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Tag: NASCAR 2023

  • The White Zone: The changing of eras

    The White Zone: The changing of eras

    Amidst the sea of crew members and race fans lay three scenes of interest. At one end of pit road, Kevin Harvick hugs his family and crew members. At another end, Ross Chastain smashes a watermelon to celebrate his race victory. Finally, at the center of attention is the runner-up finisher. Surrounded by photographers, fellow drivers and eventually race fans, Ryan Blaney exits his car to a storm of confetti as the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion.

    The 75th season of NASCAR concludes with the changing of eras.

    The curtain call on the Winston Cup era

    After a seventh-place finish at his playground of Phoenix Raceway, Harvick hangs up his helmet and transitions to calling NASCAR races for FOX Sports. His retirement severs the last connection to the Winston Cup Series era.

    Sure, there are several drivers from the mid to late 2000s still active, but Harvick was the last full-time driver from the season-long points era.

    In other words, the drivers of my childhood are gone.

    My childhood hero, Jeff Gordon, retired just before I joined the media corp. Tony Stewart, NASCAR’s ultimate smartass, retired in my first season on the NASCAR beat. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth*, rookies when I started following NASCAR, retired in 2017.

    *Yes, I know Kenseth raced in 2018 and 2020, but that was in substitution roles.

    Jimmie Johnson was the bane of my teenage years, but as I covered his seventh championship run and curtain call of his Cup Series career, I learned to appreciate what a great driver he really was.

    Finally, Harvick, an A-type personality who took over the ride of the late Dale Earnhardt, rides off into the sunset with a career that’s frankly on par with “The Intimidator.” Not necessarily numbers-wise, but like the man in black, he established himself as a member of his generation’s elite drivers.

    Harvick finishes 10th on NASCAR’s all-time wins list (60), the champion of the 2014 season and five Championship 4 appearances. He’s a first-ballot entry into the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

    Somewhere in the racing afterlife, I imagine Earnhardt sporting his signature Chesire grin at his replacement.

    The young guns

    When I started covering NASCAR in 2016 and even into 2017, the scuttlebutt of who’s gonna fill the shoes of the stars permeated the airwaves of SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

    Cut to Sunday, and the roar of fans drowns out Blaney’s SportsCenter hit.

    The young guns who replaced the older stars fit their shoes. Chase Elliott, Gordon’s (initial) replacement is NASCAR’s most popular driver, until one of Earnhardt Jr.’s daughters joins the Cup Series. William Byron, Gordon’s next replacement, made the Championship 4. Christopher Bell, Kenseth’s replacement, did the same two years in a row. Larson is the only driver to win both the Knoxville Nationals and Cup Series championships in the same year.

    Now Blaney, one year removed from a winless season, hoists the Bill France Cup.

    Of this group, only Larson is over the age of 30.

    And there’s more youth coming up the NASCAR pipeline.

    As the late George Jones sang, “Who’s gonna fill their shoes?”

    Yeah, I think we can put those fears to rest now.

    The future

    Is the present perfect?

    No. Not by a long shot.

    But as I wrote, on Saturday, there’s reason for optimism about NASCAR’s future. Sunday at Phoenix Raceway encapsulated that the waning star power we feared in the late 2010s is a solved problem.

    For now, we take a much-needed vacation and do this all again in February.

    That’s my view, for what it’s worth.

  • The White Zone: NASCAR’s 75th season was good, but not great

    The White Zone: NASCAR’s 75th season was good, but not great

    The haulers rolled into Phoenix, Friday. Banners hang from the building facades and street signs. On the heels of the Texas Rangers winning their first World Series in Phoenix days earlier, four drivers face off for NASCAR’s biggest crown, the Bill France Cup.

    With the curtain call on the horizon, I reflect on the good and the bad of the 75th season of NASCAR.

    The good

    The 1.5 mile package

    HOMESTEAD, Fla. – OCTOBER 22: Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, leads the field to the green flag to start the NASCAR Cup Series 4EVER 400 Presented by Mobil 1 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Oct. 22, 2023, in Homestead, Florida. Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images

    Last season, the NextGen Car gave the long maligned mile and a half tracks a boost in racing quality not seen in the NASCAR Cup Series since the days of the twisted sister car. Naturally, everyone expected this to continue in 2023.

