Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 Truly A Wild Card Chase Race

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 Truly A Wild Card Chase Race

This is "wild card" weekend to say the least. Chase qualifier or not, anyone in the 43-car field is a contender for Talladega Superspeedway’s checkered flag. Since the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™ began in 2004, four of the eight fall Talladega winners – Dale Jarrett, Brian Vickers, Jamie McMurray and Clint Bowyer – came from outside the Chase field. The eventual NASCAR Sprint Cup champion has never won the fall Talladega race in the Chase era.

Seven of this year’s 12 Chase qualifiers (Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon) have a ‘Dega victory. Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Martin Truex Jr., Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth are still looking for one. A member of this year’s Chase field has won 10 of the past 13 races at Talladega Superspeedway.

Points Leader Keselowski Bids For ’Dega Season Sweep

Some drivers regard Talladega Superspeedway with trepidation. Not NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader Brad Keselowski, winner of the track’s spring race earlier this year and in 2009, when he scored his first of nine series victories. Keselowski, who scored Chase win No. 2 on Sunday at Dover International Speedway, leads Jimmie Johnson by five points entering the fourth round of the post season. Denny Hamlin is 16 points behind Keselowski in third place. A victory would make Keselowski the first to sweep both Talladega races since Jeff Gordon in 2007.

Talladega Could Be Springboard To Bowyer’s First NSCS Title

This is Clint Bowyer’s first Chase as a member of Michael Waltrip Racing and he’s hanging tough – fourth in the standings, 25 points out of the lead. History suggests this may be the week that Bowyer goes all the way to the top as the Kansan bids for a third consecutive victory in Talladega’s fall race. Bowyer won as a Chase qualifier in 2010. He missed the post season a year ago but repeated as the winner of the Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500. Bowyer’s five most recent starts have produced five of his seven top-10 Talladega finishes.

Johnson’s ’Dega Stats Aren’t Great But He’s Solid When It’s Counted Most

Talladega stands statistically as Jimmie Johnson’s worst-performing track based on his Driver Rating of 81.5. Johnson, however, has won twice at ‘Dega, most recently in the spring of 2011. Johnson has performed at the 2.66-mile superspeedway when it counted most with top-10 Chase finishes in four of his five championship seasons. The exception was 2006 when Johnson was swept up in a final-lap accident, finished 24^th but still came back to claim his first NSCS title. He was 26^th a year ago when the championship streak ended. Johnson has been snake-bitten to say the least in 2012 restrictor-plate races with finishes of 42^nd, 35^th and 36^th.

Critical Race For Biffle, Kenseth Where Fords Lacked In Recent Years

Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth held the NASCAR Sprint Cup points lead 21 times during this year’s regular season. Now they’re 11^th and 12^th respectively in Chase standings and on the brink of elimination after just three races. Talladega offers at least hope. Kenseth, the Daytona 500 winner, finished third in the track’s spring race with Biffle close behind in fifth place. Both drivers need a victory in the worst way and so does Ford, a winner just twice in the track’s most recent 27 races.

McMurray, Burton Take This Week’s ‘Chase Spoiler’ Roles

This hasn’t been Jamie McMurray’s season to say the least – just three top-10 finishes and none since early June. Yet McMurray goes to the post at Talladega as one of the favorites based upon his knack for finishing well at both Daytona and Talladega. McMurray was the last Ford driver to win at Talladega (fall 2009) and is both a Daytona 500 and Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola champion in Daytona. Another not-so-dark horse is Jeff Burton, who finished 10^th in Talladega’s spring event and second to Bowyer in last fall’s Chase race. Bowyer claims Talladega’s best Driver Rating of 90.7 and has made more Green Flag Passes (4,048) than any other competitor.