Talladega, Alabama –
The day kicked off at Talladega Superspeedway with NASCAR executives hosting an all-drivers meeting.
It was scheduled regularly and largely mirrored a longer meeting held earlier this week between NASCAR and the Small Drivers’ Alliance. Topics included safety, rules and procedures, and anything drivers wanted to discuss.
Based on the past few weeks, the list of driver complaints could have been extensive.
Denny Hamlin, pole sitter for Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway, said: “I think there’s certainly a lot of negative talk in a short period of time.
NASCAR has suffered six weeks of torrid TV ratings, controversial penalties (some of which were bizarrely adjusted during the appeals process, others never changed), and a two-year ban on drivers. Decayed some subpar races screaming changes to next-gen cars in the eyes. Those calls increased after last Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway.
“We have a way of making things sound much worse than they really are,” reigning champion Joey Logano said. Looking at where we are, and the race we have, I don’t think it’s too bad.”
Next up is Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway. This is a snap of a month of road course racing and he three short track races. But the road course race at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas was a chaotic crash fest. Short track stops at Richmond and Bristol generated mixed reactions and finally Martinsville didn’t produce the action the crowd expected.
Drivers now want more horsepower, faster tire wear and no shifting. According to Kevin Harvick, who made his 800th career start, they want the quirky, too.
Harvick, who is preparing to move into the Fox Sports TV booth next season, admitted he’s been pitching ideas to see what sticks now that he has an open line of communication with NASCAR. I was.
“I think opinions shape our future, so I don’t tell anyone not to voice their opinion,” Harvick said. If you don’t have one, there’s a group that talks to that individual and says, “Hey, tell me more. We want to understand where you are.” I come from,” giving them a way to speak out outside of the media center.
“You don’t have to do it here. Yeah, this works well if you can’t get very far, but there are other ways to get things done in the garage today.”
A 2.66-mile high-speed track that tends to produce spectacular crashes and surprise winners, Talladega could change the tone of the conversation that pervades the sport on Sunday.
“Talladega never really doesn’t deliver, it always delivers,” says Logano. “You never know who will win the race down the backstretch[on the final lap]so the fans love it.”
But will it really be a great race?
“The problem is that 498 miles can be a snoozer,” Corey Lajoy said. thinks the race is ultimately a great race.”
hamlin on pole
Denny Hamlin takes the first superspeedway pole of his career in Saturday’s qualifying and leads the field to the green. He put in a lap in the miles and put the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota in the top starting position.
“I knew very well that I had never won a pole on a superspeedway,” Hamlin said of the stats. He has 36 poles in his career.
Hamlin bumped into Aric Almirola in his Stewart Haas Racing Ford and Ty Gibbs, Hamlin’s teammate at JGR. SHR’s Chase Briscoe finished his fourth, followed by Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney. JGR drivers Christopher Bell and Martin Truex were his 6th and he was 7th, and reigning Cup champion Penske’s Joey Logano was his 8th.
Kyle Larson, who won last week’s Martinsville Speedway, finished ninth for Hendrick Motorsports and was Chevrolet’s only top 10 finish. Roush Fenway Racing’s Ford driver Chris Buescher made the top ten.
Ross Chastain, who won the race a year ago, entered Truckhouse Racing in 23rd place. Chase Elliott, who won Talladega in October, qualified 29th after making two consecutive starts after missing six games with a broken leg.
William Byron was asked what would classify Sunday at Talladega as a good race.
“If I were watching it on TV, I would want it to be chaotic and unpredictable, with different people clashing,” Byron said.
Logano wasn’t worried.
“Talladega never really doesn’t deliver, it always delivers,” says Logano. “You never know who will win the race down the backstretch[on the final lap]so the fans love it.”
odds and ends
According to the FanDuel Sportsbook, Logano is the FanDuel favorite to win on Sunday. …Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. this week brought back personnel that Roush Fenway Racing had leased to his JTG Daugherty Racing and welcomed a new pit crew to service Chris Buescher.
Statistics show that the Stenhouse crew was sixth fastest with four tire stops at Martinsville last week, while Buescher’s group was 33rd fastest.
“It’s a shame because we won at Daytona with most of them. I think they wanted to be with us,” Stenhouse said. “That’s the card that’s being dealt right now. I guess I should have known they (RFK) played like that.” imposed another penalty for unapproved adjustments to the underwing assembly of his Chevrolet.
He lost 60 points and the crew chief suspended two races, dropping him from 21st to 29th in the standings.
RCR plans to appeal, but Dillon said he would race as well. “Honestly, I don’t think anything will change in terms of points.”
