It’s that time of the year — the first Talladega race of the year. The memories of Ricky Bobby running for the finish line, as crazy as it was, are still fresh in everybody’s mind, as was the crazy crash where Carl Edwards went into the catch fence a few years ago.

Talladega always brings some good suspense, kind of like Daytona does. It’s restrictor plate racing at it’s best.

That’s why everybody who is everybody is talking about Dale Earnhardt Jr. this weekend.

Restrictor plate tracks like ’Dega are his stomping grounds, even though he has just four top-10’s in the last 14 races in Alabama.

But right now, Junior has been good everywhere. He’s second in points, just five back from leader Greg Biffle. This isn’t the same Junior who drove for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. a few years ago. This is the Junior who is older, more mature, and if I’m honest, a better race car driver.

And more aerodynamically friendly — he finally shaved the beard!

I said it last week in my column and I will say it again, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is going to be the one to get Rick Hendrick his 200th win in the Sprint Cup Series.

Points Standings

Roush Fenway driver Greg Biffle is still leading the points as stated earlier, with Junior coming in five points behind him.

Denny Hamlin moved up two positions to third, nine points behind Biffle. Matt Kenseth went down a place to fourth and Martin Truex Jr. fell three spots, 22 points behind the leader. Jimmie Johnson moved up one spot to sixth and Kevin Harvick dropped a spot.

Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman all stayed in their same positions.

Drama at Richmond

It seems as if Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards can’t get away from each other. They finished tied in points last season, they’re side by side in points right now and last weekend at Richmond, they got into more drama.

During a late caution with 81 laps to go, the re-start order was confusing, at least for Edwards. NASCAR made it clear that the no. 14 of Stewart was the leader, Edwards was second.

But Edwards’ spotter told the driver that he was leader and when the green flagged waved, he jumped the start, beating Stewart to the start/finish line and was black flagged. He was sent to 15th place and that was the race for Edwards.

After the race, Edwards told media what his spotter told him, but NASCAR stated this week that Edwards and his spotter were wrong, that it was in fact Stewart who had the lead.

But according to NASCAR, it didn’t matter who had the lead, Edwards still deserved a penalty for jumping the start.

Regardless, neither won and Kyle Busch took home the trophy. A late debris caution cost Stewart the race and he questioned NASCAR’s calling of a yellow flag.

Why do I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of the Edwards/Stewart drama?

‘If you ain’t first, you’re last’

I mentioned ‘Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby’ earlier, because not only is it one of the greatest movies ever made, it’s about NASCAR and it has Will Ferrell in it.

At the end of the movie, Ricky Bobby goes to Talladega with no sponsorship on a car that was sponsored by ‘ME’ with the cougar that his father used to teach him about fear on the front hood.

This weekend, Kurt Busch is driving that same paint scheme.  It has the ‘I wanna go fast’ written across the back of the car.

The fangirl in me wants Kurt Busch to win this weekend just to see that car in victory lane. Or maybe the entire field wrecks out like in the movie and the Busch brothers race to the finish line.

Too bad Stewart isn’t sponsored by Old Spice anymore; we could have had a Ricky Bobby / Cal Naughton Jr. face-off.

Karah-Leigh Hancock is a designer and reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times and can be reached on Twitter at @KarahLHancock.