NASCAR Track Talk

I’m honestly surprised no one has bothered to talk about the Chicago street course race last weekend. Despite some poor weather in the area, it turned out to be an incredible race. Arguably the most astonishing part of all was who won the race: Shane van Gisbergen, the Australian Supercars champion in his very first NASCAR race, racing in the Project 91 car for Trackhouse Racing. This is the first time in sixty years that anyone in NASCAR had won in the very first race they started! And from what I’ve heard, this Chicago street course race was the most watched NASCAR race on NBC since 2017, so that’s definitely a big deal. I really hope we get to see this track again next year, because I’d certainly like to see how such a race could go if there was ideal weather and they had enough time to run the full 100 laps.

Anyway, next race this weekend is in Atalanta, second time at that track this season, and it’ll be a night race as well. With how unpredictable a superspeedway race can be, it’ll be interesting to see who ends up winning this one.

Well, despite some late rain that ended the race early, I think it’s fair to say that the new Atlanta Motor Speedway has absolutely produced some excellent racing lately. But what what really made last weekend’s race especially thrilling was, because of that oncoming rain, nobody knew for sure when the race would actually end, so we saw a wide variety of pit strategies to ensure their driver would be out in front at just the right time. There were quite a few winless drivers who ultimately finished near the front, but in the end, William Byron got his fourth win of this season, which also happens to be his eighth total career win. I think it’s definitely fair to say William Byron is currently the heavy favorite to win the championship this season.

Next race will be at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Looking at the weather forecast in the area, it looks like this will be the third race in a row where rain will play a significant factor in when the race could occur. Though, if I remember correctly, I think New Hampshire at a length of one mile is short enough that wet track tires are allowed on the race cars, which means any potential weather delay could hopefully be minimized.

Rain delayed the race at New Hampshire to Monday. While the lead was dominated by Martin Truex Jr, much of the racing throughout the rest of the field was actually quite exciting for a track like this. An interesting stat that was mentioned was that Truex is now third for the all-time most laps led at New Hampshire (behind Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart, if I remember correctly), which really shows how excited he was to finally get his first career win in the Cup Series at this track. Normally I would consider domination wins like this to be boring, but to finally get the win after so many near misses, I’m actually glad I got to watch this race.

Next race this weekend will be at Pocono, the “tricky triangle”. And hopefully we can finally have a race that is not somehow affected by rainfall…

This is turning out to be quite an exciting season. Who knew we’d see so much action at Pocono? Kyle Larson mad at Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon mad at Tyler Reddick, Ryan Preece mad at Corey LaJoie, and Joey Logano mad at the tow truck driver. In the end, Denny Hamlin wins not only his 50th career win but also his 7th win at Pocono, making him the driver with the most wins ever at that track (though the fans at the track were very vocal about their displeasure over Denny Hamlin winning the race).

Next weekend’s race will be at Richmond, and with only five races left to go in the regular season, things are already heating up.

The race at Richmond consisted almost entirely of long runs under the green flag, so much of the action came down to pit strategy. In the end, Chris Buescher gets the win, confirming his place in the playoffs and proving that RFK Racing really has begun its comeback (and hopefully it’s only a matter of time before Brad Keselowski will finally get a win of his own for his new team).

Next week’s race will be at Michigan, the last oval track in the regular season (not counting the Daytona superspeedway where practically anything could happen), so with only four races left in the regular season, it’ll be interesting to see which teams and/or drivers will be able to dominate at this track.

I somehow completely forgot to talk about the race at Michigan earlier this week. The first stage saw quite a few cars wreck out on their own, then came a rain delay into the following day, and once the race resumed on Monday, things seemed relatively calm until the end, with Chris Buescher getting another win in back-to-back weekends. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, RFK Racing is well and truly back to contending for wins and possibly even a championship.

Next race is the Indianapolis road course. While there’s sure to be plenty of chaos at this track, also significant is the addition of several international drivers who will be in this race, including the surprise winner of the Chicago street course, Shane van Gisbergen.

