Is Drafting at Talladega a Speed Bump for Chase Elliott?
Although Chase Elliott has an amazing streak of seven consecutive top-ten finishes, the Nationwide Series points leader and Rookie of the Year front-runner sees his first series trip to Talladega Superspeedway for this weekend’s Aaron’s 312 as a bit of a roadblock – at least based on his performance at Daytona International Speedway earlier this season.
“I thought my performance at Daytona was pretty pitiful, honestly,” Elliott said about his respectable 15th-place finish in the season opener. “I didn’t feel like I did a very good job of learning the draft as quickly as I needed to. So hopefully I can step up for the guys (at Talladega). The biggest thing there is just trying to stay out of trouble. It’s much easier said than done.”
Elliott’s performance over the past three weeks has more than made up for his Daytona finish; however, some are envious of the thought that a 15th-place finish as their worst result of the season. At Texas, Elliott, the son of 1988 Sprint Cup Champion Bill Elliott, shocked the NASCAR world with his first series win, only to do it again the following week at Darlington. Following up his consecutive victories, he gave a runner-up finish last weekend at Richmond, where he gave Kevin Harvick a run for his money over the last laps of the race.
Wallace and Hornish Returning to Nationwide Series
It’s been a while since Darrell Wallace Jr and Sam Hornish Jr faced the competition in the Nationwide Series. This weekend both drivers are dusting off the cobwebs to compete for a win in top-notch equipment.
Wallace ran four Nationwide races during the 2012 season, finishing in the top-ten three times. His only non-top-ten finish is a 12th at Dover in his last appearance. Despite success with his limited exposure to the series, Wallace didn’t get a chance to compete in 2013. This weekend at the 2.66-mile superspeedway, he is driving the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing entry, normally piloted by Matt Kenseth, who has six top-tens in the car. In Wallace’s only national series start at Talladega – last fall in the Camping World Truck Series – he finished 17th after leading four laps.
Hornish finished runner-up in the standings to champion Austin Dillon last season while driving the No. 2 entry for Team Penske. Unable to latch to a team with proper funding and sponsorship in place, the Ohio native sat out the first eight races of 2014 – though he did run the Sprint Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway, substituting for an ill Denny Hamlin. He returns to action at Talladega driving the No. 54 entry for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Not only is Hornish looking to finish strong this weekend, he’s hoping to turn heads and persuade some team owners to give him a second look. In three series starts at the track, his best finish is 12th.
Judging a Driver by Finishes Might be Deceiving
Results aren’t always what they seem. At least that’s the case for Nationwide Series driver, Chris Buescher.
Before last weekend’s race at Richmond where Buescher finished seventh, the Texas native’s average finish of 19.2 in his first six events of 2014 (he failed to qualify for the season opener at Daytona) tells only part of the story.
Buescher made his first start of the season at Phoenix, finishing 15th. The following weekend he turned in a ninth-place result. Buescher then went on to a 16th and 14th in the next two events. In the two races before Richmond, he ran strong but accidents in both events left Buescher with less-than-desirable finishes – 27th at Texas and 34th at Darlington – that were not indicative of how well he was running.
Although he’s never made a start in a national series race at Talladega, he has two starts in the ARCA Racing Series, finishing fifth and 17th.
Milestone Watch
In addition to Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott and Darrell Wallace Jr, ten other drivers are attempting their first Nationwide Series start at Talladega including, Dakoda Armstrong, Tanner Berryhill, Ryan Blaney, Chad Boat, Matt Dibenedetto, Joey Gase, Dylan Kwasniewski, Tommy Joe Martins, Ryan Reed and Ryan Sieg.
When Sam Hornish Jr fills in for Kyle Busch in the No. 54 Kyle Busch Motorsports entry this weekend at Talladega, it becomes the first Nationwide race the Las Vegas native hasn’t started since September 14th, 2013, at Kentucky Speedway. Drew Herring filled-in for Busch at Kentucky, finishing sixth.
Television coverage is on May 3rd for the Aaron’s 312 on ESPN2 at 2:30 pm ET with a Green Flag at 3 pm ET. Radio coverage is also available on MRN and Sirius XM, channel 90.