NASCAR Classics: Races to watch before Talladega playoff race

Throughout the 2024 NASCAR season, Ken Martin, director of historical content for the sanctioning body, will offer his suggestions on which historical races fans should watch from the NASCAR Classics library in preparation for each upcoming race weekend.

Martin has worked exclusively for NASCAR since 2008 but has been involved with the sport since 1982, overseeing various projects. He has worked in the broadcast booth for hundreds of races, assisting the broadcast team with different tasks. This includes calculating the “points as they run” for the historic 1992 finale, the Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The following suggestions are Ken‘s picks to watch before this Sunday‘s YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

2000 Winston 500:

Dale Earnhardt was Talladega.

Entering the second race at the track in 2000, the driver of the iconic No. 3 car had nine victories in 43 starts at the track. This also included 22 top-fives and 26 top-10s.

His nine victories were the most at the track, with a handful of drivers behind him with four.

Earnhardt also seemed to keep getting better at the track. He swept both races in 1999 and finished third in the spring of 2000.

The second race at Talladega in 1992 was the only race since the start of 1990 in which Earnhardt had not led at least five laps. Five of those races saw Earnhardt lead over 100 laps.

If those numbers weren‘t eye-popping enough, Earnhardt left everybody in awe with another statement victory at the track.

Earnhardt was running in 18th position with five laps remaining. He quickly moved his way through the field, slicing and dicing past every other driver in his way, thanks to help from the Andy Petree Racing duo of Kenny Wallace and Joe Nemechek.

He had complete control of the race on the final lap, as he took the checkered flag at Talladega for the 10th time in his career.

The race also turned out to be the 76th and final victory of Earnhardt‘s illustrious Cup Series career, as he passed away following a last-lap crash in the 2001 Daytona 500.

Earnhardt‘s improbable march through the field put an exclamation point behind his name in the Talladega record books, fittingly ending his career at the track with one of the most memorable and unbelievable victories in NASCAR history.

2011 Aaron’s 499:

The eighth race of the 2011 NASCAR Cup Series season ended with one of the closest finishes in the history of the premier series.

The tandem-drafting style of restrictor plate racing kept the action on the track exciting from the drop of the green flag through the 188th and final lap of the day.

An eye-popping 88 lead changes kept the fans in the crowd on their feet, with most of the lead changes lasting for a few laps at most before someone else took control. 26 of the 43 drivers in the field saw time at the front of the pack, with 14 of them leading the way for at least five laps.

Jeff Gordon took the white flag as the leader, with his teammate Mark Martin close behind. The Richard Childress Racing combination of Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer then powered themselves to the front of the pack.

Enter the inseparable tandem of Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The two drivers were racing together the entire day, but Earnhardt Jr. called for an audible late in the race and had Johnson jump out front of his No. 88 car.

They forced their way below their teammates Gordon and Martin, as they approached the start-finish line. At the same time, Bowyer got a push from Harvick, and the six drivers, along with the Jack Roush-powered combination of Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle, all approached the line.

Johnson edged out Bowyer by 0.002 seconds to the checkered flag. Gordon, Earnhardt Jr., Harvick, Edwards, Biffle and Martin followed in thrilling fashion.

2015 CampingWorld.com 500:

It seemed like it was Joey Logano‘s world and every other driver was living in it.

Logano won two of the final five races before the playoffs started and didn‘t stop there.

He kicked off the playoffs with a sixth-place finish at Chicago and followed that up with two more top-10 finishes to move on to the following round of the playoffs.

Logano really took off, winning at Charlotte and Kansas, which took all the pressure off of him as the series headed to Talladega for an elimination race.

With Logano already locked in, seven other drivers looked to punch their ticket to continue their quest to win the title. Denny Hamlin sat second in the standings, just 20 points ahead of Ryan Newman in tenth. The unpredictability of the high banks of Talladega left all of the drivers on the edge, hoping that they were not one of the drivers eliminated.

The race looked like another typical historic Talladega race, as Dale Earnhardt Jr. led a race-high 61 laps, as he looked to win and punch his ticket to the next round. He took his car to the pits with just under 20 laps remaining but found his way back up near the top of the board as the final laps passed by.

In typical Talladega fashion, the race needed two green-white-checkered attempts, with the race ending under yellow after a ten-car incident occurred.

NASCAR said that Logano was ahead of Earnhardt Jr. at the time of the caution, giving him his third victory in a row and keeping Earnhardt Jr. from advancing to the next round.

Matt Kenseth, Hamlin and Newman were also eliminated, in addition to Earnhardt Jr.