The road course at Indianapolis was pretty interesting. There was only one caution at the very beginning of the race, but after that stayed green all the way to the end. The three contenders for the lead throughout the race were Michael McDowell, Chase Elliott, and Daniel Suarez, all of whom needed a win to make it into the playoffs. Suarez likely could’ve won if not for a freak accident on the final pit stop where an air hose got stuck under a wheel, but McDowell really dominated much of the race and ultimately got the win. Very impressive for someone whose only previous career win was a Daytona 500.

Next weekend, it’s another road course, this time at Watkins Glen. Everyone is talking about how this is practically Chase Elliott’s last good chance to make it into the championship playoffs this season, so we’ll just wait and see how well he does or if someone else can take the win.

The race at Watkins Glen had some interesting moments, but not a lot of particularly exciting moments. Arguably the biggest moment was Chase Elliott running out of fuel due to a very poor miscalculation from his crew chief, so he ends up finishing near the back of the field in the one race that everyone had expected him to win (yeah, I had a feeling it was too much hype for him to live up to, but I doubt anyone could’ve imagined such a spectacular failure like that). Instead, his teammate William Byron would win after dominating the second and third stages, so now that’s his fifth win this season. I think it’s fair to say William Byron is one of the favorites to win the championship this season.

Next week is the final race of the regular season, which will be at Daytona. With Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski now locked into the playoffs with enough points, that leaves only one opening up for grabs. The one currently with enough points for that final opening is Bubba Wallace, while the only ones close enough to have any chance of getting enough points to pass him are Ty Gibbs and Daniel Suarez. And of course, the only way to really guarantee getting that final place in the playoffs is to simply win the race. Already looking forward to Saturday night, things are likely to get crazy.

In other news, the official NASCAR website recently launched a massive archive of past Cup Series races from throughout the entire history of the series. Be sure to check it out, if you’re interested: https://classics.nascar.com/

Before the congrats, I want to give all thoughts and prayers to Ryan Preece who took a hell of a ride at Daytona. Check out the linked video for more info. Congratulations to Chris Buescher and RFK for their 3rd win of 2023 and 4th under the RFK name! Congrats to Bubba Wallace and the 23 team for making the playoffs!
[](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rZImPzbs5ig)

As previously mentioned, Chris Buescher won at Daytona, his third win in the last five races, so now people are already considering if he could be a serious contender for the championship. This race had two very significant crashes, first was the big one at the end of stage two with the most notable part being Ryan Blaney getting turned directly into the outside wall of turn 4 with a very hard impact, and second was Ryan Preece flipping around very wildly over the grass along the backstretch. The fact that the drivers from both of those incidents really show just how much better the safety in this sport has become in recent years.

On a more lighthearted note, during the red flag after that first wreck (and apparently not shown during the broadcast), Brad Keselowski drove around in a few circles to put out a fire in his car. What made this moment even more funny was how some of the other drivers reacted to seeing it, as you’ll see in this linked video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/V9XMXmenaCo

Next race, the playoffs begin at Darlington for the Southern 500. It’ll be interesting to see how the playoff drivers will do at such a notoriously tough racetrack.

First race of the playoffs and there were all kinds of crazy moments at Darlington that involved many of the playoff drivers. Quite a few of those playoff drivers led laps for a while, only for some incident or mistake to send them further back. In the end, Kyle Larson got his first win ever at Darlington, and to have it in the Southern 500 made it extra special for a driver who until now had only a bunch of second places for his best finish at that track.

Next up will be Kansas, the 1.5 mile trioval that’s said to have its fair share of chaos, so we’ll see who can win and who ends up closer to potentially being eliminated from the playoffs.

The Round of 16 ending race at Bristol just started, and I forgot to talk about last week’s race at Kansas…

So, last week at Kansas, Martin Truex wrecked out from a tire failure right at the start, so now the regular season champion is at risk of being eliminated in the first round. Bubba Wallace was running well, but a tire failure at the beginning of the second stage ruined his race as well. And a late caution caused by a tire failure from Chris Buescher caused Denny Hamplin to lose the lead, a two-tire pit stop allowed Joey Logano to advance ten positions, and Tyler Reddick made an incredible pass at the white flag to win the race.

