Wednesday, on NASCAR Race Hub, NASCAR announced the format for this year’s Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race.
Over its 35-year history, it’s had 15 different formats. Three of them have come in the last five years.
Does the All-Star Race excite anyone, anymore?
What’s even the most notable thing that’s happened in this event in the last 10 years? Probably 2012, when NASCAR incentivized the segment winners to sandbag, until the final pit stop (to their credit, however, they changed that the following year to best segment average finish).
This isn’t your father’s All-Star Race, where Rusty Wallace turned Darrell Waltrip to win the event or Davey Allison got turned, as he crossed the finish line. This is an event that’s become a victim of the aerodynamic-centrism that’s made races at 1.5-mile tracks so maligned. This is a race where the guy who exits pit road first on the final stop wins it nine times out of 10.
It’s yet another race in a season that’s already too long.
And unlike other All-Star Games in the stick and ball world, you’re not seeing players that, if you follow Major League Baseball, you’d only see three or four times a year (or 20 times, if you’re a fan of a division rival) in a 162-game season. You’re seeing the drivers that already race 36 times a year.
So what made it stand out? It was the gimmicks.
It made sense until 2004, when this was a race with gimmicks, during a season when the championship was decided in a season-long points format. But with all the gimmicks that permeate NASCAR now (and yes, stage racing and playoff points are gimmicks), what makes this race any different from a race during the season?
Is it the million-dollar prize? Aside from it not being the only race with a purse that large, what about that is supposed to appeal to the blue-collar worker that earns $31,900 a year? For context, the median household income in the United States (and this number can vary by source) in 2017 was $61,372.
It’s time to accept that the All-Star Race has run its course. The event, every year, is so over-hyped and enrages fans when it disappoints.
What if instead of the All-Star Race, we use it as an actual off weekend for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. And while it’s off, let’s run the NASCAR XFINITY Series (NXS) and the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series (NGOTS) at a short track, like — say — Hickory Motor Speedway or Myrtle Beach Speedway.
Then the next weekend (if we must run the NGOTS and NXS at Charlotte), run the NGOTS race on Thursday, NXS on Saturday and the Coca-Cola World 600 on Sunday evening.
Right now, as it is, the All-Star Race is just another race weekend taking up space in an already crowded schedule.
Race No. 7 of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season is in the books, and I have some thoughts to share with the class.
The race
Kyle Busch leads a line of cars down the front stretch at Texas Motor Speedway, during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 500. Photo: Don Dunn/SpeedwayMedia.com
If you follow me on Twitter, you know my thoughts on races at Texas Motor Speedway already. For those who don’t, I’m not a fan of the racing at Texas. For years, it’s been unwatchable, single-file snore-fests. And the fact that both races at Texas are 500 miles in length made boring races there more agonizing to watch.
Maybe it was my low expectations for races at Texas, but Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 was good.
The field didn’t get exponentially stretched out as the race progressed, and the leader didn’t simply pull away from the car in second.
It was the race that I thought we’d get at Las Vegas Motor Speedway a few weeks ago.
With that said, however, there was still the ever present fact that passing the leader was a Herculean task. Yes, the number of lead changes were up from 2018 (26 among 13 different drivers in 2019 vs. 16 among eight different drivers in 2018), but by my count, only five of them happened on track under green. The rest were a result of pit stops, which tends to inflate the number of lead changes.
It was more of the varying pit stop mistakes and cycles that made the race compelling to watch. Last season, races at Chicagoland Speedway, Las Vegas in September and Homestead were great races, because of the racing product, not pit road mistakes.
Which is why I don’t believe this high downforce package is the right direction for the sport.
P.S. This was an entertaining race, especially by low-bar Texas standards.
It's possible to believe that and also fundamentally disagree with this package.
There were so many mistakes made on pit road, combined with Kyle's bobble, that it created action.
Yes, it was entertaining, but it was in spite of the racing on track, not because of it.
Compare it to the Bahrain Grand Prix earlier in the day. It had a great mix of pit stop strategy and on track competition that made it legitimately good racing.
I know that “we’re in the entertainment business,” but I believe that NASCAR should treat its events as a sports competition first.
Jimmie Johnson’s afternoon
Jimmie Johnson races, during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo: Kathryn Gaskill/SpeedwayMedia.com
In 2018, Jimmie Johnson led a grand total of 40 laps, and didn’t lead more than 13 in one race. On Sunday, he led 60 laps, 150 percent more than he did in 2018.
And while he didn’t lead a second time in the race, he maintained the second-highest running average all race at 7.78.
Johnson had a race that was a step in the right direction. His car was great in clean air and had speed.
“It was a little evil in traffic, and I had a heck of a time on green flag restarts, but really worked hard to get it up underneath me and tightening the car up a little bit for us to race,” he said. “Ended up having great pace and decent drivability, so are working in the right direction.”
For the first time in quite a long time, Johnson was a legitimate threat to win, and at a mile and a half track.
If he continues this at Kansas Speedway in a few weeks, we can truly say he’s back.
Qualifying
Let’s just get something out of the way. NASCAR brought this on itself.
If you missed qualifying Friday, there were multiple instances of drivers blatantly violating NASCAR’s new impeding rule. Most egregious was Ryan Newman and Clint Bowyer.
"An epic failure."- Clint Bowyer vents after Round 1 of qualifying in Texas.
And what did NASCAR do? They did nothing. All they had to do was enforce the rule they put in place, and we’re not talking about this.
