The seventh race of the 2009 Chase for the Championship takes place on the weekend of Halloween and at one of NASCAR’s scariest tracks.
Talladega Superspeedway will have all 43 drivers on their toes for the 188-lap event that has many saying the Chase standings could be completely shaken up come Monday morning.
Jimmie Johnson enters Talladega with a 118-point lead and with the goal of staying out of trouble. Teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. comes back to the Alabama track where he’s won five times still looking for his first win of the season and to play spoiler in the Chase.
Five of our Creatures come to Talladega after picking up a win last weekend in Martinsville courtesy of Denny Hamlin. However, the top three in points stayed exactly where they were in points and the Creatures behind them closed the gap just a little bit.
This week anything can happen on the big track in Alabama and they’ll be looking for the driver that has the best opportunity to be in one piece at the day’s conclusion.
Ben Bomberger: Kurt Busch
Talladega weekend, the weekend that can shake things up both on the track and in our Creature standings. If I'm the only one sweating it out over whom to select for Sunday's race, I'd be very surprised. But in the end, I opted to go with the Blue Deuce—Kurt Busch.
Busch has hit the high banks in Alabama 17 times and has collected six top-fives, 12 top-10s and an average finish of 12.1. His average running position of 14.7 ranks him fifth best and his 1,100 laps in the top 15 (64.5 percent) are best in the Series.
Busch finished sixth at this track in April and I'm hoping he can give me a solid points day as the calendar turns to November this weekend.
James Broomhead: Tony Stewart
Yes, it's a bit of a risk picking a big name for the curve ball that is Talladega, but it's going with the law of averages. He's good on plate tracks, and Talladega is a plate track.
Of course, he's also had his fair share of wrecks at plate tracks, but who hasn't?
Mary Jo Buchanan: Brian Vickers
In his Chase diary, Vickers says, "We're starting to get our mojo back.” I think Vickers is right. He is good at Talladega and I think this might just be his weekend to step back into the limelight.
Kelly Crandall: Kyle Busch
After literally having to pick a name out of a hat, I’m going to go with the man that has been fast at all the plate tracks this year. This will be Kyle’s last weekend with Steve Addington as his crew chief and they’ll be looking to break up on a good note.
Busch won at Talladega in April of last year and was in contention for this win this year until late in the race. At Daytona he was a strong contender for the 500 win and in July, we all know what happened.
The kid is fast and putting the pedal to the floor is something he does very well. I see no reason he won’t do that on Sunday.
Mason Dunn: Erik Darnell
Crazy track calls for a crazy pick, so I pretty much just threw a dart at a board and here we go. Should be interesting as Darnell is my pick.
Adam Heasley: NO PICK SENT
No pick sent.
Danielle Henderson: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dale Jr has always been good at the two restrictor plate tracks. To be quite honest all of the Earnhardt's thus far have been good restrictor plate racers. If the big one doesn't collect Junior in its Halloween maddness expect to see him up front, leading laps and taking the checkered flag at Talladega.
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