TALLADEGA 1
Saturday, April 26 — NASCAR Xfinity Series, 4 p.m. ET (CW)
Sunday, April 27 — NASCAR Cup Series, 3 p.m. ET (FOX)
The NASCAR Cup Series embarks on 28 consecutive weekends of racing to close out the 2025 season as Talladega Superspeedway hosts the Jack Link’s 500 on Sunday afternoon. Ford has 32 all-time Cup wins at the Alabama facility and has won at least one race in 11 of the last 13 years.
TALLADEGA GOOD FOR FORD AND BLANEY
Ford’s Ryan Blaney has won three times at Talladega Superspeedway, which is a personal best and one of three tracks where he has registered multiple victories. Martinsville and Pocono are the others with two each. Blaney’s streak started with consecutive triumphs, winning the playoff race in 2019 and then the following event in the spring of 2020. He capped off the streak in 2023 with a dramatic photo finish victory over fellow Ford driver, Kevin Harvick. Ford dominated the event, leading 121-of-188 laps after sweeping the top three spots in qualifying and eight of the top 11 positions. The win marked Ford’s 12th win at the superspeedway in the last 19 races, which included a seven-race winning streak from 2015-18.
DECADE OF EXCELLENCE
Ford and Team Penske have won 10 of the last 21 NCS races at Talladega Superspeedway. Brad Keselowski started this run by winning in 2014 and registered four victories at the track before joining Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing in 2022. Joey Logano won in back-to-back seasons (2015-16) while Ryan Blaney followed suit, winning three times in the last five years at Talladega.
TEAM PENSKE WINS AT TALLADEGA SINCE 2014
2014 – Brad Keselowski (Talladega 2)
2015 – Joey Logano (Talladega 2)
2016 – Brad Keselowski (Talladega 1)
2016 – Joey Logano (Talladega 2)
2017 – Brad Keselowski (Talladega 2)
2018 – Joey Logano (Talladega 1)
2019 – Ryan Blaney (Talladega 2)
2020 – Ryan Blaney (Talladega 1)
2021 – Brad Keselowski (Talladega 1)
2023 – Ryan Blaney (Talladega 2)
KESELOWSKI
ACTIVE TALLADEGA WIN LEADER
Brad Keselowski is the winningest active driver at Talladega with six NASCAR Cup Series victories and is tied for second on the all-time list with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon. The track’s all-time winner is Dale Earnhardt Sr., who won 10 times during his NASCAR Hall of Fame career.
MARTIN LEFT HIS MARK
Mark Martin is the only Ford driver to have won in all three of the major series offered by NASCAR at Talladega. Martin won the Cup series race in 1995 and 1997, Xfinity in 1996 and lastly in the Truck series’ debut 2006 event. Current blue-oval branded drivers Joey Logano (2015 Xfinity) and Aric Almirola (2017 Xfinity) have won in both the Cup and Xfinity series, most recently sharing a sweep of the 2018 Cup double-header. David Ragan is also a part of the list, having won a Cup race in 2013 and an Xfinity event in 2009.
JOEY LOGANO: “Talladega is kind of a beast of its own. It’s really about the draft. The track is pretty wide, so it’s quite a bit different than Daytona and handling isn’t as big of a factor, at least through the corners. What ends up happening is the pushes and shoves, the draft itself becomes more aggressive so definitely a unique one, but Talladega, people show up there, too. Everyone knows it as the party track, but I will never see that. I just race there.”
RYAN PREECE: “With how fast the Fords are on superspeedways and with all the preparation that we all put in, to me, it’s just another opportunity to really listen to Brad and his point of view of how we should be preparing and working together and doing all those things to execute so an RFK car can win that. Ford would love it if a Ford won, but we’re selfish. We want it to be one of our team guys, so I think that, for me, is something that’s just as exciting as how fast our cars are.”
ZANE SMITH: “I’m always excited for the superspeedways with the speed that Front Row brings and the power the Fords bring. I personally think the Fords work really well together. I think we’re able to push a little better than others and I think that’s a big reason for the success that the Fords have had on the superspeedways, so just being around at the end and sticking together will be the key. FRM has always had two cars, so now we have three and I feel like you’re on par with the Penske cars, which they obviously really work well together, and Brad and the whole RFK group always work well together. Hopefully, we can add our names to that list.”
