com. “You know, we were working hard all year to grow from nothing to being relevant and trying to make the playoffs.”
The postseason goal eluded Wallace, who finished second to longtime friend Ryan Blaney in the regular-season finale at Daytona, where a last-minute victory would have propelled him onto the playoff grid. Talladega, though, meant a chance to steal away a win from the championship contenders, and for Wallace to celebrate with the team that helped get him there.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
“Man, that was really sweet, and made that moment just last even longer and something you could think about and cherish for a really long time,” Wallace says. “So, I’ve got a lot of great people on my team, a lot of hard workers, and you appreciate their attitude and their effort that they bring to the track. We’ve had some people move around a little bit, go from off the road to in the shop, but just the people that we continue to surround ourselves with, and bring on at 23XI, it’s been fun. It’s just been a fun atmosphere, and that’s what I wanted it to be.”
When the race was ruled official, Wallace’s emotion overflowed alongside his team’s.
“So, just that day … it just put everything in perspective about how hard you work and how much you put in to put it together,” Wheeler says. “And a lot of guys in that team, it was their first win. I know it was Bubba’s first win, but it was Bootie’s first win, it was engineers’ first win, it was tire guys’ first win. There’s a lot of people on that team that haven’t ever won a national series race or even a Cup race. For me it was, I had another win under my belt, maybe it was my first win as comp director, but I remember calling Denny up and saying how much it felt differently. As much as we were excited, it was more of a ‘wow’ than happiness.”
The Victory Lane hit differently in many ways, from the alternate indoor location made necessary by lightning in the vicinity of the track to the presence of Asher for the post-race festivities. For Hamlin, it was a rare moment to observe a celebration for a race he didn’t win. Instead, he watched like a proud parent as the team he’d helped assemble soaked in the moment.
Wheeler didn’t want the moment to end, but he also wanted a proper finishing touch. So once the storm had let up, he asked.
“I remember afterward, the Victory Lane stuff going a little bit south because of the lightning delay and all the rain,” Wheeler says. “I remember actually calling up NASCAR and being like, ‘hey, we gotta get these guys Victory Lane pictures. This is the first time ever. We can’t just send them home without a Victory Lane party,’ so I was happy that NASCAR followed through with that and got all these guys a moment in Victory Lane like that.”
The return
Wallace has kept several mementos from last October – one of the hats he wore through post-race, Jordan’s voicemail with his personal congratulations. Other keepsakes he’ll be reunited with later, after their rotation through the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Among those is the No. 23 Toyota he drove, a previous-generation Cup car that now has historic provenance.
When the Cup Series returns to Talladega for Sunday’s GEICO 500 (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM), Wallace and 23XI will figure among the favorites. The team finished second in the Daytona 500 earlier this year and contended until the last handful of laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway’s new hybrid superspeedway configuration.
The reminders of the last Talladega race will travel with them, some of them tangible. Wallace has already indicated this week that he’ll sport a mustache look – a good-luck charm from his last appearance there. But there’s also the reminder of the sense of accomplishment and the hint that it could be repeated.
“You definitely go to some of these speedway tracks going, ‘hey, we won the last race, we can do this again.’ Talladega is one of them, obviously,” Wheeler says. “It’s the last event we were there, we won. So I don’t say it’s a swagger, but there’s a confidence saying we can do it again, and I think it’s where it makes you very powerful in what you’re doing, because people around you, too, realize you’re a good speedway racer or a team, and it takes people helping you to win these races or following you to help win races. Having that confidence and people around you having that confidence in the car and the team does make you faster and have a better chance.”
Within the memories was validation. Wallace was in his fourth full Cup Series season, and while he’d won at other levels, it had been 142 races into his career without breaking through. That drought was fodder for naysayers and social-media hecklers, a group that bristles at his willingness to take a stand on social justice issues and that conflates his position in the sport with privilege. No singular act would shut that narrative down, but the Talladega victory at least made the noisemakers take a hard look at the scoreboard.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media
“You know, what’s happened there in the past with some comments that have been made about him from people out there — I’m not even gonna call them fans — I think it makes it sweeter that he won there,” Blaney says. “So I know he’s looking forward to getting back. I’m looking forward to getting back.
