NASCAR.com dives into Talladega's 2023 playoff weekend as the NASCAR Cup Series hits the track for the YellaWood 500.
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00:00 Elliott with the help of Jones. He searches ahead. Jones moves to the inside. Elliott has the lead.
00:07 Chase Elliott through the dogleg. Blaney with momentum. He's not going to get there. Elliott's
00:15 going to win in Talladega. A bold move off four and Chase Elliott is going to rule off mortgage
00:23 victory lane. Hey everybody, welcome into Studio 3 for the preview show delivered by DoorDash. I'm
00:38 Alex Weaver, that is Alan Kavanaugh and I can hear the faint playing of Leonard Skinner already
00:45 firing up. Sweet home Alabama, Talladega is where we're headed for the biggest wild card of the
00:51 playoffs. It's an opportunity to lock into the round of eight. Turn it up, turn that sweet home
00:56 Alabama up. And like you said, it is an opportunity. It's either a dream scenario or a nightmare
01:01 scenario. That's what Talladega brings out in all of these drivers. I expect an aggressive race on
01:07 Sunday. This isn't like the spring where you can hang back and kind of just wait around until the
01:11 end and then make your move. So many good drivers, playoff drivers, need points. They need these
01:16 stage points. That means they have to be aggressive and they have to be aggressive early. So I think
01:20 we see a lot of action right out of the gate because they need to because you can't skip on
01:24 these points. If you want to point your way in, you're going to need your teammates to be working
01:28 with you. You're going to need luck on your side and you got to make it to the end. Yeah, and also
01:32 be a good super speedway racer. No big deal. That helps. Well, a lot of our playoff drivers had
01:37 trouble at Texas Motor Speedway. A shocking number. And one of those drivers, Kyle Busch, is our spring
01:43 winner from Talladega. I'm looking at Rowdy to possibly know that Talladega is a Hail Mary for
01:49 him as well as Bub Wallace led a lot of laps there the last time we were there. Ryan Blaney finished
01:54 second. So can we look at some of the drivers who know that they have to have good days to have a
01:59 good day? Sure. I mean, those drivers below the elimination line are all very good at Talladega.
02:04 That's what's so intriguing. And you look back to last week. Bubba had his issues on the final
02:08 restart. Ryan Blaney sped, cost himself a bunch of points. Kyle Busch knew something was wrong with
02:12 his car. They still spun out and they crashed. So each driver had their own issue at Texas. What
02:18 I'm wondering is mentally, who overcomes that the best? Who puts that in the rearview mirror,
02:22 focuses forward on Sunday? I think that driver is the one that comes out the best on Sunday to put
02:27 all the bad stuff in the background because they each had their own issues. Who can overcome it?
02:31 That's who does the best on Sunday. Let's zoom in on that elimination line just a little bit more
02:36 because right now below the elimination line is both drivers from 2311, Bubba Wallace and Tyler
02:42 Reddick. But Larson and Keselowski are the first two drivers above the elimination line. So
02:48 Kyle Larson, eh, at Talladega. Brad Keselowski, I mean the record book shows, so dominant there.
