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Highlights from this past weekend’s races at Las Vegas:

Truck series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koTrHB4uhLI
Xfinity series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMXNUfO5OEQ
Cup series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKsNXFB_8V4
Radioactive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck2E1YCY-jU

Congrats to Josh Berry for getting his first ever win in the Cup Series, especially with the legendary Wood Brothers racing team for their 101st Cup Series win.

Highlights from this past weekend’s races at Phoenix:

Xfinity series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_JSj6Z7xV8
Cup series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqSd4_mnh3E
Radioactive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQOj4DfmwMU

Highlights videos from this past weekend’s races at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas:

Xfinity series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l6rtzqTQE4
Cup series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peOrAd5ipF4
Radioactive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ikehBM6mdI

Getting back on topic, I will now post links to highlight videos of this past weekend’s races at Atlanta. (Like I said, I’m going with whichever of the three main sources has the longest highlights video for each race).

Truck series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUkD9H743Bo
Xfinity series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TNAJtdUdfs
Cup series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snNvlY8pxSk
Cup series Radioactive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IphHC6utOVc

And since it was apparently not included in any of the highlights videos I could find, I’d like to mention something especially funny that happened during the Truck Series race. It was during a red flag due to a big crash, a trail of speedy-dry had been spread out on the track, and once all that spilled fluid from the crash had been dried up, what would typically happen is that a service vehicle hauling a jet blower would blow away the excess speedy-dry. What went wrong this time? Well, of all the places they could’ve stopped the racers, all of those race trucks were parked at the bottom of the racetrack, directly beside that trail of speedy-dry, and since the right side window of those race trucks is completely open, the result was all that sand and grit being blown directly into the driver’s compartment of those race trucks.

Actually, if you want to see that funny moment, here’s the live replay of the entire Truck Series race:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSdXAhLrg7w
The sand blasting moment occurs at 1:15:30, then skip ahead to 1:19:50 to hear how everyone reacted to it.

@Ciaran
Ok I will sorry for not doing that

@KennyC
It would really help if you would report them when you see them next time.

Damn spam bots

There are multiple YouTube channels that provide highlights of NASCAR races, so for the sake of making sure you get to see some things that other channels might not include, I’m going with the one that has the longest highlights videos.

The Cup Series Daytona Duel races from Thursday night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtgyxZPrZkQ
The Truck Series race at Daytona from Friday night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbKKys94jvg
The Xfinity Series race at Daytona from Saturday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emWzXpVpf38
The Cup Series Daytona 500 race from Sunday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ex3QrNF6m0
And finally, here’s the Radioactive segment from the Daytona 500:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHUOKRZwtlc

Rather than waste my time trying to describe what happened as I did last year, I’ll just post links to the highlights videos. (I’ll even throw in the Radioactive video just for the fun of it.)

Highlights of the heat races:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEdi6a2T66s
Highlights of the last chance qualifying race:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uD7LqYyno4
Highlights of the main event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03bAvVFgkQ8
Radioactive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkP2Q46RLyI

@Background Pony #9D71
I’m going to miss it few to having to work tonight :(

I have a feeling that the Clash this year will be even more crazy than usual.

This weekend is the start of the 2025 season with the Clash exhibition race, which this year will be at Bowman Gray Stadium, a quarter mile short track in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where NASCAR used to race back in the early years up until 1971.

Practice and the qualifying heat races will be on Saturday night, then the last-chance qualifying race followed by the main event will be on Sunday night.

If you saw the championship race the two previous years, then you could pretty much predict what would happen this time. Three championships in a row for Team Penske, and Joey Logano wins his third Cup Series championship, making him only the tenth driver to ever win at least that many championships.

I’m not going to bother saying anything about how immensely divided the fanbase has become as a result of this particular championship and how many so-called fans are questioning the legitimacy of the playoff system. I’m just not interested in discussing such complications.

In fact, I’d rather not continue spending time trying to provide summaries of these races in my own words, so once the next season begins, I’ll either just post a link to a highlights video or simply not bother posting at all anymore.

And further penalties have indeed been given out for race manipulation. The 1 car (Ross Chastain), the 3 car (Austin Dillon), and the 23 car (Bubba Wallace) have each been fined $100,000 and penalized 50 points, along with having their respective crew chiefs, spotters, and team executives suspended for this weekend’s championship race.

This is unquestionably the biggest race manipulation scandal since the infamous “Spingate” at Richmond in 2013, and it’s lead to a lot of fans arguing that the playoff system has become too easy to manipulate and NASCAR should go back to the old season-long points format.

