TALLADEGA 1
Saturday, April 20 — NASCAR Xfinity Series, 4 p.m. ET (FOX)
Sunday, April 21 — NASCAR Cup Series, 3 p.m. ET (FOX)
Talladega Superspeedway has been good to Ford through the years with the manufacturer producing 32 NASCAR Cup Series victories, which includes at least one win in 11 of the last 12 seasons. Ford will be looking to extend that streak on Sunday after the NASCAR Xfinity Series competes one day earlier.
BLANEY GOING FOR FOURTH TALLADEGA WIN
Ryan Blaney has won three of the last nine NASCAR Cup Series races held at Talladega Superspeedway, including October’s playoff race in which he battled door-to-door for the entire final lap with Kevin Harvick before a photo finish decided the outcome. Blaney’s margin of victory was 0.012 seconds and clinched a spot in the Round of 8. 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
Team Penske has won 10 of the last 19 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 last season. Joey Logano won in back-to-back seasons (2015-16) while Ryan Blaney followed suit, winning twice in the last four 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 CLIMBING ALL-TIME TALLADEGA WIN LIST
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.
RYAN BLANEY: “We have had good fortune over the years at Talladega. We have good teamwork, fast cars, and good engines and seem to excel at those places. We do a good job of being there for each other when we need to be and just finding ourselves there at the end of racing and giving ourselves a shot. I look at that when we go to Talladega: trying to give yourself a chance at the end and capitalize on it or not. We have done a good job of doing that and have a good mindset, which has worked out for us sometimes. Good teamwork and good cars go a long way. It would be a great little birthday gift for Ford to put a Mustang in victory lane just after the 60th birthday. Not many things have been around for 60 years, let alone a model of car. That is tough to do with times changing and people wanting new things. Ford has done a good job of always innovating while also sticking to its roots. Hopefully, we can put Mustang in victory lane a few days after the birthday; that would be a pretty cool present for sure.”
JOEY LOGANO: “Talladega has been a great track for Ford, Penske, and all of us. We have been in contention every time we go down there. Our superspeedway program is our strength right now. We have seen that in qualifying and have seen the performance at Atlanta and Daytona so far. I have a lot of confidence going there. A lot of things can happen at Talladega, as we have seen before, but if we can do our jobs perfectly, I am sure we can get one in victory lane, and it would be an added bonus to do it just a couple of days after Mustang celebrates its 60th birthday. That would be a really cool celebration.”
CHASE BRISCOE: “Getting a Mustang in victory lane at Talladega would be super cool. The Mustangs have been super good at superspeedway racetracks, so it would be no better time to get one than just after the 60th birthday of Mustang. That is what we are going to try to do. We are going to have really fast Fords, so hopefully, one of us can put Mustang in victory lane.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI: “Talladega has been a special track for me, and I look forward to going there. I think we will have cars that can compete for the win. There are a lot of peripheral circumstances that would add to how special that would be if we were able to do that. From Mustang’s 60th birthday to where we are as a company to where I am at in my career. So it would be special to be able to win.”
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. Joey Logano (2015 Xfinity) has won in both the Cup and Xfinity series while David Ragan is also a part of the list, having won a Cup race in 2013 and an Xfinity event in 2009.
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. The 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 and Jarrett was declared the winner. 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.
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.
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.
SIEG SO CLOSE
Ryan Sieg is coming off a runner-up finish last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway after leading 17 of the final 18 laps and getting nipped in a photo finish by Sam Mayer. That marked the third time in Sieg’s NASCAR Xfinity Series career he has ended up in second place, and as he heads to Talladega Superspeedway the opportunity to get that first victory is certainly there. That’s because Sieg enters this weekend having finished fifth or better at the track in four of the last six races and in 13 career series starts has five top-10 efforts.
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)