“So I don’t want him to win again, I will say that,” Blaney added with a laugh, knowing that he’ll be seeking his third Talladega win for Team Penske this weekend. “That was a really special one, and it was a fun night to be able to spend that with him. … I mean, before you get your first Cup win, you’re always questioning, OK, can I make it here? Can I compete for wins? Can I do this, that? And when you get your first Cup win, like, it just boosts your confidence a ton when you’re able to do that and kind of break through. So yeah, I think obviously it’s gonna help anybody out confidence-level-wise.”
Wallace’s profile elevated in the days after his first win, his name ringing out on the evening news – nationally and beyond. He’s since been the subject of a behind-the-scenes documentary on Netflix, and his media rounds have reached beyond the sphere of motorsports.
In terms of his race-day approach, Wallace insists that little has changed – from his reliance on his 23XI team, his trust in longtime spotter Freddie Kraft and his faith in his own superspeedway abilities. The return trip through the Talladega gates this weekend may bring that flood of memories back, but there are still memories yet to make.
“I think going back, obviously, all the eyes are on you, which I don’t want, but it’s just how it works. That’s how any competition, any league works,” Wallace says. “Somebody wins at that place, and then they come back. It’s like, ‘can they do it again?’ So it’s just like, well, can I kind of get through qualifying first, can I get to my motorhome first. But I think in just being there, appreciating where we’re at as a team, where I’m at as a driver, and just going out and racing, racing and having fun. I genuinely have fun at these plate races and that goes a long way, too, when you’re having fun, and you can make some of the moves that may be questionable early on and you’re like, ‘ah, we’ll be OK. Our car’s fast.’
“I keep saying it, but we’re not gonna change a thing of what we do, and Freddie and I know what to do. And that’s it.”
The 2022 NASCAR All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway is set for May 22, and the All-Star Fan Vote is now open.
Fans can vote here to send their favorite drivers into the All-Star field if they haven’t yet qualified. You can only vote for one eligible NASCAR driver per submission, and you may only submit one ballot per day per each unique email address. Sharing your vote on Twitter and Facebook adds a bonus entry for each, for a total of four submissions for your favorite driver per day.
The drivers currently eligible for the Fan Vote are: Austin Dillon, Corey LaJoie, Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher, Harrison Burton, Justin Haley, Todd Gilliland, Cole Custer, Ty Dillon, Erik Jones, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Cody Ware, Landon Cassill, BJ McLeod and Daniel Suárez.
Drivers are eligible for the Fan Vote by having attempted to qualify for the 2022 Daytona 500. If a Fan Vote candidate wins a NASCAR Cup Series race before the All-Star Race — Talladega Superspeedway, Dover Motor Speedway, Darlington Raceway and Kansas Speedway stand as the four opportunities left — that driver is automatically in the All-Star field.
If a driver wins a stage in the NASCAR Open qualifying race before the All-Star Race, that driver will be locked into the field and is not eligible to be the Fan Vote winner. A driver must finish the NASCAR Open with his respective vehicle in a raceable condition at the time called as determined by the NASCAR Cup Series Managing Director in order to win the Fan Vote.
Disclaimer: On or off track, participation in either “Big One” at Talladega Superspeedway may not be voluntary.
The on-track “Big One” is obviously a large wreck that happens during the race. The off-track “Big One” is essentially an infield party. Both can scoop up the willing and unwilling.
“So, it was a good time. (Ryan) Blaney and I just did like the pillow fight on top of the balance beam or whatever, and that hurt,” Bubba Wallace said. “I think I pulled a muscle trying to keep myself on top of that thing.”
Because the “Big One on the Blvd” returns Friday after two years away due to COVID-19, here’s a video @bobpockrass shared with me of @Blaney and @BubbaWallace pillow fighting at the @TALLADEGA event in 2019. (There’s a “Big One” story coming; this isn’t random.) pic.twitter.com/FqbUwNriXm
After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the “Big One on the Blvd” returns Friday to kick off NASCAR’s race weekend. Festivities will begin at 7 p.m. CT (local) and wrap around 9 p.m. CT. Unique to this spring, in honor of the event’s resurgence, a firework show – estimated about 12 minutes in length – will follow for everyone in the area to see.
