In the final race of the Contender round and with the elimination of four more drivers, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the CampingWorld.com 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
In a knockout qualifying session dominated by Hendrick Motorsports on Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, the outgoing king of restrictor-plate time trials—Jeff Gordon—won the pole position for Sunday’s CampingWorld.com 500, the final race in the Contender Round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
Let’s be honest. Trying to predict which eight drivers will make it through the characteristic chaos of Talladega Superspeedway to advance to the Eliminator Round of the Chase is next to impossible. With only 25 points separating the top eight contenders and the looming likelihood of the almost inevitable “big one,” the only thing certain is that no one is safe - except Joey Logano.
Brad Keselowski topped the charts in the final practice session. The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford was the fastest in final practice with a time of 48.752 and a speed of 196.423 mph.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and the Camping World Truck Series travel to Talladega Superspeedway this weekend while the XFINITY Series is off. All of the on-track action for the Sprint Cup Series will be broadcast on NBC Sports Live Extra. The Camping World Truck Series events can be seen on FOX and FOX Sports 1. Please see the full schedule below.
This week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rolls into the Alabama roulette wheel that is known simply as Talladega Superspeedway for the 32nd race of the season, the fifth of the Chase and the final race of the Contender Round.
What France just did was ensure that Logano becomes a high-speed pinata come Talladega. He already has two wins, more than enough to guarantee himself a spot in the next round no matter what takes place on Sunday.
As NASCAR visits Atlanta for its second race of the 2026 season, several special guests and dignitaries have roles to play leading up to the start of Sunday’s Autotrader 400.
NASCAR heads to week two of the 2026 season as all three national series take on EchoPark Speedway for another high-intensity weekend of speedway racing around the 1.5-mile-oval just outside of Atlanta.
Elite Motorsports is proud to announce a partnership with HBOT4Heroes, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing hyperbaric oxygen therapy to veterans and first responders suffering from traumatic brain injuries, post‑traumatic stress , and other invisible wounds of service.
1-800-PACK-RAT, LLC, the award-winning portable storage and moving company that makes moving and storage simple, has partnered with Richard Childress Racing for a multi-race, multi-series partnership.