    The first trip to Las Vegas in March, however, almost shattered that thought.

    Of the 13 lead changes, only two happened on track. The rest happened during pit cycles.

    Did we witness the start of a massive step backwards on the intermediate tracks?

    Thankfully, the rest of the season proved Las Vegas was an outlier, and NASCAR maintained the level of quality we saw in 2022.

    Though it’s not perfect. Adding more horsepower and taking off more downforce would go a long way to taking the racing from an eight or nine to an 11.

    Of course, I’m no engineer. So all I can do is trust that the engineering minds at NASCAR figure out how to make this work.

    The schedule

    CHICAGO – JULY 2: Justin Haley, driver of the #31 Benesch Law Chevrolet, Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 Hooters Chevrolet, and Shane Van Gisbergen, driver of the #91 Enhance Health Chevrolet, race during the NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 220 at the Chicago Street Course on July 2, 2023, in Chicago. Photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

    When I started covering NASCAR in 2016, schedule movement stagnated. Thanks to a terrible agreement NASCAR made with the tracks to guarantee their races for a period of five years, the schedule was usually a carbon copy of the previous season’s schedule. Hell, the 2019 schedule was a 100% copy/paste of 2018.

    That made the 2020 schedule an Earth-shattering revelation (and that was before COVID threw a wrench into the operation).

    Fast-forward to the present.

    The variety and diversity of the schedule rocks!

    NASCAR went from two road course races on the Cup Series schedule to six (but drops to five in 2024).

    Yes, the road course package sucks and I’ll address that in a later section, but for most of my 29 years on this planet, NASCAR went to Sonoma Raceway, Watkins Glen International and that was it.

    Now, the Cup Series visits Circuit of the Americas, the infield at Charlotte Motor Speedway and an honest to god street course race on top of the South Shore Line.

    Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the NASCAR Cup Series race on a street course like IndyCar and Formula 1 do.

    Nor did I see NASCAR return to North Wilkesboro. A pioneer track the league and its partners all but left for dead when I was a month from turning two.

    Is it perfect, no. Not even close. Furthermore, I fear NASCAR might fall back into the complacency that left the schedule stuck in molasses in the coming years.

    For now, however, the schedule realignments of the 2020s beats the copy/paste routine of the late 2010s.

    The bad

    The road course and short track package

    AUSTIN, Texas – MARCH 26: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 Monster Energy Toyota, drives during the NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on March 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas. Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images

    Circuit of the Americas showcased some of NASCAR at its best.

    To borrow a line from former NASCAR Chairman and CEO, Brian France, this was “quintessential NASCAR.” Only instead of a poorly handled fustercluck over three races, it was two generational talents using every inch of real estate and an aero package on the razor’s edge of control to fight it out for the victory.

    That was the peak.

    Most weeks, NASCAR road course races (as well as short track races) resembled Formula 1 at its, well, most par for the course. Follow the leader and hope pit strategy cycles you ahead. After two years, is it time to increase horsepower, like everyone in the garage says over and over again?

    NASCAR’s chief operating officer, Steve O’Donnell, said Friday that it’s one of many options on the table.

    “For us, we’re going to look at shifting specifically around that at our next test and see what we can do,” he said. “There will be variations. Also some aero things we do with the underbody. There’s some things we found in Richmond from an aero standpoint that could work as well.”

    He also mentioned factoring costs to OEMs to make more horsepower work.

    “It’s not as simple as just upping the horsepower,” he said. “You better be ready for all your OE(M)s to be onboard. It better make sense for any potential new OEM and technology. It’s not just a short-term answer.”

    Again, I type words onto digital paper for a living. So I don’t know if shifting is the problem.

    What I’m certain of is that unless this is fixed soon, then that doesn’t bode well for the long-term heath of North Wilkesboro. The goodwill of its return won’t last forever, if the racing sucks.

    The TV product

    I’ll give NASCAR president Steve Phelps this. He acknowledged that the ratings aren’t great. Though he said it was “a mixed bag” with the Cup Series.