And now, we’re seriously discussing the possibility of returning to single-car qualifying for mile and a half tracks, because NASCAR didn’t enforce its own rules.
This same thing happened with the restart zone four years ago and the overtime line two years ago.
NASCAR, if you want these games to stop, enforce the rules you put in place, unless you want the inmates to continue running the asylum. If not, don’t have these rules in place.
Race No. 2 of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is in the books. I had some observations of the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 that I wish to share with the class.
The package
Let’s just get something out of the way first: It wasn’t the “full” aerodynamic package that we’ll see next week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. So I’m not currently giving my “full” take on it as a whole.
With that said, however, I had some observations on this version of the 2019 package that was run at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and will be run in the final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The key things this package was designed to do, according to NASCAR, was tighten up the field and make passing the leader not such a Herculean task. And…It was hit and miss.
Behind the leader, passing was relatively easy. You’d have to set up earlier in the straight, because the cars have so much more drag, but if you had momentum going into the turn, you’re more likely to catch the leading car.
In terms of passing for the lead, there were still times when the lead car would pull away from the field; which is one of the biggest problems with the 1.5 mile track races. Unlike past races, however, reeling in and passing the leader wasn’t a Herculean task. Drivers like Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. cut down the gap to the lead car and, except in the case of Truex, passed the leader.
Now it should be noted that the tire falloff, which was significant at Atlanta, probably played a great factor in being able to catch the leader.
Bottom line: We got a taste of what this package offers, but next week at Las Vegas will be a greater indication of what we’ll see this season. Furthermore, it wasn’t a bad race. Cars could pass one another and catching and passing the leader wasn’t an insurmountable challenge.
Bad luck for Ryan Preece
Late in the afternoon, Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece were running top 10 and looked in great shape to finish top 10.
With 54 laps to go, however, Ryan Preece plowed into the back of BJ McLeod as he was leaving pit road and his day ended behind the wall in 35th.
Preece said afterwards that he was looking down at his tachometer when McLeod dived down into his pit box in front of him.
Buescher brought his car home ninth.
Now one rather good afternoon isn’t necessarily an indicator of future success, but it shows that the JTG Daugherty Racing duo might be people to watch next week.
The flu doesn’t keep Keselowski down
Yesterday, Brad Keselowski sat out most of final practice, due to flu symptoms. Team Penske development driver Austin Cindric was on standby if he couldn’t race.
He did, however, and won.
Keselowski wasn’t the dominant car (that belongs to Kyle Larson). He didn’t even finish top 10 in either stage. He was even caught a lap down by the aforementioned pit road incident (he took the wave-around to get it back).
What he did do, however, was reel in teammate Joey Logano and pass him for the lead with 32 to go. Even as his tires fell off and the handling went away, he held off a charge by Martin Truex Jr. with two laps to go to win at Atlanta.
If he had any lingering side effects, he hid it well.
It was his 60th combined victory across all series and disciplines of racing as a Team Penske driver, which puts him ahead of Mark Donahue as the winningest driver in team history.
“I think any win means a lot, but that’s a big number. Now I get to wear that yellow Mark Donohue helmet.”
If you weren’t convinced that NASCAR was serious about going in a new direction, Monday’s announcements should do the trick.
NASCAR announced on Monday that if the race winner fails post-race inspection, he/she will be disqualified and dropped to the bottom of the running order. That includes the win, the trophy, the points, the money and even the roast beast.
This is a departure from a longstanding philosophy in which NASCAR wanted the people who left the track to know that whom they saw win the race did indeed win. This probably made sense at a time when newspapers were the only reliable way of following the sport on a weekly basis. But the rise of the internet and social media made the aforementioned philosophy out-dated.
Furthermore, it’s glaringly obvious that, no matter the deterrent system, teams didn’t take the penalties seriously.
“I think for us, we’re really looking at a total culture change,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer. “We’ve been through a deterrence model where we’ve really worked with the race teams at the track and probably been more lenient than we should in terms of the number of times teams can go through inspection and pass, fail and there’s almost incentive to try to get something by NASCAR, so we want to really reverse that trend.
“We’re going to put it on the teams to bring their equipment right. When they come to the track, we’ll be much less lenient as they go through technical inspection with stiffer penalties in terms of qualifying, and then ultimately during the race, obviously we want everyone to be racing straight up.”
The key phrase in that quote is “total culture change.”
In this instance, O’Donnell is referring to the culture of cheating in the NASCAR garage. But it also can be applied to NASCAR as a whole since the events of Aug. 6, 2018, the day former NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France was arrested on charges of driving while intoxicated (DWI) and 7th-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
Given that it came less than 24 hours after Chase Elliott, the sport’s most popular driver, scored his first career victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, many in the NASCAR community, including myself, were rightfully angry that his arrest was the mainstream news story.
I don’t bring this up to bash France, as I hope he gets the help he needs. I bring it up because it’s a microcosm of his time as the head of NASCAR. There was never a sense of direction under him, or that he was even interested in running the sport.
Rather than be at Watkins Glen International to watch the new face of his family’s sport win for the first time, he was partying in Long Island.
In his many press conferences over the years, he seemed aloof and barely understood what was happening in the sport. One in particular was his press conference at Richmond Raceway, on April 30, 2017. Chris Knight and I were up in the press box that afternoon. When it ended, he got up and said “Well that was a bunch of nothing.”
And he was right. It was a conference of fluff. Now it didn’t help that nobody asked France a serious question. But even when someone asked him one in his other conferences, he often tap danced around it. Particularly when it came to the 13-year decline in television ratings and viewership (which I’ve gone into much greater detail about in a previous column).
