Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: Three Big Stories

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Three Big Stories: COTA (2023)

    Three Big Stories: COTA (2023)

    Matt Weaver summed it up best.

    Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas showcased NASCAR at both its best and dumbest. With the former, you witnessed two generational talents duke it out for the victory. Furthermore, the lack of stage breaks added layers of strategy that road course races in NASCAR lacked for years. With the latter, however, a great race turned into a face palm-inducing crash fest.

    So without further adieu, let’s dive into the Three Big Stories of the NASCAR Cup Series at COTA.

    1. A master class of driving between two generational talents

    AUSTIN, Texas – MARCH 26: William Byron, driver of the #24 Liberty University Chevrolet, and Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 Monster Energy Toyota, lead the field on a pace lap prior to the NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on March 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas. Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images

    On the Lap 44 restart, Tyler Reddick overshot Turn 1, and William Byron drove underneath him to retake the lead. For much of the remaining laps, they put on a battle that showcased NASCAR at its best.

    “We made it a battle for sure every time with crossovers, out-braking each other… that was a lot of fun,” Byron said.

    With five to go, Byron got loose off Turn 10 and Reddick pounced. He pulled to Byron’s inside in Turn 11, drag-raced him down the backstretch and ran him off the track to take the lead.

    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.

    2. The return of strategy to road course races

    AUSTIN, Texas – MARCH 26: William Byron, driver of the #24 Liberty University Chevrolet, and Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 Monster Energy Toyota, lead the field on a pace lap prior to the NASCAR Cup Series EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas on March 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas. Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images

    Before a caution on Lap 40 put the field onto equal tires, multiple pit stop strategies played out.

    Byron, on a two-stop plan, pitted from the lead on Lap 24. Reddick, on a three-stop race, pitted from the lead on Lap 32. Byron cycled back to the lead, but with an eight-lap tire difference, Reddick reeled in Byron with ease. He cut the lead by three seconds, in the span of two laps.

    On Lap 39, Reddick overtook him with ease in Turn 1.

    None of this happens if NASCAR throws a caution to end stages.

    “Well, it certainly allows the race to play out more naturally, which I feel like in the spirit of road course racing, in my opinion, that’s what it should be more about,” Reddick said. “We had the natural cautions towards the end there with people having tire failures and issues to bring out the cautions to have the exciting green-white-checkered finishes.”

    All stage breaks did, since 2017, was interrupt the flow of a race and removed an element of strategy. As a result, the quality of racing at road courses (and to an extent, Pocono Raceway) diminished. After all, why short-pit, when you’d get two free pit stops with stage breaks?

    “From my perspective, I enjoyed it more today,” Reddick said. “It was about maximizing your pace on the racetrack and minimizing the mistakes because depending on what strategy you had, if you made a mistake, you’re going to be costing yourself track position as the race just played out.”

    With five more road course races left on the Cup Series schedule, you’ll have a strong case for NASCAR doing away with stage breaks everywhere.

    That was some dumb, dumb, DUMB racing at the finish

    AUSTIN, Texas – MARCH 26: Tyler Reddick, driver of the #45 Monster Energy Toyota, and Alex Bowman, driver of the #48 Ally Chevrolet, lead the field to an overtime restart 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

    If everything I mentioned above was some of NASCAR at its best, then the overtime calamities were some of NASCAR at its dumbest.

    Three separate times, cars accordioned into each other and spun others out at the crest of Turn 1. Once or twice, I get it. It happens. But after three times, on each overtime attempt, I just think, “What the hell are we doing, guys?”

    “The end of the race became a typical NASCAR road course race,” Austin Dillon said. “It was just a mess.”

    Honestly, I don’t know how you fix it.

    Perhaps single-file restarts in overtime cuts down on it, but in that scenario, what’s to stop the driver in second from dive-bombing the race leader in Turn 1?

    NASCAR won’t penalize drivers for contact (well, up to an extreme point) like IndyCar and Formula 1 do. Bumping and banging are woven into the league’s DNA. So unless there’s a seismic shift in thinking from the heads in Daytona, that’s a non-starter.

    Well, we’ll see if this also happens in a few months at Sonoma Raceway.