    “NBC came back in a powerful way,” he said. “Those metrics are up. If you consider back in March we were down 15%, now we’re down mid single digits, we’re happy with where that is.”

    That’s more than we got from France, who dodged or denied reality on that front.

    Yet, neither pointed a finger at the elephant in the room.

    The broadcast partners, especially FOX.

    The problems with FOX and NBC deserves it own column, and the FOX foibles aren’t fresh in my mind at the back-end of the season.

    With that said, however, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the biggest ratings drop happened during the FOX portion (and Chase Elliott’s injury only explains it so much).

    Put a bow on it

    Overall, NASCAR’s 75th season was good, but could’ve been better.

    The intermediate track package continues strong and the schedule has excellent variety. Hopefully, NASCAR finds the fix to the ailing short track and road course packages.

    Though I’m not holding my breath on NASCAR calling out the broadcast partners.

    NASCAR’s on a good trajectory, even though it’s a grind.

    For now, let’s sit back and watch Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, William Byron and Kyle Larson race for the big prize, Sunday, at Phoenix Raceway.

    That’s my view, for what it’s worth.

  • The White Zone: Chase Elliott has an attitude problem

    The White Zone: Chase Elliott has an attitude problem

    EDITOR’S NOTE: After press time, Chase Elliott told Dave Moody on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Tuesday, that the side-swipe was a heat of the moment incident and that he and Kyle Larson cleared the misunderstanding, during their post-race chat on pit road.

    Original column

    Chase Elliott stood on pit road and spoke to the media, Sunday, at Kansas Speedway. Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports asked him about side-swiping his teammate, Kyle Larson, coming off pit road.

    There was no message? Does he seriously expect us to believe this?

    Well according to the beat writers on site, he did.

    Considering NASCAR parked him for intentionally wrecking Denny Hamlin back in May, he would act more level-headed.

    Nope, Elliott acted like a jackass.

    Why lie about it?

    KANSAS CITY, Kan. – SEPTEMBER 10: Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, and Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Yahoo! Toyota, race during the NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sept. 10, 2023, in Kansas City, Kansas. Photo: Jay Biggerstaff/Getty Images

    Let’s dissect the incident in question.

    As Elliott left pit road, he had Tyler Reddick to his right. Larson pulls out of his box with just enough room to spare. Then Brad Keselowski exits his box, Larson pulls right to avoid him and hits Elliott.

    Just drivers going for the same real estate. Pretty innocuous.

    Elliott probably didn’t realize Keselowski forced Larson up. So he side-swiped him on the apron.

    OK, heat of the moment incident. It happens. If Elliott said his reason was just payback, I wouldn’t be writing this column.

    Rather than say that, he lied about it.

    For what gain? Who knows. Danielle Trotta and Larry McReynolds on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Monday, threw out that he’s jealous of Larson or that it stems from past run-ins. On the latter, the only ones that come to mind are Fontana and Watkins Glen in 2022. For the former, I don’t know if I can put stock in that, right now. I’m not a psychologist. I type words onto digital paper for a living.

    With that said, it doesn’t take Sigmund Freud to know Elliott lied. No driver side-swipes another driver, especially a teammate, unless there’s a reason.

    So why lie about it?

    If it was a heat of the moment response, then say it. If it’s more deep-seated, then say it.

    Don’t piss on our legs, then say it’s raining! Any journalist worth their salt sniffs out a bullshit story.

    If you don’t, then expect more scrutiny from us.

    And if not to us, then have the decency to tell your damn teammate and bosses at Hendrick Motorsports why you did it and what your problem with Larson is.

    If not, don’t act surprised if you have difficulty getting resigned, when your next contract talk occurs.

    More importantly, tell your fans why. You know? The people who made you NASCAR’s most popular driver for seven consecutive seasons.

    If you don’t, then that tells me you think your fans are brain-dead idiots who’ll slop up any lie you tell.

    Regardless, if this is how Elliott carries himself now, then he didn’t learn a damn thing from his suspension. And if he thinks talent shields him from repercussions for being a cancer, then look up Antonio Brown’s tenure with the Pittsburgh Steelers (particularly around 2018).

