NASCAR Preview: Talladega Playoff Race Weekend
- DIVEBOMB Motorsport
- 3 hours ago
- 6 min read
Written by Gabriel Tsui, Ashleigh McGregor & Sean McKean
The penultimate round comes to a close this weekend in Talladega, as all three series take the hike to the formidable Alabama superspeedway.
Talladega is a 2.66-mile (4.28-kilometre) superspeedway with banking of 33 degrees in the turns, 16.5 degrees in the tri-oval and two degrees on the straightaways. The high banking allows this track to be flat-out the entire lap.
Below are the start times for each race plus lap count:
Trucks: Friday, 17 October, 15:00 local (21:00 UK) - 85 laps
Xfinity: Saturday, 18 October, 15:00 local (21:00 UK) - 94 laps
Cup: Sunday, 19 October, 13:00 local (19:00 UK) - 188 laps
Below are the defending winners of each race:
Trucks: No. 9 - Grant Enfinger (CR7 Motorsports)
Xfinity: No. 8 - Sammy Smith (JR Motorsports)
Cup: No. 47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (JTG-Daugherty Motorsports)
Cup Series: YellaWood 500 Preview
Written by Gabriel Tsui
Following a chaotic first race of the Round of 8, NASCAR continues on their journey to Phoenix with the 34th race of the season in Talladega, Alabama. In a superspeedway, there is guaranteed to be more chaotic moments and playoff-changing crashes. Will we see more playoff drivers involved in crashes and wrecks, throwing a wrench into the playoff standings?
The drivers will be driving around the longest racetrack on the NASCAR calendar for 188 laps, with 60 laps each in the initial stages and 68 laps to close out the race, totalling a distance run of 500 miles (804.6 kilometres).
The weather report indicates that there will be sunny skies throughout the weekend, while the temperatures remain at a balmy 23 degrees Celsius throughout the period of the race. The race will commence on the Sunday of October 19th, at 14:00 Eastern (11:00 Pacific, 19:00 British).
Race Predictions
It is pointless to predict who will win in a superspeedway, because random crashes and wrecks can take out key contenders in a blink of an eye. Alas, we will still pick out a driver to win the race, and it is Ryan Blaney.
It is difficult to justify picking a driver who has been fading in the past few weeks, without mentioning the fact that the No. 12 has DNF’d twice in a row at Talladega. The Penske cars haven't had that “wow” factor in the playoffs either, but we are banking on the clutch factor to come in now.
Blaney, for all his faults and questionable moments throughout the years, has produced incredible performances in the final three races of the season, year in, year out. For two years in a row, Blaney came in second at Homestead, won at Martinsville and second place in Phoenix.
If Blaney can pull off a win in Talladega, he can avoid going into a must-win situation at Martinsville and get cozy while other drivers will have to duke it out in a short track.
Three things to look out for
Downfall of Penske
After starting the playoffs in a relatively strong fashion, the Penske stars passed through the Round of 12 without much problems, while Blaney picked up a win at New Hampshire as well. However, Blaney crashed out early in Las Vegas, while Joey Logano had a relatively pedestrian performance, and alongside Logano’s initial deficit in playoff points, the pair now sits at the bottom of the playoff standings.
The next two weeks will be a good opportunity for the pair to turn the ship around, but it will take unreal performances for them to make it back from the bottom.
JGR not done yet
After a relatively up and down Round of 12 for all three playoff Joe Gibbs Racing drivers, they returned in one of the strongest fashions: sweeping qualifying and taking the race win from Kyle Larson, while finishing in the top-four all together. Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell currently all sit above the cut-line, giving them a nice advantage heading into Talladega, but their performance in Talladega can still make or break their chances of passing through to the championship round.
Disaster struck again for Chevrolet
After losing Trackhouse driver Ross Chastain to elimination following the Roval, disaster struck again, as William Byron collided with Ty Dillon after the latter attempted to head down pit road. This is obviously a huge blow to Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet, as the regular season champion will enter Talladega under the cutline.
Worse yet, Chase Elliott’s lacklustre performance in Las Vegas leaves the No. 9 even further down the standings. Should they not be able to right the ship immediately, they will find themselves in a hole too deep at Martinsville.
Xfinity Series: United Rentals 250 Preview
Written by Ashleigh McGregor
Aric Almirola took another victory last weekend in Las Vegas, while Connor Zilisch behind continued his record-breaking top-five streak. This weekend begins the penultimate race of the Round of 8 in Talladega, Alabama.
Zilisch leads the standings by 82 points. On top of his continuation of the top-five streak, all Zilisch needs to do to secure his spot in the final round is to finish top-five in both of the stages.
The Talladega coin-flip
The last few years have demonstrated that winning at Talladega can be seen as a game of chance rather than pure skill. Nonetheless, many drivers have made their playoff fortunes here.
Take Sammy Smith, for example. After an uninspiring regular season that saw him below the cut-line when the playoffs began, Smith immediately won at Talladega to secure his way into the Round of 8.
If the cards aren't stacked against you, Talladega can make or break your season.
Playoff picture
Zilisch sits atop the standings at 82 points, followed by Justin Allgaier at 44 points. Jesse Love sits 20 points to the good while Sam Mayer sits only eight points to the good.
Brandon Jones sits eight points behind the cut-line.
Sheldon Creed slots in 21 points behind the cut-line, Carson Kvapil at 22 points and Sammy Smith at 24 points.
Truck Series: Love's RV Stop 225 Preview
Written by Sean McKean
Things get dire for the Truck Series field as they are one step closer to closing out the Round of 8 in Talladega this weekend.
Last time out for the Truck Series at the Roval, Corey Heim took a record-breaking tenth win of the season. However, it didn't come as easy as most others, as a Lap 1, Turn 1 crash forced him to drive back through the field and earn it. The same will be said this weekend for Talladega.
Race Predictions
Predicting a winner at Talladega is akin to finding a needle in a haystack, as the unpredictability of pack racing can turn a sure-fire contender into a barrier within a blink of an eye.
However, we can go off recent trends, and if we are to go off stats, defending winner Grant Enfinger is the best bet. On top of winning his first career win here in 2016, Enfinger is consistently up front and battling for victories, even if many of his finishes don't reflect it on paper.
Two storylines to look out for
Anticipate an upset
Ever since 2019, Talladega has a knack for producing unlikely first-time winners.
In 2019, Spencer Boyd held off Johnny Sauter to take his only win to date. One year later in 2020, Raphael Lessard took his sole victory. In 2021, Tate Fogleman battled Tyler Hill to the line to take his sole victory to date. And in 2022, Matt DiBenedetto beat out Bret Holmes to take his only NASCAR top-three series win to date.
If that unexhaustive list indicates one thing, it's that Talladega is a great equaliser.
The playoff picture
Corey Heim sits atop the playoff standings, with a win in the Charlotte Roval already guaranteeing his Final 4 spot.
McAnally teammates Tyler Ankrum and Daniel Hemric sit tied in second and third, only two points above the cut-line.
Rajah Caruth holds the last spot with only one point separating him.
Layne Riggs is the first out at one point back followed by Ty Majeski at two back.
Grant Enfinger and Kaden Honeycutt both sit four points below the cut-line.
