FanHouse

What: Aaron's 499
Where: Talladega Superspeedway, Talladega, Ala.
When: Sunday April 27th 2:00pm/ET FOX
Distance: 188 laps, 500.08 miles (The 499 mile mark is somewhere on the backstretch on lap 188)
Weather: Showers and thunderstorms likely after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 76. South wind between 5 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
2007 Winner: Jeff Gordon
Predictions: Keep Reading





"Boo" That Man! "Boooooo!" - Excuse my cheesy high school basketball anti-referee chant, but it surely rings true after the tremendous mistake made by Nationwide Series driver Kevin Lepage in Saturday's Aaron's 312 Nationwide Race.

Lepage simply pulled up in front of the pack and caused a 16-car mess. There's truly no other way to describe it.

For more about this, check out the post listed above.

Does "Front Row" Joe Nemechek's Nickname Make Sense? - Heck no it doesn't.

For some reason, a guy that has won 10 career poles in the Sprint Cup Series has a nickname that has had staying power for at least the past 10 years. "Front Row Joe" refers to any time that Nemechek finds himself starting from the point in a NASCAR race.

He'll start Sunday from the pole after laying down a surprising qualifying lap.

Let me restate those statistics. Nemechek has 10 career poles. Ten. Diez. Nine plus 1.

Jeff Gordon leads all active drivers with 65 career poles. Of course, numbers don't mean anything, right?

Rain, Rain Stay Away - It appears that the entire Southeast is getting a little bit of soaking this weekend, which naturally makes sense.

The region has been decimated by a drought and so naturally, when NASCAR comes to town, the rain follows suit.

As of this morning, there were plenty of gaps in the radar that could facilitate getting the race in on Sunday. Two things are going against that fact though if there indeed is any rain at the track including the fact that its a huge 2.66 mile track and that there are no lights.

At what point do tracks make that investment into a lighting system just as an insurance policy? Just a thought.

FanHouse Predicts Your Aaron's 499 Winner

If I was going with the easy way out, I'd just lay down the names of Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Tony Stewart and tell you that picking those three would guarantee you a 70% chance at victory.

But then again, Kevin Lepage was in the area of the racetrack just 24 hours ago.

For my pick this week, I'm going to roll with a guy that's had a solid Talladega weekend already. Earlier this season, he made the driving mistake of a career after losing the Daytona 500 in the final two miles while leading.

He's won both Nationwide restrictor plate races in 2008, and one of those yesterday was his first ever win at Talladega.

And, oh yeah, he's got some issue with a contract situation.

Tony Stewart will Sunday's (or Monday's) Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Enjoy the race.