The Busch Brothers are holding down the front row on a rainy Sunday in Bristol. Kurt will actually ave to go to the back in a backup car, but he qualified second. It has rained this morning. The track has been dried. Rain is expected later, so NASCAR pushed the starting time up an hour. KyBu will lead the field to green. They showed a giant cloud hanging over the track, though the skies around the area weren’t as ominous, though definitely gray.
A pet peeve has arisen this morning. It’s something that’s been aggravating me for a while, but this morning I saw it too often putting it front of mind. During the drudgery that is Michael Waltrip’s grid walk – seriously, can we end that segment, or have someone else handle it – I saw several drivers holding obviously empty Coca-Cola bottles. They’ve taken to using red bottles in the classic shape. The drivers will pretend – very obviously pretend – to drink from the empty bottle. Faking the drink is classless. You have drivers representing a product they won’t use – on camera. What does that say about the product? Coke needs to do better and provide a product the drivers can and will drink on camera or just allow them to hold up the empty bottle – but do not pretend to drink from it.
Several drivers are starting in the back of the 39 car field including Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick (backup car), Jimmie Johnson (tire change due to puncture in qualifying).
The stands are sparse, but with the weather its understandable.
The 34 of Michael McDowell spins in lap 4 of 500 collecting Martin Truex Jr(78), Aric Almirola(10), the 96 of DJ Kennington, Daniel Suarez(19), Chase Elliott(9), AJ Allmendinger(47), William Byron(24), David Ragan(38), Chad Finchum(66), Ross Chastain().
Restarting on lap 10 of 500 as KyBu leads the field to the green.
Ryan Blaney (12) is dogging KyBu’s bumper on the restart.
On lap 17 of 500 Blaney takes the lead form KyBu.
Caution on lap 18 of 500 for a spin by AJ Allmendinger. Jamie McMurray (1) got into the left rear quarter panel of AJ ‘Ding Dong’ Allmendinger sending him around.
One of the PRN guys said the pitboxes and teams weren’t totally ready to start the race.
Michael McDowell is headed to the garage.
Ryan Newman has a lot of damage on his 31 car.
Alex Bowman (88) says he doesn’t have fourth gear. They’re keeping an eye on that.
Ryan ‘Son’ Blaney will lead the field to green on lap 23 of 500. Looks like the stages are 125-125-250.
Jimmie is up to 13th. KuBu is up to 23rd and KHarv is up to 21st.
Caution on lap 47 of 500 for rain.
Jimmie is saying his right front is soft or a shock came off. He began dropping back through the field
Red flag is out on lap 49. Two guys are allowed over the wall to put the covers on the car. Apparently the drivers were on the radio complaining about rain on the track for 5 or 6 laps before NASCAR called it. NASCAR has told the drivers they can leave the cars, but not leave the infield.
Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace says they ran too many laps with the weather being what it was. When it started raining everybody was slowing down.
KHarv said his car was getting to be a handful with the rain coming down. Also he mentioned something about debris from the VHT (traction compound).
Jet-dryers are out, though the track has not yet been lost.
Chase is 16 laps down. Truex is down 2 laps. He was on the radio about the rain a lot for 5-6 laps.
Blaney said the traction compound took a couple of laps to come in, then it seemed to be picking up and balling up rubber as the caution came out for rain. He’s curious to see what it will do.
Looks like the drivers are getting back into the cars.
Caution is back out.
Chase Elliott is back on pit road going down additional laps. He’s being penalized, so the crew isn’t allowed to work on the car while they’re being penalized. Kenny Francis is interim-crew-chief. They got penalized for the rear-window from Texas and it cost them 20 points and $50k and Gustafson is out for a couple of weeks.
After pit stops, Blaney will lead the field to green. Ryan Newman(31) got popped for speeding. Alex Bowman(88) had an uncontrolled tire.
Restarting on lap 60 of 500.
Caution on lap 62 of 500. Chris Buescher(37) and Ricky Stenhouse(17) both spun after a tap on his left rear quarter panel by Erik ‘That Jones Kid/Da Brat’ Jones(20) who got loosened by the combination of Joey Logano(22) and the darkened lower groove.