02:54 That's what's so interesting is that if one of those 2311 drivers, if someone below the elimination
02:58 line works their way in, who's out? We have the two champions, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson. Brad
03:03 Keselowski's so good at Talladega. That makes me worried about Kyle Larson. Not the best record,
03:08 not the best time to have a crash at Texas. You're kind of digging yourself a hole going into
03:12 Talladega and wondering what you may have to do at the Roval. So if one of them jumps the line,
03:17 someone has to be booted out. I'm worried about that five team. Yeah, hard to believe that the
03:20 2021 champ is right above the elimination line. Oh, so faintly. All right, it's time for our
03:26 playoff polls. We're heading to Talladega and it's that time of the week again to do our good,
03:31 bad and our wild card. So let's start with the good. I see for old Daga. My good for Daga is BK
03:36 Brad Keselowski. He has done so much with Roush Fenway, Keselowski Racing. He's done everything
03:41 except win. I think that changes on Sunday. Six wins at Talladega. Nearly 50% of the time he shows
03:47 up at Talladega. He doesn't just finish, he finishes in the top 10. The man knows how to
03:50 get it done. Losing streak over for Brad Keselowski on Sunday. Maybe he starts a winning
03:55 streak. Needs to start a winning streak for sure. It would be the first for him with RFK. So a big
04:00 celebration in Talladega. I would imagine I'm going to go with my good. This is super low
04:04 hanging fruit on a super speedway. Danny Hamlin going with the 11. Wow, Danny, why not? One of
04:09 the best. So many wins. He'll get booed and then he'll win. He loves those boos. I know. All right,
04:13 the flip side, the bad for Talladega. I feel like we might have a lot of beaten up race cars by the
04:18 end of it. Yeah, I'm going to surprise you here. I can't believe I'm saying it. Kyle Larson is my
04:23 bad. It's the one I'm most worried about going into Sunday. Listen to this stat. He has raced
04:28 36 times in his career at Daytona or Talladega. That's a full season of his career at these two
04:33 big tracks. He has one top five. One top five for Kyle Larson. That's not the stat I want to hear
04:39 if I'm a five fan going into Talladega, knowing I need to accumulate a bunch of points, maybe even
04:44 get a win if I want to keep this championship hunt alive. I'm worried about Kyle Larson. Prove us
04:49 wrong, champ. Prove us wrong. All right. Another driver that I need to prove me wrong is the regular
04:54 season champ, Martin Shirk, Jr. I'm so sorry, but I just don't like the chances at a super speedway.
05:00 Obviously, he tends to get caught up in not only his own mess, but other people's messes,
05:04 which is so easy to do when it comes to these huge super speedway races. Not a lot of help
05:10 there in the Toyota camp. It's the smallest of the numbers, and he barely squeaked by to get
05:15 into the round of 12. Yeah, two champs are worried about. All right. And then the wild card. This is
05:21 really just throw a dart at the board, but who's your wild card? My wild card is Bubba Wallace,
05:25 because he is pound for pound, maybe the best drafting track racer out there. We know he can
05:30 lead laps. We know he can get it done. But will he get it done? He can lead every lap and crash
05:36 on the last one. That won't do anything for him. That's why he's my wild card, because we know he
05:40 has the ability, the car, but he needs to get the win. Can he? That's the wild card factor for me.
05:46 How about you? All bets are off. I'm going to go with his teammate, Tyler Reddick. I'm going with
05:50 45, so maybe we'll have some Jordans in victory lane at some point. It's been a good run for him
05:54 in your Jordans. It's been a good run. All right. Well, a lot of memories made at Talladega, and
06:00 let's throw it back to our NASCAR 75 flashback in 2000 with the old black and white number three.
06:06 Ooh, the Intimidator, one of the best memories in NASCAR 75 years. With five laps to go,
06:11 the Intimidator is 18th. Not a problem, Alex. He starts cutting through the field like only he
06:16 could, such Earnhardt style, too. Huge mark on his right side of his car, doing it the hard way,
06:22 three and four wide. Ultimately, Kenny Wallace in the 55 gets behind Earnhardt, gives him a big
06:27 push, and it was game over. Win number 10 at Talladega, 76 on a wonderful career. Of course,
06:34 it ended up being his final victory. Such a memorable one, though, and one we will talk about
06:40 forever. The number three flag still flies very high in Talladega. That is Earnhardt country. So
06:45 good for the rest of the field that an Earnhardt is not in the field. We're going to see if one
06:49 playoff driver can lock himself into the round of eight, and he's going to have to get through
06:54 the beast that is Talladega. Make sure and tune in to the Super Speedway and the High Banks down
06:59 there in Alabama, 2 p.m. Eastern on NBC. Make sure you join us right back here next week for
07:04 the preview show delivered by DoorDash. She's Alex, I'm Alan. We'll see you then.