“We’re extremely excited about it,” track president Brian Crichton told NASCAR.com. “It is a tradition at Talladega, and it’s so good to have that tradition back.”
The “Big One on the Blvd” begins with a mini parade inside the track. Drivers ride on a 53-foot flatbed trailer that doubles as a makeshift float equipped with lights, microphones and speakers down Talladega Boulevard, starting on the Turn 3 side. They toss swag – T-shirts, koozies, beads or whatever is handy – out to the crowd.
The journey, but not the fun, ends at the intersection of Talladega Boulevard and Eastaboga Boulevard, right by the “Boulevard Bar.” This is where the games take place.
“I’ve always been a part of the ‘Big One,’ ” Blaney said. “Because it’s a great event for fans and it’s a really fun time. I’m happy it’s able to come back, and I’m probably gonna sneak out there and see what I can get into.”
Blaney and Wallace aren’t the only drivers who have made an appearance. William Byron, Daniel Suárez, Ty Dillon, Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Erik Jones, Kurt Busch, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Corey LaJoie and many, many more are listed as attendees on Talladega documents.
Clint Bowyer was one of the original masterminds behind the “Big One on the Blvd,” which debuted in 2014. He, along with Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., were present at the inaugural throwdown.
Courtesy of Talladega Superspeedway
Speaking of the first-ever, one of the games from that year is making a comeback Friday: barbecue-sauce wrestling. Fifty-five gallon drums of barbecue sauce have been brought in from all over the state of Alabama.
“The barbecue-sauce wrestling was just … it was electric,” Crichton said. “People had so much fun with it. I’d have to go back to that one (as most memorable) just because the referee got dragged into it and the contestants were just having a lot of fun with it.”
Talladega put out an online “Pick ‘Em Fan Vote” to determine Friday’s games. Along with “BBQ Sauce Wrestling,” fans chose “Oh Sit” (musical chairs, but with balls), “Rubber Pull” (a tug-of-war tire in a Jell-O pit) and “Slopfest” (three “tasty” delicacies).
There are two ways to gain access to the “Big One on the Blvd.” First off, all infield passes are guaranteed admission. Then, as an incentive, guests who renew their tickets receive a special renewal ticket that grants entrance.
“All my friends ask me like, ‘Where should we go watch a Cup race?’ ” Bowman said. “And I’m like, ‘You either gotta go to Talladega, rent a camper and camp on the Boulevard, or you gotta go to a road-course race.’ I feel like those are the two things that I would want to do, so definitely excited to get back there. It’s a cool place.”
Courtesy of Talladega Superspeedway
Talladega was the first venue to allow NASCAR fans amid COVID-19, selling up to 5,000 tickets for the June 2020 weekend. Ticket sales were limited that October, too. Attendance was better in 2021, but mask and social-distancing regulations were still in place.
The revival of the “Big One on the Blvd” truly checks the final box. Talladega is 100% operational.
“Looking out into the infield and not seeing a RV or camper that June, it wasn’t right,” Crichton said. “It just didn’t seem, you know… It obviously wasn’t Talladega.
“Talladega, it’s like we say: This is more than a race. This is Talladega.”
Season ticket sale numbers at Berlin Raceway this season are higher than ever before, “times four,” said Berlin general manager Jeff Striegle.
When Striegle looks at the names of people who are buying season tickets for the Marne, Michigan, track this season, some are fans who have been going to the paved oval track for years and decades, some are brand new, and some are second and third generations of Berlin families.
“I think what makes it even more special is some of the people I know who have been coming here for three, four, five decades are now bringing their grandchildren to the racetrack and introducing them to what racing is and what we do here at the track,” Striegle said.
Striegle also knows many of those new fans learned about Berlin Raceway thanks to the track’s win in the Advance Auto Parts “Advance My Track Challenge” last year. The NASCAR-sanctioned track accrued the most fan votes among 22 NASCAR tracks across the country in the contest last summer.
The win came with a $50,000 prize, which Striegle said the track plans to use in three ways, one of which is a project that has already begun. A new fan deck is currently being built in Turn 2, which will be about 5,000 square feet and hold at least 250 fans.
When the deck is complete, Berlin officials also plan to make enhancements to the track’s main concession stand, and they’re also looking at starting a nonprofit organization to work with disadvantaged youth in western Michigan.
