NASCAR: Talladega sets low mark not seen since 1985
By Asher Fair
For the first time since May of 1985, a NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superpeedway did not feature at least 40 cars.
Despite the NASCAR Cup Series maximum field size reduction from 43 to 40, which was put into place after the 2016 season, the 19th year of 43-car fields being the limit, the sport’s top level has struggled to see 40-car entry lists on a regular basis.
This year alone, only 16 of the season’s first 30 races featured 40 cars. This is actually up from 2018 and 2019. In 2018, only 16 races all season (36 races) featured 40 cars, and last year, only 11 races met that mark. That total was only 18 in 2017 as well.
But Talladega Superspeedway had been one of the tracks where you could always count on 40 cars being on the entry list and thus in the starting lineup, and twice per year — that is, until this past weekend.
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There were only 39 cars on the entry list for Sunday afternoon’s YellaWood 500 at the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked oval in Lincoln, Alabama, marking the first time that a race at the track has featured fewer than 40 cars since May of 1985.
It was also the first superspeedway race (Talladega Superspeedway or Daytona International Speedway) to feature fewer than 40 cars since that race over 35 years ago. Prior to yesterday’s race, a total of 142 superspeedway races with at least 40 cars had been contested since then, including 71 at each track.
Excluding qualifying races, Daytona International Speedway hasn’t seen a race with fewer than 40 cars since July of 1968, but that could very well change in the near future, especially now that superspeedway regular Brendan Gaughan is now retired.
A total of 104 races with 40+ cars have been contested at the four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) high-banked oval in Daytona Beach, Florida since that race over 52 years ago.
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The 2021 Daytona 500 is the next superspeedway race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule. This race is scheduled to take place at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday, February 14.