Gentlemen – and lady – roll your dice.Yes, it’s Talladega Time. No doubt about it, any time the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series engines fire at the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway there can be 43 favorites. Anybody’s race? You bet.
The mammoth Alabama facility has produced 10 first-time winners – among them reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski. Some have never won again but are able to regale their grandchildren with tales of carrying the checkered flag to ‘Dega’s Victory Lane.
Perhaps either David Ragan or David Gilliland of Front Row Motorsports will be able to provide their up-and-coming organization its first NASCAR Sprint Cup victory. Both drivers have top-five finishes on restrictor-plate tracks; Gilliland a Daytona 500 pole in 2007 and Ragan top 10s in both Talladega races a year ago.
Several top-flight teams carry early-season momentum into this week’s race. Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson continues as the standings leader and Kasey Kahne and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are firmly ensconced in the top five. Junior hopes to capture a sixth Talladega victory and first since 2004.
Both Richard Childress Racing and Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates enjoyed last weekend’s night race at Richmond. RCR’s Kevin Harvick, a Talladega winner in 2010, posted the organization’s first points victory of the year. A late caution snatched the win from Juan Pablo Montoya’s pocket but the Colombian still snapped a 74-race top-five drought. EGR teammate Jamie McMurray, a Daytona 500 and Talladega winner, is contending for the organization’s first Chase berth since 2009.
Daytona 500 Coors Light Pole winner Danica Patrick hopes to carry her Daytona momentum – an eighth-place finish – to another restrictor-plate track. Her only ‘Dega experience came during last season’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race in which she finished 13th.
JR Motorsports, driver Regan Smith and crew chief Greg Ives – a former Hendrick Motorsports engineer – have closed to within a point of NASCAR Nationwide Series leader Sam Hornish Jr. The team ended 2012 with a victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway and continues to put the No. 5 Chevrolet among the leaders during this year’s opening races.
Experience pays dividends at Talladega Superspeedway where every NASCAR Nationwide Series winner since 2006 has been a full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup competitor. Joey Logano won the Aaron’s 312 last season.
Four NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regulars take advantage of the break in the schedule to make NASCAR Nationwide Series appearances this week.