“I’m very proud to say that, when it’s complete, I think we’re going to have the best hospitality deck in all of short track racing,” Striegle said. “Winning it was such a big deal for the Berlin Raceway in so many different facets that we were not only able to better serve our race fans, including our hospitality, but also reach out and give back to the community.”
Berlin Raceway, which opened in 1951, has a long history as one of the premiere short tracks in the country. One of the things Striegle said those at the track like to brag about is the fact Berlin has hosted 11 NASCAR Hall of Famers at one point in their career. Names like Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Rusty Wallace.
Other drivers like Bob Sennekar, the winningest driver in the history of the American Speed Association National Tour, NASCAR Busch Series and Truck Series champion Johnny Benson, and Tim Steele, an ARCA Re/Max Series national champion, also got their start at the track.
Carson Hocevar, who currently races in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, is also a former Berlin track champion, and he returns to his home track as often as he can.
Saturday night will be a homecoming for @CarsonHocevar as he returns to @BerlinRaceway for the season-opening Icebreaker!
Striegle has his own history at Berlin. He has been going to races there since his dad started bringing him when he was 10. He has raced there himself and owned race cars that raced there. While he said he wasn’t necessarily looking for another job – Striegle is also a radio broadcaster for the Motor Racing Network, calling NASCAR races nearly every weekend – he said when the opportunity to manage the facility came up, “I couldn’t turn it down, because I just have so much passion for this place.”
“It’s something that has been special to me and my family for years and years, and when the opportunity came, I had to accept,” he added.
There are so many other fans at Berlin with similar histories of years and years of going to races there, but winning the Advance My Track Challenge also helped bring new attention to the staple in the community.
“Even though we have been here for 71 seasons prior, I sometimes feel like fans may forget that we’re here,” Striegle said. “I think, with the media attention that winning the challenge brought us, it reminded people who may not have been here in a long time that we’re still here.
“And obviously a key factor is, it introduced Berlin to people who might like racing that didn’t even realize we were here. … Hopefully we’re going to see new people and new faces coming through the gates this year all because of the Advance My Track Challenge.”
ARCA Menards Series racing at Berlin Raceway in 2021 (Photo: Nic Antaya/ARCA Racing)
With a busy summer ahead, Striegle said he is most excited about the diversity of racing that will compete at Berlin in 2022. The track runs super late models on a regular basis, and it will also welcome wing and non-wing sprint cars, outlaw late models, and modifieds, among others.
Berlin had to cancel its season-opener last weekend due to weather, but things are looking much better for this weekend’s Berlin Icebreaker, featuring 4-cylinders, sportsman, limited late models and super late models. Racing begins at 4 p.m. ET.
“I’m trying to figure out where to put all the cars and the people, because I know they’re going to be here,” Striegle said.
“I think when we think about the history and we look around the facility, we see names and car numbers that just resonate what it was and what it is today.”
Fans and competitors have a lot to look forward to when Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, begins its 73rd season Saturday.
The Hayes Jewelers 200 presented by Q104.1, the track’s marquee race for the headlining Modified division, kicks off the first full season of NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series racing at the quarter-mile paved oval since the COVID-19 pandemic stopped racing in its tracks in early 2020.
The track did host weekly racing last year, but it was an abbreviated season that started late as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in the region.
“I think the big thing that we’re all looking forward to is getting back to normal,” said Gray Garrison, the promoter of Bowman Gray Stadium and the grandson of Alvin Hawkins, who co-founded the track with NASCAR’s own Bill France. “Like the rest of the world, we were kind of shut down in 2020, and then we had an abbreviated season in 2021. This year we’re ready to get back and hit the ground running wide open.
“I kind of feel like we’re lost just a little bit because we kind of got out of our routine because of the last couple years, but the season is coming together real good.”
Bowman Gray Stadium (Photo: Sara D. Davis/Getty Images for NASCAR)
On top of a return to normalcy at the legendary facility, Bowman Gray Stadium recently got a facelift thanks to funding from the city of Winston-Salem.
“The main shell of the facility was built in the 1930s under the WPA (Works Progress Administration) program,” Garrison explained. “It was kind of time for a facelift. The city had some bond money they raised, and part of the bond money was (used for) improvements to Bowman Gray Stadium.”
