Much ado about Talledega

NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Racing continue on the sport’s biggest stage – 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway – this weekend. Aerodynamic and other procedural changes returned traditional pack racing to Daytona International Speedway in February and should have a similar effect at Talladega.

Still, last year’s Aaron’s 499 was statistically compelling with a record number of lead changes and a margin of victory – 0.002-seconds between winner Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer – that matched the NASCAR Sprint Cup record.

Five-time Talladega winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. could bag two birds with the same slingshot on Sunday – giving Hendrick Motorsports its 200^th victory and in the process snap a 138-race winless streak dating to June 2008. HMS has won 11 times at Talladega, one fewer victory than Richard Childress Racing. RCR has won three of the last four Talladega races.

Saturday’s Aaron’s 312 is the Nationwide Series’ only 2012 visit to Talladega Superspeedway. Kyle Busch, the defending winner, climbs back into his No. 54 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota. Older brother Kurt Busch gave the team its first series victory last weekend in Richmond. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. continues his bid for a second consecutive championship. He’ll need to better last year’s 38^th-place finish, one of just two DNFs in his title season.

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series continues on hiatus as teams prepare for the May 18 North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Several drivers – Justin Lofton in a Nevada off-road race and James Buescher in the NASCAR Nationwide Series at Talladega – will step outside their trucks for racing this Saturday.

Traditional pack racing returned to Daytona International Speedway in February making this year’s Daytona 500 one of the memorable in history. Look for more of the same in Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway, at 2.66 miles in length the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ longest track. Talladega equals excitement: Last year’s Aaron’s 499 matched series records for lead changes (88) and closest margin of victory (0.002 seconds). Fact: every Talladega race finishing under the green flag since introduction of electonic scoring in 1993 has recorded an MOV of under a half second.

Daytona 500 Winner Matt Kenseth On Pack Racing:

 “I think you will see racing similar to Daytona. I don’t know why it would be much different. Daytona has the new pavement and a lot of grip just like Talladega. It is the same rules package so I think you will see racing like you did during Speedweeks.”

AJ Allmendinger On Pack Racing:

 “I’m excited to get back and hopefully have that big pack racing again. Hopefully, that kind of stays the same as Daytona. To me, to get back in the big packs and getting back to that will be a lot better than over the last couple of years. Hopefully, it continues the same way it was at Daytona. Daytona, to me, was great racing throughout the whole race. I wouldn’t say that I’m ever excited to go to Talladega, but I look forward to getting back to how big pack racing used to be there.”

 “I think that the pack-racing that we had at Daytona was amazing. I thought it was great racing. The two car tandem didn’t win the race — that’s a good thing. Really, they got us to where we were running a fast enough speed that handling became somewhat of an issue. So, all those things I think will equal good racing at Talladega if they keep everything the way that it was.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. last led the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings after his fifth and last win at Talladega in October 2004. He has four top-10 finishes in the last five spring races at Talladega and a 13^th-place finish in the fifth, two years ago.

Following his second runner-up finish of the season at Richmond last weekend, Dale Jr. said: “The team is confident, we’re feeling good. We feel like we’re competing well. Really close to winning a race. We ain’t really raced for a win yet and lost one, so I wouldn’t count tonight. But we’re getting better at running the top 5 and top 10s. We’ll just try to keep doing that. There’s too many variables going into races at Talladega whether you feel confident winning or not. There’s just too much going on there.”

Richard Childress Racing has won three of the last four races at Talladega Superspeedway, and Childress has more wins (12) than any other owner at the track. Childress began his driving career at the track in 1969, and on Thursday, the NASCAR Hall of Fame nominee will be inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame by NASCAR President Mike Helton.

Kevin Harvick had this to say about his team’s success at Talladega: “I think if you really look a little deeper into that, there’s some days where we just finish the last few laps and run probably slower than we need to run. But that’s always been something that Richard (Childress) has pushed on the guys is to make sure that when you start something, you do your best to not have that DNF on the chart. So, they do a good job at fixing things and getting them back out on the race track. We’ve definitely torn-up our share of stuff at Talladega as well. But it has been a good place for us. Hopefully we can keep putting ourselves in the right spot and keep that record intact.”

Harvick and fellow RCR drivers Jeff Burton and Paul Menard have yet to win in 2012. Harvick ranks seventh in points.