I had a feeling something significant might happen at Martinsville, and we sure got something alright…

Starting with the obvious, the race was actually pretty good, thanks to a much softer tire being used, and with how lackluster these new cars had been at this particular track, I’d call that a huge step in the right direction. With several cautions from spins resulting in a variety of pit strategies, in the end, it was Ryan Blaney who was able to make a late charge to the front to win the race and lock himself into the championship four along with previous winners Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick.

So who was the fourth driver to advance on points? Well, between William Byron and Christopher Bell, things on the last few laps got quite convoluted, to put it mildly. A couple Chevrolet cars blocked to prevent Byron from losing positions, a Toyota fell back to allow Bell to gain one more position, and to top it all off was Bell sliding up into the final turn and riding along it in a desperate effort to not lose the position he had just gained. After everyone waited anxiously for nearly half an hour, the decision was made that Bell had illegally rode the wall and was thus penalized a few positions to end up not making the championship four. That was the immediate decision, but there’s a lot more potential controversy that is currently under further review, so there might be additional penalties given out over the next few days.

Next up is the final championship race, so it’ll be interesting to see which of the four finalists will win the 2024 Cup Series Championship.

That was arguably one of the best races ever seen at Homestead-Miami. All of the playoff drivers (except Logano) ran up front for much of the race. A few cautions here and there but nothing ridiculous. In the later part of the final stage, Tyler Reddick tried to use pit strategy to get better tires for a faster run, and was able to take advantage of that thanks to a well-timed caution by Kyle Larson pushing his car just a little too much once again. In the last handful of laps, it was an awesome battle for the lead between Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, and Tyler Reddick, with Reddick making that incredible pass on the outside of the final turns to take the win.

Joey Logano and Tyler Reddick are now confirmed as two of the championship four drivers. The two remaining spots will be determined at next week’s race at Martinsville. Some drivers are so far behind that they must win, while others are very close on points. Anything could happen, so we’ll just have to wait and see how things will turn out.

@Background Pony #4792
It was a grate race I’m so glade Joey won and am going for his 3ed title btw this isn’t a guy who used to go buy racefanx now is it?…..I ask because I had a friend who went by that name years ago

Just when we thought Las Vegas would provide a rather straightforward race, all kinds of crazy moments occurred. Kyle Larson had a ridiculously slow pit stop midway through the race and had to recover from two laps down for much of the remainder of the race. Denny Hamlin had several poor pit stops and struggled to recover much from any of them. Tyler Reddick managed to win the first stage, only to then get caught in a wreck with Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney which caused Reddick to actually roll over on the front infield grass. Of the three other playoff drivers, Christopher Bell dominated much of the race with William Byron consistently close behind, but it was Joey Logano (who made it in only because of Alex Bowman’s disqualification last week) who proved once more to be a master of fuel strategy to win the race and lock himself in as one of the championship four contenders.

Next race is at Homestead-Miami, and with the huge gap in the points along the cutoff line between the playoff contenders not yet locked in, I feel like it’ll take something very significant to see anyone cross over that cutoff line one way or the other (essentially it’ll take checkers or wreckers to make something really happen), and considering which drivers are good at a track like that, I don’t have high hopes for such a dramatic change in championship contenders.

There quite a lot that happened at the Roval of Charlotte. The new slightly modified course included a hairpin turn that presented a lot of passing opportunities as well as plenty of bumps and spinouts. One such incident nearly destroyed Tyler Reddick’s car, and if not for his pit crew doing everything to repair the damage throughout the race, he could’ve been eliminated from the playoffs. Up front, Shane van Gisbergen (currently part time in the Cup Series and going full time next season) got his first pole position and led some laps, but it was Kyle Larson who would later take the lead and dominate the rest of the race to get his sixth win this season. Eliminated from the playoffs at the end of the Round of 12 were Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric, and Joey Logano… until Alex Bowman unexpectedly ended up disqualified in post-race inspection for failing to reach minimum weight. Even more surprisingly is that Hendrick has chosen to not appeal the penalty, so now Alex Bowman is out and Joey Logano is back in.

(Such a pity, because I really would’ve liked to see all four Hendrick cars in the Round of 8, something that has been accomplished only twice before with two different teams.)

Next race is in Las Vegas for the start of the Round of 8. Let’s see who of the eight remaining playoff drivers could win their way into the championship final four.