Among the many upgrades to the facility were new concession stands, new restrooms and a fresh coat of paint on many of the walls and other facilities at the Stadium that is also home to the Winston-Salem State Rams.
Perhaps most importantly, the bond money paid for a new racing surface at the quarter-mile flat oval.
“New pavement is always good,” Garrison said. “That’s going to create a little different scenario for everybody, because nobody knows really what it’s going to do in race conditions. It should be exciting to see what happens.”
A new season also brings a new streaming partner, as FloRacing has partnered with NASCAR and Bowman Gray Stadium to stream races from the historic track live every week throughout the season.
“The world is changing so much, and streaming just seems to be part of the new era that we live in,” Garrison said. “The whole package with NASCAR, FloRacing and Bowman Gray, that’s a pretty good combination right there for everybody.”
It all adds up to one of the biggest season openers in Bowman Gray Stadium history, which Garrison believes will include grandstands packed with the Bowman Gray faithful on Saturday night.
“Even though we are streaming, there is nothing like being at Bowman Gray Stadium,” Garrison said. “It’s an event. It’s an atmosphere you can’t describe. It’s like the first day of school at the fair. There is just so much going on that you can’t see and take it all in.
“There is nothing like being there. The feel, the atmosphere, the rumble of the cars, the crowd screaming. It’s just an amazing place to see a race.”
The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns after a week off to compete in the Ag-Pro 300 Saturday, April 23 at Talladega Superspeedway (4 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Jeb Burton earned his first career Xfinity Series victory in this race last year, leading the final nine laps and ultimately holding off Austin Cindric, current series points leader A.J. Allmendinger, Riley Herbst, Ryan Sieg and Noah Gragson.
Kaulig Racing’s Allmendinger is in the midst of a stellar season start, earning his first victory of the year at Circuit of The Americas. He is the only driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with top-10 finishes in all eight races. Last year’s third-place effort at Talladega is his best showing in four Xfinity Series starts there.
Nineteen-year-old Ty Gibbs, who will be making his series Talladega debut, is currently second in the driver standings and trails Allmendinger by 20 points with a series-best three victories. His only Xfinity Series superspeedway experience to date, however, is an 11th-place finish in the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway. The driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has a series-best 325 laps led on the season and has won pole position for the last three races.
Noah Gragson sits just behind Gibbs in the standings and the driver of the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet has been good on the Talladega high banks earning top-10 finishes in four of his six starts there with a best showing of third-place in 2020. Gragson was third in the first superspeedway race of 2022 at Daytona.
Brandon Brown, Sieg and the most recent race winner Brandon Jones (Martinsville Speedway) all have good cases as race favorites, too. Brown won the series’ last race at Talladega in October of 2021 – his only win in the series. He’s finished top-10 in the last three races at the track.
Sieg, who has five top-10 finishes in 2022, has finished 11th-place or better in the last three Talladega races, including a runner-up finish in 2020. Jones, driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, has three top-five finishes and was runner-up to Brown in the fall race last year.
Saturday’s race marks the third round of the Dash 4 Cash incentive with $100,000 on the line to the top finishing driver Saturday among these four: Brandon Jones, Landon Cassill, Allmendinger and Austin Hill.
The top-four finishing eligible drivers at Talladega will then race for the final $100,000 courtesy of Xfinity – when the series competes at the “Monster Mile,” Dover Motor Speedway next week. Allmendinger and Jones each pocketed one of the two $100,000 bonuses already awarded this season.
NASCAR returns to the high banks of Talladega Superspeedway this weekend.
Racing on superspeedways creates plenty of three-wide, close-quarters racing. The Next Gen gets its first opportunity to taste the 33-degree banking on Sunday in Alabama (3 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Get ready for the weekend with all the information you need here:
GET GRIDDED, GET RACIN’
After days of superspeedway practice at Daytona back in February, there will be no practice for the Cup Series this weekend at Talladega. Instead, the series will jump straight into single-car, two-round qualifying on Saturday (11 a.m. ET, FS1). The top-10 fastest cars in the first round will advance to the second round, where each of the 10 drivers will lay down another lap. The fastest of the final 10 wins the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s race.
