TALLADEGA, Ala. — Buckle up, NASCAR fans. Talladega is back, the championship fight is heating up, and somebody’s Sunday afternoon could get turned upside down in a hurry.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday for the YellaWood 500. Chase Briscoe starts on the pole, Kyle Larson leads the championship standings, and nobody should feel too comfortable.
At Talladega, a strong car helps. Good friends in the draft help even more. But sometimes, all it takes is one bad push to turn a championship contender into a very expensive lawn dart.
NASCAR at Talladega: TV schedule and radio information
- Race: YellaWood 500
- Date: Sunday, Oct. 25
- Track: Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama
- TV channel: NBC
- Pre-race coverage: 1:30 p.m. ET
- TV Race start: 2 p.m. ET
- Green Flag: 2:25 p.m. ET
- Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
- Streaming: Peacock and HBO Max
- Race distance: 188 laps, 500 miles
Chase Briscoe earned the pole with a qualifying lap averaging 186.065 mph. Austin Hill joins him on the front row, while Trackhouse Racing teammates Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen start third and fourth.
Larson starts fifth in the championship conversation but 10th on the grid. The Hendrick Motorsports driver enters with just a five-point lead over Christopher Bell, making every position potentially valuable.
Penske speed, manufacturer battles and pit-road strategy
Talladega is about more than horsepower. It’s about teamwork, timing and knowing when to trust the driver pushing your rear bumper at nearly 200 mph.
Team Penske’s Ford camp will be worth watching, with Ryan Blaney and Austin Cindric starting 27th and 28th. Those starting spots mean work awaits, but superspeedway racing offers plenty of opportunities to charge forward.
The Ford, Chevrolet and Toyota camps will spend the afternoon battling for drafting partners and control of the lanes. Manufacturer alliances can create powerful runs, but those partnerships can change quickly when the checkered flag gets closer.
Then there’s the beauty of green-flag pit stops. When the field dives onto pit road under green, crews must execute flawlessly while drivers and teams calculate whether to stop together or gamble on track position.
One mistimed stop can cost a driver the draft. A perfectly timed one can put a car at the front of the field before anyone realizes what happened.
And with 500 miles ahead, the strategy will keep changing.
Why anyone can win at Talladega
Larson may lead the standings, but Talladega doesn’t care about points totals. Briscoe has the pole, Penske has the speed, and the field is packed with drivers capable of making a winning move.
Seven championship contenders entered the weekend within 56 points of Larson. With only three races remaining after this round begins, the stakes are enormous.
The final laps could feature two-wide racing, three-wide racing and drivers making moves that look brilliant until they suddenly aren’t. One late caution could change everything. One push in the wrong place could trigger the dreaded Big One.
That’s the magic of Talladega. A driver can spend 499 miles positioning himself perfectly and still need one last break to win.
So grab the snacks, tune in to NBC or MRN, and prepare for a Sunday that could get wild in a hurry. At Talladega, the only safe prediction is that the finish probably won’t be boring.