NASCAR Preview - Talladega

NASCAR visits the track that was considered so fast, that in the inaugural race in 1969, Richard Petty and most regular drivers boycotted it. That was Alabama International Speedway and this is now.

I am taking you inside the race.

From 2001-04 Dale Earnhardt Jr won 5 of 7 races at Talladega and finished second in the other two. His best finish in the last 8 restrictor races however is 7th. In the spring race at Talladega in 2004, Jeff Gordon started a streak of 4 wins in 5 restrictor plate races at Daytona and Talladega, while Earnhardt Jr won the other race and finished top three in 3 of Gordon's wins. Now they are future teammates.

Tony Stewart finished 2nd to Gordon in the last of those 4 wins, then went on his own streak finishing 1st, 5th, 2nd, 2nd, and 1st in the next 5 restrictor plate races. Kurt Busch finished 3rd to Stewart and his brother Kyle in the 2006 Pepsi 400 at Daytona, then he finished 3rd in each of the next 4 races except the Daytona 500 where him and Stewart crashed.

Here is my call on the last lap this weekend, with former track champions wrestling for the belt they held at one time.
'On the inside line is Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch, on the outside is Jeff Gordon and his future teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. Stewart nudges ahead out of turn 4, but here comes Gordon and Junior on the outside, THEY TOUCH, THEY TOUCH:
And the winner is:

Jeff Gordon with the help of his teammate Dale Jr. Gordon has led the most laps in 3 of the last 5 Talladega races, a total of 299 out of 950 laps. He has won 3 of the last 7 races here and led a total of 800 laps.

Tony Stewart falls a half-car length short on the outside with help from Busch. He finished second in 6 of 11 Talladega races from 2001-06 and led the most laps in 4 of 7 plate races from 2005-06. In his Championship year in 2005, he led the most laps in 3 of the 4 plate races, including a career-high of 65 at Talladega, but has never led more than 11 laps any other race there.

Dale Earnhardt finishes third behind Gordon. He has led 539 laps at Talladega, second to Gordon.