— Talladega Superspeedway was completed in 1969, built in a soybean growing area. Today, the facility covers about 3,000 acres, the most of any Cup track (Daytona is 482 acres). It cost $6 million.
— Bill Ward, an Alabaman insurance salesman and part-time racer, convinced NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. to build the track in Alabama despite France’s initial ideas to build in South Carolina.
— Ward found the location for the enormous facility at a near-abandoned airport next to Interstate 20, which was built in 1942 to train Navy pilots.
— The track was originally called Alabama International Motor Speedway.
— Richard Brickhouse won the inaugural Cup race on Sept. 14th, 1969 at Talladega, an event run after most of the regulars decided not to compete due to concerns over the tires’ capability of withstanding the high speeds.
— The track was last repaved before the fall race in 2006. Mark Martin won the Truck Series’ inaugural race at Talladega in the first race on the fresh asphalt.
— Talladega is the biggest oval on the circuit at 2.66 miles with the steepest banking (33 degrees) and is the site of the most lead changes in one race (88, spring 2010 and spring 2011) and closest margin of victory (.002 seconds, Jimmie Johnson, spring 2011).
Source: Racing Insights
GOODYEAR TIRES
In addition to the multiple test sessions held at Daytona International Speedway, a Dec. 13, 2021 tire test by Drew Herring (Toyota), Brad Keselowski (Ford) and Daniel Suárez (Chevrolet) helped confirm the tire setup for both Daytona and Talladega.
After a test in September, the decision was made to go ahead with a December test with a change made to reduce the stagger in the superspeedway tire setups. That change was confirmed in January tests at Daytona and throughout Speedweeks in February.
“With this new car, we’ve put a lot of work into the superspeedways over the past many months,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “We got a lot of feedback from the drivers after an early session at Daytona and we made a change to the stagger, which has given the cars more stability in the draft. We had a good race at the (Daytona) 500 in February and we expect similar results this week at Talladega.”
TALLADEGA STORY LINES
— Team Penske has won eight of the last 13 races at Talladega — three with Brad Keselowski, three with Joey Logano and two with Ryan Blaney.
— Bubba Wallace has three consecutive top-two finishes on superspeedways, including his first career Cup win last October at Talladega. Only four drivers have scored four in a row: Cale Yarborough (twice), Dale Earnhardt, Ernie Irvan and Dale Jarrett.
— Chevrolet has just two wins at Talladega in the past 16 races there — Dale Earnhardt Jr. (spring 2015) and Chase Elliott (spring 2019).
— Four of the last seven superspeedway races were won by drivers getting their first NCS win.
— The final green-flag stretch was two laps or less in the last 15 superspeedway races.
— Martin Truex Jr. has never won a superspeedway race in 68 starts.
Source: Racing Insights
LAYING MONEY ON THE LINE
For as unpredictable as superspeedway racing can be, Team Penske sure knows how to dominate lately.
Penske drivers Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney are co-favorites this weekend at 11-1 odds, according to BetMGM. Their rookie teammate Austin Cindric, who won the Daytona 500 in February, is right behind them at 14-1 odds.
Joining Logano and Blaney with 11-1 odds are Toyota’s quasi-teammates Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace. Hamlin, a Joe Gibbs Racing driver, co-owns 23XI Racing, the team for which Wallace drives. These two have won each of the last two fall races at Talladega and know how to get it done on superspeedways, as shown by Hamlin’s three Daytona 500 titles.
Don’t forget about Brad Keselowski (14-1). Now the co-owner of RFK Racing and driver of its No. 6 Ford, the former Penske driver is the defending race winner this weekend and leads all active drivers with six Talladega triumphs, tying Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon for second-most all-time. The Fords carried plenty of speed at Daytona, which is likely to translate to Talladega this weekend.
Want to manage a team and race your way to the top of the leaderboards? Check out NASCAR Fantasy Live, which is open now. The free-to-play game lets you choose your drivers each week and show off your crew-chief instincts by garaging a driver by the end of Stage 2, and there is a $25,000 prize for the winner.
The 2022 Fantasy Live points leaders are Chase Elliott (318), Ryan Blaney (313) and Joey Logano (301).
Get additional camera views by logging on to NASCAR Drive, where each week a select number of in-car cameras will be available — as well as a battle cam and an overhead look.