While the sport remains in the control of the France family, with Jim France taking over as (Acting) Chairman and CEO, the public leader is NASCAR President Steve Phelps.
In his first press conference as president back in November at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Phelps demonstrated that he had a sense of the direction in which he wanted to take NASCAR, particularly in regards to the 2019 aero package.
“I think the rule package was put in place because we want to have the most competitive racing we can,” he said. “We believe the 2019 rules package is just exactly that. What effect it has on ratings or what effects it has on other things that are outside of our control, I can’t say.
“I can say that we do believe that this racing, which today arguably is the best we’ve ever had, is going to get better. We have a promise to our fans, and that promise is about close, competitive, side‑by‑side racing, and we believe that this 2019 rules package will give us exactly that.”
To be fair, this package was probably well into development before Phelps became president. But it was refreshing to see the sport’s public leader address topics with substantive answers. And while he kind of danced around the declining ratings, it was better than Brian France’s “changing tastes” nothing answer he repeatedly stated.
And this “total culture change” at the top has trickled down to the other executives.
Last November at Texas Motor Speedway, NASCAR came out and admitted that it dropped the ball on sending Jimmie Johnson to the rear of the field, when it shouldn’t have happened.
O’Donnell said it was unacceptable and can’t happen again going forward.
Compare that to the year prior at Richmond Raceway. NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller walked out of a media scrum, because we pressed him on the stopped ambulance at the entrance of pit road, when cars were coming in to pit, that took Matt Kenseth out of the race.
Bob Pockrass turned to Kurt Culbert (the (former) liaison between the media and the NASCAR executives) and said, and I’m paraphrasing, that “NASCAR stepped on its own dick, tonight,” and needed to acknowledge that.
When moments like the aforementioned one at Richmond was what we usually got from NASCAR, it was a total shock to everyone that it came out and admitted that it made a mistake.
In short: The “total culture change” referenced by O’Donnell, in regards to penalties, can be applied to NASCAR as a whole over the last seven months, and there’s truly a sense of direction from the people at the top for the first time in a long time.
I won’t be hypocritical. I’m still skeptical about this new aero package for a myriad of reasons. But I understand where NASCAR is coming from on it, and the direction it’s going.
Time will tell if it’s the right direction, but right now, I like the “total culture change” that’s happening in NASCAR.
Sitting on a couch in a student reading room at the Howard Baker Center, it occurred to me that I’m taking the white flag on my time as a student at the University of Tennessee.
It took five years for this journey to reach this point. In that time, I failed to maintain good academic standing and was academically suspended twice.
It took me hitting rock bottom to realize how I treated academics wasn’t working, nor would it ever work.
For the next 12 months, I changed how I applied myself toward academic work, obtained an Associates of Science degree from Roane State Community College and earned my way back into the University of Tennessee.
While I’m in a better place in my life, I now face a similar problem in my line of work.
You might’ve noticed that I wasn’t at Bristol Motor Speedway this past weekend, even though it’s my home track. In the last few months, NASCAR has prevented me from getting credentials to any track, because I was “too negative.”
I didn’t understand what they meant by “too negative.” In my mind, I thought it meant NASCAR didn’t like that I didn’t tow the company line, which made it more confusing when other beat writers who don’t do so either, were still getting credentials. What was I doing that the other writers weren’t that made NASCAR single me out?
It wasn’t until I read the introductory piece by Lindsay Jones of The Athletic that I realized what I was doing wrong: It wasn’t that I was being negative at all. It was the way I went about conveying it.
I mocked people like Keith Olbermann, Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless and other sports talk loudmouths who cared more about their hot takes being heard than giving a take with any substance, but looking through the things I’ve tweeted or columns I’ve written, I wasn’t any different than the loudmouths.
I won’t go into all my tweets, because there’s so many that fit the bill of making me a loudmouth, but my Twitter feed is summed up in my emotionally charged tirade towards NASCAR and FOX regarding Michael Waltrip’s grid walk stunt at Michigan International Speedway in June.
While I stand by a lot of the critical points I made in these pieces and tweets, I went about the wrong way of conveying almost all of it.
Compare my columns to those written by professional sports columnists, such as Nancy Armour or Joe Rexrode. Other than to provide context, they almost never insert themselves into their columns and keep the focus on the issue or person they’re critiquing.
Unlike them, however, I made it more about me wanting to be heard than the issue I wanted people to hear.
I’ve struggled with conveying my opinion in a constructive way for a long time, and I’ll probably struggle with it more from this day forward (especially when it comes to Twitter). But now I understand what the problem is. Tell the story, don’t be it.
That’s my view, for what it’s worth.
NOTE: This story was originally posted on the author’s personal website. It was originally written in August of 2018. So the events referenced happened months ago.
The 70th season of NASCAR is drawing to a close. After 38 weeks and 35 races, Ford Championship Weekend is upon us. Four drivers in each national touring series will race tonight, Saturday and Sunday to win the championship.
The venue, Homestead-Miami Speedway, lays just outside arguably the biggest party city in the world. The atmosphere will be one of jubilation, excitement and positive energy. Under the surface of the party, however, is a myriad of problems that make my optimism for the future dwindle.
The 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season will be the 13th consecutive season with an overall decline in television ratings and viewership. This past weekend’s race at Phoenix was the 27th this season to post a decline in ratings and/or viewership, and the 26th to hit an all-time or decade-low (Sports Media Watch), out of 31 races (this excludes the five races affected by weather). Phoenix was only the seventh race that didn’t post a double-digit decline.
