2021 NASCAR Cup Series Race Thirty-Three Texas

Mostly sunny skies greet the 39 teams as they prepare to run at least 334 laps at Texas Motor Speedway. The stages for today’s race are 105-105-124 laps. A competition caution is scheduled for lap 25 of 334.

PRN reports on 18 of the 39 cars passed inspection on the first time. They’re also discussing Texas laying down resin instead of the PJ1 that was formerly used.

Kyle Larson (5) received the better push to the lead.

NBCSports is bored on lap 8 of 334 so the gimmick views are underway with a split-screen for no apparent reason.

PRN is calling a vigorous race. I didn’t see it on the television broadcast. We’ve been in commercial break for a while. Maybe the intensity of the race picked up about the time they went to break.

Well, they come back from commercial with gimmick shots and stick with variations of showing a driver drive and the hood of a car. So apparently they don’t see anything interesting on the track so we’re stuck with images that don’t bother showing the racing.

Competition caution.

Restarting on lap 30 of 334.

Big crash in turn two after the restart involving Bubba Wallace (23), Kyle Busch (18), Ricky Stenhouse Jr (47), Ross Chastain (42), Ryan Preece (37), Alex Bowman (48), Justin Haley (77), Ryan Newman (6), Josh Bilicki (52), Cody Ware (51), Aric Almirola (10), Garrett Smithley (15), Joey Gase (53), Michael McDowell (34), Cole Custer (41), Anthony Alfredo (38) involved. Bubba Wallace spun in front of the field collecting the rest.

Restarting on lap 39 of 334.

PRN is really watching an exciting race. I’m watching the side of the 19 car for no apparent reason. PRN reports Alex Bowman is headed to the garage on lap 45 of 334. Now I’m watching some driver drive and his hood as Kyle Larson passes him and drives away. Horrible coverage.

PRN reports eight cars are now out of the race on lap 49 of 334: Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace (23), Alex Bowman (48), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (47), Ryan Newman (6), Ryan Preece (37), Justin Haley (77), Cody Ware (51), Joey Gase (53). For the record its disconcerting to hear a PRN reporter saying ‘to my untrained eye’ when discussing whether the distance between two cars is shrinking. If his eye is untrained, why is he getting paid to call the race instead of me? Then again the horror that is the NBC broadcast team comes to mind. His eye may be untrained, but at least he sounds like his voice and skills at calling a race are trained.

Bubba said it was embarrassing on his part. He said he was trying to get clean air and went to the middle and by the time he backed it down he was around. He said he let everybody down.

Kyle Larson (5) passes teammate William ‘WilliB’ Byron (24) on lap 83 of 334 very easily and drives away from him.

Hood and steering wheel shot again on the television broadcast on lap 87 of 334. That’s followed by a shot of a single car driving around the track. Another car gets into the shot. Not sure of the relevance of the shot since there’s no context with a shot of a single car. I’m beginning to wonder if the races are really boring to watch, or if it’s not just the television broadcasts that are boring to watch. Maybe when covid is history I’ll head back to the track and find out.

Green flag pit stops are underway on lap 93 of 334.

Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (18) wins stage one.

PRN is reporting that all of the cars from positions 31 to 39 are out of the race on lap 110 of 334. They’re repeatedly mentioning that we rarely see this level of attrition. I miss seeing this level of attrition I must say. The bullet-proof engines and tires make for pretty pedestrian events. The big wreck early in the event was surprising. The possibility of surprises makes me want to watch the entire race. The typical lack of surprises leaves me wanting to wait and tune in with only 20 or 30 laps to go. Save myself the lap logging segments.

Restarting on lap 112 of 334.

KyBu (18) gets the early jump.

Again on lap 116 of 334 NBC is bored and showing a split-screen for no apparent reason. We get out of that and get a shot out the back window of some car looking at the sides of others.

Kyle Larson (5) passes Kyle Busch (18) for the lead on lap 118 of 334.

On lap 119 of 334 we’re watching matchbox cars on a toy track it seems. Blimp shots leave a lot to be desired.

PRN says NASCAR had a conference call with Kevin Harvick and Chase Briscoe and told them to ‘play nice’ at Texas Motor Speedway. I would have to think Chase Elliott probably responded in the affirmative, while thinking, I haven’t been playing ‘not nice’ since I expressed my displeasure at Bristol.

On lap 132 of 334 back to the driver driving, hood short split-screen. Booooorrrriiiinnngggg.

PRN says this race kinda feels like the Coca-Cola 600 and the race at Atlanta with Kyle Larson getting out front and staying there. In other words another boring mile-and-a-half.

PRN moves on to discussing the re-pave at Atlanta Motor Speedway. I’d forgotten about the re-pave. With the resurgence of covid I don’t feel comfortable making plans for Atlanta next year yet. Unfortunately you have to reserve a hotel room super early to get a decent room.

