This will be Howard's first NCTS visit to Talladega, and he will bring some new armor for the wide-open, high-speed affair.

"I'm excited about racing at Talladega," Howard said.  "There's just so much history and energy that surrounds this place.  We have a new truck for this race, and hopefully we can break it in with a top-10 finish."

According to Howard, racing at Talladega is the ultimate wild-card. 

"Things happen so quickly here, and with the drafting guys can be back and forth in a heartbeat," he said.  "We just hope to be able to avoid any trouble and not get caught up in someone's mess and find ourselves in the top-10 with a few laps to go.  From there, anybody has a chance."

Howard would like nothing better than to stabilize what has been a largely up-and-down season.

"We've had some real good runs (Howard finished 5th at Indy and 6th at Mansfield) this season, but we just haven't been able to string a bunch of them together," said Howard.  "Wed like nothing better than to come out of Talladega with a strong finish and follow it with others and end the season with momentum.  It's been a fun season, and we've learned a lot and I believe our potential is huge.  We'll give it the best shot we can this weekend, and take it from there."