Austin Dillon wins pole at 'unpredictable' Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Austin Dillon will start on the pole at Talladega Superspeedway. What happens from there is anybody’s guess.

Even by Talladega standards, there’s an element of mystery and potential for chaos heading into Sunday’s Cup series race, which often is marked by big wrecks and late dramatics.

“I mean, Talladega is the unpredictable,” five-time Talladega winner Brad Keselowski said. “It’s a lot of what defines it, a lot of the allure of it. It’s always been a bit of a mysterious track.”

NASCAR has replaced the horsepower-sapping restrictor plates that have been fixtures at Talladega and Daytona for two decades. The cars have tapered spacers and the height of the rear spoiler has been raised, and NASCAR even tweaked the cars between Friday practice sessions trying to slow them.

The second practice session was even faster with six cars reaching 204 mph and two dozen topping 200.

Dillon led qualifying at 192.544 mph, but speeds increase during the race on the long, banked oval.

Drivers seem uncertain about what exactly to expect — even more than usual at the 2.66-mile track.

Keselowski said he expects the race to look “a lot like a truck race that’s 500 miles.”

Then he added, deadpan: “Perhaps with a little higher attrition.”

The buzz has been about the high closing rates and the potential hazards of moves to block cars from passing.

Clint Bowyer, who qualified third, feels that’s where the trouble could come with an ill-timed block. Bowyer sees the possibility with cars closing fast that “they’re just going to flat run over you. They ain’t going to be able to stop.”

On Saturday, Dillon celebrated his 29th birthday by earning his second pole of the year.

“I definitely don’t want to give up that front position, but the front guy seems to be a little bit of a sitting duck. There’ll be a lot of movement on the track.”

Aric Almirola, who won at Talladega in October, qualified second.

Running up front is a good way to avoid the seemingly inevitable mayhem, but Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the last pole winner to start and finish up front. His victory in the 2017 spring race snapped a 10-year drought in that regard.

Whatever Sunday’s race brings, Erik Jones has a prediction that rings of truth.

“It’s just going to be crazy,” Jones said. “It’s just going to be wild and it was already wild last year, but with as easy as these cars are going to be to drive in a pack and as fast as it’s going to be once everybody gets their stuff driving right and we get in a big pack, it’s going to be pretty wild.”