Scary Talladega looms as ominous hurdle in NASCAR playoffs

Talladega Superspeedway may no longer be an elimination race, but it still remains a game-changer in NASCAR’s playoffs.

It is the playoff race drivers and crew chiefs view with a mix of apprehension and foreboding. The one race they feel like their championship fate is not dictated by their own doing, but at the mercy of those around them and beyond circumstances they have no control over.

Every year since the Cup Series went to a knockout playoff format in 2014, Talladega Superspeedway has been the race that has surprisingly and with unmerciful cruelty dashed championship hopes of expected title contenders. From Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch the first year under the new structure, to Earnhardt again the next year, to Martin Truex Jr. and Brad Keselowski last year, the restrictor-plate track doesn’t discriminate when it comes to inflicting heartbreak.

“God, there's so many unknowns there,” Truex said. “You can run up front all day long and finish 25th. You can run up front for 20 laps and get destroyed. You just never know. There's so much out of your control.”

Due to its unpredictability and penchant for multi-car accidents that can quickly swallow up even someone riding inconspicuously several yards behind the pack, drivers lobbied NASCAR to remove Talladega as the Round 2 elimination race. Officials granted that request and this year Sunday’s Alabama 500 (2:20 p.m. ET, NBC) is now the middle race of three in the second round.

Not that such change completely eradicates the dread that comes with having a postseason race on a track where the unpredictable is expected.

“Nothing is guaranteed when you go there,” said Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who won two of three restrictor-plate races during the regular season. “I’ve been crashed out of them just as easy as finishing well.”

Stenhouse is one of a dozen title-eligibles racing Sunday, where a win guarantees automatic advancement to the semi-finals. Of the 12 championship contenders, only one, Truex, enters the weekend without the normal stress associated with Talladega.

The Furniture Row Racing driver earned his free pass by virtue of winning the Round 2 opener last weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It was Truex’s Monster Energy Cup Series-best sixth win of the season, though it may have been the most cherished because of what it represented.

Regardless of the outcome Sunday, Truex knows he’ll be one of eight who will move on to the semi-finals. There will be no replay of a year ago when, while leading, a blown engine sent him to the garage prematurely and with it, an unceremonious early playoff exit.

To the victor goes the spoils. And this year, Truex and crew chief Cole Pearn can effectively kick back, put their feet up, crack an adult beverage and treat this weekend like a day at the beach. Instead of fretting, they can take solace in witnessing their competition being put through the Talladega ringer. Pearn described the sense of relief as, “Massive. Absolutely massive.”

“To go there and not have to worry about all those things is definitely a good feeling,” Truex said. “It's going to be pretty awesome going to Talladega and say, ‘Oh, what the hell, let's go race.’”

Kyle Busch thought he might be positioned to win last week, thereby alleviating the anxiety that Talladega brings. At a minimum, he figured to leave Charlotte with a comfortable enough points cushion that, should misfortune occur Sunday, he would still be solidly situated heading into next week’s Round 2 elimination race at Kansas Speedway.

Then, a promising day where he was running solidly inside the top 10 unraveled when not once, not twice, but three times Busch smacked the outside wall. When it was all said and done, he finished 29th.

Just like that, Busch’s once cozy 33-point margin between himself and the provisional transfer line diminished to a mere 12 points. Were he to follow with another subpar finish Sunday, he’d be placed him in a precarious spot at Kansas where he likely would need to win to avoid elimination.

“It stinks to give up points,” Busch said. “We’re still above the cut line, but we don’t have that cushion that we’d like to have going to Talladega and crash out early and be back in the pack and be coming from behind in Kansas.”

And as Busch knows all too well from his own experience three years ago, there exists a strong possibility his nightmare scenario could come to fruition Sunday. Talladega may no longer be an elimination race, but its stature as an ominous playoff hurdle remains very much intact.