The scariest part of the overtime in Saturday’s Xfinity race, you ask? On the screen, it read, ‘Unlimited Attempts’!! Really? Has NASCAR learned nothing from the fans and teams about their brutal attempts to end races under green? How about ONE attempt only? I’m sure that nobody will complain about that change.
Apparently, some ‘climate activists’ climbed the fences at a Formula E race in Berlin, Germany over the weekend, delaying the start of the race. Am I the only one to see the irony in their actions? Protesting a ‘non fossil fuels’ race being run with cars powered by electricity? What was their complaint?
Concerns have been expressed that the new Las Vegas Formula One race scheduled for November 19, this fall, could harm the two existing US races, Miami and COTA.
Each of those two races boasted weekend attendance in excess of 300,000 last year, and this year appears not to have affected their pre-sell numbers. With the huge US population, I would suggest that the country could probably support five or six races per year. I suggest those ‘concerns’ are unfounded.
NASCAR CUP SERIES: Denny Hamlin (Toyota) grabbed the pole at Talladega followed by Aric Almirola (Ford) and Ty Gibbs (Toyota) 3rd. 38 cars qualified for the main.
On lap 2 Michael McDowell spun in the middle of the pack (he started 21st) with a flat right rear tire and, believe it or not, he did NOT hit any other cars!!
They had problems with the replacement wheel on pit road but did get back out. On lap 36 Tyler Reddick spun on pit in, didn’t hit anybody or anything and no yellow came out.
Five laps later Chase Briscoe didn’t want Reddick to have all the fun, so he too spun in almost the same spot but, again, no yellow. However, he had a flat tire and bottomed out on pit road unable to get moving bringing out a caution.
Chase Elliott won Stage 1. Stage 2 went green all the way with Aric Almirola grabbing the win. On lap 142 Harrison Burton, running first in the inside lane, got spun by Noah Gragson down onto the infield.
Back in the pack Joey Logano got into Zane Smith taking out Austin Dillon and Austin Hill. With four laps to Logano tried switching lanes and it did not end well for him. He collected Corey LaJoie and Ricky Stenhouse.
Harrison Burton got into William Byron trying to avoid the wreck. On the first overtime restart Ross Chastain got into Gragson spinning him. Kyle Busch spun Kyle Larson who was third at the time.
On the second attempt at overtime, Bubba Wallace, who had been running up front all race leading a bunch of laps, tried ‘unsuccessfully’ to throw a block on Ryan Blaney.
Wallace spun taking out several cars and Busch picked up the win followed by Blaney and Chris Buescher. Typical ‘Dega race!! Similar to Saturday’s Xfinity race.
Christopher Bell continues to lead the points with an 11-point cushion on Chastain and 20 on Kevin Harvick.
Their next race is Dover, Sunday at 2 on TSN 5 & Fox.
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: Austin Hill (Chev) continued his good runs this year by winning the pole at Talladega. Sheldon Creed (Chev) got 2nd and John Hunter Nemechek was 3rd. Canadian Dexter Stacey started 22 out of 38.
The first stage went caution free and it was won by Justin Allgaier. On lap 39 Derek Kraus got into the left rear corner of Parker Chase who spun and collected the cars of Parker Retzlaff and Anthony Alfredo.
On lap 48 Blaine Perkins go sideways and got tagged by Jade Buford causing Perkins to barrel roll about six or seven times.
Also collected were Kaz Grala who got hit in the front end by a bouncing tire and Dexter Stacey. Perkins was transported to a local hospital.
The red flag came out for track cleanup and the end of Stage 2 which was won by Jeb Burton. On lap 64 the third caution came out when Brandon Jones got into the back of Sammy Smith spinning Smith down into the inside wall.
With 39 to go, Jones got together with Sam Mayer and Mayer spun to the bottom of the track while Jones went high.
With 20 to go Josh Berry came down track right into Austin Hill spinning Berry. Not long after the restart carnage occurred. Allgaier, Mayer, Berry, and others were involved when Barry had to lift to avoid the slowing car of Ryan Truex and got tagged from behind by Berry. The green came back out with six to go.
BUT with three to go, the BIG ONE took place taking out half the field and Daniel Hemric ended up on his roof.
It appeared that Creed got into the leader Hemric when Hemric came way down to block from the top groove. A LOT of broken race cars!!
On the Overtime restart something fell off a car so they re-racked them and tried again. I counted 19 cars, or half the original field.
And in traditional ‘Dega fashion, the field wrecked coming to the checkered flag!! Jeb Burton got the win over Creed and Parker Kligerman. Stacey finished 35th.
Austin Hill continues to lead the points by 4 over Nemechek and by 19 over Chandler Smith.
Their next race is Dover, Saturday at 1.30 on TSN 5.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS: Their next race is Kansas, Saturday, May 6 on Fox Sports Racing at 8 P.M.
FORMULA ONE: Their next race is Azerbaijan, Sunday at 6.55 A.M. on TSN 1 & 5.
INDYCAR: Their next race is at Alabama’s beautiful Barber Motorsports Park, Sunday at 3.30 on NBC.
IMSA: Their next race is Laguna Seca, May 14.
24 HOURS OF LE MANS: Saturday, June 10 & Sunday, June 11.
NHRA: Their next race is Charlotte, Sunday at 6 on Fox Sports Racing.
NASCAR PINTY’S SERIES: Their season starts Saturday, May 13 at Sunset Speedway.
APC LATE MODEL SERIES: Their season starts Saturday, May 20 at Sunset Speedway.
ONTARIO SPORTSMAN SERIES: Their season starts Friday, May 19 at Delaware with the CASCAR Reunion 100.
SUPERSTAR RACING EXPERIENCE (SRX): Their season starts Thursday, July 13 at Stafford Motor Speedway.
DELAWARE SPEEDWAY: Their season starts Friday, May 12.
FLAMBORO SPEEDWAY: Their season starts Saturday, April 29.
OHSWEKEN SPEEDWAY: Their season starts Friday, May 19.
SOUTHERN ONTARIO MOTOR SPEEDWAY: Their season starts Saturday, May 6.
GRAND BEND SPEEDWAY: Their season starts Saturday, May 20.
GRAND BEND MOTORPLEX: Their season starts Saturday, May 6.
ST. THOMAS DRAGWAY: Their season starts Saturday, May 6.
TORONTO MOTORSPORT PARK: Their season starts this weekend.
SHANNONVILLE DRAGS: Their first race is June 17 & 18, Nostalgia Weekend.
CAN-AM STOCK/SUPER STOCK SERIES: Their season starts Saturday, June 3, Grand Bend.
Until Next Week…
Dave Mathers.
Discussion about this post