Hurricane Matthew has finally relinquished its hold on the weather and the sun in shining in Charlotte this Sunday morning. Typically when a night race is rained out and occurs the next day, the racing is better. I hope that will be the case with this race. This will be a double-header race day with the Cup race and an elimination race for the Xfinity kids. Like here in Georgia yesterday Matthew seems to have left behind a lot of wind in Charlotte. We had the rain from the storm on Friday, then sunshine yesterday with a lot of wind. The Cup race will begin at noon and the Xfinity race will begin shortly thereafter. Congrats to Alex Bowman on his outside pole in Dale Jr’s 88 car! Not bad for a young substitute driver.
Competition caution scheduled for lap 25.
You know it seems NASCAR is playing monkey-see-monkey-do with the NFL. At the end of last week there was much discussion of the fact that NFL ratings/interest is down this season. NASCAR is holding them up as the standard-bearer and their trying to figure out how to get folks to watch. Some of the current theories as to why viewership is down include ‘people protesting the football players’ protesting by not standing during the nations anthem’. I’d like to think football ‘fans’ aren’t that petty, but every time I give people the benefit of the doubt I remind myself Donald Trump is the Republican presidential candidate this year.
Competition caution comes out at the start of lap 25.
PRN has the broadcast today and one of the guys on the mic is so much louder than everyone else. It sounds like he’s screaming. He has a shrill voice to start with and his mic is waaaaayyyyyyyyyyy too hot, so I keep having to lower the volume when he bellows, which means when he’s talking to someone else I can’t hear their response. His screeching is hurting my ears though. He didn’t start out that loud, but they came back from a break and he’s pegging the audio. Brett McMillan seems to be the loudmouth.
Caution is out on lap 62 of 334 for a crash involving Alex Bowman and Casey Mears. The 88 car is stuck on pit road at the entrance to the garage area. The safety crew and tow truck have arrived to try to figure out how to get the car behind the wall. Reportedly both front tires are down and won’t turn since then. Drivers are reporting to have seen smoke from the left side of Alex Bowman’s car as he went into turn three. Alex has been loaded into the ambulance.
Caution on lap 116 of 334 for Joey Logano hitting the wall. Looked like ‘Squinty-Douchey’ had a right front tire go down sending him into the wall.
Kevin Harvick is creeping around the track without power. As he’s struggling to get to pit road, Joey Logano hit the wall bringing out the caution on lap 155 of 334. S-D has taken the Pennzoil 22 to the garage. They got KHarv’s car started on pit road, but it cut off again.
Caution on lap 227 of 334 for debris.
Caution on lap 253 of 334 for AJ Allmendinger into the wall.
Caution on the restart on lap 258 of 334. Frankenstein (3) doesn’t get going and takes out multiple cars. Truex tried to push the 3 causing Austin Dillon to spin. The race is red flagged on lap 260 of 334.
Cars involved in wreck: 1, 3, 16, 18, 19, 21, 24, 27, 41, 44, 78. That would be Jamie McMurray, Austin Dillon, Greg Biffle, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Ryan Blaney, Paul Menard, Kurt Busch, Brian Scott and Martin Truex Jr.
The Xfinity race is rescheduled for 16:15 eastern time. The red flag was 10 minutes and 48 seconds.
Caution on lap 308 of 334 for Denny Hamlin’s car blowing up – smoke is pouring from his car.
Maybe it wasn’t Brett McMillan who was pegging the audio…no, not Brett, it’s someone who throws it to Brett.
Kasey Kahne in fourth is trying to catch third place Ryan Newman with thirteen laps to go.
Kasey Kahne passes Newman for third with five to go.
White flag is out for Jimmie Johnson. Jimmie wins!!!
Kasey Kahne finishes third.
Bunny says the person blowing out the mic is Doug Rice. Good grief he was loud! Everybody else is calling the race and the audio is at the same level, but his sounds hotter and then when he starts shouting its deafening.
Truex said the clutch completely went out on pit road. He said he had it down to the floor and it suddenly pumped up and he didn’t have a clutch for the rest of the race.
NASCAR News:
- Alex Bowman savoring his shot as Earnhardt’s replacement.
- NASCAR’s postponement, Sunday doubleheader are right call.
- Atlanta Motor Speedway opens campgrounds for people fleeing Hurricane Matthew.
- NASCAR team picks bad time to endorse Donald Trump for ‘Godly values’.
- Famed Daytona has ‘moderate damage’ from Hurricane Matthew.
- Charlotte Cup Race Postponed.
- Mobil 1 Extends Partnership With SHR.
- DIS Statement On Hurricane Matthew.
- Harvick Captures Charlotte Pole.
- Sweet Wins Better Half Dash.
- Maaco Partners With FRR at Charlotte.
- UniFirst to Sponsor Kahne.
- Parrott Named Crew Chief at CSLFR.
- Talladega Remembers MRN’s Barney Hall.
- Country 500 Festival Announces 2017 Lineup.
- Sweet Leads Better Half Dash Qualifying.
- Friday Rained Out at Charlotte.
- Suarez Scores Dover Win.
- Gragson to Compete Full-Time for KBM.