Background Pony #FCB1
While the rest of the weekend saw good weather, it was literally as soon as the Cup Series race was about to begin that it suddenly started raining. Thankfully, past experiences made it possible to get the race going, not only by letting the teams decide for themselves when to put on wet tires or slick tires, but also setting an absolute latest time to end the race due to evening darkness. There was a red flag period during stage two for a couple hours to clear away all the large puddles to improve visibility, but otherwise were able to get the race going. Shane van Gisbergen (winner of not only last year’s Cup Series race on this track, by also won this year’s Xifinity Series race the previous day) was the heavy favorite to win, and was so dominant in the first stage that one could argue the only way he could lose would be if he was taken out in a wreck… which is exactly what happened when Chase Briscoe spun out. After that, the next heavy favorite to win became Kyle Larson… until he locked his brakes and smashed the front of his car against a wall with hardly any tire barrier to soften the impact.
So with both of the heavy favorites finishing in last and second-to-last, now the race became a lot more interesting to see who would actually win. While many teams would later choose to pit to replace the wet tires with slicks for better speed, Alex Bowman was among the few who chose to not pit, forcing him to hold the lead on older wet tires. Once the timed deadline arrived, Tyler Reddick came very close, but Alex Bowman managed to stay up front to win the race, his first win in over two years (and his first win following his back injury last year and the concussion he got late in the previous season). And with that, all four Hendrick drivers and teams are now locked into the playoffs.
Next week’s race will be a Pocono. With twelve winners so far this season, it’ll be interesting to see if any of the other winless drivers can pull off an upset before the end of the regular season.