And now to watch the race at Bristol to see which four drivers will be eliminated at the end of the Round of 16…

The Bristol night race sure was interesting. Only a few incidents, not much compared to typical races at Bristol, but one of those wrecks ended up taking out Joey Logano, causing him to fall back far enough to be eliminated from the playoffs (making this the first time the defending champion has ever been eliminated in just the first round of the playoffs). Also eliminated were Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse, both of whom managed to get good finishes, but not enough to overcome the points deficits they had from earlier in the round. And while Martin Truex and Bubba Wallace both ran just good enough to stay above the cutoff line, that same couldn’t be said for Kevin Harvick, so his final opportunity to win a championship is now over.

As for the winner of the race, while Christopher Bell dominated the first half, it was Denny Hamlin who would dominate the second half and get the win. Based on the fan reactions, I think it’s become obvious by now that Hamlin is the most hated driver in the Cup Series, and he gave an epic response to that: “I beat your favorite driver. All of them!”

Next race, the Round of 12 begins with Texas Motor Speedway, the closest one to a “normal” race track in this round, but certainly with its own challenges, so we’ll see which of the twelve remaining playoff drivers can get the win.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I actually kinda feel like I’m gonna cry for Harvick. BUT, I’ll see him more in the Fox booth next year so… yay?

Texas once again proves to be a pretty crazy race. Several cautions with quite a few cars getting taken out, including playoff contenders like Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney. The two stage winners of Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson both ended up with poor finishes. Bubba Wallace started on the pole and led the most laps, but got passed for the lead with just a few laps left to go by William Byron, who got his sixth win this year and the 300th all-time win for Hendrick Motorsports in the Cup Series.

With William Byron now locked into the Round of 8, next weekend will be the absolute wild card that is Talladega.

Despite the lack of big crashes, that was a rather exciting race at Talladega, most notably with the most lead changes of any Cup Series race at that track in over a decade. Ross Chastain wrecked out at the end of Stage 1 due to getting caught behind Ricky Stenhouse running out of fuel, Denny Hamlin fell a lap down due to a pit road speeding penalty and had to race his way into the free pass position before he could race back up to the front, Brad Keselowski won Stage 2 before getting caught in a wreck with a few other cars, and while many Playoff drivers struggled to even reach the top ten all day, Ryan Blaney got the win to advance into the Round of 8. It was a very close finish against Kevin Harvick, who would end up disqualified due to an unsecured windshield. Another notably exciting moment was during pit stops after the end of Stage 2, when a fuel can accidentally got dragged out into the middle of pit road and sparked a huge fire that everyone had to avoid on their way out after pitting (here’s a short video, if you haven’t seen it: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Vc_QtSHkKzk).

Speaking of freak accidents on pit road, check out this other short clip from the Truck Series race at that track the previous day, where one truck spun out of control and hit one of the pit crew members: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Kxbk3YYTWHI Amazingly, the guy just walked it off like it was no big deal.

Next race will be the Roval at Charlotte, which will be the third and final race of the Round of 12, so at the end of that race, four more Playoff drivers will be eliminated from contending for the championship.

Breaking news today! After waiting much later than typical, the schedule for the 2024 season has finally been revealed. Check it out here: https://www.nascar.com/news-media/2023/10/04/nascar-reveals-2024-cup-schedule-as-atlanta-watkins-glen-move-to-playoffs/

What do you think of the Cup Series schedule for next season?

For me, the one thing that really stands out to me is that Iowa Speedway will finally get a Cup Series race for the first time ever, so that should be exciting to watch next summer.

The race at the Roval got especially chaotic in the final stage, with Denny Hamlin wrecking out after clinching enough points to advance to the next round, Ricky Stenhouse’s car catching on fire, several cars getting spun out in many places, and Kyle Busch needing to win managing to run up front late in the race, only to be passed by AJ Almendinger who finally managed to get a win this season (though obviously too late to matter for any chances at a championship). And with the end of this round of the playoffs, the four drivers eliminated were Brad Keselowski, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain, and Kyle Busch.

Next week, the Round of 8 begins at Las Vegas. Some of the drivers still contenting for the championship have manged to win at all of the last four tracks of the season, so it’ll be interesting to see who will get the early advantage by winning this race and advancing to the final four.

