NASCAR Cup playoff race at Talladega: How to watch, starting lineup and predictions

NASCAR driver Kurt Busch is coming off a week of “celebration and reflection” following his first win at his Las Vegas hometown track last Sunday. He said he has “lived it up,” with a helicopter ride over Sin City and masked celebrations with family and friends, including driver Brendan Gaughan, who will run his final NASCAR race at Talladega this weekend.

But Busch, who is already locked into the next round of the postseason with his victory, said he’s not letting off the gas this weekend. He said he spoke with his team about going for stage wins, stage points and racing up front for the YellaWood 500.

The Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway is at 2 p.m. Sunday on NBC. Busch will start in the front row behind Denny Hamlin, who is on the pole.

“If we wreck out, so be it,” Busch said. “We’re still going to advance, but we need to keep the pressure on and get as many points as possible these next two weeks with Talladega and the Roval coming up.”

While the pressure is off this round for Busch and his No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing team, it’s still on for 11 drivers, who have two more chances to earn enough points or win one of the next two races to advance in the Round of 8.

PLAYOFF DRIVERS AT TALLADEGA

No. 3 driver Austin Dillon said, like Busch, he’s also planning to race aggressively and go for wins, but Dillon needs the points as the driver most in danger of missing the cut. He’s 32 points below the bubble. From the first lap, Dillon said he’s aiming to get up front and hold his track position.

“To show everybody around us that we’re there, and we have a fast car so work with us,” Dillon said. “And just kind of prove a point from the beginning of the race that we’re going to be a contender at Talladega.”

Drivers Kyle Busch (-9), Clint Bowyer (-20) and Aric Almirola (-27) are also below the cutoff heading into Sunday. Alex Bowman (+9), Chase Elliott (+10) and Joey Logano (+11) are the drivers closest to dropping below the bubble, while Martin Truex Jr. (+15) and Brad Keselowski (+16) have a slightly larger cushion, although they’re not totally in the clear.

Denny Hamlin is 58 points above the bubble, while Kevin Harvick sits 61 points up. Hamlin said he knows his No. 11 Toyota team is capable of winning the superspeedway race. He has 12 wins at superspeedways (longer than two miles), but he said the race at Talladega will come down to “a lot of circumstance.”

“A lot of it is putting yourself in the right place,” Hamlin said. “But you don’t always know what that place will be.”

This year’s Daytona 500 winner said that the timing of the race in playoffs means that most of the field is already eliminated from the playoffs, while the rest are “fighting tooth and nail for stage points.”

“I suspect it will be pretty wild again, but I’m confident our cars are good enough to win every time we go there,” Hamlin said. “Sometimes it’s just a numbers game.”

A non-playoff driver hasn’t won any races in the postseason, but Talladega is considered a wild-card track. The race will also likely see teams and manufacturers working together, especially late in stages. Ford has the most cars still in the playoffs (five), followed by Chevrolet (four), then Toyota (three).

NASCAR PLAYOFF POINTS STANDINGS AFTER LAS VEGAS

MANUFACTURER AND TEAM TALK

Manufacturers have also made news this week, with two teams, Richard Childress Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, announcing that they will collaborate on research and development for a common Chevrolet engine next season. Chevy is the only manufacturer that does have a streamlined engine supplier, so the collaboration is seen as a move to increase team efficiency and performance.

“Our respective engine shops operations will continue to function independently as they currently do,” a joint statement from the RCR and HMS said. “We look forward to working together to fully leverage the knowledge and intellectual property of our two successful programs to advance Chevrolet’s engine for NASCAR.”

Additionally, Hamlin provided an update on the development of his new Cup team with Michael Jordan, but said that alliance and manufacturer contracts have not yet been finalized and that “everything is up in the air at this point.”

Jordan earlier said the team was in discussion with the Joe Gibbs Racing organization about collaborating on research and equipment. Hamlin also mentioned JGR as a model for how the team intends to operate.

“We’re not going to build an empire in three months, but certainly we have visions in the years to come to build this into a big organization like Joe Gibbs Racing,” Hamlin said. “I’ve learned a lot from him. I think Tony (Stewart) learned a lot from him, which is when he moved over to Haas and kind of took over there and running it.”

With this week’s release of the 2021 schedule, which incorporates many new tracks and road courses, Hamlin also mentioned that it will be difficult for the new team, or any team, to capture a lot of wins, but he said he doesn’t think there’s any track the team won’t be able to win at.

“I think there are things that I can work with Bubba (Wallace) on on the driver side of things to improve some parts of his game,” Hamlin said, adding that although the manufacturer is undecided he thinks “the cars will be good.”

PREDICTIONS FOR TALLADEGA

For now, though, Alabama is the focus, and the oddsmakers have drivers nearly equally projected to win this race. Ryan Blaney won the last race at the track in June and is a solid superspeedway driver with two wins and three top-fives in 12 starts at ‘Dega. Both Blaney and Joey Logano have +1200 odds, according to FanDuel.com. The site slightly favors Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott (+1100). My personal pick is Hamlin, with Aric Almirola as the underdog runner.

HOW TO WATCH NASCAR CUP RACE AT TALLADEGA

• Cup race: YellaWood 500
• Distance: 500 miles, 188 laps (stages end on Lap 60, 120, 188). The track is 2.66 miles
• When: Sunday 2 p.m.
• TV: NBC (broadcast starts at 1:30 p.m.)
• Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
• Last Talladega Winner: Ryan Blaney

NASCAR CUP RACE AT TALLADEGA STARTING LINEUP

*Playoff drivers

Alexandra Andrejev

The Charlotte Observer

NASCAR and Charlotte FC beat reporter Alex Andrejev joined The Observer in January 2020 following an internship at The Washington Post. She is a two-time APSE award winner for her NASCAR beat coverage and National Motorsports Press Association award winner. She is the host of McClatchy’s podcast “Payback” about women’s soccer. Support my work with a digital subscription