Talladega. The blood of every racer runs cold when he hears that name. For decades Talladega Superspeedway has been one of the best and most exciting tracks in all of racing, but also the most dangerous. With 33 degrees of banking, this 2.66 mile beast is a racer’s worst nightmare. Almost every single time Nascar comes here, at least on driver is rolled over, smashed into a wall, or just t-boned by another car.

As the Sprint Cup circuit rolls into Dega’, we are in the final race of the Contender round of the Chase. 12 drivers will enter this race with a championship chance, 4 will lose the chance. The thing about Talladega is that you can lose 20 position in three seconds. So no driver is truly secure in the next round of the Chase until the checkered flag waves.

Last year Brad Keslowski entered this race at a major deficit in points, and he won the race, barely clutching a spot in the next Chase round. Two drivers enter this weekend with a win being their best shot at advancing. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth have both had disastrous results in the past two races, and both know that they have nothing to lose.

Most drivers hate this track, but there are a few who have it circled on their calendar. This is one of the few races of the year that give underdogs a shot to win. Using the draft, almost any driver can win this race. Drivers like Danica Patrick, David Ragan, Sam Hornish Jr., and several others, see this race as an opportunity to possibly win a race. In 2013, Davin Ragan and David Gilliland, driving for Front Row Motorsports, a team that had never even had a top-five finish, used the draft on a late race restart at Talladega, and finished 1-2. I was watching that race, and it was quite a shock.

While this race offers an opportunity for tha underdogs, there are a couple of well-known drivers who are quite impressive at restrictor-plate tracks such as Dega’. Chief among them are Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart. Combined, the two of them have won fifteen restrictor-plate races! And that is not including all of their non-point race wins, or wins in other Nascar series. And the two of them have looked rather impressive this year. Earnhardt has won two of the three races run at restrictor-plate tracks so far, and Stewart has run up front with him.

So all that said, who will win? Well, Talladega is the hardest track in Nascar to predict, but I think I can isolate a few drivers. Last year in this race, a late caution scrambled the field. But before that caution, Danica Patrick was in the lead, and it appeared she could win the race. So I’m going to say the winner will either be Danica, Earnhardt Jr., or Stewart. The three of them have nothing to lose, so any one of them could take the checkered flag.