NASCAR O'Reilly Series

Matt Tifft will lead the field to the green flag for this afternoon's race at Talladega. The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota scored the pole for today's NASCAR XFINITY Series Sparks Energy 300 at Talladega Superspeedway with a time of 52.857 and a speed of 181.168 mph.

The Aspen Dental Weekend at Talladega Superspeedway got off to a roaring start on Friday, with a total of five practice sessions between the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR XFINITY Series and ARCA Racing Series Presented by Menards taking to the 2.66-mile oval track.

How much has Koch grown? After eight events he holds two top-10s and sits 13th in points. He's had the speed in his No. 11 Camaro, as shown at Bristol where he posted the fastest speed in practice.

When asked about the current Dash 4 Cash format in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, Darrell Wallace Jr. said he was "on the fence about it."

Matt Tifft topped the chart in final XFINITY Series practice at Talladega Superspeedway. The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 52.639 and a speed of 181.918 mph.

Darrell Wallace Jr. topped the chart in the first XFINITY Series practice at Talladega Superspeedway. The driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 49.768 and a speed of 192.413 mph.

Darrell Wallace Jr., met with media members prior to XFINITY Series practice Friday at Talladega Superspeedway and spoke about trying to build on his sixth place finish at Daytona, his thoughts on the Dash 4 Cash program and his mom.

Ross Chastain has run only three NASCAR races at Talladega Superspeedway, but he has an interesting history at the track. Chastain finished third in a Camping World Truck Series race at NASCAR’s biggest track in 2013, showing that he quickly picked up the intricacies of running well in Talladega’s big drafting lines.

Rookie Ryan Preece, riding along 17th in Xfinity Series driver points at this early stage of the season, gets a big new test Saturday. Preece will race for the first time at super-fast Talladega Superspeedway in Saturday’s Sparks Energy 300 Xfinity race.

Garrett Smithley will run his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway Saturday, but he won’t start the event with zero experience. Smithley raced in an Automobile Racing Club of America event in 2014 at the giant 2.66-mile track. He finished 18th.