    Talent only goes so far, when you’re toxic to everyone around you.

    That’s my view, for what it’s worth.

  • Three Big Stories: Pocono (2023)

    Three Big Stories: Pocono (2023)

    What a weekend in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.

    Denny Hamlin displayed his hypocrisy on aggressive racing, Austin Dillon chucked his helmet at Tyler Reddick and NASCAR found itself in a lose-lose situation at the finish.

    So without further adieu, let’s dive into the Three Big Stories of the HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway.

    1. Denny Hamlin hypocritically unleashes the aggression

    LONG POND, Pa. – JULY 23: Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Mavis Tires and Brakes Toyota, celebrates in victory lane, after winning the NASCAR Cup Series HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway on July 23, 2023, in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Photo: Kirk Schroll/SpeedwayMedia.com

    As Hamlin climbed out of his car, the crowd in attendance showered him with boos and middle fingers. Five minutes earlier, he side-swiped Kyle Larson and took the lead. While Larson hit the wall in Turn 1.

    “I’m not here to defend anything,” he said. “I put both those guys, (Alex Bowman) and 5, in an aero situation. Didn’t touch either one. How can you wreck someone you don’t touch?”

    He went on to say he put Larson and Bowman in an “either let off the gas and race side by side, or hit the gas and hit the wall” situation.

    Now with Bowman, the replays showed they never touched. The No. 48 got loose and spun out.

    With Larson, however, unless you want to take a page from the NFL and use an index card to find a gap, he clearly touched Larson’s car.

    In fact, it’s the same move Hamlin used to pass Ross Chastain at Pocono, last season.

    Now I personally saw nothing wrong with Hamlin’s move on Larson. They were racing for the win and he didn’t intentionally dump him into Turn 1.

    What I have a problem with, however, is Hamlin talking out of both sides of his mouth.

    Just a year ago, Hamlin told Jim Rome that the younger drivers racing aggressively lacked respect for other drivers. Yet here he is doing the exact same thing he feuded with Ross Chastain over the course of the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

    Look, if Hamlin wants to be an aggressive driver, then embrace your inner Dale Earnhardt. If not, then embrace the ways of Mark Martin. And yes, sometimes, you’ll slip up and stray off the Martin path. When that happens, own up to it and apologize.

    But don’t pretend you’re against people racing with a lack of respect, when you do the same.

    2. Austin Dillon tosses his helmet (literally)

    LONG POND, Pa. – JULY 23: Austin Dillon, driver of the #3 Breztri.com Chevrolet, hits the Turn 1 wall in the NASCAR Cup Series HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway on July 23, 2023, in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Photo: Kirk Schroll/SpeedwayMedia.com

    As the field worked its way through Turn 1 under caution on Lap 107, Dillon chucked his helmet at Reddick’s car. Minutes earlier, Reddick put Dillon into the wall.

    Except he didn’t.

    Dillon came down across the nose of Reddick’s car and turned himself into the wall. Though even after watching the replay, he wasn’t convinced he messed up.

    “I felt like I was holding my own,” he said. “He was at my left-rear going in there, and I knew we were three-wide. I think I’ve got the right to at least hold my lane. I’ve got to turn at some point to get down. Brad (Keselowski) was on my outside, maybe a half-lane up. But Tyler (Reddick) drove it in there, and obviously I feel like he drove it in there deep enough where he had to come up the track into me. We can look at the SMT and see the little fine movements that we make, but I felt like that was not the time to do that for the No. 45.”

    I don’t understand why he expected Reddick to yield. It was just a case of two drivers going for the same real estate. And in this case, Dillon got the short end of the stick.

    Then again, in the heat of the moment, you’re not always thinking clearly. So only time will tell if this racing incident spirals into something more.

    Also, Dillon’s probably getting fined for walking onto a hot track.

    3. NASCAR picked its poison

    LONG POND, Pa. – JULY 23: A general view of racing during the NASCAR Cup Series HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway on July 23, 2023, in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images

    As the field came to the white flag, Ryan Preece spins and hits the inside wall on the short chute. So a caution comes out and we go to overtime, right?

    Well, no.