For context: At the height of NASCAR’s peak ratings and viewership (2005), the race posted a 5.0 rating and 7.43 million viewers. A decade ago, this race posted a 3.6 and 5.66 million viewers. Just four years ago, it posted a 3.1 and 5.09 million viewers.
But to truly see how far NASCAR has fallen, look at the numbers for this year’s Daytona 500.
A decade ago, NASCAR’s crown jewel posted a 10.2 and 17.752 million viewers. Five years ago, it was 9.9 and 16.651 million. This year, it was 5.3 and 9.297 million (Sports Media Watch).
To be fair, it went opposite of the Winter Olympics this year, of which 19 of its events made the Top-50 most watched sporting events of 2018 (Sports Media Watch). In 2006, however, the Daytona 500 posted its highest rating and viewership ever, despite going opposite of the Olympics. The races in 2010 and 2014 were down from the year prior, but those were affected by delays for track repairs and weather.
While attendance numbers are hard to ascertain, as NASCAR stopped publishing them after 2012, almost every track this season had noticeably vast sections of empty seats.
What’s been NASCAR’s response to this? They’ve either chalked it up to “changing tastes,” i.e. streaming, or to flat out deny that ratings are tanking. In regards to “changing tastes,” the Daytona 500 averaged 51 thousand streamers. While that’s up from 31 thousand the year prior, that doesn’t account for a 2.6 million viewer drop from 2017 to 2018.
In fairness, the “changing tastes” and denial approach was done by former CEO of NASCAR Brian France. Furthermore, NASCAR isn’t the only sport suffering from attendance and viewership woes. But whereas the NFL is making noticeable strides to fix this, NASCAR has done little, if anything. It also doesn’t help when neither the president or interim CEO have spoken to the media since France was removed from his post.
That changes Sunday, when NASCAR President Steve Phelps will address the media at Homestead. So we’ll see if he’s got big plans on that front.
The ever-declining ratings have led to more companies tightening the wallets.
Now NASCAR says there are more companies in the sport than ever, and that’s technically correct. But so few are season-long partners like Lowe’s (who’s leaving at season’s end).
So many are doing select races, to the point that a sponsor’s departure can lead to the closing of a team, such as Furniture Row Racing. While nothing new, it should raise alarms across the garage when the defending Cup Series championship team can’t find backing to continue.
But what really concerns me for the future of NASCAR isn’t all the above (although it doesn’t help). It’s the on-track product.
Now it’s not been a bad year for racing in NASCAR. The quality has been serviceable, with the second half of the season being a few notches higher. In short, it’s been hit and miss. When it misses, however, it really misses.
A few weeks ago, Texas Motor Speedway was the site of hands down the worst race of the season. The biggest criticisms people make about mile and a half races in NASCAR were on display at Texas. The leader is uncatchable in clean air and passing the leader is a Herculean task. You can talk all day about how the racing behind the lead is great, but there are two problems with that: 1. It’s not compelling in the slightest when the best battle on track is for 35th. And 2. If you can’t catch the leader, then the battle is already lost.
I’d call it a Formula 1 race at that point, but most F1 races are more compelling than your average mile and a half event in NASCAR.
Again, that’s not to say the races this year were mediocre. There were more hits than misses, like last week at Phoenix.
Come next season, however, there will be a radically new aerodynamic package for the Cup Series. In a nutshell, expect pack racing at almost every race. It’s probably unfair of me to cast pessimism on a package we’ve yet to race, but I’m growing less and less optimistic with the more news I hear about it.
I get NASCAR’s reason for doing this. The product can get really unwatchable at the downforce-centric tracks, and they’re trying to bring costs down significantly to make NASCAR a financially-viable option for future teams and manufacturers.
The problem is that we’ve done a complete 180 from just three years ago when we went the route of lower downforce. If the high-downforce direction fails, this sport is legitimately in trouble.
Of course, I could be wrong, and I hope that I am. If I am, I’ll personally tell NASCAR President Steve Phelps that I was an idiot for ever doubting the package.
I don’t want NASCAR to go the way of the dodo. At the end of the day, even at its worst, NASCAR is arguably the most entertaining genre of auto racing there is. I know I don’t always show it, but I take great pride in covering this awesome sport, and I hope NASCAR will allow me to cover their sport again (read this for context on that). But as someone who looks at life through the lens of cynical pessimism, I look at the negative more than the positive.
But I’m not here to make this about me. I simply want to ask the people at NASCAR this. Where’s the light at the end of the tunnel? And is that light growing dimmer?
TV ratings/viewership continues to free-fall, with no end in sight, sponsorship in NASCAR grows more and more uncertain with each passing day and next year’s package, from what I’ve seen in tests, is a high-risk venture.
I hope that my pessimism for next season, and beyond, is rendered unwarranted. Only time will tell.
We’ve had six weeks of positive energy from great racing and a truly momentous victory by possibly the most popular driver in NASCAR today. And what is the big story nearly 24 hours removed? It’s the arrest of the sport’s leader for drunk driving.
If you’ve not heard by now, NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France was arrested last night in Sag Harbor, New York for driving while intoxicated and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance.
By no means is a DWI/controlled substance arrest a conviction (legally speaking). With that said, however, you can’t allow the head of the sport to behave in such a manner. Especially considering he was cited for “Aggravated DWI,” which in New York means you supposedly had a blood alcohol content (BAC) level more than double the level at which you’re considered legally intoxicated.
