{"id":942983,"date":"2026-10-23T05:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T05:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/942983\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T05:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T05:56:09","slug":"talladega-will-throw-a-wrench-into-someones-nascar-cup-series-title-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/942983\/","title":{"rendered":"Talladega will throw a wrench into someone’s NASCAR Cup Series title chase"},"content":{"rendered":"

The words “predictable” and “Talladega” go together like oil and water.<\/p>\n

The last 12 NASCAR\u00a0<\/a>Cup Series races at the 2.66-mile Alabama superspeedway have been won by 12 different drivers, and the looming ‘Big One’ that is on drivers’ minds as soon as the green flag waves makes races at NASCAR’s biggest and baddest track incredibly unpredictable.<\/p>\n

Throw in the fact that Sunday’s YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is the eighth of 10 Chase races and that there are seven drivers at the top of the Cup standings separated by only 56 points going into the 34th race of the 2026 campaign, and you have a recipe for both chaos and an all-time classic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As if another layer of unpredictability was needed for this weekend, NASCAR will debut a 3.5-inch spoiler on Cup Series cars in another effort to improve the racing product at superspeedways. Teams still expect to see plenty of fuel-saving occur in the first 98-lap stage of Sunday’s 188-lap, 500-mile race, but the final 90 laps will likely see drivers run wide open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Championship implications<\/p>\n

Defending champion Kyle Larson has a five-point lead<\/a> over Christopher Bell entering Sunday, but Talladega is not the track the two-time champ wanted to see on the schedule next.<\/p>\n

While Larson has noticeably improved in the draft in the Next-Gen era, he’s been snake-bitten at Talladega and drafting tracks in general throughout his career. In 23 Talladega starts, he has only three top fives and five top 10s, leading only 64 laps.<\/p>\n

The good news? Larson finished fourth at Talladega in the fall of 2024 and second in the spring of 2025, so he’s turned things around lately. Like every other driver in the field, he’s looking to avoid a big crash and come out of Talladega relatively unscathed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Behind Bell in the standings is his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and defending fall Talladega winner Chase Briscoe (third, -24). Consecutive victories at Las Vegas and Charlotte shot Briscoe back into title contention, and another win at Talladega would likely put him in the points lead going into Martinsville.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“For us, obviously trying to go back\u00a0and do what we did last fall there,” Briscoe\u00a0said Thursday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio<\/a>. “You’re gonna have\u00a0to score every point that’s available.\u00a0At the end of the stages you’re gonna have\u00a0to be aggressive\u00a0and try to get what points you can, just\u00a0because you never know what’s gonna happen\u00a0at the end of these races.\u00a0I think if we can get 15 stage points between the two,\u00a0that would be a great day,\u00a0because it gives you at least some type\u00a0of a band-aid if something does happen.”<\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin (fourth, -31) is still in his search of his first title and is one of the best superspeedway racers in the field, though he hasn’t won a drafting race in the Next-Gen era. He’s won at Talladega twice.<\/p>\n

Team Penske drivers Ryan Blaney (fifth, -40) and Joey Logano (sixth, -44) are licking their chops going into the weekend. Both often run up front at Talladega and are excellent speedway racers. Blaney is a three-time Talladega fall race winner, while Logano is also a three-time ‘Dega winner.<\/p>\n

“It’s very important for us\u00a0to make sure that all the\u00a0Ford teams are working together,” Blaney’s crew chief, Jonathan Hassler said Thursday on SiriusXM,\u00a0“And, I think our guys\u00a0do a great job of that.”<\/p>\n

Fellow Team Penske driver Austin Cindric (eighth, -130) won at Talladega in the spring of 2025 and is likely to also be a contender on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Rounding out the top-seven in the standings is Daytona 500 champion and Phoenix winner Tyler Reddick, whose victory in the desert put him back in title contention. Reddick has won two drafting races this year and won at Talladega in the spring of 2024.<\/p>\n

Carson Hocevar (11th, -158) won at Talladega on April 26. In total, nine of the 16 Chase drivers have won at Talladega, with Chase Elliott (10th, -149) and Bubba Wallace (12th, -162) also previously winning at the track.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sunday’s race is the 115th Cup Series event at Talladega, which opened in 1969.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The words “predictable” and “Talladega” go together like oil and water. The last 12 NASCAR\u00a0Cup Series races at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-942983","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\/942983","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=942983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}