1969: Richard Brickhouse
1973: Dick Brooks
1978: Lennie Pond
1981: Ron Bouchard
1986: Bobby Hillin, Jr.
1987: Davey Allison
1988: Phil Parsons (spring) and Ken Schrader (summer)
2006: Brian Vickers
2009: Brad Keselowski
And on the subject of first-time winners, Trevor Bayne won't be one of them because he won the Daytona 500 to open the season. But there are plenty of other drivers that can potentially get their first Sprint Cup win at Talladega this coming weekend.
David Ragan: Got his first Nationwide Series victory in 2009 in an exciting photo-finish, beating Ryan Newman to the finish line. Newman and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. made contact on the final lap coming into the tri-oval, allowing Ragan (with a push from Joey Logano) to sneak by Newman for the win. This year, Ragan led the Daytona 500 at the 500th mile, but was penalized on the next to last restart for illegally changing lanes, which in effected handed the 500 to Trevor Bayne, who had been drafting with Ragan for much of the race. One week after coming off his first career pole at Texas, Ragan is very close to his first Cup series win, and it just might come on Sunday.Regan Smith: Technically, his name shouldn't even be on this list. But it is because of this controversial finish in 2008:
And you can thank NASCAR's yellow-line rule for making this possible. In 2001, NASCAR implemented this rule in response to Dale Earnhardt's fatal accident at the Daytona 500, which means a driver that moves below the yellow line cannot advance their position while below the line. Unless the driver gives that position back, he/she would be penalized by NASCAR and usually serve a drive-thru penalty.
Since then, Smith has been strong on superspeedways, but didn't record a top 10 finish until this year's Daytona 500, where he was in contention late in the race until getting caught up in a late-race crash and recovering from it as his Furniture Row Chevy sustained only minor damage in the crash. And like David Ragan, Smith's first Cup series win can't be that far away, and it could come this weekend.
Marcos Ambrose: While he's better known as a road-racer, Ambrose isn't too shabby at Talladega. He recorded a 4th-place finish in the spring 2009 race, which included that infamous tangle between Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski as they battled for the win. Don't let his lifetime average finish at Talladega of 27.2 fool you: anyone's lifetime average finish at Daytona or Talladega can improve with just one strong finish, regardless if it's a trip to victory lane or a top five. He's in his first season driving for Richard Petty Motorsports, running virtually the same equipment that Ragan drives for Roush-Fenway Racing, as RPM is a satellite operation of RFR.
Paul Menard: He's off to the best start of his Sprint Cup career. While he's been moderately successful on the Sprint Cup circuit, he continues to get better year after year, and after joining Richard Childress Racing in the offseason, is bound for his best season yet. But like Ambrose, his average finish lifetime at Talladega is 24.9, but he recorded a career-best 2nd place finish in the aforementioned fall 2008 race. With RCR's historically-strong record on superspeedways, Menard has a great chance, and could give RCR their third-straight Talladega win (Kevin Harvick is the defending spring race winner, and Clint Bowyer won the race last October).
A.J. Allmendinger: Teammate of Marcos Ambrose, former CART/Champ Car driver A.J. Allmendinger has finally gotten the hang of driving heavy stock cars after a rough introduction to them in 2007. Often called 'Dinger for short, he continues to improve much like Menard has. He has driven for "The King," Richard Petty, since 2009 when Petty Enterprises was under the partial ownership of the oft-financially troubled George Gillet. The last time Allmendinger was at Talladega, he went for this wild ride as the race leaders were battling for the win:Photo Credits: Getty Images
