Penske Racing lost its appeal to overturn those tough penalties handed down by NASCAR to the teams of Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano's cars for illegal parts found at Texas Motor Speedway. After a nearly five-hour meeting, a three-member appeals panel unanimously rejected Penske’s argument.

The penalties include suspensions for seven Penske crew members and the loss of 25 driver points for both Keselowski and Logano. The owners of both cars were also docked 25 points. Keslowski’s crew chief was suspended for six points races, and the May 18 Sprint All-Star event, and received hefty fines.

But Penske is taking the appeal to the next highest level and that appeal will be heard next week so in the meantime none of the penalties will take effect until after next week’s hearing.

So all hands on deck for the weekend in Talladega – NASCAR’s longest track.

Keselowski is the defending race winner pushing past Kyle Busch on the second-last lap.

Jeff Gordon and Dale Junior lead all active drivers with five wins at Talladega. Junior won four in a row. Dale Senior holds the record for most wins with 10.

Jeff Gordon was the last driver to win from the pole in 2007. He’s one of 13 drivers to do it.

Along with Daytona, Talladega is a restrictor plate track and when the Gen-6 car made its debut in February at Daytona there was a lot of single file racing making for a disappointing day. Most of the field played it safe until the end.

Talladega is a little wider and it might be easier to pass, but drivers won’t really know until they get on the track for practice.

Last time at Talladega the “big one” happened on the final turn of the last lap when Tony Stewart was leading and tried to block Michael Waltrip. Waltrip hit Stewart from behind flipping Stewart’s car onto several others. It took NASCAR an hour to figure out the finishing order and Matt Kenseth was declared the winner.

More drama on Sunday? We’ll see.

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