Wreck on lap 117 of 500 as Harrison Rhodes got loose and collected leader Ryan Blaney(12). Trevor Bayne(6) an Chris Buescher(37) was trying to get by Harrison Rhodes(51). Chris touched Trevor who turned into Harrison Rhodes who hit the wall in front of Ryan Blaney. Jamie Mc got lost of damage.
Red flag is out on lap 119 of 500 for the clean up.
Restarting on lap 124 of 500. ‘It’ crosses the line first to end the stage. Ricky Stenhouse crossed the line 10th – good recovery ‘Stinkhouse’.
The fourth gear issue has returned for Alex Bowman (88).
Hearing reports of rain from drivers according to Wendy Venturini on lap 134 of 500.
Kutey Kyle Larson leading the field to green on lap 135 of 500.
Chad Finchum spins on lap 140 of 500. The field stays green. Rain is showing up on the camera lenses.
Trevor Bayne brings out the caution on lap 155 of 500 for a spin and visit to the wall by Trevor Bayne.
Lots of rain on the lens of Bubba Wallace’s in-car camera. Bubba got a speeding ticket – too fast off.
Jimmie wins the race off pit road.
The wind has picked up and its sprinkling according to Rob Albright, one of the PRN pit reporters.
NASCAR waved off the restart with 1 to go. The additional caution laps are for the rain. Brett Bodine in the pace car says they’re still staying ahead of it – meaning the moisture on the track. Since the pipes on the cars are over 1000 degrees according to the PRN guys it will dry up the track.
They’re going to bring the cars down pit road and cover them up on lap 165 of 500. Red flag is out.
Lap 250 – the end of stage 2 – makes the race official. NASCAR is telling the drivers to stay in their cars according to PRN’s Wendy Venturini.
The drivers are standing out side their cars now.
KyBu says the traction compound is clumping into balls, but that gives them the opportunity to go up top, but then a break/caution occurs before they can really get in a rhythm.
Clint Bowyer indicated there’s supposed to be bad weather on the way. He’s confident it will get to halfway, but questions what will happen after that.
NASCAR is calling the drivers to the cars and the car covers are coming off – according to PRN.
The crews are saying they’re going to need 25 minutes of racing to get to halfway. There seems to be questions as to whether they can get to that.
Parade laps underway
Restarting on lap 169 of 500.
Rains showing up on the camera lenses again on lap 178 of 500.
Larson has about a four second lead on the field.
Kurt Busch is having some issue on lap 186 of 500 but manages to get onto pit road without wrecking.
Caution on lap 202 of 500 for rain. Jim Noble said its raining and it got harder. KuBu had a loose right rear wheel.
PRN is saying the weather looks worst this time than the last couple of rain breaks.
Red flag on lap 205 of 500.
Darrell ‘DW’ Waltrip gave pace car rides this morning. Wish I could’ve had one of those.
Rob Albright says we’ve lost the track.
The drivers seem to be leaving the infield.
PRN is throwing it to local stations and will be back on-air at 1700 eastern time.
DJ Kennington drives a dump truck for his town in the summer and drives a plow in the winter. He’s a hockey player also. He runs part-time for the Gaunt Brothers in NASCAR and he’s running the Pinty’s series in Canada.
Myers on tv is saying they’re waiting out the rain.
NASCAR is calling the race for the day on lap 204 of 500. They will resume tomorrow dropping the green flag around 1300 eastern.
NASCAR News:
- Canadian D.J. Kennington has drive to honor tragedy-stricken hockey team.
- Ryan Preece earns big Xfinity race pay day at Bristol to pay debt.
- Elliott gets second 2018 NASCAR points penalty for Texas violation.
- Kyle Busch questions NASCAR Cup’s spec racing policies.
- Monster Energy “highly unlikely” to sponsor NASCAR after 2019.
- NASCAR takes six Cup cars to windtunnel for aero tests.
- Tony Stewart, Kevin Ward Jr.’s family agree to settlement in wrongful death case.
- Bobby Labonte embraces opportunity to race in NASCAR Euro series.
- NASCAR-issued pit guns becoming issue for Kevin Harvick: ‘It’s embarrassing for the sport’.
- Bubba Wallace gets stuck inside bus, escapes through toilet hatch.
- David Ragan defends new pit guns.