What isn’t up for debate, however, is that France’s decision to drive intoxicated just two hours after Chase Elliott scored his first career victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series at Watkins Glen International not only stalls the optimism and positive momentum that been built up over the last six weeks, but puts the sports back in the spotlight for the wrong reasons yet again. Outlets that don’t regularly talk about NASCAR are picking up this story, rather than Elliott’s momentous victory from yesterday.
My local paper here in Portland, which I’ve never seen tweet about anything NASCAR-related, is picking up the AP story. This is going to make headlines everywhere and overshadow everything positive that just happened. https://t.co/4NaPtS26Ws
This was one of many missteps by France over the years, from his short-sighted decision to publicly endorse Donald Trump for president to the way he handled the Confederate Flag dilemma after the racially-charged mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in June of 2015. The missteps also extend to his time as Chairman and CEO of NASCAR, most notably his atrocious handling of the series of run-ins between Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano in October of 2015.
Furthermore, and no matter how hard he or any executive in the big office in Daytona spin or dance around it, NASCAR’s biggest — and ongoing — decline in TV ratings, viewership and attendance have happened under France’s leadership.
These many embarrassing moments and poor leadership demonstrate why France is unfit to continue on as Chairman and CEO of NASCAR.
NASCAR is bigger than any single person, especially the people who run the operations. No amount of relation to the founder and his successor should excuse the fact that Brian acted in a manner unbecoming of the head of a company, particularly an automotive-centric company.
Here are some thoughts I had of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort and Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
BREAKOUT RACE FOR ARIC ALMIROLA
Prior to today, Aric Almirola never led more than 78 laps in an entire season. While he didn’t lead the race-high (that was claimed by Kurt Busch), we’ll probably look back at today as the day he went from journeyman to a driver who can compete for wins.
LOUDON, N.H. – JULY 22: Aric Almirola, driver of the #10 Smithfield Ford, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 22, 2018 in Loudon, New Hampshire. Photo: Robert Laberge/Getty Images
Almirola first took the lead after running down and overtaking teammate Kurt Busch, using lap traffic as a pick to drive by him on the inside line in Turn 1, with 89 laps to go. While teammate Kevin Harvick cycled out ahead of him for the lead during a cycle of green-flag stops with 74 to go, Almirola again used lapped cars as a pick to power by Harvick in Turn 3 and regain the lead with 69 to go.
After teammate Clint Bowyer tagged the wall in Turn 3 with 45 to go, forcing a caution, Almirola exited the pits in third. He fell to sixth on the final restart, before rallying back to a third-place finish.
“I laid back off of Harvick’s bumper a little bit, was trying to time the restart to roll up to him and Kyle,” he said. “Kyle went right at the beginning, maybe even slightly before. He went right at the beginning, if nothing else, of the restart zone. It caught me off guard. Earlier in the race they had been dragging the restart out further in the restart zone. I was kind of anticipating that. When Kyle fired, I was caught off guard. When I fired, I just spun the tires because I wasn’t prepared. That was totally my bad. Instead of giving myself a fighting chance to go up there and win, race those guys for the win, I fell back to sixth and had to battle back to third.”
His podium finish was also his ninth Top-10 of the season, the most of any season of his career. He’s also raised his performance to a point where a Top-five finish disappoints him.
“I’m disappointed. You think I’d be really excited to run top five and I’m not,” Almirola said. “We had the best car hands-down. There’s no doubt in my mind. We gave it away on pit road and then I gave it away again on the restart. I spun the tires on the restart and didn’t even give myself a fighting chance, so I’m just really frustrated. Chicago, we had a car capable of winning and we didn’t execute today again with another car capable of winning, and we didn’t get our Smithfield Ford Fusion in Victory Lane. It’s just frustrating.
“They say you’ve got to lose some before you win some and I feel like we’ve lost some now and it’s time to stop it and go to Victory Lane. I’m really proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. They’re giving me incredible race cars and we showed up with cars capable of running in the top five and challenging to win races these last seven weeks. I’m really proud of everybody back at the shop. I’m really proud of Johnny Klausmeier and all the guys on this 10 team. We’re gonna get Smithfield and Ford Motor Company and Mobil 1 and everybody that helps us out to Victory Lane really soon.”
PERFORMANCE TURN-AROUND AT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS
The lackluster performance of the Chevrolet camp this season have been well documented, and no stable exemplified the growing pains more than Hendrick Motorsports. Yesterday at Loudon, however, they exhibited signs of improved performance.
LOUDON, N.H. – JULY 22: Chase Elliott, driver of the #9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 22, 2018 in Loudon, New Hampshire. Photo: Robert Laberge/Getty Images
Chase Elliott led a season-high of 23 laps, won a stage and finished fifth, at a track that’s not served him well.
“I was shocked, to be honest with you, that we ran even that good,” Elliott said. “Our whole NAPA group did a great job overnight. I really have no idea where that came from. I hope it wasn’t dumb luck. Hopefully, we can keep it rolling because it’s really nice to be able to go up there and lead some laps. I know it wasn’t the right part of the race, but still, leading laps for us is big compared to what we’ve been doing. I’m proud of the effort. I appreciate everybody’s effort back at Hendrick and the chassis shop and engine shop and Chevrolet and all the folks that are working hard to try to get better. We took a step in the right direction.”
Jimmie Johnson ran Top-10 for the majority of the race (average position was 9.6). He was realistic about his performance woes, as he thought Top-10 was where they need to be.
