Chevy vs. Ford vs. Toyota at Talladega

Playoffs? This race is for car manufacturers

TALLADEGA, Ala. — The first loser at Talladega Superspeedway better not have been hung out to dry in the closing laps by a teammate.

And in the case of Sunday’s race, teammates will have a far wider definition.

Manufacturers have taken steps to mandate their drivers work together to ensure their brand gets to Victory Lane at both Daytona and Talladega, the two tracks on the NASCAR circuit in which drivers need drafting partners to race through the field. It was Toyota years ago that first got all its teams to align for an entire weekend as it tried to win the Daytona 500, and Ford and finally Chevrolet followed suit.

Chevrolet was the last manufacturer to strenuously urge its teams to play as one at Talladega in April, and it worked with a Chase Elliott victory that ended a streak of seven consecutive wins by Ford drivers at the Alabama superspeedway. The stakes Sunday are much higher because the 1000Bulbs.com 500 at Talladega is the middle race of the second round of NASCAR’s playoffs, with drivers trying to avoid dropping below the cut line heading into next week’s elimination race at Kansas, but the manufacturer alignments remain unchanged.

“The playoff picture is obviously important to some of the guys in each respective group, I suppose,” Elliott said. “The manufacturers are going to see it as they want the manufacturer to do well and they see that being better than anything else. I think you’re going to see more of those games being played this weekend.”

Elliott won the pole for Sunday’s race as his Hendrick Motorsports dominated qualifying again. Elliott led the four Hendrick cars to a sweep of the front two rows in Saturday’s session. He bested title challengers Alex Bowman and William Byron, followed by Jimmie Johnson.

Aric Almirola, last year’s winner, then led Ford drivers in the next six positions, with Erik Jones the highest Toyota at 11th.

Denny Hamlin blew his engine and did not complete a qualifying lap, so he will start last Sunday. He was grateful the engine expired on his qualifying lap and not in the opening laps of the race.

Kyle Larson is the only driver locked into the round of eight after his victory last weekend at Dover, where he snapped a losing streak that spanned nearly two years and made him the only driver at ease before Talladega.