    NASCAR held the flag, waiting to see if Preece would get going.

    Which he did, for a few feet.

    When NASCAR realized this, it threw the caution. Since Hamlin took the white flag, that ended the race.

    Now I know this contradicts what I said on Twitter, but after mulling it over for a night, I don’t know what else NASCAR could’ve done. Either it throws the caution right away and gets flack for not swallowing the whistle or this.

    Unlike Richmond Raceway, Pocono is a massive track, where you complete laps in roughly 50 seconds. So it’s not unfeasible to hold the caution to see if Preece got going, again.

    At the end of the day, it was a pick-your-poison situation that sometimes comes with the job of officiating.

  • Rhodes and Crafton trade tense words at Mid-Ohio

    Rhodes and Crafton trade tense words at Mid-Ohio

    LEXINGTON, Ohio — Casey Campbell, Taylor Kitchen, Michael Kristi and I stood on pit road, waiting to talk to the top-five finishers of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ second trip to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Suddenly, I hear Mike Bagley of MRN Radio say Matt Crafton and Ben Rhodes are fighting. I gazed at Rhodes’ truck and see a frustrated Crafton walk away, right past us.

    When Rhodes joined us in the media bullpen, we all had one thing on our minds.

    What happened?

    “My conversation went like this: ‘Calm down, calm down, Matt. Please calm down! We’ll talk later,’” he said.

    What was Crafton angry about?

    Well with two laps to go in the O’Reilly Auto Parts 150, as Corey Heim pulled away to victory, Rhodes and Crafton made contact in the keyhole.

    “He broke early,” he said. “I guess he was just riding. I broke late because I’m still on a charge from the rear and I got to about side by side with him in the braking zone and I don’t think he knew I was there.”

    Crafton moved down to apex Turn 2 while Rhodes checked up and the latter’s nose hit the former’s tail. Crafton got loose and Rhodes overtook him to finish fifth. While Crafton came home sixth.

    “I don’t know if he was just frustrated from other stuff in the race,” he said.

    “Other stuff in the race” includes staying out on wet tires under the first stage break, while everyone else pitted for dry tires. Unsurprisingly, the slicks prevailed over the wets.

    “I’m sure there was something else there in the race going on and I’m just a familiar face to vent to. So it is what it is.”

    After the bullpen session, I walked to Crafton’s hauler to get his side of the story, but he declined my request for comment.

    Regardless, Crafton leaves Mid-Ohio with a one point lead over Stewart Friesen for the final playoff spot. Meanwhile, Rhodes’ one win locked him into the playoffs, with two races left in the regular season.

  • Three Big Stories: Gateway (2023)

    Three Big Stories: Gateway (2023)

    MADISON, Ill. — Well that was a race.

    Kyle Busch slowly turns into a fan favorite. Richard Childress Racing’s a force to reckon with, again, and blown brake rotors.

    So without further adieu, let’s dive into the three big stories of the NASCAR Cup Series’ second race at World Wide Technology Raceway.

    1. Kyle Busch turning into a fan favorite?

    MADISON, Ill. – JUNE 4: Kyle Busch, driver of the #8 3CHI Chevrolet, celebrates victory in the NASCAR Cup Series Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway on June 4, 2023, in Madison, Illinois. Photo: Simon Scoggins/SpeedwayMedia.com

    Busch climbed over the metal stairs to walk to the media center, as throngs of fans huddled around him. While security cleared the way, he signed diecasts and posed for pictures.

    Even his son, Brexton, signed autographs.

    Which begs the question: Is Kyle Busch turning into a fan favorite?

    Yes, he always had a hardcore fanbase, “Rowdy Nation,” but the reaction he receives from fans at driver introductions is no longer universal jeering. Now there’s still a noticeable amount of boos, but Sunday, I heard a lot more cheers mixed in.

    Could you imagine this kind of response a decade ago? After all, this same driver needed police escorts into and out of tracks, after wrecking Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Richmond Raceway in 2008, and dealt with months upon months of death threats.

    Busch wore the metaphorical black hat with pride for years, while he gestured to those who booed him to cry about it.

    That guy might now be a fan favorite.

