Friday 5: Letting the chaos theory play out at Talladega

No matter the preparation, the best plan often is no plan when racing at Talladega Superspeedway. That likely will be the case again on Sunday when the Cup Series races there.

“(Speedway) racing is very much kind of this living, breathing, chaos theory,” Brad Keselowski, who has won six Talladega Cup races, told NBC Sports.

“There’s been races I’ve won where no way I win that race if I didn’t catch break this, break this, break this in sequence. You’re like, ‘That’s a one in a million shot.’

“There’s been races that I’ve lost where I can’t believe that one move happened three cars behind me that I couldn’t control that’s never happened before and it completely changed everything. All my planning, all my practice, there was no way to block it, there was nothing I could have done different and you’re frustrated by that.

“Really, you’re left just putting yourself in the scenario and then letting the chaos theory play out and hopeful that it plays out to your favor and not your disadvantage.”

Don’t get the sense that Keselowski is complaining about how random racing at Talladega, Daytona and now Atlanta can be. He’s just noting that a driver is trying to control something that is difficult to control.

“That’s what driving a race car is and leading a pack at Daytona and Talladega or Atlanta … you’re trying to control a whole field that’s not meant to be controlled, that doesn’t want to be controlled,” said Keselowski, who scored his first Cup win in 2009 at this track and also has won at Talladega in 2012, ’14, ’16, ’17 and ’21.

Trying to control the field is difficult enough but is more challenging as speedway racing evolves. Chase Elliott, who won at Talladega last fall in the playoffs, notes how that race was different