“I believe you have better odds at the front of the pack when it comes to staying out of a wreck, if you can keep that track position all day. You’re going to race in a pack — three-wide at times — and you’re going to get pushed and have to push at times. You just never know what’s going to happen because Talladega is its own animal.”
Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner with two Talladega wins (2014 and 2020), is also another frontrunner with high expectations this weekend. He leads all active drivers with 20 top-five finishes at Talladega and hopes to answer his first top five of the season — last week at Martinsville — with his first victory of the year.
GEICO 500
Location: Talladega (Ala.) Motorspeedway
Time: 3 p.m. ET
Length: 188 laps on 2.66-mile track
Defending Champion: Ross Chastain
How to Follow: FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
BEST BETS SIX-PACK
Joey Logano (+1000 at BetMGM)
Logano, who finished second at Daytona in February, is third at the sportsbook with 5.9 percent of the total bets backing him to win. He has three Talladega victories on his resume along with seven other top-10 finishes at the track.
Ryan Blaney (+1200)
Blaney followed up his win in the 2019 fall race with another win at Talledega the next spring. He is the second biggest liability at BetMGM this week as Blaney has been supported by 7.9 and 10.9 percent of the action, respectively. However, Blaney’s current 55-race winless streak is the second longest of his career.
Chase Elliott (+1400)
Elliott — the 2019 and 2022 Talladega winner — will be competing in only his second race after breaking his left leg in a snowboarding accident in early March. He came out of the gate strong in his return to competition last week — finishing 10th at Martinsville. He has the two wins, five top-five and seven top-10 finishes in 14 Talladega races, and is BetMGM’s biggest liability this week with 7.7 percent of the bets and 14.6 percent of the money backing him.
Brad Keselowski (+1400)
His six career victories at Talladega are the second most all-time behind Earnhardt’s 10, the most recent coming in this race two years ago. He finished second in the YallaWood 500 at Talladega that fall.
Christopher Bell (+1800)
The series points leader is still seeking his first Talladega victory. He won the pole position for both Talladega races last year, but his only top-10 in six starts was in the 2021 playoff race — a fifth-place finish. His career best showing at the track is runner-up in the 2017 Craftsman Truck Series race.
Kyle Larson (+1800)
Larson is coming off a win at Martinsville — can he go back-to-back at NASCAR’s biggest non-road course track after finding Victory Lane at one of its smallest?
(Information from the NASCAR Wire Service contributed to this story)