What to Watch For: Joey Logano, the only driver locked into the eight-competitor Eliminator Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, goes for his third straight win.
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Given that he’s tied with Jeff Gordon among active drivers for the most wins at Talladega with six, and that he’s won the last two restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talladega, Earnhardt Jr. may indeed be able to back up “a called shot”.
The issue of whether blocking – as Kenseth was attempting to do – is a legitimate tactic has always been one of NASCAR’s gray areas. Majors sheds light on his methods and strategy going into, potentially, their most pivotal race of the year.
Hayley did say he will be leaning heavily on the experience of both Crafton and his other teammate Johnny Sauter to help him make it to the end of the race on Saturday.
That leaves the other nine racers, stuck together in tight quarters. But we soon realized he was never going to have a consistent enough vehicle to compete with Jimmie Johnson or Tony Stewart for championships. Did you know: Denny Hamlin leads the points race for the remaining third-round spots, five points ahead of Kurt Busch.
This is what NASCAR hoped for when it went to the Chase: tension rising during each three-race round. But if it’s just wet, the conditions will make things “just a little bit more challenging for them”. “Just thinking about Talladega and trying to figure out how we can possibly get a win here”. “We did a good job last year of staying out of trouble and getting a top-10 finish out of it. Hopefully this year we can do the same”. If there’s a caution in the two-lap overtime period, the running order will be frozen, with the leader being declared the victor.
That was an abnormal result.
Site: Talladega, Alabama. Schedule: Friday, practice (NBC Sports Network, 2-3 p.m., 4:30-5:30 p.m.); Saturday, qualifying (NBC Sports Network, 4-6 p.m.); Sunday, race, 2:30 p.m. (NBC Sports Network, 2-6 p.m.). Not only is it risky, but accidents in the lead draft of restrictor plate races tend to collect many innocent victims, tear up a lot of machinery and present safety issues.
Kyle Busch (12-1 Stations) – Kyle Busch came back from an injury opening weekend at Daytona to dominate the series over the summer and earned himself a spot in the Chase with multiple wins. We had real fast cars the last two week.
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“I think you’re looking at this weekend and there are certainly gonna be a few people that race scared and racing scared, to me, means sometimes you race not to win”, he said. Our focus is on this round, continuing in the Chase and moving on.