    2. RCR is a force, again

    MADISON, Ill. – JUNE 4: Richard Childress sprays champagne over the #8 3CHI Chevrolet team, after Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Cup Series Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway on June 4, 2023, in Madison, Illinois. Photo: Simon Scoggins/SpeedwayMedia.com

    Richard Childress came into the deadline room with a bottle of “Victory Cuvée.” It’s his third victory of the season. All of which came with Busch.

    “Well, he’s helped us all around,” he said. “Number one, he’s winning races, showing we can win races.”

    For almost a decade, Childress lacked wins.

    From 2014 to 2021, RCR won a grand total of four Cup Series races. Never had a multi-win driver in that time. That changed with Tyler Reddick in 2022, until he left for greener pastures, like Kevin Harvick in 2014.

    Hell, at this point, last season, Reddick was zero in the win column. After 15 races, he’s won three.

    “You know, we won a lot with Harvick, won a lot with Earnhardt,” he said. “Our plan is to win a lot with Kyle, and not only be a contender for that championship. If we make the Final Four, we’ll have a shot at winning it for sure.”

    From a shadow of its former glory to a championship contender, and with Busch at the head.

    The irony of which is that this win fell on the 12th anniversary of Childress punching Busch after a Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway. According to Childress, that’s water under the bridge.

    “We talked about it,” he said. “That was one of the first things we talked about. That’s history. We’ve both grown a lot. I know I’ve grown up. I’ve grown older, but I’ve grown up, too. There’s an old song out there, I’m still growing up but I’m getting older.”

    3. Blown brake rotors

    Four.

    That’s how many cars blew brake rotors, Sunday, at Gateway.

    So what’s the reason?

    Well according to Busch’s crew chief, Randall Burnett, a combination of a lack of track data and the choice of rotors.

    “I think people probably came back — I think teams last year came here a little more conservative last year not knowing, and I think we all took data from that and went home and looked,” he said. “We get options on heavy-duty rotors or light-duty rotors, so we can choose that, and we can obviously choose how much cooling we run to them.”

    Last season at Gateway, we had a number of cut tires leading to wrecks. Sunday, you can’t blame Goodyear. Rather, it’s a confluence of factors.

    “It’s kind of a tough place because the straightaways are so long and you’re off the brakes for such a long time, and then you apply them really hard at the end of the straightaway, so the cycles of getting really cool down the straightaways and then really spiking up the heat, it takes a toll on the rotors,” Burnett said.

    Is the answer more practice so we don’t see scary wrecks like we saw with Noah Gragson?

    I don’t know.

    That’s for NASCAR and various factions to decide.

    “I’m sure everybody will take a look at that and try to understand what happened with those cars,” he said.

  • Dominant trucks hand Enfinger Gateway victory in late wreck

    Dominant trucks hand Enfinger Gateway victory in late wreck

    MADISON, Ill. — It was Zane Smith’s race to lose.

    He stayed out to take the lead in the final 30 laps of the Toyota 200 at World Wide Technology Raceway. Even with four new tires, Grant Enfinger wasn’t eating into his lead. Smith’s car was just too strong on medium to long runs.

    But then Lawless Alan threw a monkey wrench into the runaway operation with a spin with 10 laps to go.

    Now it’s anyone’s race.

    With six to go, Ty Majeski powers off Turn 2 and pulls inside of Smith.

    Even down the backstretch.

    Even entering Turn 3.

    Disaster.

    “Low air pressures and we had the splitter bent, got into Turn 3 obviously trying to get ahead of the No. 38, hit the splitter, had to check up, and went up the racetrack,” Majeski said. “Obviously when you go up the racetrack, his side took the air from mine, and I went around and wrecked us both.”

    As a result, Enfinger passed underneath the wreck to retake the lead and drove onto victory.

    “I don’t know if we were just on the limit right there on the end, but I think Ty just did what I did last year to Zane,” Enfinger said.

    Smith spoke to Majeski after the race, both to see if someone got into him and just what his plan was.

    “I saw an interview earlier where at this track he has more experience here than any others,” he said. “He still races like it’s his first time here. We see time and time again that the guy on the bottom has to be a little conservative, and that’s why the leaders always choose the top.”

