Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch bring rivalry to Talladega

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 much-decorated pair brings a simmering rivalry -- the season's first real testy sparring -- to a venue that triggers enough tension and dread as soon as the haulers are within sight of the 2.66-mile layout.

To add to the already existing challenges, rain washed out Saturday's qualifying session to force NASCAR to set Sunday's field by its rule book.

Tyler Reddick, who already has steered his No. 45 Toyota to five victories this season, will start from the point beside Kyle Larson's No. 5 Chevrolet. The next three drivers lining up to complete the top five are Camry drivers Hamlin, Bubba Wallace and Chase Briscoe.

The highest-gridding Ford in the field belongs to Brad Keselowski, who will start sixth.

Hamlin and Busch, 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 cleanly over the past five races. After a season-high 12 yellows waved on March 8 at Phoenix, there were just 14 cautions for on-track incidents (not stage breaks) during the last five races.

That doesn't mean everything revolving around the racing has been clean.

Sparking a flame with his former Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, the 45-year-old Hamlin speculated about Busch's situation on his "Actions Detrimental" podcast after his crew chief, Jim Pohlman, and spotter, Derek Kneeland, drew attention for sparring over the radio about Busch's loose Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet that finished 25th at Bristol.

Busch, who turns 41 next week, retaliated in a media scrum last weekend at Kansas saying, among other things, "...in this instance, I don't feel like even Denny Hamlin knows what he's talking about."

Here are this year's facts: Busch sits 27th in the point standings, owns no top 10s and has led just 19 laps this season. These are all out of character for the Las Vegas native who has crafted a career that has typically produced elite numbers. Even Hamlin deemed him a "Hall of Fame Mount Rushmore driver" on his podcast.

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 in Fontana, Calif., and again at Talladega. His No. 8 Chevy won again on June 4, 2023, at Gateway near St. Louis, but that's been it.

It has 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 racetrack with him," said Hamlin on FOX's pre-race show last week at Kansas. "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 figures to be 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 are the only feature races similar to the old IROC Series, At some point on Sunday, Hamlin and Busch likely will find themselves next to one another or nose-to-tail at high speed.

If the Busch-Hamlin feud manifests into something physical, leaning on each other to settle a score could be a better fit at one of the places where everyone can race more safely - like a half-mile bullring or a curving road course.

Treacherous Talladega isn't one of those tracks.

--Field Level Media

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This story was originally published April 24, 2026 at 3:45 PM.