If you’ve been a NASCAR Cup Series fan for almost any time at all, you know that Talladega Superspeedway breeds some of the most unpredictable racing on the tour.
Thanks to the draft that keeps the cars bunched together in one or two big packs over the course of the race, the lead is prone to change hands at almost any moment. And a driver can go from running 10th or 15th to being out front, or vice versa, in a matter of just a few seconds.
Of course, this unique brand of close-quarters competition is also apt to produce the “Big One” — the moniker associated with a major multi-car wreck that eliminates numerous contenders.
With all that said, a certain trio of winless-in-2025 drivers stands the best chance of going to Victory Lane on Sunday at the 2.66-mile Alabama track. Let’s count them down — from least to most likely to prevail.
3. Chase Elliott
A two-time Talladega winner in the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR’s most popular driver always seems to have a lot of speed in his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet when it hits Talladega’s high banks.
Elliott notched his maiden Talladega triumph in the spring of 2019 and made it back to Victory Lane here in the fall of 2022. The second-generation driver and 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champ has led in each of his last five trips to the high-speed trioval.
Elliott showed up extra hungry this weekend, having gone winless over the first fourth of the 36-race NASCAR Cup Series season after celebrating only once in 2024.
Chase Elliott wins at Talladega. He's with Jamie Little. pic.twitter.com/QIxCLfWG8L
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 28, 2019
2. Brad Keselowski
The NASCAR Cup Series’ wins leader at Talladega among active drivers, Keselowski has taken the checkered flag running P1 on six occasions — the most recent of them coming in the spring of 2021.
All six came before Keselowski left Team Penske for his current seat at RFK Racing, where he is both driver of the No. 6 Ford and co-owner of the organization. Although Keselowski has failed to scratch in a half-dozen starts at Talladega since assuming his current ride, he’s continued to make his presence felt at ’Dega.
How so? Well, Keselowski came home runner-up in both of last year’s NASCAR Cup Series events at the track, and the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion has placed in the top five in three of his last four Talladega outings.
Like Elliott, Keselowski is still hunting his first win of 2025 — which undoubtedly means approaching this weekend with an extra sense of urgency to score that playoff-clinching victory.
1. Ryan Blaney
No one has been consistently better at Talladega over the last several years than Blaney, the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion.
Prior to last season, Blaney had finished first or second in three consecutive visits to Talladega. The driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford owns a total of three victories at the high-banked track, all of them since 2019.
Much to the surprise of many observers, however, Blaney — who’s collected three trophies each of the last two seasons — has not captured a trophy in the first nine races of 2025.
With a little bit of good luck, Blaney could certainly put his drought to bed on Sunday at Talladega.
