The NASCAR Cup Series gets crazier this weekend as it shifts to Alabama, but the white-knuckling, anxiety-producing track known as Talladega Superspeedway would not be the best place to resolve the back-and-forth between veteran drivers Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.
The prosperous pair bring a much-heated rivalry — the season’s first real testy sparring — to a venue that usually adds enough tension and dread as soon as the haulers are within sight of the 2.66-mile layout.
The future first-ballot NASCAR Hall of Famers will race in Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 in the 10th event of a 2026 season that has competed very cleanly over the past five races — roughly 14 cautions for on-track incidents, not stage breaks — after a season-high 12 yellows waved at Phoenix on March 8.
Sparking a flame with his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, the 44-year-old Hamlin wondered on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast about the current situation for Busch after Bristol when Busch and crew chief Jim Pohlman drew attention for sparring over the radio about their loose Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet that finished a season-worst 35th at Kansas.
Busch, who turns 41 next week, retaliated in a media scrum at Kansas last weekend, saying, “…in this instance, I don’t feel like even Denny Hamlin knows what he’s talking about.”
Sitting 27th in points, owning no top 10s and leading just 19 laps this season, the Las Vegas native has crafted a career that has typically produced elite numbers for a competitor Hamlin deemed as a “Hall of Fame Mount Rushmore driver” on his show.
Busch has 233 NASCAR victories — 63 in Cup — but how many more will he add?
When the 2015 and 2019 Cup champ joined RCR in 2023, it looked like he had found the right place after finishing poorly at Gibbs.
He won in two of the first 10 races, flying under the checkers first in Fontana, Calif., and then at this weekend’s Talladega race three years ago. His No. 8 Chevy won again on June 4, 2023, at Gateway near St. Louis, but that’s been it.
It’s been over 100 races since his last victory, his longest career drought.
“I have to be honest to the people who tune in and listen, but I have to go on the race track with him,” said Hamlin on FOX’s Kansas pre-race show. “But I know this. I was teammates with Kyle Busch, and I know he taught me more than any teammate I ever was with. … I know what he’s capable of, and I know he’s not loving where he’s at (competitively).
“I’m rooting for him because the sport needs old Kyle Busch.”
Talladega is the great equalizer this weekend.
The Birmingham-adjacent behemoth is the blade that trims all the hedges to equal heights and makes the drivers’ rides mostly equal, keeping them stacked in a pack and preventing separation on Sunday.
Dega, Daytona and maybe Atlanta feature races like the old IROC Series, and at some point, Hamlin and Busch will likely find themselves next to one another or nose-to-tail at high speed.
If the Busch-Hamlin feud actually manifests itself and gets physical, leaning on each other a bit could likely happen at a number of places that race more safely to settle a score, like half-mile bullrings or curving road courses.
Treacherous Talladega isn’t one of those tracks.
