Please, no more drafting and superspeedways, traditional or otherwise, NASCAR.
The burnout is real.
Over the past two weeks, yours truly has taken up residence outside of the Infield Care Center. It’s become more of a home than the Media Center and more time has been spent talking to drivers who crashed out of their cars than those who contended for the wins.
It’s the nature of this kind of racin’ but it’s also completely ridiculous compared to actual racing that makes up the bulk of the NASCAR schedule and more or less begins next week at Circuit of the Americas. Only the modern NASCAR could make you pine for turning right and left but only after bludgeoning you with two weeks of made for mass consumption demolition derby action.
At the same time, NASCAR also knows what its doing opening the season with two events that most capture the imagination of non-hardcore fans and even has enthusiasts amongst those who watch every week.
And compared to the current state of true superspeedway racing, a topic that was painstakingly tackled over the weekend, this is actually inarguably the best form of what we used to call ‘plate racing.’ There is tire wear and teams have to make compromises between raw speed and maneuverability.
It’s an entertaining show that also to a certain extent even rewards race craft, which is what most of us really want the most. Granted, Christopher Bell won the race so of course he approves right now but the sentiment below is shared by most of the garage too:
“I mean, certainly this is the most fun style of speedway racing that I’ve done in my career,” Bell said in the media center after the race. “It’s different. It’s different than Daytona (and) Talladega. I think a lot of it just has to do with the way that the lanes open up and it seems like, for the most part, there is always somewhere to go.
“You can take your runs, take your momentum, and the top opens up, the bottom opens up, and for the most part if you do a good job driving and your car is handling well, you can move forward. Yeah, I will echo that and say this is the most fun speedway that we have.”
Nevertheless, no more, tapping out until April and Talladega, where we can go destroy 100 race cars over three days again and call it ‘motorsports.’
To caution or not?
“Why haven’t you called out NASCAR on the race ending cautions.”
Well, for one, there was this after the second Daytona Duel. That one was so obviously clearly incorrect and NASCAR Cup Series race director Jusan Hamilton conceded it on a podcast produced by the sanctioning body.
But the truth is two-fold — they don’t have a clear answer right now but it’s also true to say that every crash is different and it’s really hard to criticize any decision made in the name of safety. You can wish it were a different way but when safety is the priority, it’s hard to argue with it.
There also isn’t an easy answer to solve this right now either.
Maybe series officials can go back to painting an overtime line on the backstretch somewhere as a clear mark of delineation of whether or not a race should stay green or end under caution but you also don’t want to take time away from getting on the button if there is a dire need to tend to a driver.
But it is dissatisfying and races ending under caution do feel somehow less than.
At the same time, this is mostly a superspeedway problem and maybe NASCAR just making a definitive decision to end races under caution when any crash ends will make at least one less judgement call from a group that has too many of them these days.
Every potential solution will just beget another problem but the one thing that’s hard to dismiss is any decision made in the name of safety. It’s a disconnect to challenge NASCAR to make the racing safer in the aftermath of Ryan Preece’s crash at Daytona but also say it should dismiss it on the last lap racing to the checkered.
We have to be intellectual honest and consistent when at least having these conversations.
Consequence and inconsequence
The season is two weeks deep, three if you count the Clash at a track in Bowman Gray that is also unlike the bulk of the schedule, and it means nothing the grand scheme of things.
A pair of wide-open, full-throttle races doesn’t really show who the teams to beat are this season. And while road courses are becoming a more relevant part of the schedule, next week will not really answer these questions either.
Even the upcoming race at Phoenix Raceway will take place on two tire compounds, a unique and fun wrinkle, but one that could shake up the end results too. This is just a weird start to the schedule.
With that said, two drafting track crashes right off the bat can absolutely derail a season. Brad Keselowski is 33rd in the standings and already 26 points out of a playoff spot having only won once in the three years he’s driven his own car.
“We started off last year in a big points hole and the potential of our cars have increased from last year,” Keselowski said after being released from infield care on Sunday. “For us, we want to go out and run well at Circuit of the Americas but everyone knows the real metric of the season will be defined after we get through Phoenix and Vegas.”
True, and that’s the point, but there’s another element to this too.
When you keep crashing and you’re low in the standings, you tend to have to go out in qualifying early on a cold and green track and it’s challenging to put a fast time on the board in this spec car era. If you start in the back, you’re likely not getting stage points and dialing in on a set-up in that much dirty air is quite a challenge.
A bad start becomes a compounding scenario that’s only made worse by going to three straight tracks where attrition is certainly a factor.
Josh Berry won the first stage on Sunday but still crashed out of two races and is 31st in points in a car that only escaped being the worst full-time performer in points last year because Harrison Burton won a Daytona crash fest.
Even as a Xfinity Series full-timer this year, Burton explained on Saturday night how a slow start can derail an entire season.
“I saw on the monitor over there that we are sixth in points right now,” Burton said. “Leaving these two tracks, they’re complete wild cards, and it’s easy to get in a crash and be in a bad situation. Having gotten two clean finishes, we can go to COTA and Vegas, and Phoenix, we get to qualify later and it’s a snowball of momentum.
“I’ve been on the other side of it in Cup, where you have a bad start, and you go out second or third and you have no shot in qualifying. I won the race at Daytona, am in the top-16, and start to qualify better and make the final round. I then start racing better and it all snowballs.”
That’s what makes the early penalty so consequential to Chase Briscoe or even more consequential was Michael McDowell rallying from six laps down to finish 13th and remain inside the playoff grid. This matters on Saturdays which carries over to Sundays.
All of this is to say that it’s really easy to dismiss the first two races because of what they are but getting buried in points could have a disastrous effect for teams that don’t have enough raw speed to make up for it.
Playoff Grid
William Byron W
Christopher Bell W
Ryan Blaney +41
Tyler Reddick +26
Austin Cindric +22
Bubba Wallace +18
Kyle Larson +15
JH Nemechek +15
Ricky Stenhouse +15
Alex Bowman +13
Chase Elliott +10
Joey Logano +9
Denny Hamlin +5
Michael McDowell +5
Carson Hocevar +2
Chris Buescher +1
—
Erik Jones -1
Riley Herbst -7
Ty Dillon -8
Austin Dillon -8
Ross Chastain -10
Todd Gilliland -11
Kyle Busch -12
Daniel Suarez -14
Justin Haley -16
AJ Allmendinger -17
Zane Smith -20
Ty Gibbs -21
Ryan Preece -23
Josh Berry -24
Brad Keselowski -26
Shane Van Gisbergen -29
Cole Custer -30
Noah Gragson -34
Chase Briscoe -98
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.
