Daytona Motor Mouths: Kurt Busch to NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2026?
Will the NASCAR Cup Series return to Rockingham in the near future? What about Kurt Busch and his 2026 Hall of Fame chances?
Unless you’re part of some weird wagering pool for qualifying, please pay little to no attention to what you see below.
Read it, of course, but lordy, don’t you dare use it as any sort of barometer for what will happen Sunday in the Jack Link’s 500 at big and bad Talladega Superspeedway. And I know what you’re thinking.
“Well, if you’re so smart, why don’t you throw some of your fancy statistics at us.”
Don’t mind if I do. ‘Scuse me while I whip these out …
After eliminating pole qualifying in 2020 and ’21, NASCAR resumed the traditional speed runs in 2022, which is also when the Next Gen car cranked to life. So we have three years and six Talladega races as a sample size, and Junior, what a sample we have.
Average starting position for the six Talladega winners since 2022: 18.6. The best starting spot was 10th and the worst was 32nd (Ricky Stenhouse last October).
Want more? Sure you do.
Average finishing position for the six pole winners since 2022: 23.5. No pole winner has finished better than 17th, and the last two finished 37th and 31st. Yes, both were Michael McDowell.
In spite of all this, they went ahead with qualifying Saturday morning.
Ten fastest speeds during Talladega qualifying
These 10 drivers advanced from first-round qualifying, which included all cars, to a second-round of qualifying to determine the first five rows.
Zane Smith: 182.174
Kyle Busch: 181.718
Joey Logano: 181.708
Ryan Preece: 181.708
Austin Dillon: 181.584
Chris Buescher: 181.498
Austin Cindric: 181.432
Josh Berry: 191.381
Ryan Blaney: 181.250
Ty Gibbs: 180.846
NASCAR lineup for Talladega
Full lineup for Sunday’s race, with lap times from Saturday’s qualifying.
- Zane Smith, No. 38 52.565
- Kyle Busch, No. 8, 52.697
- Joey Logano, No. 22, 52.7
- Ryan Preece, No. 60, 52.7
- Austin Dillon, No. 3, 52.736
- Chris Buescher, No. 17, 52.761
- Austin Cindric, No. 2, 52.78
- Josh Berry, No. 21, 52.795
- Ryan Blaney, No. 12, 52.833
- Ty Gibbs, No. 54, 52.951
- Christopher Bell, No. 20, 52.927
- Cole Custer, No. 41, 52.941
- Denny Hamlin, No. 11, 52.983
- Michael McDowell, No. 71, 52.991
- Todd Gilliland, No. 34, 52.995
- William Byron, No. 24, 53.028
- Chase Briscoe, No. 19, 53.061
- Alex Bowman, No. 48, 53.083
- AJ Allmendinger, No. 16, 53.084
- Bubba Wallace, No. 23, 53.122
- Ty Dillon, No. 10, 53.123
- Brad Keselowski, No. 6, 53.139
- Riley Herbst, No. 35, 53.157
- Daniel Suarez, No. 99, 53.191
- Kyle Larson, No. 5, 53.211
- Tyler Reddick, No. 45, 53.222
- Noah Gragson, No. 4, 53.264
- Carson Hocevar, No. 77, 53.298
- John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42, 53.337
- Chase Elliott, No. 9, 53.345
- Anthony Alfredo, No. 62, 53.381
- Ross Chastain, no. 1, 53.399
- Cody Ware, No. 51, 53.417
- Erik Jones, No. 43, 53.503
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47, 53.534
- Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88, 53.538
- Justin Haley, No. 7, 53.563
- BJ McLeod, No. 78, 54.103
- JJ Yeley, No. 44, 55.671
NASCAR at Talladega schedule, TV channel
SATURDAY
12:30 p.m.: ARCA Series, General Tire 200 (FS1).
4 p.m.: Xfinity Series, Ag-Pro 300 (CW).
SUNDAY
3 p.m.: Cup Series, Jack Link’s 500 (Fox).
