NASCAR Preview - Talladega

NASCAR visits the track that was considered so fast, that in the inaugural race in 1969, Richard Petty and most regular drivers boycotted it. That was Alabama International Speedway and this is now.

I am taking you inside the race.

From 2001-04 Dale Earnhardt Jr won 5 of 7 races at Talladega and finished second in the other two. His best finish in the last 8 restrictor races however is 7th. In the spring race at Talladega in 2004, Jeff Gordon started a streak of 4 wins in 5 restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talladega, while Earnhardt Jr won the other race and finished top three in 3 of Gordon's wins. Now they are future teammates.

Tony Stewart finished 2nd to Gordon in the last of those 4 wins, then went on his own streak finishing 1st, 5th, 2nd, 2nd, and 1st in the next 5 restrictor plate races. Kurt Busch finished 3rd to Stewart and his brother Kyle in the 2006 Pepsi 400 at Daytona, then he finished 3rd in each of the next 4 races except the Daytona 500 where him and Stewart crashed.

Here is my call on the last lap this weekend, with former track champions wrestling for the belt they held at one time.
'On the inside line is Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch, on the outside is Jeff Gordon and his future teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. Stewart nudges ahead out of turn 4, but here comes Gordon and Junior on the outside, THEY TOUCH, THEY TOUCH:
And the winner is:

Jeff Gordon with the help of his teammate Dale Jr. Gordon has led the most laps in 3 of the last 5 Talladega races, a total of 299 out of 950 laps. He has won 3 of the last 7 races here and led a total of 800 laps.

Tony Stewart falls a half-car length short on the outside with help from Busch. He finished second in 6 of 11 Talladega races from 2001-06 and led the most laps in 4 of 7 plate races from 2005-06. In his Championship year in 2005, he led the most laps in 3 of the 4 plate races, including a career-high of 65 at Talladega, but has never led more than 11 laps any other race there.

Dale Earnhardt finishes third behind Gordon. He has led 539 laps at Talladega, second to Gordon.

Kurt Busch finishes fourth and like Stewart has yet to win at Talladega. Busch has top eight finishes in 10 of 13 Talladega starts, including the last six. Again, like Stewart he doesn't lead a lot of laps. He has led only 81 laps and Stewart only 134. His 10.2 average at Talladega is best among this weekends drivers with at least two starts and Earnhardt Jr is second with a 12.6 average. Kurt finished third in his first start here in his rookie year of 2001.

At the end of his sophomore season in 2002 Busch finished in the top seven in 10 of the final 13 races. With seven races left that season he led 35 laps and finished 4th at Talladega. In those last 7 races he led at least 28 laps at each track and a combined 526 of 2242 laps, almost 1/4 of all the laps raced. He won 3 of the last 5 races that season.

In his Championship year in 2004, he finished in the top six in 8 of the last 10 races, and finished 5th at Talladega. Busch and Stewart were the best two cars in the Daytona 500 this year, but they crashed each other out of the race. If not for that wreck Kurt would have finished in the top three in the last 5 restrictor plate races. He led 95 of 200 laps in the Daytona 500, seven at Talladega, then 45 when they returned to Daytona.

This season he would have top eleven finishes in 11 of the last 12 races if not for bad luck with top five cars at Kansas and Dover.

Jimmie Johnson finishes 5th behind Gordon and Earnhardt in the outside lane. In 2006 he won the Daytona 500 despite leading only 8 laps, then won the spring race at Talladega with only 3 laps led. In the fall race that year he was running second to Earnhardt Jr late in the race, before incidental contact with Brian Vickers spun both of them out. He followed that up with a second-place finish to Gordon this year. He has led at least 3 laps in 10 of his 11 starts here.

Kevin Harvick finishes sixth on the inside lane behind Kurt Busch. He has finished in the top ten in 7 of the last 9 races at Talladega, with only one finish worse than 12th. He hasn't led more than 14 laps in any race, but had 2 second-place finishes and a third in four races from 2003-04. He is known to challenge on the outside lane which is where he beat Mark Martin this year in the Daytona 500.

McMurray finishes seventh on the outside lane, where he won the Pepsi 400 at Daytona this year. He led at least 18 laps in 4 of his 8 starts at Talladega, with 3 fifth-place finishes. He has finished in the top twelve in 7 of the last 10 restrictor races, five of those are top five.

Clint Bowyer finishes eighth behind his teammate Harvick. All three of his finishes in Talladega have been 35th or worse, but he led the most laps (55) in the Pepsi 400 this year at Daytona, a race won McMurray. Bowyer has top ten finishes in 3 of his 4 starts at Daytona and he has three top 3 finishes in the last 6 races this season.

Brian Vickers crosses the line 9th. His last 3 races here has a victory, a 3rd and a 6th. But, he didn't make the field earlier this year in qualifying for the Daytona 500 or the spring race in Talladega. His five starts prior to that though, he had top seven finishes in 4 of 5 plate races.

Matt Kenseth rounds out the top. He has top ten finishes in 4 of the last 5 races here, with the lowest being 14th. Three of those races he led between 21 to 23 laps. He has finished in the top ten in 7 of the last 10 plate races.

Possible surprises

Denny Hamlin led 48 laps at Talladega this year, but finished 21st. His best finish in 7 plate races is 17th.

Kasey Kahne has a 9th, 7th and 2nd in the last 4 plate races and has 4 top 10 finishes in the last 6 races this season.

Martin Truex Jr finished 10th and 5th in his last two starts here.

David Gilliland has 3 top 11 finishes and a worse finish of 15th. David Ragan finished 4th in the Daytona 500 and 12th and 17th in his other 2 races.

Trivia: In an interview for a magazine in 1982 this driver gave Dale Earnhardt his nickname "The Intimidator"?