NASCAR Update: April 24

Talladega has long been known as one of the most tumultuous races of the year for NASCAR, and this past weekend certainly lived up to that reputation.

The Cup Series' most recent visit to the superspeedway in Alabama featured one of the best finishes of the year, as Tyler Reddick took home the trophy for his first win of the year.

The first two stages of the race differed greatly from the last ten laps in terms of the intensity of the racing. Even on the last laps of stages, drivers didn’t make any of the aggressive moves that fans are used to, as many drivers were forced to run at half throttle to save gas for the finish.

The Toyota drivers seemed to have hit the nail on the head in terms of strategy and had everyone else on the ropes until they completely fumbled the win when Erik Jones, Bubba Wallace and John Hunter Nemechek crashed going into turn three.

After the race, it was revealed that Jones suffered a compression fracture in his lower back and will be replaced by Corey Heim this weekend.

This set up a run to the finish where Michael McDowell had the pack in his rears coming to the finish. This all came to a chaotic end when Brad Keselowski got a run coming into the trioval.

McDowell tried unsuccessfully to block this run, sending him and others into the wall and leaving the path open to have Reddick emerge from the rubble victorious. Corey LaJoie wound up on his roof in the accident but was unharmed.

This weekend the Cup Series heads north to Dover, Delaware for the Wurth 400. The race, held at the Dover Motor Speedway, is infamous for having tire issues with the concrete surface being much more abrasive on tires than traditional asphalt.

It’s also worth noting that the only other race that NASCAR’s held on concrete this season was the race in Bristol. That race featured unusually high tire wear and failures that turned the race into a tire conservation battle between drivers.

While NASCAR more than likely won’t be racing on that compound this weekend, it will still be something to look out for. This factor will mostly depend on how well the track takes rubber.

In terms of race pace, expect the track to go through some changes during green flag runs as the rubber gets put down. Strategy will be important here as tires will be the biggest factor that affects this race.

The Hendrick cars have been some of the most dominant all season and this will more than likely continue this weekend. All of Hendrick’s drivers have won at the “Monster Mile” before, giving them added confidence going into the weekend.

For a dark horse candidate, an 11-time winner will take to the mile-long track once again: Jimmie Johnson. In the prime of his career, Johnson was almost unbeatable here.

While he’s since retired and is driving on a part-time basis, he still may have a little more magic left in his helmet.

This weekend’s race starts at 2 p.m. and can be viewed on FS1.

Ethan Ellis is a third-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email ece5133@psu.edu.