Last time out in Texas was an incredibly eventful, from a battle of young vs. old, to a remarkable photo finish robbing us of an incredible upset, and a long winless streak getting broken in chaotic fashion. It had everything. One of NASCAR’s most maligned racetracks delivered one of the most outstanding all-around weekends of racing we have seen in a while, but nonetheless, we roll on to Talladega.
Ag-Pro 300
Saturday, April 20 @ 4:00PM EST
Talladega, Alabama
113 Laps/300.58 Miles
The race of the weekend in Texas was arguably Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. We should have known we were in for a treat when Taylor Gray made an outstanding save on just Lap 2, but the show rolled on. The outside lane came in early and Justin Allgaier took advantage passing Chandler Smith for the lead on Lap 18. Allgaier would dominate the race, sweeping both stages and leading 117 of 200 laps. Meanwhile, owner driver, and everyone’s favorite underdog, Ryan Sieg had been putting together his best run of the season when with 28 laps to go, Leland Honeyman Jr. crashed in Turn 2. Race leader Justin Allgaier would lead the field down pit road, and the green flag would come back out with 21 laps remaining. Sieg, who restarted 10th, would take the lead with 18 laps to go. One final caution came out with 17 laps to go, but Sieg proved to be up to the task. They would take the green with 12 laps to go and Sieg drove away from the field, but everyone knew it was never gonna be that easy. Sam Mayer ran him down, slowly but surely. On the final lap, Mayer made the move down the backstretch and pulled a slide job into Turn 3 but he got loose and slipped up the track, allowing Sieg to turn down under him. Sieg got loose on the exit of Turn 4, the two made contact and had a drag race for the ages down to the line. It was a race Sieg would lose. Sam Mayer grabbed the win in thrilling fashion, the margin of victory was 0.002 seconds, the second-closest finish in Series history. 0.002 seconds comes out to approximately one-third of a foot, or about 3-4 inches. Three. Hundred. Miles. Came down to 3-4 inches, and that is somehow the second time we’ve seen that this year.
Most Recent Winner At Talladega
Jeb Burton won this race a year ago for his 2nd career win and the first ever win for his car owner, Jordan Anderson.
Names To Watch
Ryan Sieg: Coming off of a career day, Ryan Sieg will look to put together another great run at Talladega, a track he has found mixed success at. In 13 starts Sieg does have 4 Top fives and 5 Top tens. He is typically, at the very least, competitive on Superspeedways and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in contention over the course of the race.
Shane van Gisbergen: SVG will be making his first trip to the legendary Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. He put together very impressive runs at Daytona and Atlanta and shouldn’t be ruled out to do so yet again.
My Pick To Win: Parker Kligerman
Geico 500
Sunday, April 21 @ 3:00PM EST
Talladega, Alabama
188 Laps/500.08 Miles
This past Sunday’s race at Texas was truly chaotic, after a straight forward first stage that was only slowed on one occasion for a Jimmie Johnson spin. Beyond Stage 1, there would be 13 more caution flags for incident in the final 187 laps. Though through all of the chaos, Chase Elliott would take control of the race late and wouldn’t relinquish it, even holding on through 2 overtime restarts. Elliott ended a 42 race winless streak that began after his win at Talladega in the Fall of 2022.
Most Recent Winner At Talladega
Ryan Blaney won at Talladega last Fall en route to his first Championship.
Names To Watch
Brad Keselowski: Keselowski is one of the best ever at Talladega with 6 wins. He is tied with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon for the second-most wins at Talladega, with Dale Earnhardt Sr. being number one, of course, with 10.
Kyle Busch: Rowdy is the defending winner of this race and in desperate need of a good run, Busch could be one to keep an eye on this weekend.
Justin Haley: Haley is always competitive on Superspeedways, and I don’t see a reason that will change with a new team. He has already put together a couple of strong runs this season that, unfortunately, came undone late in those races. Look for Justin Haley to put together a strong run from start to finish this weekend.
My Pick To Win
William Byron: It feels like we might be in for a shellacking from Byron this year, he already has 3 wins this season. Just to back up my choice, he has 2 wins at Daytona, and 2 wins at Atlanta (Since the reconfiguration). He is arguably the hottest driver in the Series right now and has an opportunity to assert himself as the clear favorite for the title this weekend.
Betting Odds
(All betting odds via DraftKings Sportsbook)
Favorites
William Byron +1000
Ryan Blaney +1000
Brad Keselowski +1000
Denny Hamlin +1100
Joey Logano +1100
Longshots
Erik Jones +3000
Michael McDowell +4000
Justin Haley +8000
Header Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images
