It’s no secret, Toyota’s haven’t fared well on superspeedway’s with the tapered spacer. They had just one car in the top 18 of the Spring race at Talladega back last April and three in the top 10 in the October race. They had just two cars (8th, 14th) in the top 21 of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona back in July and while Denny Hamlin won the Daytona 500 in February, he was the only Toyota driver in the top 17 of the final results.

Now, can they fare better in Sunday’s race on the 2.66-mile high speed Alabama oval?

Trends say, no. While they’ll start 1-2-3 in Sunday’s race and can control the pace upfront early, can they hang there all race and if not, gain the drafting help to maneuver their ways back to the front?

Normally starting position shouldn’t matter for a superspeedway race, but for some reason, it has at Talladega. Six straight winners have come from the the top 11 and 10 in the last 11 overall. That’s good news.

But, Toyota has just one Dega victory since 2009 and only three overall there — that’s the bad news.

That could be shocking to some seeing that they finished 1-2-3 in the Daytona 500 two February’s ago. But, that ‘500 was run with the old restrictor plate package.

They’ll need to work together but their disadvantage is the lack of numbers. They’ll have five legitimate cars that can vie for the win. Ford and Chevy will have over 30 between them.

Even saying that, it’s not like they’ve been at their best anyways at Talladega. Martin Truex Jr. has never won a superspeedway race before and has one top five finish at Talladega since 2007. His last six finishes there have been 20th or worse.

Kyle Busch is good at Dega in the spring but not so much in the fall. Since 2014, he has just two top five finishes on the track.

Erik Jones has never had a top five at Talladega and four of his six finishes have been 33rd or worse.

That’s why Denny Hamlin will carry the banner for them again on Sunday afternoon.