NASCAR and ARCA at Talladega

NASCAR and ARCA are at the Talladega Superspeedway, famous for high speeds, pack racing, big wrecks and breathtaking finishes. The tri-oval usually carries the finish line, but Bill France Sr. wanted it before turn 1 when he built this circuit in the 60s and it was a decision well made for plenty of reasons.

Joe Gibbs racing has won the last 4 races overall in Sprint Cup, with Edwards riding high on momentum after his 2nd straight win, albeit moving teammate Kyle Busch out of the way. The Cup race is Sunday at 12:30 pm et on FOX.

The Xfinity Series is at Talladega as well. 4 Cup drivers are in the race, but Kyle Busch is not in the #18 for another week, for obvious reasons. Matt Tifft will have another opportunity this week. The race is Saturday at 3 pm et on FOX.

The ARCA series will have a race this evening at 6 pm et on FS1.

Some notes for the race, which was inspired by The_Wall_92:


212.809: The fastest mph mark ever in a stock car, which was set by Bill Elliott in 1987.

45: The number of drivers that have won at least one Sprint Cup race at Talladega.

10: The number of wins that the late-Dale Sr. had here, which is the most at this track.

30: The most starts of a winless driver at Talladega, with Kurt Busch holding the honors.

960: The most laps led at Talladega by an active driver. Dale Jr. holds that distinction.

12.2: The active average finish at Talladega currently the best in Sprint Cup right now, held by none other that Ricky Stenhouse Jr.


Cup Entry: http://www.jayski.com/news/stats/2016/story/_/page/10-Talladega-2016-Entry-List

Xfinity Entry: http://www.jayski.com/news/nxs/2016/story/_/page/09-Talladega-NXS-2016-Entry-List

Rain Chances Saturddy and Sunday.

As long as Harvick Blows up on lap 1 we should be fine.

ARCA ran their first and only practice session of the day, which sets the groups for group qualifying later today at 3:30.

Practice Speeds
#98 Gus Dean 50.822
#25 Tom Hessert 50.861
#22 Brady Boswell 50.868
#77 Chase Briscoe 50.906
#69 Will Kimmel 50.919
#05 John Wes Townley 50.953
#32 Shane Lee 51.037
#23 Bret Holmes 51.047
#14 Dustin Knowles 51.047
#02 Andy Seuss 51.060
#5 Bobby Gerhart 51.076
#52 Matt Kurzejewski 51.095
#6 Josh Williams 51.160
#66 Mark Thompson 51.236
#58 Kyle Weatherman 51.256
#10 Ed Pompa 51.304
#48 Sean Corr 51.315
#12 Tyler Audie 51.379
#55 Dalton Sargeant 51.445
#15 Brett Hudson 51.488
#30 Terry Jones 51.510
#34 Willie Mullins 51.531
#42 Bo LeMastus 51.556
#38 Sheldon Creed 51.715
#9 Thomas Praytor 51.718
#57 Bryan Dauzat 51.769
#36 Brandon Lynn 52.140
#64 Bobby Hamilton Jr. 52.198
#59 Korbin Forrister 52.470
#13 George Cushman 53.465
#2 Brad Smith 53.699
#17 Gene Paul 54.103
#27 Dick Doheny 56.350
#0 Tim Viens 57.031
#06 Joey Gattina 57.128

AntmanB wrote:Rain Chances Saturddy and Sunday.

As long as Harvick Blows up on lap 1 we should be fine.

Nah, I want my free Bloomin' onion!

Looks like Tristar and David Starr Parted ways yesterday. JJ Yeley will be in the 44 this week.

ARCA race was a very good show! Clean race until the end, a couple of big wrecks but some very hard racing!

Arca was good race, pretty entertaining and there wasn't that many smashes.

Shoutout to Korbin Forrister for, once again, wrecking for no reason.

wtf korbin

Like I know he's bad but really?

Thank god Chris Cockrum is okay, that was an extremely hard hit

That was really nasty.

Joey Logano is blocking like it is the last lap, damn he is getting desperate to win

Oh dear...Overtime...we are all going to die...

Brennan Poole!!!!! Clements again pushing an underdog to a fantastic finish, 2 years ago at Daytona, he almost pushed Ryan Sieg to victory, today he helps Brennan Poole wins his first race

Brennan Poole wins!!! Geez what a finish!!!

I am glad Logano's okay, but I'm also kinda glad he didn't win as well honestly. Good first win for Brennan Poole.

Nope. Elliott Sadler got in front once the cautions lights went on. I feel for Poole.

