The Geico 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway has been postponed until 3 p.m. ET. Monday. Rain and lightning forced the postponement of the race that was scheduled for an approximate 3 p.m. ET green flag Sunday.
Rain arrived at the track prior to the scheduled start of the race, so none of the 188-lap scheduled distance has been run. Precipitations stopped for a time, allowing for the start of track-drying efforts, but rain returned before the track was completely dried.
Also, Talladega Superspeedway does not have lights, so the window of time to get the race underway and to its complete distance was limited.
When the race does get underway, Martin Truex Jr. will start from the pole. Joe Gibbs Racing claimed the top-three starting positions in a drawing, with Truex sharing the front row with teammate Denny Hamlin and another JGR driver, reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, starting third. Busch will share row two with seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson.
“You go in there expecting the unexpected and try to put yourself in the right position, but most of the time, you’re at the mercy of the guys around you,” Truex said. “It doesn’t really matter what your strategy is as far as trying to race your way to the front or riding in the back. At some point, you’re going to have to try to race your way up through there, and that’s usually when something happens. We’ll come up with a game plan and see what happens and give it our best shot like we always do. It’s going to be interesting going out there without practice, but we don’t tend to practice much in a big pack there anyways, so I’m not sure it’s a huge difference from what we’re used to.”
The Geico 500 will be divided into two 60-lap stages and a 68-lap third stage. Ryan Blaney is the most recent Talladega winner. Team Penske has claimed victory in seven of the last 11 races at the track. Brad Keselowski leads active drivers with five Talladega wins, the last four of those with Penske.
Chase Elliott won the first of two races at Talladega last season.
“Last year worked out really well for us,” Elliott said. “It was kind of one of those races where things just kind of just fell in our lap there towards the end of the race. We were super patient and just very disciplined as a group. I’m looking forward to getting back to Talladega this weekend with the Mountain Dew/Little Caesars Chevy and trying to do it all again.”
