Weather in the area in Dover. NASCAR is moving the schedule back in an effort to get the 400 laps in before the rains begin. ‘Kutey’ Kyle Larson will lead the field to the green flag. Lots of folks wearing jackets under the cloudy skies. The stages today are 120-120-160.
Kyle Larson (42) and Alex Bowman (88) have lost their car chiefs due to failing inspection three times. Both drivers will have to start at the back of the field.
Congrats to Johnny Sauter on a hard fought victory Friday night in the Camping World Truck Series.
Congrats to Justin ‘Dewy Alligator’ Allgaier on winning the Xfinity Series race and the big Dash 4 Cash check, barely keeping Elliott Sadler behind him. Good hard racing between the JRM teammates.
Kevin ‘Happy’ Harvick (4) & Martin Truex Jr (78) will effectively lead the 38 cars to the green flag as Larson drops to the back.
Caution on lap 4 of 400 for a incident with Michael McDowell kissing the inside wall.
Restarting on lap 8 of 400.
On lap 21 of 400 Kyle Busch has a vibration and says he doesn’t think the engine is going to last the whole race. Adam Stevens, his crew chief, said they’re just going to have to ride it out,
Caution on lap 21 of 400 as the 72 of Corey LaJoie leaves the track trailing lots of smoke.
Restarting on lap 26 of 400.
Green flag pit stops underway on lap 98 of 400.
‘Kutey’ Kyle has a pass-thru penalty for an uncontrolled tire.
Various drivers are in fuel-saving mode at the end of stage one.
‘Happy’ crosses the stage first as the caution and green & white checkered flags fly. Hamlin (11) is out of fuel at the end of the stage. Harvick coasts across the finish line possibly out of fuel. Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch also may be out of fuel. Lots of engines off as they cross the line.
Brad ‘It’ Keselowski’s gimmicky strategy didn’t work. He started trying to save to make the end of the stage on fumes. Looks like just about everybody else did also.
TV is showing a memoriam for Jim Foster (1926-2018) after a shot of the cloudy sky.
It’s an MRN weekend, so TV is a few laps ahead of the radio broadcast.
Happy said he was confident they were okay because they’ve been practicing things like that during the week.
Restarting on lap 128 of 300 with Harvick leading the field to green.
Kurt ‘KuBu’ Busch pot popped for an uncontrolled tire and had to start at the end of the fuel. Denny Hamlin pitted too early, before pit road was open, and received a penalty.
Menard has to have a lug stud added to his car. During the pit stop the crew were unable to get the right side tire off the car. He’s in the garage.
Caution on lap 153 for issues by Derricke Cope and Ryan Newman simultaneously while TV was in a commercial break.
Derricke in the 99 tagged the outside and inside wall and is now on the hook.
Ryan Newman’s (31) car is in the garage. A disk brake bolt is stuck behind one of the wheels and the crew has to remove it.
Restarting on lap 159 of 400.
It’s sunny and warm – in the 70s – in the Atlanta metro area today, but really breezy.
Stage 2 has blessedly come to an end finally with KHarv leading. Boy was that BORING. It might have been fun to drive, but its a snoozer to watch.
KHarv will lead the field to green on lap 249 of 400. 15 cars on the lead lap.
Caution on lap 253 of 400 for an incident with the 51 car of Cody Ware which seems to have lost a great deal of its rear end after smacking the outside wall.
Jamie ‘Mc’ McMurray (1) gets the free pass.
Restarting on lap 259 of 400.
Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch is smoking on lap 270 of 400 and he’s heading onto pit road bringing out the caution. The drive shaft shot out of the race car. The said it finally knocked the shifter handle off. That was apparently the source of his early vibration. He said it was vibrating so hard at the end that he couldn’t grab the shifter to try to knock it back into gear and had to slow it down with the clutch and try to stay out of everybody’s way.
Restarting on lap 281 of 400.
Smoke is at the track and on a headset with his cars in the top 15. Ricky ‘Stinkhouse’ Stenhouse Jr (17) and Jamie Mc will lead the field to green. They must’ve stayed out during the caution.
Stenhouse has run away from the field four laps into this run.
Clint ‘Drunk Daddy’ Bowyer is running ‘Stinkhouse’ down.
Almost 15 laps into the run, Bowyer has caught Stenhouse and is working on a pass. Stenhouse is fighting hard.
The game is up on lap 297 of 400 and Bowyer takes over the lead.
Caution is out on lap 316 of 400 for rain.
On lap 320 of 400 they’re bringing the field down pit road.
The red flag is out, the drivers are out of the cars, and the cars are getting covered up.
Kyle Larson is on baby watch for baby number two. ‘Kutey’ says John Hunter Nemechek will be on call for Kansas and he thinks he’ll be okay when they go back to Charlotte for the All-Star Race.
Harvick says its good to have a teammate like Clint Bowyer where they can have fun and enjoy competing with each other. Clint said things are the same as when they were at RCR and he’s always learning from KHarv. They trash-talk each other, teasing about their finishes in practice and races.
There’s a guy who appears to have a sunburn of the 78 on his back.
The cars are coming off the cars
Drivers are climbing back into the cars
Lights are on on the pace car. The drivers are belted in. The crews are stretching and getting read for pit stops.
Caution is out and the cars are back on the track – all except Kasey Kahne’s 95 cart that’s still sitting on pit road as the field begins pace laps. The red flag was about 40 minutes.
With 79 laps to (321 of 400) go pit road is now open.
TV has a blip at the top of the split screen for pit sotps that shows the condition – Caution – and the number of laps. Nice!
Logano came off the track from third position into the pits as the tireman hit the lugnuts and they made a quick chassis adjustment. He will restart in 17th.
Restarting on lap 323 of 400 with ‘Drunk Daddy’ in the lead.
KHarv take the lead from Bowyer with 63 laps to go.
Alex Bowman (88) is in the pits with 36 laps to go.
One of the MRN guys mentions that Kevin Harvick isn’t being pushed at all.
It’s finally over with Harvick crossing the finish line way ahead of anyone else. What a horribly boring outing. There were minutes of racing, but I wouldn’t call that a race.
NASCAR News:
- 1990 Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope back to NASCAR Cup again at 59.
- NASCAR Cup drivers explain ‘unusual’ tame Talladega race.
- Kurt Busch unexcited by 2019 NASCAR Cup schedule, wants shake-up.
- Justin Allgaier hangs on to win Xfinity at Dover.
- NASCAR driver Spencer Gallagher suspended indefinitely for violating substance abuse policy.
- Dale Jr. enjoys Xfinity race with a different kind of bottle in hand.
- Police: Former NASCAR crew member breaks team owner’s jaw.
- Hershel McGriff becomes oldest to race in NASCAR event at age 90.
- Golf just one of Kevin Harvick’s business pursuits.
- Kyle Petty leads family’s annual charity ride.