What was NBC Sports thinking when they put together the desk crew for the NASCAR broadcast hiring a ham, the stammerer, the yammer-er, and the ‘look at me I love to be on camera’. It’s like someone decided: ‘We want to differentiate ourselves from FOX. They have talent on their broadcast desk. We’ll go for the exact opposite.’. They were successful, though they’re breaking the streak by hiring Dale Earnhardt Jr. He’s a multi-talented person – unlike anyone they currently have. I love crew-chief Steve Letarte and driver Jeff Burton. I’d love to see them driving and crew-chiefing these days. I felt like Rick Allen was steadily becoming better at his job. His improvement came to a grinding halt, then reversal with his switch to NBC. I hope he will get back on track soon and one day become a quality broadcaster. The heat continues at Chicagoland. Several folks involved in yesterday’s ‘race’ ended up in the infield care center due to the heat. NASCAR has moved the start of the race due to forecasted storms. The high temperature is expected to be 91 degrees. There’s a severe thunderstorm watch in effect and the Weather Channel forecast is displaying ” A damaging p.m. thunderstorm “. Further along they’re predicting: Partly sunny, hot, humid; a severe afternoon t-storm; storms can bring flooding and damaging winds. The high temperature is greater than forecasted for the Atlanta area, though we’re in for storms also. The heat index is 105 according to the MRN guys. They are saying pop-up thunderstorms are forming to their west.
Congrats to Paul Menard on capturing the pole position for today’s race. The stages for the race are 80-80-107. Ryan Blaney is out on the outside pole.
39 cars in today’s race. Looks like the days of 48 cars trying to make a 43 car field are over. I miss those days with the go-or-go-home qualifying. It seems the interest in getting in a race has decreased – or just become prohibitive for those not in the ‘in crowd’ who got together with NASCAR and came up with the charter system which seems to be ruining the sport. Maybe the charter system will make more sense and pay off for the fans in the future.
Blaney took the lead fro Mernard during the first lap. Chase Elliott takes second from Menard.
Menard continues to fall back through the field. He’s back to fifth by lap three.
Martin Truex Jr started in 36th due to a side-skirt issue on his car. Six laps in he’s in 18th.
Truex is in for a pit stop on lap 35 of 267.
Erik Jones is now in as green flag pit stops have begun as a result of Truex’s stop.
Clint Bowyer busted for speeding on pit road.
Clint Bowyer was going too fast on his pass-through penalty for speeding, so he’ll get a stop-and-go this time.
Clint didn’t come to a complete stop on his stop-and-go, so he got another stop-and-go. He ended up four laps down by the time his penalties were served. He was one of the leaders during that first section of the race.
It’s 153 degrees in Kurt Busch’s car currently.
At the end of stage one there are 16 cars on the lead lap. Jimmie Johnson in 17th gets passed as Aric ‘Afterburner’ Almirola heads to the green and white checkered flag to pick up his first stage win.
Restarting on lap 86 with Afterburner leading the field to green.
Truex had a slow pit stop and lost six spots. Kyle Larson had an electrical issue on his pit stop – the car shut down on him. So both of them started at the tail-end of the lead lap.
Green flag pit stops underway on lap 121.
I forgot there’s rain in the forecast. Weather + Chicagoland = yawn.
Caution is out on lap 128 for debris in turn 2.
Bowyer took the wave-around then stayed out during the last pit stops so he was the first car one lap down and is back on the lead lap.
Ryan ‘Son’ Blaney is first off pit road.
Restarting on lap 133 of 267 with Ryan Newman leading the field to the green after staying out on that pit sequence. Ryan Blaney is beside him and quickly leaves him in the dust.
Afterburner is on pit road on lap 141 of 267. He has a vibration – possibly a loose wheel.
Kurt Busch inherits the lead.
KHarv wins stage two with a last second pass right before the end of the stage.
Restarting on lap 168 of 267.
KHarv says its not as hot today as it was yesterday. He finished second in the Xfinity ‘race’.
I’ve been looking forward to Dale Jr in the booth, but I keep looking up and seeing Steve Letarte and keep the volume on mute. Stevie just talks too much. This is a new season, maybe he’s learned something in his off-season.
They’re talking about someone taking the air off and we’re stuck looking at a stupid helmet-cam shot. So it was like radio – we can hear about it, but we can’t see it.
Caution on lap 177 of 267 for a spin by Denny Hamlin.
So far there’s too much yelling on the broadcast. There’s not really enough going on on the track for all the loudness. I’m sure its partially because Dale’s keyed up as he begins – very publically – a new job.
Logano is going to win the race off pit road gaining 8 positions. Some cars stayed on the track like Afterburner and Brad ‘It’ Keselowski.
Restarting on lap 182 of 267 with the lame lingerers – It and Afterburner – at the front of the field.
04:38:47 PM They’re showing the radar on the television broadcast and there’s a big line of red heading toward the track. The green – rain – is on that radar image, but dwarfed by a huge area of red – sever storms.
There’s a fire showing in Austin ‘Frankenstein’ Dillon’s right front wheel as he stops in his pit box on lap 191 of 267. He’s headed to the garage and the fire has re-ignited.
Rusty Wallace, on the MRN broadcast, says the rain is about 15 miles away.
Caution is out on lap 208 of 267 for an issue by Corey LaJoie (72) who ran on the wall a while.
You can clearly see the rain falling in the near distance – north of the race track. The line of storms on the radar are coming from the west.
Restarting on lap 212 of 267. Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch wins the race off pit road.
Aric ‘Afterburner’ Almirola (10) is back on pit road on lap 220 with a possible loose wheel.
Larson got into KyBu and turned him into the wall on the final lap. ‘Kutey’ Kyle then passed ‘KyBu’ tapped his bumper and got ‘Kutey’ Kyle loose. Larson eventually spun down into the infield. Kyle Busch crossed the finish line first holding off a late charge by Larson and Kevin Harvick.
KyBu’s right front tire is off the wheel as he comes to the start-finish line.
Lots of cheering as KyBu won. Lots of booing while he’s doing his interview.
That was a terrible race. The final lap was good – the only real racing of the day.
‘Kutey’ Kyle said it was fun and he loves racing Kyle and ‘we gave you guys a helluva show’. He had a chance to address the fans and said he would’ve done the same thing if Kyle had run into him in turn 2.
Larson was fine with what took place and he thought he wouldn’t complete the slide job on him and would have to run into him to slow his momentum.
Kyle is inside for the confetti and victory lane celebration.
It’s stupid that they do an interview when the driver gets out of the car, then again as soon as he drives to victory lane and if I’m not mistaken will do another one on the desk. How many times can one driver say the same things?
Dale Jr enjoyed himself. That’s wonderful and I hope he continues to enjoy his new job. I’d like to see him paired with someone he could learn from and improve with and become one of the great broadcasters. He can learn a lot of ‘what not to do’ in his current position, but there’s no one there who’s better than he is who could help him raise his game.