With only three races remaining to settle the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series championship, Sunday’s iconic Fall 500-miler at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway stands to, once again, play a major role in shaping the final push to the Bill France Performance Cup trophy.
The YellaWood 500 (2 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is the ultimate wildcard in this late season Chase run. Many drivers consider it as much a test of survival as show of skill in the close-quarter racing on Talladega’s famed 2.66-mile high banks. It has so often proven consequential as the 16 championship drivers close out the season.
Twelve different drivers have won the last 12 Talladega races with Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney the last driver to earn back-to-back Talladega trophies in 2019-20.
The style of racing on tracks such as Talladega, the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway and the 1.5-mile EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta) high banks has continually kept the oddsmakers honest.
This Spring, Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar claimed his first, and only, career NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega. And then there’s two-time and reigning series champion and current championship leader, Kyle Larson, still racing for his first ever win on a drafting track.
The top seven drivers in the Chase are separated by a mere 56 points. Hendrick Motorsports’ Larson continues to hold the lead but a bad luck day at Phoenix last week severely cut into his advantage atop the points. He now leads, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell by only five points. JGR’s Chase Briscoe is third, 24 points back and the No. 1 seed entering the Chase, JGR’s Denny Hamlin – who also had a rough outing in the Phoenix desert – is now 31 points off Larson. Team Penske teammates Blaney and Joey Logano are 41 and 44 points behind Larson. With his Phoenix victory, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick is eighth in the standings, 56 points back.
Larson leads all drivers in laps led (556) and average finish (7.3) through the seven Chase races to date.
“Talladega, like any superspeedway race, is challenging because there are so many things that can happen outside of your control,” said Larson, who after going winless during the regular season has two victories and two runner-up finishes in The Chase. “Focusing on what you can control is always an important part of racing at those tracks. As a Chevrolet group, I think we work really well together. We’ve continued to improve how we work together, and I think we’re in a good place.”
Bell, driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota, who is in his highest points position of the year, has earned the most stage points (96) during the Chase, followed by Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney with the second-most (82).
“I know I haven’t had the greatest finishes at Talladega throughout my career, but we’re also one of the top contenders when it comes down to the end of the race,” said Bell. “Outside of the final stage, we do a great job as a team of scoring stage points. I don’t view Talladega as negatively for us or for Kyle Larson as others might. I truly believe we can have a good day.”
Hamlin, a four-time winner in the No. 11 JGR Toyota this season, certainly presents a formidable case going forward with double the number of wins as any other driver in the next three Chase venues – 11 victories in total (two at Talladega, six at Martinsville, Va. and three at Homestead-Miami).
And the formidable Talladega certainly proved to be so in the spring visit with Larson finishing 40th, Hamlin 15th and Bell coming in 17th.
Interestingly, the driver who leads the most laps at the drafting tracks has won only three of the last 21 races – the most recent, Blaney in July at Atlanta. Blaney (two) and last week’s Phoenix winner, Reddick (three) are the only repeat winners on drafting tracks in the last 16 drafting-style races.
Ryan Preece (Daytona) and Hocevar (Talladega) both scored their first career wins on the big tracks. There have never been three first-time winners on drafting tracks.
In 2026, Reddick has an incredible 5.4 average finish on drafting-style tracks. Spire Motorsports’ Daniel Suarez (10.6) and Hendrick’s Chase Elliott (11.0) have been next best.
And worth noting, Roush Fenway Keselowski driver Brad Keselowski’s seven wins on drafting style tracks are most in the field. Logano and Blaney each have six.
Busch Light Pole Qualifying is at 1 p.m. Saturday (TruTV, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Hamlin is the last driver to win from pole position (2020). Spire Motorsports driver Michael McDowell is the defending polesitter for this fall race.
— NASCAR News Wire —