Following his win last weekend at Kansas Speedway, Joey Logano has not only clinched his spot in the next round of the Chase, but his double wins prevented one of the other 11 drivers from clinching their spot in the next round with a victory of their own.
Weekend Schedule - (all times Eastern)
Friday, October 23
- Practice: 2:00 - 2:55 pm
- Final practice: 4:30 - 5:25 pm
Saturday, October 24
- Qualifying: 4:15 pm
Sunday, October 25
- Race: 2:30 pm (188 laps / 500.08 miles)
Notebook
- Joey Logano enters the weekend in the absolute best spot a driver can be in: not only did he clinch a spot in the next round of the Chase, but he won the next race, just for good measure, meaning that the other 11 drivers are battling for eight spots this weekend.
- The situation for each Chase-eligible driver this weekend:
- Joey Logano: clinched
- Denny Hamlin: 14th and no laps led; 15th and at least one lap led; 16th and most laps led
- Kurt Busch: 8th and no laps led; 9th and at least one lap led; 10th and most laps led
- Carl Edwards: 7th and no laps led; 8th and at least one lap led; 9th and most laps led
- Kevin Harvick: 3rd and no laps led; 4th with a lap led
- Jeff Gordon and Brad Keselowski: 2nd or better; 3rd and at least one lap led; 4th and most laps led
- Martin Truex Jr.: 2nd and no laps led; 3rd and the most laps led
- Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth only control their own destiny with a win.
- Of those drivers who have not yet locked up their spot, Gordon is the most likely candidate to do so, as he has six career wins at the track, which is double what anybody else in the Chase has. He also has more top-five finishes at the track. Those numbers may very well be inflated by the fact that he also has 16 more races at the track than any other Chase driver, which is a testament to not only his long career, but also his long consecutive race streak.
- Keselowski has the second most wins at the track, despite being tied with Logano for the least amount of races at the track among Chase drivers. Earnhardt Jr. has the highest average finish among Chase drivers with an average finish of 15th position at Talladega.
- One of the big storylines entering the weekend is NASCAR's decision to limit the attempts at a green-white-checkered finish to just one for this weekend to attempt to cut down on “the big one” happening. This decision has been met with mixed reactions from drivers and fans, and comes in light of Austin Dillon’s horrifying crash at Daytona in July.
- Talladega Superspeedway is a 2.66-mile oval located in Talladega, Alabama with banking of 33 degrees in the turns, and 16.5 degrees of banking on the frontstretch. The backstretch has banking of just two degrees.
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