Now PRN is discussing that the 500 miles races have become scarce. They’re also mentioning the very long stages at the 500 mile events. I have to say in an event like this one I would appreciate more than three stages. That would open opportunities. If more stage points are available then the race counts for more and can help drivers gain ground. I like that idea. I would also like a scenario that removes stage points from drivers. The whole deal with them gaining points throughout the year that puts them at an advantage they never lose seems wrong to me – not good for competition.

Chase Elliott (9) pits on lap 153 of 334 under green. One of his tires shows extensive damage.

Joey Logano (22) pits on lap 160 of 334.

On lap 162 of 334 the leader is 3.676 seconds ahead of second place.

Green flag pit stops continue on lap 163 of 334.

Caution on lap 165 of 334 for debris. Joey Logano (22) ran over the debris.

NBC just showed a photograph of Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson in 2005 with singer Jason Aldean. They both look like pre-schoolers.

Restarting on lap 170 of 334.

PRN reports 10 cars are out of the race most of them due to the big pile-up earlier in the event.

Kyle Larson (5) streaks away after a big push from teammate WilliB (24).

NBC hit the gimmick shots on lap 172 of 334 – side window and a hood shot. Now they’re tight on the 5 and 24 cars. They just don’t really get the relevance of context in race coverage.

When NBC shows the actual racing instead of a hood, or the side of a car, or a driver driving I can actually see the action PRN is calling. The racing is not bad – not great, but not nearly as bad as it appears on television overall. Then again watching a single car, a driver driving, the rear quarter panel of a car, and the hood of a car provides no relevant information about the race leaving the viewer to believe nothing interesting is occurring. When they have a decent shot – all too rarely – the viewer can see there’s racing occurring that’s interesting and engaging. Unfortunately we don’t see those shots. Currently, on lap 188 of 334, we’re seeing single car shots of Kyle Larson (5). No context. Not interesting.

On lap 205 of 334 Doug Rice of PRN mentioned ‘just as I was trying to drum up drama between William Byron and Kyle Larson’; he went on to relay WilliB’s handling issues. Doug Rice is bored. NASCAR needs to consider breaking the 500 mile races into smaller chunks. If they guys getting paid to pay attention to the races are bored, the people paying for tickets are probably bored and the people paying for the advertisers’ time spent with their eyeballs are definitely bored. PRN has valiantly tried to call an exciting race, they just don’t have much to work with. The NBC broadcast team aren’t capable of calling an exciting race when it is exciting partially due to them being unable to speak about anything that isn’t on their monitors (according to Dale Earnhardt Jr). They need training as broadcasters overall, but they also need to be able to lead the coverage as opposed to following the video. The video stinks. The folks in the booth need to be able to really cover the action on the track concisely. They need to limit their words to the words that make the race exciting; that educates the audience; that draws in the casual viewer; that makes life-long NASCAR fans. They need to be able to get the camera shots/video to focus on the most exciting, engaging, relevant things on-track. They need to modulate their voices so that when they speak excitedly there’s a legitimate reason that the audience can understand – that’s really relevant. They have a tendency to yell early and often for no apparent reason. Therefore instead of conveying excitement and something the audience must watch, it just conveys that they scream throughout the broadcasts just because.

Stage two finally comes to an end with Larson up front.

Restarting on lap 216 of 334.

Another jump to the lead for Larson (5).

On lap 218 of 334 Kurt ‘KuBu’ Busch (1) pits under green. The crew changes left-side tires.

On lap 233 of 334 we have a long way to go to the end of this event.

F1 driver Mick Schumacher, son of legendary F1 champion Michael Schumacher, is sitting in Cole Custer’s (41) pit box. Mick drives for Gene Haas’ Formula 1 team. Mick has proven himself to be a so-so driver who garners a lot of press attention due to his surname. Haas has seemingly hired the cheapest drivers he could get that might produce headlines.

Many drivers are complaining about feeling a vibration. KuBu (1) pitted again saying he didn’t think his would last to the end. He slips to three laps down.

On lap 270 of 334 there are 14 cars on the lead lap.

Caution on lap 274 of 334 for Chase Briscoe (14) visiting the wall, then losing a right rear and getting the car squirrelly. The tire was smoking quite a bit. He made the mistake of trying to pass ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) on the outside. Hamlin ran him up to the wall.

Restarting on lap 280 of 334.

PRN reports crew-chief Cliff Daniels was coaching Kyle Larson on when to lift to fuel save.

Brad ‘It’ Keselowski (2) gives Larson a strong shove to the early lead.

PRN’s online broadcast is a lap behind the television broadcast. Bummer.

On lap 287 of 334 WilliB is dogging teammate Kyle Larson’s bumper for the lead.

On lap 291 of 334 NBC has gone to the hood, steering wheel split-screen shot. Watching the nascar.com leaderboard instead of the useless television image.

Caution on lap 299 of 334 for Joey Logano (22) blowing up. Logano heads to the garage.

