TALLADEGA, Ala. — NASCAR’s top-tier Cup Series is back in action after its only weekend off of the 38-race schedule with a Sunday showdown at Talladega Superspeedway, where the drivers will try to halt the early domination shown by Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin and Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson.
The trio arrived at the Alabama track with seven combined victories through the first nine points races. Bell reeled off three consecutive wins in the first month of the season, then Hamlin won two in a row. Larson has won two of the past four Cup Series events, including a victory at Bristol Motor Speedway, with the race at the short track in East Tennessee the last before the break for Easter weekend.
Larson hasn’t slowed down — he did two days of Indianapolis 500 testing at midweek in a open-wheel car, then won a World of Outlaws race in a sprint car Friday night in Florida — but he’s not sure he’s bringing any momentum to Talladega.
“It’s just a normal-ish week for me, sitting in a race car every day,” the 2021 Cup Series champion said Saturday. “I race so often that a week of racing can make the week before feel like a long time ago.”
He’s definitely on a roll, which would be trouble for the rest of the field if Larson didn’t loathe superspeedway racing. His third-place finish at 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway in the second race this season is his career best on a high-banked, high-speed track. He has twice finished fourth at 2.66-mile Talladega, and he has never cracked the top 10 at 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway.
“I enjoy coming here because the crowd is into it here,” Larson said. “I don’t enjoy the racing, honestly. I don’t know if many people do. I come to these tracks we haven’t finished well the majority of the time.”
It’s been nine consecutive different winners at Talladega — the longest streak in the history of the iconic track — which hasn’t had the same driver in victory lane back to back since Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney in 2019-20. Since then, the races have been won by Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Blaney, Tyler Reddick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
The style of racing at Atlanta, Daytona and Talladega, where the 40-car field runs in a pack and drivers must draft off one another to slice through traffic, has many believing luck plays a critical role in deciding the winner.
A driver must avoid collisions just to have a chance. Last fall’s playoff race at Talladega included the biggest crash in NASCAR history when 28 cars were part of a demolition derby with four laps remaining in regulation. Stenhouse won in overtime.
“Luck is more important now, certainly, than it has ever been in history,” Hamlin said. “But it’s always had a role. It is just that the (percentage) numbers have grown.”
Zane Smith continued the qualifying dominance shown by Front Row Motorsports the past two years at drafting tracks by winning the pole for Sunday’s race at Talladega. It is the first career pole for the second-year Cup Series driver.
Smith turned a lap of 182.174 mph in the No. 38 Ford during Saturday qualifying to bump Busch in a Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet and Joey Logano in a Team Penske Ford. Ty Gibbs was the fastest Toyota driver and qualified 10th.
Smith’s run marked the third consecutive pole at Talladega for Front Row: Michael McDowell, who now drives for Spire Motorsports, swept the top spot in qualifying for both races last year. Front Row has actually won the pole at six of the past eight Cup Series races held drafting tracks.
Blaney at +900 is the betting favorite to win Sunday, per BetMGM Sportsbook, followed by Keselowski and Logano at +1200. Keselowski came to Talladega ranked 31st in the Cup standings, the worst start to a season since his 2010 rookie year. He leads active drivers with six victories at Talladega.