Elliott Sadler wins, NASCAR should have given it to Poole

I always thought if you were involved in the wreck, you lost your position...but only if you didn't keep it up to speed. Sadler was still up to speed but lost his momentum so kind of a hard call in NASCAR to make, but I will say this, congrats on NASCAR for being consistent with this rule at least.

NASCAR is reject of the race. Ridiculous. Sadler was forced below the line - but he still wrecked  the 22. On the bright side - xfinity only drivers sweep the top 4

Also the 1 should have been penalized 3 different times for drafting.

That finish has me like

Pointless yellow. No-one let off for it. May as well have let them race it to the line at that point.

Good win, Brennan Poole.

The #1 and the #7 were tandeming down the back-straight anyway... only to add to the reasons why the #48 should have won!

NASCAR, screw teams with big money, give the win to Poole, give Clements his 3rd place finish back

In the broadcast, they tell us that NASCAR mandated a rule saying you can't bump draft in the corners. Almirola got a penalty early in the race for the same thing that Salder did, but Sadler was given the win? I call BS on that one. And I don't understand why they didn't let them race bck to the checkers. I'm not shocked, just sad.

Larry McReynolds just said he has no idea why NASCAR threw the yellow

The_Wall_91 wrote:NASCAR, screw teams with big money, give the win to Poole, give Clements his 3rd place finish back

uh hate to break it to you, but the #48 is a cup team.

There's so many things wrong with SS tracks in NASCAR right now lol.

Just let em race.  If they tandem, they tandem.  If they go in the corners, let people line up in the garage area to beat the piss outta em.

NASCAR being inconsistent and braindead at Talladega again?



NASCAR, you're making me feel less and less guilty about my decision to stop watching.

Mother of Invention wrote:

The_Wall_91 wrote:NASCAR, screw teams with big money, give the win to Poole, give Clements his 3rd place finish back

uh hate to break it to you, but the #48 is a cup team.

True, but the #48 does not get the kind of attention than the 42 does

This is not the first time in NASCAR history when they just took the win away from a driver just because they drive for a smaller team. It also happened in 2008 with Regan Smith at the exact same track. I don't like when they just take the win away from drivers because they drive for a smaller team, and them treating the big team like they were the only drivers on the NASCAR circuit.

RaceCamera wrote:This is not the first time in NASCAR history when they just took the win away from a driver just because they drive for a smaller team. It also happened in 2008 with Regan Smith at the exact same track. I don't like when they just take the win away from drivers because they drive for a smaller team, and them treating the big team like they were the only drivers on the NASCAR circuit.

This also happened at the 2012? Daytona 500 when Dave Blaney was leading the race at a red flag period. Behind him were a Front Row car and a BK Racing car

The_Wall_91 wrote:

RaceCamera wrote:This is not the first time in NASCAR history when they just took the win away from a driver just because they drive for a smaller team. It also happened in 2008 with Regan Smith at the exact same track. I don't like when they just take the win away from drivers because they drive for a smaller team, and them treating the big team like they were the only drivers on the NASCAR circuit.

This also happened at the 2012? Daytona 500 when Dave Blaney was leading the race at a red flag period. Behind him were a Front Row car and a BK Racing car

Interesting, all three of them are pretty small teams.

RaceCamera wrote:This is not the first time in NASCAR history when they just took the win away from a driver just because they drive for a smaller team. It also happened in 2008 with Regan Smith at the exact same track. I don't like when they just take the win away from drivers because they drive for a smaller team, and them treating the big team like they were the only drivers on the NASCAR circuit.

Okay, in Regan's case, that was mainly due to the whole "don't go below the yellow line rule".

Rovenami wrote:

RaceCamera wrote:This is not the first time in NASCAR history when they just took the win away from a driver just because they drive for a smaller team. It also happened in 2008 with Regan Smith at the exact same track. I don't like when they just take the win away from drivers because they drive for a smaller team, and them treating the big team like they were the only drivers on the NASCAR circuit.

Okay, in Regan's case, that was mainly due to the whole "don't go below the yellow line rule".

Regan was forced below the yellow line because he didn't want to wreck Stewart, the rest of the pack, and possibly himself

Pretty Mediocre race and a wild but farcical finish.

Tandem rule doesn't matter with under 10 to go it seems, a yellow that would've not stopped Logano from being piledriven by Blake Koch, and a guy who's pretty under exposed popularity wise gets the win taken away and given to a driver who's 12 years past his prime.

Not a lot to like about the finish except tthat if you're one of the few Brennan Poole then there's a lot more friends in that base now.

