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NASCAR America: Team Penske dominates Talladega

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Team Penske is notoriously successful at Talladega, as Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski have won a combined six of the last eight Cup races at the southern track.

Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski have combined to win six of the last eight races at Talladega Superspeedway, which puts them in the minority of playoff contenders who might actually be looking forward to this week’s race there (2 p.m. ET Sunday on NBC).

Logano enters the weekend fourth in standings, 31 points above the cutoff line. Keselowski is 21 points above the bubble.

Team Penske’s streak kicked off in 2014 when Keselowski was in a must-win situation entering the fall Talladega race. Since then, he’s won twice more (spring 2016 and fall 2017).

Logano won in fall 2015 and 2016 as well as this spring.

What is the key to their success? According to Kyle Petty, it’s simple.

“They have Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, two of arguably the best restrictor-plate drivers that are out there,” Petty said. “They know how to control the race. … Once you get them to first or second position, they understand how to slow down that outside line, speed up that inside line – or speed up that outside line and slow down that inside line. And they just take control of the race.”

For their success, however, it is rare for them to both finish well in the same race.

In the last eight races, Logano and Keselowski have both scored top 10s only twice. On three occasions when one of them won, the other finished 25th or worse.

For more, watch the video above.

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