October 3, 2021 | By Lee Spencer

Rain delays YellaWood 500 at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala.—NASCAR has postponed the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway due to rain.

Denny Hamlin, the defending winner of the race, led the field in a parade lap on Sunday, but the race never went green.

The race has been rescheduled for 1 p.m. ET on Monday. NBCSN and Motor Racing Network will carry the broadcasts.

Brad Keselowski leads all current drivers with six wins at the 2.66-mile track and is going for the season sweep this weekend. He’ll roll off sixth. Fords have won three of the last four races at Talladega and the Team Penske trio of Keselowski, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney have combined to win 9 of the last 14 Cup contests.

While all three Penske drivers are currently above the Playoff cutline, Blaney is the most comfortable with a 24-point cushion over ninth-place William Byron. The Penske veterans, Keselowski and Logano, are just four and six-points to the good, respectively.

Logano believes the Fords must continue to work together to maintain their winning ways.

“Eventually, we’re going to need each other to be successful,” Logano said. “Whether it’s a Ford in the Playoffs or a Ford out of the Playoffs, I think you’re going to see the Blue Ovals stick together and try to work out the best race possible. I think that is not only the best way to get yourself to the front, but I also think it’s the safest way if you have people that are on your side that aren’t putting you in bad positions. Those are the kind of cars you want to have around you, most likely that’s going to be a teammate or a Ford teammate. Maybe just probably only a few you can count on one hand that you can trust like that.

“In our position, I think you’re going to have to race for stage points and then maybe just reevaluate where everyone’s at after that and figure out what we want to do for the finish of the race.”