“The Chase is going to give you this kind of results”. “From the standpoint of the way they drive on the track, you just have to watch the restarts and see that it’s elbows-out-the-window there every time….” We prepare the vehicle and bring it to the track.
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This is what NASCAR hoped for when it went to the Chase: tension rising during each three-race round.
“Following extensive dialogue with the industry, we have decided to make a procedural change at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend”, said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer. We don’t race the vehicle.
“There are so many things out of your control, and you want to control as many things as possible on a week-to-week basis”, said defending Cup champion Kevin Harvick, who is tied with Keselowski for fifth.
“Since then, I’ve talked a lot of people about Talladega, and it looks like for as good as we ran at Daytona we should be good on speed this weekend”. They’ll use that in their playbook as we go forward.
Also this week: Fred’s 250, Truck Series, Talladega Superspeedway, 1 p.m., Saturday, Fox.
After going on to win last week’s race at Kansas, Logano described the incident as “hard racing” and said he was racing Kenseth the way he himself was being raced.
But Talladega is his track, and the crowd will be firmly behind him.
Three-time Talladega victor Brad Keselowski openly expressed his approval of limiting the number of attempts at a green-white-checkered finish at both Talladega and Daytona global Speedway.
Denny Hamlin is the next safest driver in the standings behind Joey Logano, and he is not safe at all.
In last year’s first season of the elimination format in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Brad Keselowski came to Talladega with a singular objective: He needed to win the race to advance to the Eliminator Round – and he did.
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With the understanding that Talladega is a wild card of a race, if the following drivers have the finishes below, they’re assured of one of eight spots in the Eliminator round of the Chase – regardless of the finishes of any other driver.