“Top five right now on sheer speed is something we are achieving and trying to get to,” he said. “We scored some great points in the stages, I think (I) finished third and seventh or something like that. All-in-all we had a good day, always could be better, but a nice solid step forward.”
Both ran a higher average position than their season to date average.
Alex Bowman and William Byron also ran higher than their season to date average and finished higher than their season to date average finish.
Now one race is by no means an indication of season performance, but if the performance of Bowman, Byron, Elliott and Johnson improves going forward, we’ll look back at this race as the day the USS Hendrick Motorsports dislodged itself from the shoal.
CASUALLY-DRESSED BROADCAST BOOTH
While NBC’s lap-by-lap announcer Rick Allen took to pit road, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Steve Letarte donned T-Shirt attire to call the race from the booth.
How was it? Well as Nick Bromberg of Yahoo Sports put it on Twitter…
This NBC broadcast so far feels like three guys just sitting at a bar discussing what’s happening on the TVs in front of them.
As someone who regularly watches episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000, I thought it was an interesting change of pace to see three personalities commentate on the race in a more casual fashion. While Allen did well on pit road, the booth was rough at times with the lack of lap-by-lap direction. But overall, it was serviceable.
While I think Allen is best suited for the booth, I’m fine with Earnhardt going T-Shirt casual the rest of the season. And I’m not the only one.
For those who've never seen/watched a race at @NHMS, passing here is a premium. You have to set up the pass for three or four laps, before making your move. #NASCAR
LOUDON, N.H. – JULY 22: Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Busch Beer Ford, celebrates with a burnout after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on July 22, 2018 in Loudon, New Hampshire. Photo: Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
While New Hampshire isn’t high on my list of favorite tracks, and I even tweeted that we should only race once a year at Loudon, the PJ1/VHT/TrackBite/Sticky Stuff and its diminishing returns as the race ran on made for an intriguing race. Yeah, it dragged a few times, but passing wasn’t a Herculean task and the leader never pulled too far away from the second-place car that clean air was the be all end all.
Loudon has been described as “Martinsville on steroids.” Well, that was the case yesterday, as lap traffic negated the clean air advantage. It allowed Harvick to reel in Kyle Busch and bump him out of the groove with four laps to go and steal the victory.
“…your goal is to not wreck him (Busch). Your goal is to move him out of the groove, get away from him far enough because you know they’re going to be mad. Today that was the situation. I knew his car was going to get wide. He was going to be tough to pass. Kyle Busch is one of the toughest to pass when he has control of the race. For me, that was the moment that I needed to make it happen, drive away, he finished second, right?”
The Foxwoods Resort and Casino 301 was the cap to a fantastic weekend of racing: From Chase Briscoe edging out Grant Enfinger to win the Camping World Truck Series race at Eldora, to Christopher Bell out-racing Brad Keselowski in the run to the finish of the XFINITY Grand National Series race at Loudon, all three races delivered.
Another Tuesday has come and gone. Another set of penalties have been dealt out by NASCAR. Another crew member has been suspended for the next few races. Another fine has been handed to the crew chief. Another points penalty has been handed out. Another encumbered, I mean L1, penalty (yes, because it’s so different from “encumbered”) was bestowed upon a driver. Another tainted finish that’s allowed to remain in the record. We’ve repeated this process too many times to count, yet teams continue breaking the rules. In the words of Mötley Crüe, “It’s the same old, same old situation.”
If you haven’t heard yet, NASCAR handed Kyle Larson’s team an L1 Penalty for an improper rear window brace. Basically, the brace that holds up the rear windows didn’t conform to NASCAR standards. His fourth-place finish in last Saturday night’s KC Masterpiece 400 at Kansas Speedway is “encumbered,” meaning the playoff point he earned from winning the second stage can’t be used in the Playoffs. Along with a $50,000 fine to crew chief Chad Johnston, car chief David Bryant will serve a two-race points. Larson’s fourth-place finish, however, remains cannon.
It’s not the first time this season that a team has been busted for this exact same thing. Kevin Harvick was hit with an L1 Penalty for this exact same thing, after his victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Chase Elliott was hit with an L1 Penalty for this exact same thing, after his 11th-place finish at Texas Motor Speedway. Just last week at Dover International Speedway, Clint Bowyer and Daniel Suarez were hit with an L1 Penalty for the exact same thing.
Something about NASCAR’s system for deterring penalties isn’t working.
I’ll give NASCAR credit, however, that they acknowledge it, as Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s executive vice-president and chief racing development officer, told Mike Bagley and Pete Pistone yesterday on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s “The Morning Drive.”
“It’s become really the equivalent of a Kris Bryant (Chicago Cubs third baseman) coming to the plate with a bat you can’t use,” O’Donnell said. “The umpire says ‘you can’t use that,’ comes back with a bat you can’t use, the umpire says it again and then the third time says ‘you can’t make your plate appearance.’ Then the batter runs to the media and says, ‘I can’t believe they did this.’ At some point it’s frustrating on our end and at some point we’ve got to get the teams to be able to show up and get through tech inspection. It’s the same every week and it’s one of those things that most teams are able to do it.”
With that being said, however, what did NASCAR expect? Their system for deterring penalties is weak, at best. I pointed this out two years ago, when I said that NASCAR’s reluctance to strip drivers who fail post-race inspection of their finishing position incentivizes this, and it’s taken them until the last 24 hours to accept that the current process isn’t deterring anybody.
NASCAR’s insistence on not disqualifying drivers with cars that can’t pass post-race inspection is the textbook definition of insanity.