So this post is a little late, but what on Earth happened to ARCA since Daytona? Their superspeedway races usually consist of relatively "follow the leader" racing straight through the finish, and most three-wide battles don't last for more than a few laps. But this weekend's race had a much larger pool of competitive cars and all of the leaders spent most of the second half of the race racing hard for position; there was no telling who was going to win. It's a shame that it had to end under caution; it looked as if we would have seen a fantastic finish otherwise.

I wonder what effects that transitioning to the composite bodies on the restrictor plate tracks would have.

It's kinda sad when the arca race will probably be the best of the 4 races this weekend. Heck, it my be my favorite race so far of any series this year.

SpeedDemon37 wrote:So this post is a little late, but what on Earth happened to ARCA since Daytona? Their superspeedway races usually consist of relatively "follow the leader" racing straight through the finish, and most three-wide battles don't last for more than a few laps. But this weekend's race had a much larger pool of competitive cars and all of the leaders spent most of the second half of the race racing hard for position; there was no telling who was going to win. It's a shame that it had to end under caution; it looked as if we would have seen a fantastic finish otherwise.

I wonder what effects that transitioning to the composite bodies on the restrictor plate tracks would have.

Threat of rain maybe kept them on their toes? i'm not sure any aero package changes were made.

The_Wall_91 wrote:

Mother of Invention wrote:

The_Wall_91 wrote:NASCAR, screw teams with big money, give the win to Poole, give Clements his 3rd place finish back

uh hate to break it to you, but the #48 is a cup team.

True, but the #48 does not get the kind of attention than the 42 does

48 isn't fielded by JR in Xfinity, it was a small team with little to no funding screwed by nascar to give a win to the big teams. Coincidentally, Elliot Sadler IS in JR.

NASCARLOVER427 wrote:

The_Wall_91 wrote:

Mother of Invention wrote:

The_Wall_91 wrote:NASCAR, screw teams with big money, give the win to Poole, give Clements his 3rd place finish back

uh hate to break it to you, but the #48 is a cup team.

True, but the #48 does not get the kind of attention than the 42 does

48 isn't fielded by JR in Xfinity, it was a small team with little to no funding screwed by nascar to give a win to the big teams. Coincidentally, Elliot Sadler IS in JR.

The #48 is Ganassi. The same Ganassi that's fielded Daytona 500 and Indy 500 winners.

They sure are a small team.

Getting to watch some of the clips of the race...

If anyone complains about Elliott Sadler going below the yellow line, get out of here with that crap.  It's clearly obvious that Sadler was knocked below the yellow line, though not intentionally though.  NASCAR was just too damn quick on the yellow flag... of course, if the same exact scenario plays out today, and NASCAR rules differently, anyone want to bet the same people whining about what NASCAR did will whine again about NASCAR being inconsistent instead of being smart about a race finish?

PYLrulz wrote:Getting to watch some of the clips of the race...

If anyone complains about Elliott Sadler going below the yellow line, get out of here with that crap.  It's clearly obvious that Sadler was knocked below the yellow line, though not intentionally though.  NASCAR was just too damn quick on the yellow flag... of course, if the same exact scenario plays out today, and NASCAR rules differently, anyone want to bet the same people whining about what NASCAR did will whine again about NASCAR being inconsistent instead of being smart about a race finish?

Actually I think people would be happy that NASCAR wouldn't ruin the finish like they did with the XFINITY race.

I don't think anyone on here even "whined" about him going below the yellow. The only thing people were upset with was the fact NASCAR threw the yellow so close to the line.

Ben Atkins wrote:

PYLrulz wrote:Getting to watch some of the clips of the race...

If anyone complains about Elliott Sadler going below the yellow line, get out of here with that crap.  It's clearly obvious that Sadler was knocked below the yellow line, though not intentionally though.  NASCAR was just too damn quick on the yellow flag... of course, if the same exact scenario plays out today, and NASCAR rules differently, anyone want to bet the same people whining about what NASCAR did will whine again about NASCAR being inconsistent instead of being smart about a race finish?

Actually I think people would be happy that NASCAR wouldn't ruin the finish like they did with the XFINITY race.

I don't think anyone on here even "whined" about him going below the yellow. The only thing people were upset with was the fact NASCAR threw the yellow so close to the line.

I wasn't specifically talking about anybody on here, just others in general. We know it'll happen. The fans say that NASCAR was too quick with the yellow, yet I'll guarantee you if the race today finishes with the same exact scenario, and NASCAR holds the yellow flag until the leader crosses the start-finish line, the internet will complain about that too.

Chris Buescher flipped :O

Glad Annett's okay, that was a hard hit to the driver's side.

Ouch....Edwards and Junior

There's the big one.