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Talladega: NASCAR's Biggest Race at the World's Biggest Track

What:Winston 500 (Race 30 of 34)
Where:Talladega Superspeedway
When:Sunday, Oct. 17, 1 pm; ESPN

(Don't want to read my insightful and witty comments? Click here to go straight to making your picks.)

A mere six days after the grueling race at Charlotte our boys will have to compete on the biggest, most demanding, and perhaps most important track in NASCAR. Daytona has the glamor, but Talladega is the real show. It's the longest track in NASCAR at 2.66 miles around. If you drove around it one time at the city speed limit, it'd take you almost five minutes to get around. Think about that. It's a restrictor-plate track, which means the cars' horsepower will be limited. That doesn't stop them from going over 200 mph, though. Now THAT'S racin!

Although drivers don't really like the restrictor-plate races, a win in Talladega is a lot more prestigious than a win at one of the loser short tracks (and don't even mention the silly road races). As you may know, many teams have engineers and chasis specialists working on the restrictor-plate cars year round. Earnhardt leads the field in putting resources into this kind of work, and that's why he's won so many times in Alabama.

Much as I hate to admit it, Earnhardt is still a real threat at this track. He won the spring race, in fact, and he just about won at Daytona. He's going to be real strong. Gordon is strong everywhere, and he's been on a tear lately, so he could be trouble. I don't know how important Evernham was to Gordon's superspeedway racing. We'll find out, I guess.

As was the case in Charlotte, there's just too many drivers who are good at Talladega to talk about here. Any team with big dollars, such as Roush, Hendrick, Penske, Childress, and Gibbs, will put together good cars. And they've all got good drivers. The only other thing that matters is making friends, because you need drafting partners at this track. You get out of line by yourself, and you could get shuffled back a bunch of spots.

I usually think it's BS when they talk about a driver's desire to win being the main factor that propelled him to victory. What you need is a really good car and some luck. No one's going say, " Well, I kind of want to win, but we've already gone 499 laps and I'm only in second, so I think I'll just quit now." Doesn't happen.

But this week I'm thinking differently. Texas Thunder Bobby Labonte is in a spot. Despite finishing no worse than 8th in the last bunch of races, he's had nothing but frustration. He's had to fight his cars all race, and on several occassions his nearly sure victory has been thwarted by late engine trouble. Last week idiot lapped traffic kept him from taking the checkered. There's five races left and he's 200 points behind Jarrett. I think the combination of mediocre finishes, the need to catch Jarrett, and the desire to win a restrictor-plate race will make him more agressive than we've ever seen him. If he's not up front, he's going to be behind the wall.

So now that I've made this unbiased prediction, get to making your picks. I don't think there's anyone special trying to qualify for this race, but you can check out the entry list if you want to. These are the guys who are going to try to qualify.

Instructions

First of all, choose your name from the pull-down list. Then pick the names of the drivers that you think will finish in the top five. After that, you get to make your surprise pick, where you'll name a guy who isn't high in the points, but you think has a shot to get into this week's top five. It doesn't have to be one of the names you've already put in your top five. Now that the season is in full swing, let's use the current Winston Cup Points standings. Click here to check out the nicely done standings page at nascar.com. Remember, your surprise pick can't be any of the names listed in the TOP TEN of the points standings.

And hey, don't forget to pick a DNF. That's the guy you think will get a big fat Did Not Finish.

Click on the upside-down triangle at the right margin of each blank to see a list of drivers, then select a name. No typing necessary. Don't forget to tell me your name!

What's your name?

Name of First Place Driver:

Name of Second Place Driver:

Name of Third Place Driver:

Name of Fourth Place Driver:

Name of Fifth Place Driver:

Name of your surprise pick:

Choose your "DNF of the Week"

Controversial Topic of the Week

This is the one and only time I'm going to ask a baseball question, so if you like America's wastetime, get your keyboard gassed up. Who's going to be in the World Series? Who will win it? Why?