NASCAR, your penalties have no teeth. Teams don’t take it seriously, because what they lose in penalties is a drop in the bucket. The finish stays in the record, they keep the prize money and just move onto the next race, where they’ll probably make up those lost points.
You want this insanity to stop? Disqualify drivers who’s car can’t pass. Take the finish, points, money and wipe them from the cannon, like they weren’t even there that weekend.
And I’m sorry to those who show up for the race, as NASCAR always falls back to, but why is the insistence that Little Timmy leaves the race knowing who more important than the integrity of the rules? I understand that teams will always push the boundaries, but there’s a massive difference between working in the gray area and outright breaking rules that can’t be interpreted in any other way.
As long as teams don’t take it seriously, then the rules have no integrity.
At first glance, the catchphrase of Monty Python’s Flying Circus “And now for something completely different,” would sum up 2017 NASCAR. As the season played out, however, it went from “something completely different” to a return to form.
Monster Energy and NASCAR are as polar opposite as it gets. The former is an energy drink brand that understands how to target the youth of the United States, while the latter — despite its many attempts to appeal to a younger audience the last decade — is still dependent on an ever-aging demographic of Baby Boomers.
Compounding the matter, 2016 was the 10th-year of a decade-long slide in television ratings. And as much as the big whigs in Daytona won’t admit it, something had to change.
So on January 23, it would’ve been so fitting if NASCAR unveiled their 2017 changes — oh sorry, “enhancements” — via a segue from this.
The idea of throwing out the caution two predetermined points to break up the, at times, roughly three-hour marathon events into more digestible segments (or stages) not only was “something completely different,” but it reeked of desperation.
But that wasn’t all. To quote a mediocre comedy…
Whether or not you called in the next 15 minutes, NASCAR doubled the offer with stage points and playoff points for no extra charge.
The funny thing is that while these “enhancements” offended me as a racing purist, I wanted to see where they led NASCAR. Especially the playoff points, which answered the prayers of us who wanted consistency and the regular season to matter again.
So with a new title sponsor — one which, as of the publishing of this column, has yet to exercise its option to stay past the end of 2018 (SB Nation) — that appeals to millennials, a radically new approach on racing, points that carry through the entire playoffs and an aforementioned decade-long TV ratings slump, to say 2017 would be a make or break season would be an understatement. And NASCAR needed to knock it out of the park with opening day.
So the first race of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season arrived, as it always does, at Daytona International Speedway on February 26 with the 59th running of the Daytona 500. The stages came and went, with Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch winning them, and a whole mess of cars were swept up in multi-car wrecks (it’s Daytona).
Kyle Larson leads a pack of cars through Turn 3 at Daytona International Speedway, coming to the white flag of the 59th running of the Daytona 500. Photo: Jerry Markland/Getty Images
The final laps of the 59th Daytona 500 was beautiful restrictor plate racing. There was intense fighting for the lead and position, whether it was in a pack or in single-file, fuel strategy with varying results through the lead pack and a last lap pass for the win.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – FEBRUARY 26: Kurt Busch, driver of the #41 Haas Automation/Monster Energy Ford, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the 59th Annual DAYTONA 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 26, 2017 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
So did February 26, 2017 give NASCAR the monumental start it needed in this “something completely different” season? The jury is still deliberating on that. I think we’ll know for sure at the end of the 2018 season, especially since Monster Energy will either continue or end its relationship with NASCAR.
It’s one thing for NASCAR’s restrictor plate package to deliver, but did the one for the intermediate tracks…
Yeah, I couldn’t finish that sentence with a straight face.
Now I’ve told this story before. But for those who don’t know, while standing on pit road, Jeff Gluck and I traded thoughts about the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, after the race, at Atlanta Motor Speedway. I told him “I thought the race was okay for Atlanta, and that was with the way it ended, with Kevin Harvick’s speeding penalty. Take that out of the equation and Harvick wins it, I don’t think it registers.”
“Oh agreed,” Gluck said. “It’s basically (Martin) Truex (Jr.) at Charlotte if Harvick wins.”
And that sums up the 2017 Cup race at Atlanta: Harvick dominates, but blows it for the fourth straight year.
If I may peel back the curtain, this is an outcome sportswriters — especially those on deadline — hate. While we as writers “root for the best ‘stories,’” clinic performances like Harvick at Atlanta that end with said dominant driver winning on a long day — this race was three hours, 33 minutes and eight seconds — make the writing process that follows easier. When that dominate driver blows it, we got to start all over again.
For example: Deciding not to trust my cynical instincts as the laps wound down, I wrote up a race report in which Harvick ended his run of bad luck at Atlanta. All it needed was quotes, statistics and a photo, and it would’ve been published within 45 minutes of Harvick winning.
So my short evening of writing turned into a two and a half-hour evening (I didn’t get back to Knoxville until midnight).
I also told Gluck that “the intensity was nowhere near as high as it was last week at Daytona. Now I know Daytona is its own animal, but the stages and points cranked it up to 11. So after the Daytona 500, I was thinking, ‘Oh my God. NASCAR has struck gold with this! If this is what we’re gonna get every week, the sport will be on top of the world!’ But about halfway through it, after watching it unfold from the press box, I’m just thinking, ‘Oh…*sigh.* This isn’t going to be a weekly thing. This is just the same old downforce racing we see every week.’”
And…I was right. Week after week, we got the same old tired downforce-centric racing that’s made the mile and a half races unbearable.
