1. Will Talladega Superspeedway produce the first wild-card winner?
Any time NASCAR heads to a superspeedway, fans are ready to place their bets on a sleeper. And for teams who are struggling to start the season and falling behind on competing for a playoff spot, Talladega Superspeedway may present the best shot for them to right the ship.
The problem is that the top NASCAR Cup Series teams are reaping the spoils there, too. In the last 10 races at Talladega, seven were won by a driver from Team Penske, Hendrick Motorsports or Joe Gibbs Racing. The outliers came from 23XI Racing (Bubba Wallace), Trackhouse Racing (Ross Chastain) and Richard Childress Racing (Kyle Busch). But all three teams have at least one driver in position to make the playoffs right now, and 23XI and Trackhouse each have two.
Reigning champion Ryan Blaney has had a chokehold on the track lately, finishing in the top two three consecutive times and winning three of the last nine races at the behemoth.
Meanwhile, the sport’s hottest driver right now is William Byron, and while he has yet to win at Talladega, he is the only driver with multiple superspeedway wins in the Next Gen era. On top of that, he has finished in the top 10 in five of the last six superspeedway events.
However, if a wild card winner does emerge this weekend, who could it be? Erik Jones has to be looked at as a favorite among the sleepers. He was a tri-oval away from winning the spring 2022 Talladega race, and he has earned a top 10 in four of the past fives races in Alabama.
You can also never count out Ricky Stenhouse Jr. All three of his Cup wins have come on superspeedways, including the spring 2017 race at Talladega. The 2023 Daytona 500 champion has only finished in the top 15 once at Talladega since a runner-up in the June 2020 event, but that shouldn’t stop you from keeping an eye on him.
2. Is Hendrick Motorsports primed to make 2024 their winningest season yet?
This has already been a pretty historic year for Hendrick Motorsports as it celebrates its 40th anniversary.
Byron and Alex Bowman kicked off the year with a 1-2 finish in the Daytona 500, Byron led an HMS 1-2-3 finish at Martinsville Speedway (a first in the track’s history), and three of its drivers have combined for five wins through nine races.
That pace currently has the legendary organization on track to reach 20 wins by the end of the season, something the team has not achieved. The highest…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …