NASCAR’s race weekend at Talladega Superspeedway begins today with a calm day at the 2.66-mile speedway.
Only the Camping World Truck Series will be active, holding two practice sessions and qualifying.
Here’s the day’s schedule with TV info:
(All times are Eastern)
8:30 am. – 8 p.m. – Truck garage open
10:05 – 10:55 a.m. – Truck practice (Fox Sports 2)
11:35 – 12:25 p.m. – Final Truck practice (FS2)
3 – 8 p.m. – Cup garage open
5:35 p.m. – Truck qualifying; two rounds/single truck (FS2)
Charlotte, N.C. gets an average of slightly more than four inches of snowfall per year, so when a rare winter storm rolls in and dumps 10 or more inches in spots, NASCAR drivers and their families take advantage of the event.
On Saturday night, The Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series gathered for their awards banquet at the Charlotte Convention Center.
Here are some highlights from the banquet:
Xfinity Series
Tyler Reddick was crowned the Xfinity driver champion with Stewart-Haas Racing taking the owners championship.
Cole Custer finished second, Daniel Hemric was third and Christopher Bell finished fourth.
Camping World Truck Series
Brett Moffitt and owner Hattori Racing Enterprises grabbed the top spot in the Truck series.
Noah Gragson finished second with Justin Haley third and Johnny Sauter fourth.
Joey Gase announced his wedding with Caitlin Himmelsbach Sunday morning, saying: “It’s now official! Looking forward to spending the rest of my life with Caitlin Gase.”
Their engagement was announced in February 2017.
In 2018, Gase ran full-time in the Xfinity series with three 15th-place finishes in the fall (Indianapolis, Las Vegas and Kansas) as his best results. He competed in eight Cup races – mostly with StarCom Racing – and scored a best of 18th at Talladega in October.
The 2018 Cup season was partially defined by streak busters.
Six drivers ended winless streaks of 50 or more races, including Clint Bowyer snapping a 190-race winless streak in March at Martinsville.
Aric Almirola also ended a multi-season winless streak when he won at Talladega, earning his first win since 2014.
The 2018 season was also defined by surprising drivers going winless, including seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson.
Who has the longest winless streaks ahead of the 2019 season?
The following list is made up of drivers who are confirmed to compete full-time in 2019 and who did not win in 2018 but have won previously.
Should Jamie McMurray accept an offer from Chip Ganassi Racing to race in the Daytona 500, it’ll be his 185th start since his last points win (Oct. 20, 2013 at Talladega).
Paul Menard – 268 starts (July 31, 2011 at Indianapolis; Only Cup win)
David Ragan – 206 starts (May 5, 2013 at Talladega; Second Cup win)
Chris Buescher – 87 starts (Aug. 1, 2016 at Pocono; Only Cup win)
Ryan Newman – 68 starts (March 13, 2017 at ISM Raceway)
Jimmie Johnson – 59 starts (June 4, 2017 at Dover; went winless for first time in Cup career in 2017)
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – 55 starts (July 1, 2017 at Daytona; Second Cup win)
Denny Hamlin – 47 starts (Sept. 3, 2017 at Darlington; went winless for first time in career in 2017)
Kyle Larson – 46 starts (Sept. 9, 2017 at Richmond)