Steve Letarte of NBC mentions that if they were racing at Kansas the race would be over already. He attributed the length of the race to the engine issue. That leaves me wanting more 500 mile races if the result will be unexpected engine issues. I’m craving races with unexpected occurrences that break up and affect the race and championship. I want to see more relevant action. I want to see top cars blow engines. I want to see play-off contenders have legit issues – across the board. I want to see the race segment lengths broken up in unanticipated ways.

Restarting on lap 304 of 334.

Chris Buescher (17) gets loose with the help of Kyle Busch (18). The field starts to back up to avoid Buescher and Anthony Alfredo (38) goes for a spin.

Caution on lap 304 of 334 as Anthony ‘FastPasta’ Alfredo (38) pounds the wall. The car goes up in flames after sliding down the track. Alfredo gets out of the car.

1720 eastern the red flag is out.

PRN says Martin Truex Jr (19) said earlier that “it’s seven of us fighting for three spots” indicating that Kyle Larson is a lock for the final four at Phoenix.

1731 eastern the yellow flag has been displayed.

FastPasta (38) said Chase Briscoe (14) was on his rear and he doesn’t know if Chase didn’t see the spin and check up or if Chase just couldn’t get slowed up in time. Alfredo said he checked up when his teammate Michael McDowell, who was beside him, checked up and tried to avoid hitting him. He said after the car slid down the track he thought he could take his time and get out, then the car caught on fire.

Restarting on lap 309 of 334.

Tyler Reddick (8) gives Kyle Larson (5) a strong push to the lead.

This is PRN’s final race of the season which they have mentioned several times throughout the broadcast.

A three-wide battle for some position amongst ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11), Ryan Blaney (12), and Kevin ‘Happy/KHarv’ Harvick (4). Hamlin ends up with a tire rub. He’s continuing around the track. He finally spins and taps the inside wall on lap 313 of 334 bringing out the caution. Due to the inadequate camera work on television there was no context to the shot to determine which position they were battling for at the time.

Restarting on lap 318 of 334 with Kyle Larson (5) and Tyler Reddick (8) on the front row.

WilliB gives Larson a strong push to the early lead.

Caution on lap 320 of 334 for Martin ‘MTJ’ Truex Jr (19) slamming the wall. He had help from Daniel Suarez (99) who tagged MTJ’s left-rear quarter panel.

Both NBC and PRN are making a big deal of the fact that a non-play-off driver has impacted a play-off driver. Suarez said He was there all the time and he can’t lift anymore, its time to go. MTJ is out of the car and quickly heading away from the car. The speed of his walk to the car indicates he’s furious. MTJ is avoiding looking at the camera that is following him, as he is driven away in a motorized car.

Restarting on lap 325 of 334 with teammates Larson and WilliB (24) on the front row.

Tyler Reddick (8) give Larson a strong push to the lead. Happy (4) gets in the back of Reddick loosening Reddick’s back-end and sending Reddick up the track. Happy drops a few positions after the contact.

Reddick and WilliB knock doors. After contact Tyler (8) is dropping back through the field.

WilliB (24) has a tire rub.

Caution on lap 327 of 334 as Chris Buescher slams the inside wall. ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) has a lot of front end damage. Chase Briscoe (14) hit the wall in front of Buescher sending Buescher spinning down in front of Hamlin.

MTJ said he hit the splitter and went straight into the fence on the television interview.

On the radio interview he said he’s really pissed off now watching the replay.

Restarting on lap 332 of 334 with teammates Larson and Byron on the front row.

PRN says “non-play-off drivers have to take care of play-off drivers a little bit better than that”. I disagree completely. Let ’em race.

Kyle Larson (5) gets the usual push to the early lead.

Larson wins.

Well that’s finally over. So my idea of beginning to watch the race with 20 or 30 to go seems sound at the moment. I would’ve missed Logano blowing up, the big crash on lap 30 and not much else worth watching. Only the last 31 laps were worth watching in my opinion. Not much of a race overall. About 38 of the 334 contained actual racing. It was nice to see play-off drivers face ordinary racing issues. I would like to see a lot more of that – a whole lot more. I think it would be great if the top fifteen in points had to come from the back of the field on every restart. I would also like to see them have to drive the cars of the underfunded teams at least once a month to show their skills in less than the best equipment. I want my NASCAR champion to prove themselves throughout the season, both on and off track. The general ‘keep away’ policy that has pervaded the play-offs makes for boring, non-competitive races without the opportunity for a surprise winner, in general. I like surprises. I like seeing a champion prove he’s the best in the entire field on a weekly basis.

On a side note, I don’t like the early end to the NASCAR season. I would much prefer if the season ended in warm locales shortly before Thanksgiving. I looked forward to a late autumn vacation at the racetrack in a warmer location. Global warming isn’t helping the situation, but I believe it’s possible to set up the schedule to end the season at tracks with warm weather and good racing.

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Next Race: Kansas

GO 9 and 48!!!!