Talladega does not disappoint once again. Stage 1 saw moments of up to four-wide racing across the entire pack. Stage 2 ended with Ryan Blaney crashing across the finish line. And in the last few laps we saw a 28-car pile-up, supposedly the biggest crash ever in the NASCAR Cup series! And with controversies regarding the “damaged vehicle policy” in recent weeks, it was inevitably brought to everyone’s attention with so many cars in various states of damage, from completely destroyed to simply stuck on flat tires. Needless to say, it’s gotten to the point where this rule as it is now needs to be reconsidered. Anyway, after that huge wreck, we had an overtime restart, and it was Ricky Stenhouse who got the win by a fraction of a second ahead of Brad Keselowski. Still no playoff drivers winning in this round of the playoffs, but at least William Byron earned enough points to lock himself into the next round.

Next race is the Charlotte Roval, in a new configuration in fact, so this could get very interesting.

Kansas continues to have no shortage of exciting moments, even right from the first lap. I won’t bother taking the time to talk about all the incidents and how widely different all the playoff drivers performed, but the big story was the late battle for the lead between non-playoff drivers Kyle Busch and Ross Chastain. Once again, Kyle Busch had a great car late in the race, only for some incident to take away yet another opportunity for him to win. Ross Chastain took the lead and held off William Byron to win the race, too late to matter in terms of going for the championship, but still nice to see someone finally get their first win of the season.

Next race is Talladega, and everyone knows to expect nothing less than total chaos at that wild racetrack.

Well, despite supposedly using the exact same type of tire used during the spring race, the night race at Bristol was practically the exact opposite with very little passing and almost no tire wear at all. Pretty much the only big moves came when Ty Gibbs and Martin Truex got pit road speeding penalties and were sent to the back of the field, where they struggled to regain their track position and ultimately failed to advance through to the next round of the playoffs. Also failing to advance were Harrison Burton who went several laps down due to power steering issues, and Brad Keselowski who qualified poorly and never really went anywhere. Daniel Suarez had perhaps one of the worst cars out there, but had just enough points from the previous two races to advance to the next round, and even put up a good effort to prevent Ty Gibbs from moving forward to stay in the playoffs. As for the winner of the race, it was total domination by Kyle Larson who led 462 laps, the most laps led by any Hendrick driver ever (beating a record set by Jeff Gordon at Martinsville in 1997) and was the most laps led by anyone at Bristol since Cale Yarborough in 1977.

Next up is Kansas for the first race in the second round of the playoffs. We all know that particular racetrack always seems to provide excellent races, so this could possibly be another good one.

I’m sure many of us expected having Watkins Glen as a playoff race would result in some crazy things, but I don’t think any of us thought it would get this crazy. Nearly all of the sixteen playoff drivers has issues in one form or another, such as getting caught up in wrecks or receiving penalties on pit road. In fact, this was the first ever playoff race since the introduction of this format where none of the playoff drivers finished within the top five. There was also apparently some hype prior to this race for a new softer tire being used to make the race more competitive, but it ended up making very little difference. As for the drivers not eligible for the championship who happened to dominate this race, we saw much of this race led by Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen, but it was on the last few laps were we got to see an impressive battle for the lead between Shane van Gisbergen and Chris Buescher (which kind of reminded us of the famous battle for the win between Marcus Ambrose and Brad Keselowski back in 2012 at this same track) with Buescher making a last lap bump-and-run pass for the lead to win the race. As for the playoff drivers, it’s kind of strange that guys like Austin Cindric and Daniel Suarez are doing very well, while Martin Truex and even Denny Hamlin are now at risk of being eliminated by the end of the very first round.

Up next is the night race at Bristol. Not only does that short track usually provide some good races, but also they’ll be using the exact same kind of tire that was used during that especially exciting race earlier this season where drivers had unexpectedly found themselves needing to really be careful to avoid wearing them out too much. We’ll find out soon enough if we end up seeing a similar circumstance.

This Atlanta race was not quite as wild as the one earlier this season, but it still had some pretty significant moments. Just prior to the end of stage 1, Kyle Larson suddenly wrecks out with Chase Briscoe getting collected in that incident, taking both of them out of the race. The Penske cars dominated at the front for much of the race, especially Austin Cindric. Also with surprisingly good runs near the front were Daniel Suarez, Ty Gibbs, and Kyle Busch. Those with surprisingly poor performance included Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex. And just when it seemed we were likely to get another exciting three-wide finish, an advertising sign falls onto the racetrack and brings out the caution. With the overtime restart, Joey Logano is able to get a good enough push to the front and wins the race while several other cars wreck coming out of the final turn.

Next is the second race of the first round, the road course of Watkins Glen, which could really mix up the playoff field even more than what we’ve already seen.

MY BOI LES GOOOO