At Las Vegas, Kyle Larson won both stages and the race, though the final lap was a very close finish with Christopher Bell. A bad pit strategy caused Martin Truex to lose nearly all of his points advantage, and with all eight remaining playoff drivers running at or near the top ten, Chris Buescher is now the furthest back of those eight and potentially must win one of the next two races in order to advance. Some particularly crazy drama after the race was Ryan Blaney initially being disqualified for a part that fell below parameters, but that penalty was rescinded the next day when NASCAR officials realized there was an issue with the measuring equipment they had used, so now all the points remain as they originally were when the race had finished.

Next up is Homestead-Miami, and with Kyle Larson now one of the four championship contenders, let’s see which of the other playoff drivers can join him.

PLEASE DEAR LORD CAN BLANEY OR BUESCHER WIN AND CARRY THE FLAG FOR FORD, PLEASE DENNY DOES NOT DESERVE THE TITLE. No offense to Denny Fans, you guys are ok, but… Denny just

The race at Homestead started off rather standard as it seemed Kyle Larson would get another easy win, but then things started getting crazy once the final stage was underway. Kyle Larson tried to follow Ryan Blaney onto pit road a little too quickly and ended up slamming into the sand barrels against the end of the pit wall, taking him out of the race. Not long after, Denny Hamlin hit the wall when something in his steering broke, so he also failed to finish. At the same time, Martin Truex had his horrible day come to an even worse end when his engine failed. While Chris Buescher ran poorly all day, the other four playoff drivers all finished in the top four, with Christopher Bell taking the win.

Next up is Martinsville. Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell have already advanced to the championship four, Willam Byron currently has enough points that he will very likely be advancing as well (so long as nothing horrifically catastrophic happens to him), so that leaves the last open spot to be determined (currently in on points is Ryan Blaney, with Tyler Reddick not far behind, followed by Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex, with Chris Buescher so far behind that the only way forward for him is to just win the race).

The race at Martinsville was rather good, and believe me that is a major positive for the adjustments that have been made to make the Next Gen car race better at short tracks. Anyway, Ryan Blaney won the race, with Denny Hamlin finishing close behind. Martin Truex started on the pole but it wasn’t long before he fell back and couldn’t return to the front. William Byron started in the middle of the pack and pretty much just stayed there, which put him very close to being eliminated from championship contention throughout the race. As for the two remaining playoff drivers of Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher, they pretty much didn’t even stand a chance. Also, there was a rather funny moment when the pace car at one point broke down during a caution, so one of the safety trucks had to pace the field while the pace car got towed away.

I also watched the Xfinity Series race the previous day, and that race sure had a lot off beating against each other, with a very dramatic last lap battle for the lead. And with the last Truck Series race before the championship being last week at Homestead, here are the four drivers from each of the three main series who will be competing for the championship…

Truck Series:
Corey Heim, Carson Hocevar, Ben Rhodes, Grant Enfinger

Xfinity Series:
Sam Mayer, Justin Allgaier, John Hunter Nemechek, Cole Custer

Cup Series:
Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, William Byron

Get ready for the races at Phoenix, everyone. Championship weekend is finally upon us.

FINALLY SHR IS GOOD AGAIN! WE HAVEN’T BEEN GOOD SINCE 2020
Also this is the 2nd year in a row that the Final 4 for the Cup is just fine for me. I don’t care who wins the title

The Truck Series championship race ran much later than scheduled due to several late cautions, most notably was Carson Hocevar accidentally sending Corey Heim spinning, and then with just three laps to go Heim essentially slammed Hocevar into the wall, taking both of them out of the race. As a result, the overtime restart came down to the other two championship contenders, but then after they both took damage in a couple more late cautions, and after four overtime restarts, it was Ben Rhodes who managed to win the Truck Series championship, becoming only the fifth driver to ever win a second Truck Series championship. (Oh, and Christian Eckes was able to win the race, even though he was eliminated from championship contention.)

If the Truck race had this much mayhem, I’m anticipating we’ll see more such madness in tomorrow’s Xfinity Series championship race.

MY BOI CUSTER PULLS TOGETHER A VICTORY FOR SHR, WINNING THEIR FIRST XFINITY CHAMPIONSHIP!