Roger Diez: NASCAR moves from Talladega to Texas

The opening line from A Tale of Two Cities described Team Penske’s day at Talladega last Sunday. “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”

The best was Austin Cindric’s win, his first of the season, first at Talladega, and third career victory. The worst was Ryan Blaney’s early departure, caught up in Brad Keselowski’s wreck with Kyle Busch, and Joey Logano’s disqualification in post-race inspection.

For RFK racing it was an altogether bad day with Keselowski and Chris Buescher taken out in wrecks and Ryan Preece’s second-place finish nullified with a post-race disqualification. The good news for the whole Cup garage was the lack of a “big one,” with all the wrecks limited to two or three cars. Kyle Larson advanced to second, William Byron third, Noah Gragson fourth, and Chase Elliot fifth after the disqualifications. And Katherine Legge led laps in Saturday’s Xfinity race and ran consistently in the top 15 until a mistake by Aric Almirola ended her day.

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This weekend the series moves on to the high-speed 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway oval. Hendrick Chevrolets have done well there in recent years with Elliot winning in 2024, Byron in 2023, and Larson in 2021.

In all eight active drivers have posted wins in Texas with Kyle Busch taking the checker four times and Denny Hamlin three. In addition to the Hendrick boys, Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon, and Joey Logano have each won there once.

Cup qualifying airs Saturday at 9:10 a.m. on FS1 with the Xfinity race at 11 a.m. on the CW. FS1 will broadcast Sunday’s Wurth 400 at 12:30 p.m.

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The Formula 1 circus is in its fourth year at the Miami street course. Like Las Vegas, it’s an event that’s as much for the rich and famous to see and be seen as it is about the racing.

Max Verstappen won the first two outings while Lando Norris took last season’s Miami victory. I think those two will be in contention this year, along with Lando’s teammate Oscar Piastri, Mercedes driver George Russell, and perhaps the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc or Lewis Hamilton. It’s also the second sprint weekend of the season. Hamilton won the sprint in China but was disqualified from Sunday’s race.

The Sprint race airs at 9 a.m. Saturday with qualifying at 1 p.m., both on ESPN. ABC will broadcast Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix at 1 p.m.

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And to round out a busy weekend of racing, the NTT IndyCar series will be at Barber Motorsports Park for the Children’s Alabama Indy Grand Prix. Barber is a natural road course in a lush, green park setting, one of the most beautiful venues on the circuit.

Team Penske has been dominant over the years at Barber, winning eight of the 14 races there. Each of Penske’s current drivers have won back-to-back races starting with Will Power in 2011-12. Josef Newgarden won in 2017-18 with a third win for CFH Racing in 2015. And Scott McLaughlin has won the last two outings at Barber. Other current drivers who have Barber victories are Arrow-McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou.

Palou is the current points leader with 142 points, taking two wins and a second-place finish in the first three races of the season. Long Beach winner Kyle Kirkwood is second with 108 points, Christian Lundgaard has 96, Felix Rosenqvist 88, and Scott Dixon 86. Barber is one of the few tracks on the IndyCar schedule where Dixon hasn’t won, so he’s overdue.

Saturday’s action includes practices at 8:30 a.m. and qualifying at 11:30, both on FS1. FS1 will air pre-race warmup at 7 a.m. Sunday with the race on FOX at 10:30.