    Ultimately, it doesn’t hurt either Smith or Majeski, points-wise. Majeski leaves Gateway second, one point behind Corey Heim (who missed Saturday’s race with an illness). Meanwhile, Smith remains fourth, with two wins to book his ticket to the playoffs.

    It doesn’t ease the heartbreaking loss for Smith, however.

    “I mean, I kind of did it to myself staying in this series,” he said. “It is pretty unbelievable how scary some of these guys are. We’ve just had, now, four bad weeks – some self-inflicted, but our day obviously snowballed once we get around some of these guys. It’s just frustrating.”

  • The White Zone: Waivers in NASCAR are a joke

    The White Zone: Waivers in NASCAR are a joke

    MADISON, Ill. — NASCAR, how does this make sense?

    If you slept under a rock, this week, NASCAR parked Chase Elliott, after he intentionally wrecked Denny Hamlin, Monday, at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It was nakedly blatant and the SMT data of the wreck reinforced that.

    NASCAR handled it, correctly. After it suspended Bubba Wallace, last season, for doing the same thing to Kyle Larson at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, it couldn’t not give Elliott the same penalty, without inciting a mutiny in the garage.

    But then NASCAR shot itself in the foot by giving him a waiver.

    So let me get this straight: Elliott’s actions in the Coca-Cola 600 (correctly) warranted a one race suspension, but he’s still playoff-eligible?

    How?!

    The only real penalty, effectively, is he gets one less race to make the playoffs.

    And he’s not the first.

    Johnny Sauter got a waiver, after NASCAR parked him for wrecking Austin Hill under caution at Iowa Speedway in 2019. And while not a wreck, NASCAR suspended Josh Williams for parking his car on track at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March.

    Both received waivers.

    OK, I get that there’s more to a race team than the driver. The pit crew, the crew chief and spotter didn’t put Hamlin in the wall. Furthermore, it’s probably not good for sponsorship, if you penalize the whole team for the actions of one individual.

    And if NASCAR approved all waiver requests, I’d respect that point more.

    With that said, however, the league’s denied waiver requests.

    In fact, at press time, the league’s denied just three request for a playoff waiver.

    Spencer Gallagher’s denial makes sense, but Kaz Grala and Grant Enfinger’s don’t. They were circumstances beyond their control.

    Yet according to the heads in Daytona, substance abuse and missing a race for lack of sponsorship are stronger grounds for a waiver denial than intentionally wrecking another driver.

    So I ask again, NASCAR, how does this make sense?

    For as much flak as NASCAR (rightfully) gets for inconsistent officiating, granting playoff waivers to drivers suspended for intentionally wrecking others is one precedent NASCAR should break.

    And if this isn’t grounds for a waiver denial, then waivers are a joke.

    But at the end of the day, as the late Ed Coombs told me, “It’s their show to **** up.”

    That’s my view, for what it’s worth.

  • Cup race postponed to Monday

    Cup race postponed to Monday

    If you have a personal day, use it.

    NASCAR postponed the Wurth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway to Monday, due to unyielding rain. The Cup Series’ annual trek to the Monster Mile will start at noon, ET. FOX Sports 1 will carry the TV broadcast and PRN/SiriusXM will carry the radio broadcast.

    After rain washed out practice and qualifying, Saturday, NASCAR used its competitive metric to set the field. As a result of his win at Talladega Superspeedway, Kyle Busch will lead the field to green.

    This is the second year in a row rain pushed a Cup Series race at Dover to Monday.

  • NASCAR suspends Cody Ware, indefinitely, after arrest

    NASCAR suspends Cody Ware, indefinitely, after arrest

    NASCAR suspended Cody Ware, indefinitely, Monday, following his arrest on felony assault charges.

    Ware was arrested, Monday, in Iredell County, North Carolina, on charges of “assault by strangulation — inflict serious injury” and “assault on female.” Furthermore, he’s being held on a $3000 bond. At press time, no details were released on the incident(s) that led to his arrest, or if he posted bond.

    Ware sat out Sunday’s Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Rick Ware Racing said, Saturday, he would miss the race, because he was “focusing on a personal matter.”