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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?

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.

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…

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.

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.

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)

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/

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.

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 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.

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.

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…

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.

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.

Ross Chastain wins at Nashville Superspeedway, so he finally gets his first win of the season (complete with his traditional watermelon smash). Not many cautions in this race, so it was mostly a green flag run for the majority of each stage (unlike the Xfinity Series race the previous day where there were a lot of wrecks caused by cars slipping out of control).

Next week, the Chicago street race is finally upon us, the very first NASCAR race to ever be held on a street course. This is completely unknown territory for this form of motorsports, so it’ll definitely be interesting to see how things will go once that race gets underway.

I somehow completely forgot to talk about the most recent race last week. Good thing this past weekend happens to be the only off day for the series. Anyway, the lack of stage cautions at road courses made the race at Sonoma more interesting, but it was Martin Truex who got the win, making him second only to Jeff Gordon for number of wins at that track.

Next race will be at the Nashville superspeedway. And since this past weekend was the only off week for the Cup series, what do you think about how the season has gone so far?

For me, I’ve been impressed by the success of Kyle Busch and William Byron, and I could easily see them among the final four contending for the championship.

The race at Gateway may have been only 300 miles, half the length of the previous race, but numerous delays due to weather and crashes caused it to take just as much time to complete as the previous race did. Quite a few issues came up, such as lightning in the area resulting in a delay of nearly two hours, numerous drivers suffering brake failures, and even an internet outage that forced teams to keep track of things the old school way. In the end, Kyle Busch almost completely dominates the race to get his third win this season. The last time he got at least that many wins in a single season was when he won his most recent championship, so he’s starting to look like a probable championship contender at this point.

Next weekend’s race is the road course at Sonoma, and since road course races this year will not have stage ending cautions, it’ll be interesting to see how different the race strategy will be compared to more recent years.

Almost forgot to talk about the most recent race, the Coca-Cola 600. After being delayed to Monday due to rain, this race turned out to be just as exciting as it was the previous year. The next-gen car may still struggle on short tracks, but there’s no question they are the absolute best at 1.5 mile ovals like Charlotte. Ryan Blaney won the race, finally breaking a winless streak.

However, by far the biggest event of that race was Chase Elliott getting frustrated at Denny Hamlin and deliberately turning him right into a very hard hit to the outside wall. Because that incident was very similar to what happened last year between Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson at Las Vegas, just about every reasonable fan knew Chase Elliott would end up being penalized with a one race suspension, and that’s exactly what happened, so he’ll be missing the next race.

Also, later in the week, a massive penalty (loss of 120 points, loss of 25 playoff points, 6- week suspension for the crew chief, and $250,000 fine) was given to Chase Briscoe after officials discovered a counterfeit part on his car. The rules regarding these new cars involves three levels of potential penalties that can be given, and this is the first time we’ve seen the highest level penalty given to a team, so now we can see just how severe such a violation can really be.

Well, that’s all the really important stuff covered. Tomorrow will be the next race at Gateway (near St. Louis).

So, NASCAR’s long awaited return to North Wilkesboro was this past weekend. Pretty much everything but the main event was spectacular. The grandstands were packed with enthusiastic fans, the Truck Series race had a lot of excitement, some light rain presented an opportunity for the qualifying heat races to demonstrate the wet weather tires on an oval track for the first time with remarkable success, and the open race before the All-Star race had some moments of competitive excitement. But once we finally got to All-Star race itself, pretty much very little happened aside from a single early caution allowing some cars to get fresh tires, which allowed Kyle Larson to run from last to first and end up completely dominating the race to an easy win. All in all, it became clear the track has only a single groove that makes passing very difficult, not to mention these new Cups Series cars continue to struggle on short tracks, so there’s still some work to be done on those cars, and a repave of North Wilkesboro is being considered for potential future events.

Well, with that hyped event now behind us, next up is the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. I’ve heard there’s going to be some unfavorable weather in the area this weekend, so there’s a chance the race might end up being delayed.

Well, that Darlington race sure was exciting to watch. Martin Truex led much of the race, only to get caught in a last wreck with several other cars. Over the last few laps, Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain battled for the lead, only to end up wrecking each other, allowing William Byron to win the race (his third this season, and also the 100th win for the number 24 car). While I’m glad to see William Byron win after what happened to him in last year’s running of this race, I will now count myself as a hater of Ross Chastain due to how much of a reckless wrecking ball he has consistently proven himself to be these last few weeks.

Next weekend’s race is one that I have absolutely been looking forward to ever since this season’s schedule was first revealed, and it’s the all-star race at North Wilkesboro, the legendary short track that had been left abandoned for nearly thirty years, but has now been mostly restored and NASCAR will finally make its return to that track. I can’t wait to see how this race will turn out.

I’m surprised nobody has yet to say anything about last weekend’s race at Kansas, because it was just awesome! A record number of lead changes, several cautions, and the first ever last lap pass for the lead ever seen at that track with Denny Hamlin taking the win after Kyle Larson gets turned into the outside wall on the backstretch. But perhaps the one thing from that race that everyone’s talking about is the post-race fight between Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson. (Honestly, with how frequently Ross has gotten other drivers mad at him on the track over the last few weeks, it was really a matter of who and when someone would finally try to seriously confront him.)

As for the final additions to NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers, we have Kevin Harvick, Joey Jogano, Matt Kenseth, and Jimmie Johnson. Obviously saving some of the best for last, and I look forward to seeing how all 75 of them will be honored this weekend.

On that note, it’s time for throwback weekend at Darlington! For those of you curious to see what kind of throwback paint schemes are being used by the various race cars (and trucks) this year, here’s a link:
https://www.nascar.com/gallery/darlington-throwback-schemes-2023-edition/
Which one is your favorite? I’m particularly fond of the one being used by Daniel Suarez, which throws back to the green Quaker State car that was used by Ricky Rudd in 1988.

@Background Pony #83AA
👍

For the record, last weekend’s race at Dover (which was delayed to Monday due to rain) was won by Martin Truex Jr. Not only does that break a winless streak he’s had for over a year, it also happened on the same weekend that his brother Ryan Truex finally got his first win in the Xfinity series, so that family certainly had a lot to celebrate.

As for this past week’s additions to NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers, we have Martin Truex Jr, Brad Keselowski, Larry Phillips, Sam Ard, Kurt Busch, and Kyle Busch. Only four more remaining to be announced next week (and considering there are four Cup Series champions over the past 25 years who have not yet been added to that list, I think it’ll be easy to guess who those last four will be).

Well, looks like Alex Bowman is going to miss the next 3 or 4 races due to a back injury from a crash in a sprint car race, so Hendrick is calling on Josh Berry again to replace him while he’s healing.

As for this past week’s additions to NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers, we have Carl Edwards, Ron Hornaday Jr, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Bobby Labonte. Just ten more remaining to be announced over the next two weeks.

Quite a wild weekend at Talladega. The Xfinity series race saw a lot of significant wrecks, including two that resulted in a red flag and both of which included one car flipping over. The Cup series race was mostly calm until close to the very end with two big wrecks, and the winner in all that late chaos was Kyle Busch, who would not have had the opportunity to claim that win had he not mistakenly stayed out when his crew chief wanted him to pit for fuel.

As for last week’s additions to NASCAR’s 75 greatest drivers, we have Greg Biffle, Sterling Marlin, Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin, and Chase Elliott. Five more to be revealed this week, with one of them actually being announced during the race to be Jeff Burton.