{"id":942027,"date":"2026-10-22T11:52:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T11:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/942027\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T11:52:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T11:52:22","slug":"crucial-talladega-nights-test-for-nascar-cup-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/942027\/","title":{"rendered":"Crucial Talladega Nights test for NASCAR Cup Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">THE business end of the NASCAR Cup Series heads to a true wildcard event this weekend, with the final three races of the Chase led by Talladega, with seven drivers within one race worth of points to leader Kyle Larson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The reigning champion had a shocking last start at Phoenix, with Christopher Bell now only 5 points adrift, with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin hot on his heels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With stage points on the line and a race format that limits reliance on fuel saving, a mixed Talladega result will likely set the tone for the run home.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/superstore.v8sleuth.com.au\/products\/v8-sleuth-magazine-subscription?utm_source=website&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=buy-button&amp;utm_content=buy-button\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sleuth-mag-sub.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shane van Gisbergen, meanwhile, will be looking to capitalise on potential madness.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Kiwi remains 17th in the points standings, and while he scored well at drafting races at Atlanta, he will look to improve on his 11th-place result at the corresponding Talladega event last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When asked about the enjoyment of racing at Talladega, van Gisbergen gave mixed reviews.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/superstore.v8sleuth.com.au\/products\/v8-sleuth-magazine-subscription?utm_source=website&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=buy-button&amp;utm_content=buy-button\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/sleuth-mag-sub.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYes and no,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen it\u2019s fuel saving, it\u2019s pretty boring. But when it\u2019s flat-out racing, and you\u2019re jockeying for position and pushing a lot, it\u2019s pretty full-on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen it\u2019s actual racing, it\u2019s really cool.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m still learning and trying to make friends, I guess.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPeople leave you for no reason, or you do something wrong and lose the trust of people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt takes a while to understand how to put your car in the right place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve gotten better at it, but my results haven\u2019t been great yet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s hard to finish these races; it\u2019s just so unpredictable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This weekend\u2019s schedule includes no practice before qualifying.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It also celebrates the 20th anniversary of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby with a special event called \u2018DEGA-CON\u2019, featuring a Guinness World Record attempt for the most people dressed as Ricky Bobby.<\/p>\n<p>Unpacking an Epic Bathurst 1000 | The Undercut<\/p>\n<p>THE Bathurst 1000 once again turned out an all-time classic race, with all of the winners and losers put under the microscope in this episode of The Undercut!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE business end of the NASCAR Cup Series heads to a true wildcard event this weekend, with the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-942027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=942027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}