Tracy to race at Talladega

Tracy's original plans was to have a limited schedule of five appearances covering all types of NASCAR tracks, from super speedways to short ovals, while he bids to earn a second Champ Car World Series title.

With Champ Car not resuming until mid-May, Tracy has arranged an additional drive in the number 34 Sportsclips car.

The Canadian impressed in his first restrictor plate race at Daytona in February - having ran as high as 10th before being tapped into a spin by John Andretti.

"Daytona was both fun and educational and I'm looking forward to taking what I learned and using that information to help me do well at Talladega," Tracy said. "The draft is the great equalizer and it made Daytona fun. 

"Carl (Edwards) passed me and stuck his hand out the window and signalled for me to follow him, so I sucked up behind him and we caught the front pack of cars."

Tracy has vowed to try and fight his way to the front throughout the race, rather than take a cautious approach to avoid multi-car wrecks synonymous with Talladega.

"At Daytona and Talladega you always have guys whose philosophy is to hang out in the back and wait for the wrecks to happen," he added. "I've never hung out in the back in my entire career and I'm not going to start next week at Talladega.

"At Daytona, I missed a lot of wrecks by going to the front.  You never saw Dale Earnhardt hang out in the back, so I'm not hanging out in the back."