In sharp contrast to Ford’s domination of recent NASCAR Cup Series racing at Talladega Superspeedway, Chevrolet drivers have won the last five NASCAR Xfinity Series events at the 2.66-mile track.
Kaulig Racing drivers have taken the checkered flag in the last three Xfinity races at Talladega, and that organization will bring its formidable superspeedway package to Saturday’s Sparks 300 at Talladega, the second race in the series’ Round of 12 (4:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“Kaulig Racing is always fast at superspeedways, and this is one of my favorite tracks to go to,” said Justin Haley, who swept the two Xfinity races at Talladega in 2020 and has won two of the last three events at Daytona.
Headed for full-time Cup racing as Kaulig moves up to NASCAR’s top division next year, Haley will drive the No. 16 Chevrolet in Sunday’s Cup event.
Teammate Jeb Burton is the most recent winner at Talladega, as Kaulig extended its streak at the track in this year’s spring race. Burton could use another victory after falling 27 points below the current Round of 8 cutoff, thanks to a 36th-place finish last Saturday at Las Vegas.
“Our last trip to Talladega resulted in my first-ever Xfinity Series win, so I’m looking forward to getting back there,” Burton said. “The Kaulig Racing Chevys are always great at the superspeedways, so we know we’ll have some speed this weekend.
“We got ourselves into a little bit of a hole at Las Vegas, so I’m looking forward to getting back on track this week.”
Teammate AJ Allmendinger, the Regular Season Champion, enters Saturday’s race with a 59-point cushion over ninth-place Myatt Snider, but Allmendinger surrendered the series lead to reigning Xfinity champion Austin Cindric with a seventh-place Las Vegas finish to Cindric’s fourth.
“Ultimately, our goal for this weekend is to try and survive, get good points and make sure we don’t have to fight to make it to the next round the following week in Charlotte,” Allmendinger said.
“The Kaulig Racing cars will be hard to beat if we can all get up front and run together.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