BAKER PROVIDES MOORE SUCCESS
The first time Ford went to victory lane at Talladega Superspeedway was May 4, 1975 when Buddy Baker, driving for Hall of Fame car owner Bud Moore, held off David Pearson on the final lap. The win was Baker’s ninth career victory and came after he took the lead with 18 laps to go. One of the key decisions in getting Baker to the checkered flag first came when his team opted for two tires on its final pit stop of the day while Pearson and the Wood Brothers decided on gas only. Even though Pearson steadily gained ground on the final lap, Baker was able to hold on by half a car length to win. That started a streak which saw Baker and Moore win three straight Talladega races.
DAVEY ALLISON’S FIRST WIN
Ford has had many milestone moments at Talladega Superspeedway, including the first NASCAR Cup Series win for the late Davey Allison, who won the Winston 500 on May 3, 1987. The race came down to a restart with 10 laps to go in which Allison found himself behind Dale Earnhardt in the outside lane. Earnhardt bolted to the lead when the green flew and Allison tucked in right behind him through turns one and two. As they came off the second corner, Allison went to the inside and easily passed Earnhardt for what proved to be the winning pass. Terry Labonte ended up finishing second with Earnhardt third. Allison went on to win 19 NCS races, including three at Talladega.
ROBERT YATES RACING’S FINAL WIN
When Dale Jarrett won the UAW-Ford 500 on Oct. 2, 2005 it ended up being the final trip to victory lane for Robert Yates Racing. This race came down to a green-white-checker restart, where Jarrett was positioned fourth. He was still in that spot when they came around to start the final lap, but quickly moved to the outside as Tony Stewart grabbed the lead on the inside lane. The two drivers battled side-by-side down the backstretch before Jarrett powered his way in front. Seconds after getting the lead, Kyle Petty was involved in a single-car accident that brought out the caution as the cars entered turn three. Jarrett was declared the winner after NASCAR verified that he was in front at the time the yellow flag was thrown. The win was RYR’s 57th triumph in the NASCAR Cup Series, and came six years after the team won its only championship with Jarrett in 1999.
BURTON COMING OFF SEASON BEST RUN
Harrison Burton, driving in his first season with AM Racing, successfully maneuvered his way through a pair of late-race multi-car accidents to post his best finish of the year in Saturday’s race at Rockingham Speedway. Burton’s third-place finish marked his fourth top-10 run of the year and kept him 12th in the series point standings. For AM Racing, it represented the organization’s second all-time top-five run and doubled the number of top-10 finishes from a year ago. This weekend will be the fifth time Burton has run a NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. His best result came in 2021 when he finished 10th in the spring race.
FORD’S NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS
AT TALLADEGA
1975 – Buddy Baker (Sweep)
1976 – Buddy Baker (1)
1979 – Bobby Allison (1)
1983 – Dale Earnhardt (2)
1985 – Bill Elliott and Cale Yarborough
1987 – Dave Allison and Bill Elliott
1989 – Davey Allison and Terry Labonte
1992 – Davey Allison (1)
1994 – Jimmy Spencer (2)
1995 – Mark Martin (1)
1997 – Mark Martin (1)
1998 – Dale Jarrett (2)
2005 – Dale Jarrett (2)
2009 – Jamie McMurray (2)
2012 – Matt Kenseth (2)
2013 – David Ragan (1)
2014 – Brad Keselowski (2)
2015 – Joey Logano (2)
2016 – Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano
2017 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Brad Keselowski
2018 – Joey Logano and Aric Almirola
2019 – Ryan Blaney (2)
2020 – Ryan Blaney (1)
2021 – Brad Keselowski (1)
2023 – Ryan Blaney (2)
FORD’S NASCAR XFINITY SERIES WINNERS
AT TALLADEGA
1995 – Chad Little
1997 – Mark Martin
2002 – Jason Keller
2009 – David Ragan
2015 – Joey Logano
2017 – Aric Almirola