It wasn’t until the short track gauntlet that we got a string of decent races, with Martinsville Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Richmond Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway (and I know Talladega isn’t a short track, but it was part of that string of great races).
But at Richmond in April, “encumberment” struck race winner Joey Logano. While NASCAR let the win stand, he couldn’t use the benefits of that win to qualify for the playoffs. Since he didn’t win another race, Logano — a preseason favorite to win the title — missed the playoffs. At some point, I’ll write a column with my thoughts on “encumbered” wins. But it boils down to this: Why is an “encumbered” win bad enough that a driver can’t use the benefits of it to qualify for the playoffs, but not enough to strike it from the NASCAR record?
Switching gears, let’s discuss the run of first-time winners in a five-race span.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. burns down pit road as he celebrates victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Photo: Tucker White/SpeedwayMedia.com
Talladega was the start of a five-race stretch in which three drivers scored their first career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory.
Days like Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon and Ryan Blaney celebrating in victory lane for the first time almost make me wish I wasn’t so cynical. Watching on TV Dillon play the fuel game right to win the Coca-Cola 600 and Blaney just out-race Kyle Busch and hold of Kevin Harvick to win at Pocono Raceway was awesome. But it was nothing compared to seeing it happen in person, as I did when Stenhouse passed Busch on the final lap to win at Talladega.
By the summer stretch, Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. established themselves as the dominant drivers. Larson took the points lead in NASCAR’s first trip to Phoenix and held it until the Coca-Cola 600. Truex led for the next three races, was usurped by Larson for three, retook it lead after his clinic performance at Kentucky and didn’t relinquish it the rest of the season.
Truex didn’t win the title uncontested, however, as Joe Gibbs Racing challenged his supremacy. Spearheading it was Kyle Busch, who with a strong drive and victory at Pocono and complete weekend sweep at Bristol put himself in position to steal the title from Truex.
While the fight for the drivers title was hotly contested, nobody questioned who the dominant manufacturer was.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – NOVEMBER 19: Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #78 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Toyota, and Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M’s Caramel Toyota, race during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 19, 2017 in Homestead, Florida. Photo: Chris Trotman/Getty Images
In the first half of the season, there was a greater level of parity amongst the manufacturers (in terms of wins). But in the second half, the Toyota camp was all but unstoppable, winning 13 of the final 18 races. Chevrolet’s only real bullet in the gun was Larson, but an engine failure in the cutoff race of the Round of 12 ended any realistic possibility of another championship for the bow tie’s. Ford remained in the hunt for a title with their dominance of restrictor plate racing, Kevin Harvick running down and passing Truex in the closing laps at Texas Motor Speedway and Brad Keselowski benefiting from the misfortune of others to race Kyle Busch and Truex for the title at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Unfortunately for Harvick and Keselowski, while never too far from the front, they were no match for the Toyota’s on the mile and a half Homestead.
Only Larson posed a threat to either Busch or Truex, leading 145 of 267 laps. But with 105 laps to go, the race — and championship — was down to just Truex and Busch.
While Truex pitted with 69 to go, Busch stayed out until 50 to go, putting him within the fuel window to make the finish. His one-stop strategy went wayside when Kurt Busch spun out, scattering debris on the track, with 39 to go.
A few laps after the restart with 34 to go, Busch was held up trying to pass Joey Logano for third. While he passed Harvick for second with ease, he didn’t have “enough tire” when he caught Truex.
“Yeah, it wasn’t quite what we wanted there at the end,” Busch said. “I thought we had a really great race car, especially on the long runs. We were really, really good. Just came down to there at the end not having enough tire when I got to the 78 (Truex), so I just overused my stuff, and I knew I overused my stuff when I was running with the 22 (Logano) trying to get by him and just overworked everything and got to the 4 (Harvick), got by him pretty quick, I tried to make sure that I could do that pretty quick so then I could have at least a little more tire life, but didn’t seem to pay me off any when I got to the 78.”
HOMESTEAD, Fla. – NOVEMBER 19: Martin Truex Jr., driver of the No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 19, 2017 in Homestead, Florida. Photo: Matt Sullivan/Getty Images
When the checkered flag waved, Martin Truex Jr. — who four years prior, after finding himself out of a ride due to the actions of others at Michael Waltrip Racing, sat on his front porch thinking his career was over — was no longer a journeyman who won only three times in an eight-year span, racing for the little team in Denver. At that moment he was, and forever will be, a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion.
“It’s overwhelming,” Truex said. “You think about all the rough days, the bad days, the days that we couldn’t run 20th to be here. I never thought this day would come and to be here is unbelievable!
“I can’t believe it. I’ve wanted it since I was a little kid. Just never give up. Just never give up on your dreams, no matter what happens, or what kind of crap you go through.”
The races of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season were very hit and miss, but it was NASCAR at its best. Playoff points made performance in the regular season matter again. And that they carried through the whole playoffs made the whole season the closest we’ll get back to a season-long points format. Stage points, as much as I hate them, put more emphasis not on saving your stuff until the end, but on running up front all day/night long. Yes, x-factors such as luck and bullshit still factor into the playoffs, but not to the degree of the last three years. Take the playoffs out of the equation, this would most likely remain the outcome (although Harvick and Keselowski probably would’ve been out of the hunt by Homestead in a season-long format).
And that’s what this season had over the last three. It was the closest thing to a naturally played-out one that’s possible with NASCAR. Unlike 2014 through 2016, I didn’t feel empty with how the course of the season brought us to this outcome.
Let’s hope we have another season like this, or better, in 2018.