Clint Bowyer has several reasons to be excited about racing at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. Bowyer finished second in last year’s Aaron’s 499 and won the track’s fall race in 2011. He’s also fighting to a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™ having just missed qualifying for NASCAR’s post season a year ago. Bowyer, 12^th in the standings but just 14 points out of 10^th-place, left Richard Childress Racing at season’s end and bids to carry his Talladega success to Michael Waltrip Racing. Teammates Martin Truex Jr. and Michael Waltrip logged top-10 finishes in last year’s fall race. MWR has a single top-five finish at Talladega: David Reutimann’s fourth in the fall of 2010.

In addition to reaching the 200-win mark in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Rick Hendrick is a win away from tying Richard Childress for most wins at Talladega with 12. Jeff Gordon has the most wins among active drivers with 6 while teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. has 5. The all-time winner is Dale Earnhardt with 10. Gordon’s last Talladega victory came in 2007 when he swept both spring and fall races. Five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson is the defending winner of the Aarons 499.

A Coors Light Pole away from 50, Ryan Newman heads to Talladega, where he has no poles and a 14.3 starting position.

With nine races in the books, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has passed the one-third mark of the 26-race regular season. Just two who didn’t qualify for the Chase a year ago – leader Greg Biffle and Martin Truex Jr. – appear in the top 10 of the standings following the April 28 Capital City 400 at Richmond International Raceway. Ten of the current top 13 qualified for last year’s Chase either via top 10 or Wild Card route. Jeff Gordon (17^th) and Kurt Busch (26^th) are pretty much consigned to seeking Wild Card berths if they are contend for this year’s championship.

The Aaron’s 499 has been run on May 6 four times. In 1973, David Pearson won against the biggest field in the track’s history (60 cars). In 1979, another NASCAR Hall of Famer and a member of the Alabama Gang, Bobby Allison, won. In 1984, a third NASCAR Hall of Famer, Cale Yarborough went to Victory Lane. All three won from the pole. In 1990, Dale Earnhardt claimed his third of a record 10 wins.

Bill Elliott will be appearing at Oxford and Pell City Walmarts on Saturday as part of Walmart’s 50^th anniversary Legends of Racing initiative. Saturday, May 5 is the 27^th anniversary of overcoming nearly a two-lap deficit under green-flag conditions to claim the win on his way to becoming “Million Dollar Bill” at Darlington later that year.

Since 1999, Chevrolet has won at least one race every year at Talladega except 2008. Chevy has won the last four races at the track and four of the last five. Jamie McMurray hopes to repeat his victory of fall 2009 and snap a 48-race winless streak. Teresa Earnhardt – part of the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates ownership – won five consecutive Talladega races from 2001-2003.

Kyle Busch Celebrates 27^th Birthday This Wednesday
Busch, who recorded his 24^th Sprint Cup victory at Richmond last weekend, said: “To go to Talladega next week, anything can unfold there. I think I’ve been crashed all but one time, and that time I didn’t crash I almost crashed and won the race, so that was cool.” Busch joined older brother Kurt in 26^th on the series’ all-time victory roster and with his 105^th NASCAR national series victory stands one win behind second-place David Pearson.

Spring’s short track season ended at Richmond with three drivers (Brad Keselowski, Ryan Newman and Kyle Busch), three teams (Penske Racing, Stewart Haas Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing) and three manufacturers (Dodge, Chevrolet and Toyota) picking up victories at Bristol, Martinsville and Richmond, respectively. Fall’s three-race segment begins Aug. 25 at Bristol where owner Bruton Smith announced last week he would reconfigure the track’s compound banking in use since 2007. … Mike Ford, who guided Denny Hamlin to a second-place championship finish in 2010, has been named crew chief for Aric Almirola’s No. 43 Ford. He replaces Greg Irwin at Richard Petty Motorsports.

If finishing 19th at Daytona due to a last lap wreck to put him 15 points behind Elliott Sadler for the NASCAR Nationwide Series points lead wasn’t enough to light up Ricky Stenhouse Jr. right out of the 2012 box, being 25 points down to the leader after the event at Bristol certainly was.

Add to that Stenhouse’s 38th-place finish at Talladega last year as a result of a Lap 67 wreck – one of only two DNFs on the season – plus Sadler’s fifth-place effort, and you have a recipe for a patented Stenhouse charge.

Since Bristol, Stenhouse has one win and two other top fives bringing the reigning series champion to within two points of Sadler’s lead heading to ‘Dega.