NASCAR has partnered with LiveLike to add fan engagement in the NASCAR Mobile App. Log in to the mobile app during the race for polls, quizzes, the cheer meter and more — and see instant results from NASCAR fans like you.
It’s no secret that when it comes to racing and winning at Talladega Superspeedway, Brad Keselowski is one of the best.
The driver and co-owner of the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford Mustang has scored six victories in his NASCAR Cup Series career at the 2.66-mile superspeedway and is the defending winner of Sunday’s GEICO 500 (3 p.m. on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM).
His six victories make him the winningest active driver in Cup Series competition at the track, with Team Penske’s Joey Logano next on the active win list with three.
All but one of those six victories came during Keselowski’s long tenure with Team Penske, which ended last season when he became co-owner of RFK Racing.
Luckily, according to Keselowski, the RFK Racing superspeedway program had established solid performance and has required few changes since he joined the organization.
“Honestly the superspeedway program was very strong already,” Keselowski told NASCAR.com Wednesday. “It didn’t need anything from me. I probably gave a few small ideas, but it was probably the strength of the company the second I walked in. Mostly it’s actually been not messing with it. If you’ve got something that’s working, don’t touch it.
“There are other areas that aren’t working and I’d rather work on them.”
Keselowski and his teammate, Chris Buescher, showed just how strong RFK Racing’s superspeedway program was at Daytona International Speedway in February.
The pair swept the Bluegreen Vacations Duels, with Keselowski winning the first race and Buescher capturing the second. Keselowski followed that up by leading the most laps during the Daytona 500 a few days later before ultimately finishing ninth.
Since then things have been on a downward slope for Keselowski, who has failed to crack the top-10 in the eight races since Daytona. Add to that the L2-level penalty levied against the team on March 24 for the modification of a single-source supplied part and the No. 6 team has been spending most of its time playing catchup.
Despite that, Keselowski doesn’t feel like his team is in a must-win situation entering Talladega or the other superspeedway events on the schedule at Daytona (Aug. 27) and Atlanta Motor Speedway (July 10).
While a victory would certainly be nice, he believes the team is making significant gains that could see them in Victory Lane at several tracks coming up on the 2022 schedule.
“Honestly, I’m looking at the next month and I’m really excited about the races we have,” Keselowski said. “I think we can win any one of them. We’ve got a lot of good stuff coming down the pipeline. We’re starting to figure some things out and find some of the missing puzzle pieces.
“I’m not ready to say we have to win on a plate track to advance to the Playoffs. I feel like we’re starting to find our game at other tracks, too. I’m a lot more confident in the cars and the team is learning a lot. I’m not ready to concede that, but certainly I’m still going to try to win those races at Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta.”
Carson Hocevar cherishes every opportunity to return to his home track in Berlin Raceway.
Although his commitments to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series keeping him occupied for most of the year, the history and vibrant atmosphere of Berlin always bring Hocevar back to the facility whenever he has time on his hands.
With an off weekend for the Truck Series coinciding with Berlin’s season-opening Icebreaker on Saturday, Hocevar is eagerly looking forward to climbing back into a Super Late Model and reliving some of his fondest memories from the beginning of his career.
“I’m excited to come back home and race in front of my family and the hometown crowd,” Hocevar said. “I won’t be staying in a hotel room or in a camper because I get to go home right after the race. It will be nice to get re-acclimated to Berlin and prepare for the Money in the Bank [150] and the [Battle at Berlin] 251.”
Hocevar’s success in Berlin’s Super Late Model division was almost immediate. He picked up his first career victory in the full-bodied stock car when he was just 13 before claiming a track championship the following year in 2017.
The person Hocevar credits for his early efficiency at Berlin is former Truck Series champion Johnny Benson Jr., who ran four full-time seasons at the track and managed to claim an Outlaw Late Model championship in 1989 before making the jump to NASCAR in the mid-1990s.
Benson was approached by Hocevar’s dad Scott about mentoring his son and possibly purchasing his in-house Outlaw Late Model. While Benson did not sell the car to Scott, he agreed to have Hocevar take laps in it at Hickory Motor Speedway when he was 11.
