Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole at Talladega, and there seems to be tremendous excitement building.
Word from the track is that Talladega could give NASCAR a rarity this season -- a sellout crowd. The track holds 78,000.
If the traffic getting into the track is any indication, it's going to be a hell of a crowd today. https://t.co/2hWmoiyB8J
— David Morgan (@damorgan86) October 15, 2017
.@TalladegaSuperS still could end up reaching the sellout mark today with big walkup crowd. With @DaleJr on the pole, wouldn't rule it out. https://t.co/pQDFSy2C1I
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) October 15, 2017
You also have to wonder whether TV ratings might tick up a bit, with Junior on then pole. TV ratings for NASCAR have been awful this year, with Charlotte being the lowest rated race of this century.
Junior, with his career winding down, took the pole at Talladega for the first time in his career, running NASCAR's longest closed course at 190.544 mph
"We've been fighting our teammate Chase and his group for poles at these tracks for a long time, and it's been a lot of fun to be honest with you, how these two teams have pushed and elevated each other," Earnhardt told NASCAR.com. "Really, all the credit for getting a pole at a place like this goes to the team and goes to the car and the guys that work on it, the engine, the body men; we've got an amazing staff back at Charlotte that builds some awesome stuff.
And, he had more to say on Twitter.
How about that, @DaleJr? ?
Congrats on winning the #CoorsLightPole at 'Dega! @CoorsRacing pic.twitter.com/8ZOoqg0Mrq
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 14, 2017
Junior has won at Talladega six times in 34 career starts, his most recent victory coming in 2015.
While he's not in the playoffs, a win would give Junior what would likely be the final victory of his career, and this would be some way to top it off.
Chase Elliott (190.412 mph) qualified second, followed by Joey Logano (190.374 mph) Kurt Busch (190.268 mph) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (190.170 mph).