Talladega Preview
Sat. Sept., 30 | 1PM ET | FS1/MRN/SiriusXM
Talladega Stats
Daniel Dye will make his first NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series start at Talladega on Saturday.
ARCA Starts: 1; Best start: 17th (2022); Best finish: 12th (2022)
2023 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Season Stats
Starts: 20; Best start: 5th (Milwaukee); Best finish: 11th (Gateway); Laps led: 5; Current points position: 18th
About KIX Country
WAKX (KIX Country) is a radio station licensed to serve the community of Palm Coast, Florida. The station is owned by Flagler County Broadcasting and the broadcast license is held by Flagler Broadcasting, LLC. WAKX shares radio studios in Bunnell, Florida, with sister stations WBHQ and WNZF.
Chassis History/Info
Dye and the No. 43 team will compete with GMS Racing chassis no. 130 at Talladega. Used as the team’s backup truck earlier this year at Daytona, it has not seen any laps of competition yet. The truck’s first lap on any racetrack will be made in qualifying on Saturday morning.
What If
Last year, in the first time that Dye competed at Talladega Superspeedway, he came ever-so-close to scoring his second ARCA Menards Series victory. Having positioned himself in a great spot to make a move, it appeared that everything had lined up in his favor. On the white flag lap, Daniel took the lead of the race for a brief moment in turns 1-2, but an untimely block saw him spinning down the backstretch, resulting in a 17th place finish. He looks back on this race as one of the toughest moments of his 2022 championship run, where he finished runner up to Nick Sanchez by only 14 points. A good result in the Truck Series race has been high on his list of races that he would like to perform well at.
Bainbridge at Dega
Blake Bainbridge often looks forward to returning to Talladega because of how close the racetrack is to his hometown. Bainbridge was born in nearby Hueytown, Alabama, which is less than one hour away from the site of Saturday’s race. Hueytown has been well-known for its crop of NASCAR legends that call it home, including ‘Alabama Gang’ members Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison, Davey Allison, Neil Bonnett, and Red Farmer, among others.
Blake has called two races in his career as a crew chief, including one NASCAR Xfinity Series race in 2005 and more recently, an ARCA Menards Series race in 2020. The ARCA race resulted in the better finish of his two starts, where Taylor Gray started eighth and finished 13th. This weekend will be Bainbridge’s first Truck Series start at Talladega.
From the Driver’s Seat
You were so close on winning here last year in the ARCA Menards Series race, so does that give you any added confidence to return here in a truck?
“I’m looking forward to getting back to Talladega in a different vehicle than I had there last time. We had good speed there with GMS last year and got towards the front of the pack. I was close to having a shot to win the race before I made a mistake that took us out of contention. But I definitely learned a lot in the two super speedway races I ran last year in the ARCA car and the one at Daytona this year in a truck. I’m hoping to use all the things I learned in those three races and have ourselves a good finish. We are still looking for our first top-10 of the year, and Talladega presents itself as an opportunity to either have a great day or an awful day. Hopefully we’ll be on the great side this time.”
