Like Hendrick Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Inc. has made a major commitment to winning at restrictor-plate tracks. That explains why DEI driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. has five wins and two runner-up finishes in his last 13 Talladega races. Junior has won more Cup races at Talladega (5) than at any other track, and this race could have special meaning to him since it is the last time he will run the Alabama superspeedway in a DEI car.

Other drivers in the Chase who appear poised to connect with solid success at Talladega are Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch, and Martin Truex Jr. A non-Chaser who also fits into this category is Casey Mears, who like Gordon, Johnson, and Kyle Busch drives for Hendrick Motorsports.  

My darkhorse is David Ragan, who led a couple of laps at Talladega this spring on his way to a 17th-place finish.

Keys to success at Talladega
It's no secret how unpredictable racing can be at this superspeedway so there's a lot to be said for finding someone to draft with especially late in the race. And on the topic of drafting, it will be interesting to see how that works out with the COT.

Talladega's been repaved so we'll see more than three-wide racing. You'll see drivers who'll be willing to run four-wide and make more gutsy moves than we've seen in the past.

With the added grip on the track, look for some drivers to race differently meaning more aggressively than what we've come to expect.

Getting caught up in the "Big One" is the fear of all drivers, and the best way for a driver to lessen the odds of being involved in such a multi-car pileup is to try and run up front all day.

While trying their best to keep their cars from getting damaged, the drivers are also trying to figure out when it's best to make their moves, so it's like a game of mental chess. But luck plays a big role at this track, more so than at any other track on the Nextel Cup circuit.

Talladega is big, wide and fast -- a track that places a premium on a quality car. Cars run in large packs, and that makes it mentally draining on the drivers, who need to focus on all that is going on around them so they can try and stay out of big wrecks.

Drivers must be careful not to speed on pit row after coming in from running at about 190 mph on the track. In 2004 NASCAR ended its policy of checking pit-row speeds with stop watches, and began using electronic devices to do so.

On the pit stops we'll probably see mostly two-tire changes because the grip should be good after the resurfacing and drivers aren't going to want to wait on four tires since they'll be using smaller fuel cells (13 gallons instead of 22).

The racing will intensify over the final 20 laps or so and that's when some of the more desperate moves are made -- moves that often result in wrecks. Getting through clean in the late stages of the race is one of the biggest challenges of winning at Talladega.

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