The Cup Series will take their show to Talladega Superspeedway this week for some pack racing. It is hard to believe but the race at Talladega may be more predictable than what we had last week on the dirt at Bristol. The Gen-7 cars are expensive and the teams have a limited supply. The Daytona 500 was pretty calm for the first half of the race and I expect the same this week. But just like any race on a Superspeedway, the action will pick up in the last 25 laps and that is when the wrecks will happen. If you like Superspeedway racing, the Gen-7 car should put on a good show for you Sunday.
TALLADEGA RACE SCHEDULE
No Practice
Qualifying: Saturday, April 23rd at 11 a.m. ET (FS1)
Talladega Race: Sunday, April 24th at 3 p.m. ET (Fox)
DRIVER RANKINGS FOR TALLADEGA
The 2022 NASCAR Cup Season is different from what we have had in the past. Usually when the Cup Series teams show up at Talladega for the spring race they only have one race on a Superspeedway in their notes. NASCAR turned Atlanta Motor Speedway into a Superspeedway track so now we have two races of data to use for our picks this week.
I am going to focus on what happened at Daytona and Atlanta for the Driver Rankings this week. The Gen-7 car has a different aero package (510 HP with a 7” spoiler) than what was used in the past and the teams do not have a garage filled with cars. The racing will be slightly different from what we have seen in the past at Talladega (a bit tamer) and the car handles better. The drivers who were good at Daytona and Atlanta should be good at Talladega.
I will not ignore the driver’s track history at Talladega though. I will use 50% of my rankings on what happened at Daytona and Atlanta this year, 25% on track history at Talladega and 25% on Superspeedway history (Daytona and Talladega) combined. This should give us a good idea of who the good drivers will be Sunday.
Here are my Driver Rankings for the GEICO 500 …
| Driver |
| 1. Ryan Blaney |
| 2. Brad Keselowski |
| 3. Joey Logano |
| 4. Bubba Wallace |
| 5. Chris Buescher |
| 6. William Byron |
| 7. Austin CIndric |
| 8. Chase Elliott |
| 9. Denny Hamlin |
| 10. Eric Jones |
| 11. Martin Truex Jr. |
| 12. Christopher Bell |
| 13. Kurt Busch |
| 14. Kyle Busch |
| 15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
| 16. Alex Bowman |
| 17. Kevin Harvick |
| 18. Chase Briscoe |
| 19. Daniel Suarez |
| 20. Tyler Reddick |
| 21. Michael McDowell |
| 22. Aric Almirola |
| 23. Ross Chastain |
| 24. Ty Dillon |
| 25. Cole Custer |
| 26. Austin Dillon |
| 27. Corey LaJoie |
| 28. Kyle Larson |
| 29. Justin Haley |
| 30. Daniel Hemric |
| 31. David Ragan |
| 32. Landon Cassill |
| 33. Todd Gilliland |
| 34. Harrison Burton |
| 35. Noah Gragson |
| 36. Greg Biffle |
| 37. J.J. Yeley |
| 38. Cody Ware |
| 39. B.J. McLeod |
* These rankings will be updated after the qualifying races
Good Luck This Week!
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