There’s also a manufacturer challenge to go along with the Sadler-Stenhouse clash. Chevrolet, despite being the series’ all-time winner (12) at Talladega – hasn’t won at there since 2007. Ford last won in 2009.

Although she’ll be making her NASCAR Nationwide Series debut at Talladega, Johanna Long might very well feel at home.

Long, at 19 the youngest female to compete in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and a current Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate, is from Pensacola, Fla., and cut her racing teeth racing in Legends, Pro Late Models and Super Late Models at Alabama at tracks in Mobile and Opp.

She more than held her own in her NASCAR debut at Talladega last October, starting eighth and finishing 16th in the NASCAR Camping World Series race. Long drives for ML Motorsports in the Nationwide Series and the team collected its only top five to date at ‘Dega in 2008.

Have the floodgates opened for Kyle Busch?

After an inauspicious – and somewhat unlucky – start to the inaugural Kyle Busch Motorsports season in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, the team won its first race in exhilarating fashion last Friday night at Richmond. Kurt Busch delivered the historic victory for his little bro, banging side-by-side with hometown favorite Denny Hamlin to the tune of a .062-second margin of victory. That was the closest MOV in series history at RIR.

Kyle Busch, the 2009 series champion, won the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at RIR the following night.

With that kind of momentum – as well as being the defending winner of the Aaron’s 312 at Talladega – is it time for other series drivers to watch out for Kyle, who’s driving his own No. 54 Toyota this weekend?

The answer: perhaps. A NASCAR Nationwide Series driver championship contender hasn’t won at Talladega since 2005, when two-time series champion Martin Truex Jr. won the second of three consecutive races at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. Kyle also will have to deal with Kurt, who’s also entered in the Nationwide race, for Phoenix Racing.

Sam Hornish Jr. isn’t flying under the radar anymore. A three-time IndyCar Series champion and 2006 Indianapolis 500 winner, he’s found his second NASCAR wind. In his first full-time season in the Nationwide Series, Hornish is fourth in the points and comes off a season-best fifth-place result last week at Richmond. … Danica Patrick will be making her series debut at Talladega. She won her first career Nationwide Series pole in February at Daytona. … With the Truck Series in an open week, James Buescher, the Nationwide Series winner at Daytona, is entered at Talladega. … 1992 series champion Joe Nemechek – the all-time series pole winner (5) and two-time race winner at Talladega – nearly made it three wins with help from Mike Wallace last year. With Wallace as the pusher, Nemechek finished third. He may return the favor this year as Wallace’s hauler, primary car and majority of equipment was lost in a hauler fire at the JD Motorsports Gaffney, S.C., shop on Sunday. Wallace’s backup car was spared and will be ready for ‘Dega. RAB Racing has offered its Truck Series hauler for use by the JDM team at Talladega. … The No. 3 Chevrolet will make its first series run at Talladega since 2000 this weekend with driver Austin Dillon. … Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his nephew Jeffrey Earnhardt are entered in the event.

The award for the most impressive turnaround since last season goes to third place contender, Justin Lofton.

The 2011 season left Lofton with only three finishes inside the top-10, a feat he has already surpassed this season with four straight top-10 finishes.

The California native sits third in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship standings only 11 points out of the lead.

Following a two-day test in Nashville, Lofton will fly to Las Vegas to compete in the Canidae Tap Silver State 300 off-road event in the Best in the Dessert Racing Association.

Just four races into the 2012 season, the young guns continue to outshine the veterans in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship standings.

The top-six have never won a series championship.

Timothy Peters currently leads the standings by four points over Kansas winner James Buescher.

Justin Lofton – 11 points back in third – continues his impressive start to the season with four straight top-10 finishes.

Rookie standout Ty Dillon – who finished second at Martinsville last month – and Brazilian Nelson Piquet Jr. complete the top five followed by Parker Kligerman in sixth.

Crafton Excited About Repaving Of Pocono Raceway

Matt Crafton was one of seven NASCAR Sprint Cup and Camping World drivers to participate in last week’s Goodyear Tire test at Pocono Raceway. The track was repaved following last August’s Sprint Cup/truck weekend. “They outdid themselves on the pavement. It’s definitely one groove right now, but I’m sure, as you get more race cars on the track, they’ll be running side-by-side, and it’ll be interesting to see,” said Crafton, who finished third and eighth in his two trips to the “Tricky Triangle.”

Up Next: The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returns to action on Friday, May18 at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the N.C. Education Lottery 200.