It’s October, which means there’s one more month until the NASCAR 2021 season comes to an end. Today, the drivers are in Talladega to compete in the YellaWood 500, and the 12 drivers that are in the Cup Series playoffs are making sure they are not one of the four eliminated. The Talladega Superspeedway race will start at 2 p.m. ET and will air on NBC and the NBC Sports App.
One driver who doesn’t have to worry about his playoff fate is Denny Hamlin who is the only driver to clinch a spot in the Round of 8 after his win in Las Vegas last week. The three-time Daytona 500 winner is looking for his first Cup Series Championship after coming in fourth the last two years.ย
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Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Martin Truex Jr., could clinch a spot very soon as he sits fourth in the playoff standings. However, Talladega hasn’t been too kind to him, finishing in the top-five in his 33 starts and has finished 20th or worse in his last 10 races at the famous speedway. But despite the lack of success, Truex enjoys competing in Talladega.ย
“It’s not been very good lately. We’ve kind of been in bad relationship these last couple of years,” Truex said. “I don’t know. I enjoy going there. I enjoy racing there. It just been a real challenge to get to the finish, so hopefully, this time around we will have a little bit better luck. Just been caught up in a lot of accidents. Nowhere to hide there. It’s just not been that good to us. We haven’t finished a speedway race this year, so I guess the odds are in our favor to finish this one, hopefully. We need it. We need a good finish, so hopefully we will get it done.”ย ย
Alex Bowman is one of the four playoff drivers who are below the Round of 8 elimination line. After a disappointing performance Las Vegas, Bowman is ready for a big day in order to keep his championship hopes alive. “The biggest stress point for me is trying to make it to the end of that race,” Bowman said. “It’s really difficult to do no matter how good at superspeedway racing you are or you aren’t. Just trying to make the right decisions there and the right calls. Hopefully end up toward the front there at the end of the day.”
