2016 NASCAR Week 32 Preview: Talladega

Alabama 500

Talladega Superspeedway

By Richard Tix

The comforting thing about Talladega is it's a place anyone can win at on any given weekend. An underdog story can be made or a clutch moment to move on in the Chase can be had. However, that is where most of the comforts end when talking about this high banking superspeedway.

In once sense, a track like this is a great spot for Brad Keselowski (or any driver) to make up some points and possibly even win (see 2014 Chase) and move on. At the same time Dega is a place where one wrong move, or one wrong move by a guy in front of you, or one wrong move by the guy next to you (I think you get the point), will leave you picking up the pieces (literally for track crews).

So, as the second round comes to a close and twelve drivers bunch up together and bump each other for eight spots, they also have to look out for the big one. The same move that can lead you to the front of the pack and take you to Victory Lane is also the same one that can leave you answering questions in the garage about how your season just ended.

So, which will it be for each of these twelve drivers (yes, I know two are locked in for next round)? Will they be pumping their fist in VL, or hanging their heads waiting for the 2017 season to get underway so they have a chance at redemption?

**This section is just a quick look at some of Cup drivers latest finishes. This is not a tool for fantasy purposes and NBTW only is looking at end results. No deep statistic's are involved, but rather it is just a quick way to get ready for the race and get caught up on who has finished well at each track**

The Good

• Brad Keselowski- If you can call anything a sure thing at Dega right now (hint: you can't), BK would be the closest thing to it. A few more wins and his name can be thrown around with the Earnhardts here (Dale Sr has 10 wins, Dale Jr has 6, BK only has 4 so it's a ways away still). 
• Clint Bowyer- Even with a craptastic car (yes I made that word up), Bowyer finished 7th earlier in the year here. That was after starting 34th (which means nothing at Dega).
• Kevin Harvick- Harvick just seems to be consistent here. He has six straight top 15's and three of those are top 10's. For a track like this, those top 15's means days you can hang your hat on.

The Middle

• Ricky Stenhouse Jr- Don't look now, but Ricky is actually pretty good at making his moves around Talladega. In only six career starts he has three top 10's and all but one was 16th or better. This is your longshot/sleeper this weekend.

The Bad

• Kasey Kahne- Talladega serves a large test to a guy who has quietly been running very well as of late. In the last eight races here Kasey only has one top 10.
• AJ Allmendinger- Im not sure why, but every time a driver I like is near AJ on a superspeedway I get a bit nervous. Maybe it's because he always ran into me on NASCAR 14 at these same track, or maybe it's because he only has one top 10 (a top 5) in 13 races here,
• Carl Edwards- 24 career races and only six top 10 finishes. Those don't seem to be numbers that associate with a name like Carl Edwards. What's worse? Nine of those have been 30th or worse..

We're skipping the normal track facts here this week. Talladega is such a crazy place that every driver will go through up's and down's which makes the fun facts not as fun (or easy to get). Instead, here is an old Behind the Wall article on "The Big One" here at Talladega.