NASCAR Cup Series

JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 CESSNA CHEVROLET SS, met with members of the media at Talladega Superspeedway, and discussed racing at Talladega, race strategy, teammates at Talladega, car setups and other topics.

After Daytona in July NASCAR made some changes to qualifying. As teams prepare for this weekend's Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, there will be a new format for qualifying.

This weekend Talladega Superspeedway hosts the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series while the NASCAR Nationwide Series takes a break from competition. Talladega is the last race in the Contender Round as the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion continues.

When the smoke clears at Talladega, and I mean that literally, four of our top eight drivers throughout the course of the season, might no longer be contenders for the championship.

“I need to learn how to slow down. In everything else I drove, I’ve had to make up for the lack of equipment,” he explained. “You can’t do that in the Nationwide Series. The drivers are too good and the cars you’re racing against are really good.

They say the best relationships are formed over time, and two of the longest in NASCAR are the ones Richard Petty has formed with Goody’s® and Martinsville Speedway. The three will come together Oct. 26 as Petty has been named Grand Marshal of the Goody’s® Headache Relief Shot® 500.

For the final superspeedway race of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, Kyle Larson welcomes Energizer® to the track as the primary sponsor on his No. 42 Chevrolet SS. Larson will trade in the familiar Bullseye on his hood for the iconic Energizer® Bunny, as he looks to keep “going and going” around the fast Talladega Superspeedway.

Superspeedway Racin'...Justin Allgaier will make his third NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) start at Talladega Superspeedway (TSS) on Sunday afternoon. TSS is one of four tracks where Allgaier made NSCS starts last year in the No. 51 BRANDT Chevy. He has completed all laps in his two NSCS starts at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. Allgaier has five starts in the NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) at TSS, with one top-five and three top-10 finishes, along with four laps led. TSS is the fourth and final superspeedway race of the 2014 season.

The anticipated more-rapid qualifying format for both the GEICO 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) and fred’s 250 Powered By Coca-Cola NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) races at Talladega Superspeedway will be unveiled this weekend and should create an extra element of fan excitement at the 2.66-mile venue. It marks the first time the new five-minute, three-round system will be used in 2014.

Two-time Daytona 500 champion Michael Waltrip’s hardest hit in life came when his sister called to tell him their mother, Margaret Waltrip, had suffered a major stoke due to arterial fibrillation (AFib.)