Talladega Superspeedway looms. October looms. Spooky season is here and it kicks off with NASCAR’s most feared racetrack … but there’s a ton of storylines, topics and concerns at the forefront of everyone’s minds going into race weekend.
Let alone NASCAR’s actual race and the playoff chaos that comes with it: safety concerns with the Next Gen car, the impact of Hurricane Ian, drivers sitting out and more headline the days leading up to a tripleheader postseason feature at the 2.66-mile superspeedway in Alabama.
Thursday (Sept. 29) brought the news that Alex Bowman would be sitting out after possibly one of the most innocuous, light-wall-tap crashes we’ve seen all season … and yet, the Next Gen’s viability has been raised into question once again. Texas Motor Speedway’s eternal race last weekend also gave us plenty to reflect on, from a driver spinning other under caution to another driver door-slamming a competitor in the vicinity of crew members and officials on pit road.
That all said, it’s a weekend of chaos, one whose 2021 edition featured all three premier NASCAR series races finishing with first-time winners in victory lane: Tate Fogleman in trucks, Brandon Brown in Xfinity and Bubba Wallace in Cup.
Since then, just one of those three has scored another victory, but I wanted to go back and reflect on all the playoff races at ‘Dega over the years.
2014
Ah, yes. The Brad Keselowski walk-off.
“Bad Brad” needed a win to lock himself into the Round of 8, and he delivered. Despite leading just 12 laps all race long, the No. 2 was dueling with Ryan Newman as the field took the white.
Shockingly, despite the field fanning out three- and four-wide behind him and an underdog in Landon Cassill, driving for Hillman Racing, making a run on the outside, Keselowski held on for the win.
It remains one of the more clutch playoff moments, and we could only be so lucky that we got one of those — and a fantastic championship finale — in the bracket’s first year of existence.
2015
Joey Logano won his first of two in a row at Talladega in this race and third event in a row that season, one of the more controversial results in a playoffs chock-full of feuds and divisive moments: this race ended up sandwiched between the Kansas Speedway event in which Logano spun Matt Kenseth and the Martinsville Speedway race in which the No. 20 paid the No. 22 back.
While the fans’ issues…
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