1. That Cup Series Finish Was as Pure Talladega As It Gets (Minus the Big One)
With the Talladega Superspeedway NASCAR Cup Series race this past Sunday (Oct. 19) headed to overtime, Hendrick Motorsports was sitting pretty — as in cars in the top two spots pretty – with Kyle Larson looking to break his career-long streak of drafting race futility in first and William Byron right beside him in second.
That’s, of course, not optimal for teammates at Talladega, where you’d prefer to be lined up one behind the other. Nevertheless, Hendrick was in good shape when the green flag flew for the final time and looked even better once the two cars did indeed get aligned in the draft.
The problem was that they didn’t end up there. In one of the great ironies of the season to date given the rampant fuel saving earlier in the race, Larson dropped to the apron with his fuel tank empty, watching the field go by him.
Byron was still in pretty good shape, battling for the win. But he ended up getting bumped and turned as the checkered flag was in sight, finishing just a spot above Larson in 25th.
Late race bad luck can strike anywhere, not just at Talladega, and neither Larson nor Byron was knocked out of title contention. Still, it’s possible that both of them will be fighting for their lives at Martinsville Speedway in a way they may not have were it not for that finish, which leads us right into our next point …
2. It’s Not Really Fair for Talladega to Be a Playoff Race, But That’s Too Bad
Racing at drafting tracks is notoriously unpredictable, and Talladega is arguably the most prominent example of that reality. Drivers and teams definitely don’t like hitching their championship fate to a place like that, and NASCAR made it more critical than ever this year by shifting it to the Round of 8.
Is that fair? From a purely theoretical standpoint, no. In a perfect world, you don’t want to have the drivers racing for a spot in the most important race under conditions where so many things are out of their control.
But until the playoff system is changed (and that may be coming as soon as next season), it also doesn’t stand out as something particularly egregious. NFL teams from warm-weather cities sometimes have to go on the road to Green Bay when it’s snowing. Injuries shuffle the deck for playoffs in every sport.
Racing at drafting tracks is a quintessential part of NASCAR, so it should be part of the 10-race sprint to crown a champion, the same as road courses, short tracks and intermediates. Something bad always could happen, it’s true, but that’s just something title contenders have to deal with as they maneuver their way through the postseason.
3. Krispy Kreme’s Burnout Sponsorship Makes Too Much Sense for It to Only Be Happening Now
In a sport as awash in corporate sponsors as NASCAR, the common assumption is that every synergy has been explored in some way. This isn’t true, of course, as things like the Xfinity Fastest Lap are recent inventions even though logic suggests they should have been around for years.
It’s with that in mind that a tip of the cap is due to NASCAR and Krispy Kreme. As reported this week by Sports Business Journal, the famous donut company is now sponsoring the race-winning burnouts that drivers do after winning NASCAR Xfinity Series races, at least for a few weeks.
Because donuts, get it?
Krispy Kreme is also headquartered in Charlotte, so the fit between sponsor and this particular aspect of the sport is simply perfect. Even though it’s kind of wild that no one thought of this particular pairing until now, there’s also something kind of comforting in knowing that people are always working to dream up ways to make even the seemingly minor parts of stock car racing more fun.
4. Maybe the Odd-Year Joey Logano Luck Showed Up in an Unexpected Way
After all the jokes about how Joey Logano would certainly not end up racing for a championship in an odd-numbered year, he and the No. 22 team appeared to have flipped the tables, and Logano’s haters braced themselves for a run they weren’t anticipating.
Except now Logano finds himself headed to Martinsville Speedway 38 points below the cut line, and if the deficit itself wasn’t daunting enough, he has a driver in-between him and safety (that would be Byron) and the prospect that he could be competing for just one spot if the wrong person wins this weekend.
In other words, it’s not a must-win situation from a mathematical standpoint, but it’s pretty darn close.
A couple of things have conspired to put Logano in this predicament, but despite the fact that he’s had plenty of success at superspeedways over the years, they’ve been one of his biggest Achilles heels this season.
Or rather, the finishes in those races have been. In four of the six 2025 superspeedway races (spring EchoPark Speedway, summer EchoPark, summer Daytona International Speedway and fall Talladega), Logano led the most laps. For good measure, he led the second-most laps in the other two.
But Logano won none of those races and now is in a spot where converting even one or two of those into another checkered flag would really be coming in handy. Missed opportunities are the story for many a driver who doesn’t win the championship, but not usually in a way where a strength becomes a weakness in this manner.
5. A Chase Briscoe Championship Would Be Good for NASCAR
As journalists, we don’t root for one driver over another, but it’s still fair game to point out how the sport might benefit if a specific driver ends up being crowned champion in November. Some might think that would apply to a long-awaited Denny Hamlin triumph, and it’s possible that could turn out to be true.
My gut says it will be mostly longtime NASCAR fans who care if Hamlin wins, and he certainly has as many fans who root against him as pull for him. So let me suggest something else: Chase Briscoe would be the breath of fresh air champion that might push the sport forward a bit.
Why? Novelty for starters. Briscoe has never been in this position, has never even had a chance to compete for a title in the Cup Series.
At the same time, he’s paid his dues, waiting first for an opportunity at the top level and then making the most of the faith Joe Gibbs Racing had in hiring him to replace Martin Truex Jr., even though Briscoe’s performances for Stewart-Haas Racing didn’t scream future champ.
Nor is he a former Xfinity Series champion. Briscoe is blossoming into a star on the biggest stage in a way he hadn’t previously shown. He comes across as a likable, hard-working family man in interviews. He has just enough personality to avoid seeming boring while not being edgy enough to frighten away potential sponsors.
Even without a championship, Briscoe is someone NASCAR can push in 2026 that it might not have thought about promoting to this point. It would just be that much easier if he’s sitting atop the sport, and it’s going to be intriguing to see if that’s where the next two weeks are leading.
