Daytona Motor Mouths: Kurt Busch to NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2026?
Will the NASCAR Cup Series return to Rockingham in the near future? What about Kurt Busch and his 2026 Hall of Fame chances?
Year in and year out, with an exception here and there, the four superspeedway races at Daytona and Talladega get better ratings than the general weekly fare produced by NASCAR.
For that season opener at Daytona, the reason is obvious — the Daytona 500 isn’t just the first race of a new year, but the most hyped race on the calendar. By far.
But for the other Daytona race and the two at Talladega, the uptick in ratings comes down to human nature. We like watching a tightrope act, and that’s basically what we’ll see Saturday and Sunday at the 2.66-mile behemoth in east-central Alabama.
Cars packed together, two-by-two and sometimes three-by-three, nose to tail, at a high rate of speed. At least until the Big One, when that pack of cars gets thinned out.
For years, many insiders and competitors fought against the rules package that slows the cars to a more-sane speed at these tracks, but that bit of sanity invites another — the hamstringing of horsepower serves to equalize the field and invite the huge traffic jams.
Enjoy. For a while.
Friday: Xfinity Series lineup will be set
5:30 p.m.: Xfinity Series qualifying (CW App).
Saturday: NASCAR Cup Series qualifying and some ARCA, Xfinity racing
10:30 a.m.: Cup Series qualifying (Prime).
12:30 p.m.: ARCA Series, General Tire 200 (FS1).
4 p.m.: Xfinity Series, Ag-Pro 300 (CW).
Sunday: Buckle up, it’s NASCAR at Talladega for the Jack Link’s 500
3 p.m.: Cup Series, Jack Link’s 500 (Fox).
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