It only took a handful of tests before Hocevar was closely mirroring Benson’s lap times at Hickory. Benson was impressed with the car control Hocevar was displaying and wanted to maintain an influence as Hocevar developed his skills at Berlin.
Benson knew Berlin itself would be a great teacher for Hocevar to figure out his driving style due to the lack of grip and abrasive nature of the facility.
“Berlin is in my top five of the hardest tracks I’ve ever run at,” Benson said. “Anybody can drive there, but being competitive there is very hard. I wanted to teach him at one of the hardest tracks instead of an easy one, but I told [Carson] that his days of winning every single race were probably done once he started racing at Berlin.”
Benson has seen plenty of drivers put together a great setup for one race at Berlin only for the next event to backfire for them despite not making any changes from the previous week, which is why he has stressed to Hocevar the importance of being patiently aggressive at Berlin.
There are many lessons from Benson’s tutelage that Hocevar still carries with him, but the one that is always on his mind every time he visits Berlin is to always be up on the wheel so none of the other drivers can gain an advantage over him.
“There’s a lot of tire wear at Berlin,” Hocevar said. “It’s a very technical, rhythm-based track, and there’s never a point where you get going straight and just relax. You’re setting yourself up early down the straightaways for how you enter and exit the corners. If you get complacent at Berlin, you’ll give up half a tenth.”
Carson Hocevar, driver of the No. 42 Premier Security Solutions Chevrolet, enters his truck for practice ahead of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series NextEra Energy 250 at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 17, 2022. (Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
The advice from Benson has been in Hocevar’s mind with each trip to Berlin. Along with his track championship, Hocevar’s accomplishments at Berlin also include two consecutive victories in the prestigious Money in the Bank 150, which he obtained in 2020 and 2021.
Hocevar dominated in both of those victories by leading a combined 265 of 300 laps against many talented Super Late Model drivers such as Stephen Nasse, local veteran Boris Jurkovic and former Snowball Derby winner Travis Braden.
Although the Icebreaker is smaller in scale compared to the Money in the Bank 150 and the Battle at Berlin 251, Hocevar still anticipates plenty of challenges on Saturday evening when it comes to managing equipment during the short sprint.
“With these races, the time of day and time of year is so important,” Hocevar said. “It’s been very cold in Michigan, so [Berlin] is going to have a lot more grip for the Icebreaker. The race is only 75 laps, so it will be a little bit more forgiving with tire wear, but you still have to hit on the setup right away since you won’t have a pit stop to fall back on.”
Hocevar is optimistic that a victory in front of Berlin’s crowd on Saturday night will help him continue the momentum from narrowly missing his first career Truck Series victory at Bristol Motor Speedway last week.
Despite coming up one spot short to defending champion Ben Rhodes, Hocevar’s second-place run matched his career-best finish in the Truck Series he obtained at Charlotte Motor Speedway last year and served to further validate the idea that his experience at Berlin is helping him with his progression.
Benson was pulling for Hocevar to hold off Rhodes in the closing laps, but he knows the patience and versatility behind the wheel will lead to that breakthrough victory soon.
“Once he gets that first win [in the Truck Series] and gets more experience, [Carson] will continue to do well,” Benson said. “He did a great job at Bristol this past weekend, and he’s figured out how to get to the finish. The hardest part about racing is finishing out the end, but Carson has gained respect from a lot of people, and he should be proud of himself.”
Carson Hocevar pictured after the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 16, 2022. (Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Hocevar is not sure if his career trajectory would be the same without the countless hours of repetition and dedication it took to thoroughly understand Berlin and become one of the most successful drivers in the facility’s recent history.
With all three crown jewel events at Berlin on Hoecvar’s calendar this year, he feels confident about adding a few successful chapters to his history at Berlin while simultaneously gaining knowledge that he can apply to NASCAR’s top three divisions.
“Any of these races are hard to win,” Hocevar said. “Competition even at the local level is becoming very difficult because everyone’s equipment is so similar, but it’s big anytime to win a race at Berlin with how hard the place is to keep up with and how good the locals are. We just have to hit the setup and not over adjust.”
Regardless of how the Icebreaker turns out for Hocevar, he said Saturday night is simply about enjoying the moment at a track that helped shaped his career in motorsports today.
A track that Hocevar is more than happy to call home.
