The NASCAR Cup Series will join the Xfinity Series at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. This will be the third race for the Cup Series on a Superspeedway this year (Daytona and Atlanta were the other two). The teams will not have any track time to practice for the race Sunday. They will simply line up and qualify Saturday, before they take the green flag in the GEICO 500 Sunday. Here is the schedule for this weekend at Talladega…
TALLADEGA SCHEDULE
NASCAR STRATEGY
Each manufacture entered the 2023 season with a new front end to their cars. It is obvious that the Fords have the advantage in the draft, because the blue ovals can push harder and take a push better in the draft. This allows the Ford drivers to make more aggressive moves on the track and a better opportunity to finish up front. Four of the five drivers with the top Driver Rating in the first two Superspeedway races are all Fords (Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Austin Cindric and Chris Buescher). The only non-Ford in the top-five is Denny Hamlin. Stacking Fords in your Fantasy NASCAR lineups this week is not a bad idea.
Most of my focus for the picks this week will be based on what we have seen on the Superspeedways this year. We cannot ignore what has happened at Talladega in the past though. Talladega is much wider than Daytona and Atlanta, so drivers have more room and it is easier to stay out of trouble. You can watch the extended highlights of the last year’s race at Talladega here: NASCAR Race Rewind
SUPERSPEEDWAY STATS 2023
I am not going to be cute and try to pretend I can predict the finishing order at Talladega. There is just too much randomness in this race and each driver in the field has a decent chance for a top-10 finish Sunday. There are some drivers who are better at Superspeedway racing than others though. We can find these drivers by looking at how each driver ran in the two Superspeedway races this year (Daytona and Atlanta) and the two races last year at Talladega. Here are the Driver Ratings for the drivers in those races…
EARLY WEEK PICKS FOR TALLADEGA
ONE & DONE PICK: ZANE SMITH
DRIVER GROUP GAME PICKS: JOEY LOGANO, DENNY HAMLIN, BRAD KESELOWSKI, ERIK JONES, CHRIS BUESCHER, AUSTIN CINDRIC, RICKY STENHOUSE JR., COREY LAJOIE
FANTASY LIVE PICKS: JOEY LOGANO, RYAN BLANEY, BRAD KESELOWSKI, DENNY HAMLIN, ERIK JONES (GARAGE) CHASE ELLIOTT
Good luck this weekend!
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