Sunshine and blue skies; not a cloud in sight in Talladega. The temperatures are mild in the seventies. The stages are 60-60-68 laps.
TV hit their boredom threshold on lap 3 of 188 and began the gimmick camera shots.
Caution on lap 7 of 188 for debris while tv was in a commercial break. Ty Dillon (42) lost the side window.
Steve ‘Postie/Postman’ Post of MRN mentioned Noah Gragson is driving for Alex Bowman (48). I wonder why.
MRN explained after the next commercial break. Bowman is out for concussion-like symptoms after hitting the wall last week at Texas.
Harrison Burton (21) turns into the outside wall after a push by Ricky Stenhouse Jr (47) from the outside lane and back in front of the field on lap 23 of 188 bringing out the caution and collects Justin Allgaier (62), Joey Logano (22), Austin Cindric (2), Ty Dillon (42), Noah Gragson (48), Justin Haley (31) and Ty Gibbs (23),
I just started the recording. I happened to look at it and notice it wasn’t recording. I will have to re-record the first 30 laps of the race and the pre-show later.
The major difference between this race and yesterday’s Xfinity series race is that there are two lines running. For all intents and purposes it’s really two single-file lines running side-by-side, but it is more visually appealing.
Caution on lap 44 of 188 for Corey LaJoie visiting (7) the wall after losing a right front tire.
Harrison Burton (21) says he doesn’t know why he spun out. He said he doesn’t know if it was a bad position or what. When asked about the impact of the crashes he said he’s fine and he’s glad to be in the series and want to keep racing in races like these. Sounds like he will say whatever is needed to keep a seat in the Cup series. That can be less than healthy.
Looks like they got mostly single file at some point since there were only four cars on the inside line for a while prior to the final lap of stage one.
Ryan Blaney (12) edges ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) at the line to win stage one.
MRN reports its 79 degrees at the track. We’re still dealing with low temps here. It’s a cloudless blue sky there and a partly cloudy sky here and 73 degrees.
Thirty-four cars left in the race on lap 65 of 188; Harrison Burton (21), Ty Gibbs (23) and Corey LaJoie (7) are out.
‘Desperate’ Denny actually bothered to race in the last segment instead of doing his usual hiding at the back for most of the event. Kevin ‘KHarv/Happy’ Harvick (4) is in the top five right now instead of hanging around the back of the field until the end. Are these guys racing because they’re going to retire next year? Strange behavior out of those two. We’ll see if it lasts.
‘Happy’ (4) got dumped in the middle on lap 70 of 188.
They’re mostly in two lines, but there are about four cars in the outside lane. Ryan Blaney (12) has given up the lead on lap 72 of 188 and drifted toward the back of the field.
‘Desperate’ Denny (11) dropped back when ‘Happy’ got dumped. ‘KHarv’ (4) is still racing in second position on lap 75 of 188. They used to call Kevin Harvick ‘Happy’ because he was always in such a foul mood. As he’s gotten older he seems less volatile on the radio to the team and rarely does that nickname seem to come up. Then again I tend to avoid the television coverage now since it’s so bad.
On lap 85 of 188 the field is single-file.
On lap 97 of 188 the field is still single-file as some of the Fords come in for green-flag pit stops for fuel include Joey Logano (22), Ryan Blaney (12), and Chris Buescher (17).
Christopher ‘CBell’ Bell (20) spins coming onto pit road with Kyle Busch (18), Denny Hamlin (11), Martin ‘MTJ’ Truex Jr (19) and on lap 98 of 188. Bell penalizes him for speeding on pit road. His right front tire blew as he was spinning. Since he had to get new tires his teammates left pit road without him.
The majority of the Chevrolets pit on lap 100 of 188.
On lap 101 of 188 additional Chevys pit, RCR and the Kauligs.
On lap 102 of 188 the rest of the Fords pit. CBell came down pit road to serve his penalty with the Fords. He leaves behind them and is alone on the track. CBell (20) is put a lap down on lap 106 of 188. He’s the only car a single lap down currently.
MRN reporting side-by-side action. We’re stuck looking at the bumper of a car from the windscreen of another car. TV is bored. MRN seems to be enjoying the on-track action on lap 108 of 188.
They’re in two lines on lap 114 of 188.
Rusty Wallace of MRN likes the rules package for the NextGen car for Talladega. he likes that the lanes are seemingly moving at about the same speed.
The field is rapidly catching Justin Allgaier (62) on lap 117 of 188. Allgaier goes up against the wall to let the the pack pass unimpeded.
On lap 119 of 188 Daniel Suarez (99) gives leader Tyler ‘TRed’ Reddick (8) and push. Reddick goes up the track and drops back through the field hitting pit road before the end of the stage. Reddick ran out of gas in turn three. The car sputtered and TRed headed to pit road.
Chase Elliott (9) wins stage two with a last minute pass of his teammate Kyle Larson (5) for the lead by a car-length-and-a-half.
MTJ (19) is using the stay-in-the-back strategy today. He’s previously mentioned that he hates doing that, but it seems to be the only way to get to the end of these events to race for the win. I wonder if that’s a function of age or circumstances? The quality of drivers is not what it used to be. I can remember watching MTJ race with Tony ‘Smoke’ Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr in every super-speedway race and frequently having his best finishes.
The field all topped off their fuel tanks. Alex Weaver of MRN reports the 22 team is still monitoring the damage Logano got in the big wreck on lap 23 of 188.
Restarting on lap 126 of 188 with Chase Elliott (9) and Erik Jones (43) at the front of the field.
Looks like ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) is ready to try racing again. He’s back toward the front of the field. Again, I wonder how long it will last. Looks like he’s, again, trying to strategy his way to the championship four. I find his behavior generally unworthy of a series champion, but since Brad ‘It’ Keselowski (6) and Kyle Larson (5) have won championships, I guess I shouldn’t expect so much. Both of them were embarrassments to the sport. I still expect the champ to be the best NASCAR has to offer. If Hamlin is the best, NASCAR needs to look into how people are getting into championship contention.
TV is totally bored so we’re stuck with the bumper-cam which is as boring as the shot looking at a driver driving. The bumper-cam generall shows the hood of a car and the track surface and maybe a tire of a car beside them. Basically you can see jack-all of the actual race with the shot. It is totally useless unless you’ve never seen the bumper of a car, or the track surface.
MRN reports its about time for additional green flag pit stops on lap 156 of 188.
The field appears to be single-file in the little split-screen window beside the commercial. Ah, actually the first dozen or so cars are ahead of the line in the outside lane.
On lap 160 of 188 Fords pit including leader Ryan Blaney (12).
On lap 161 of 188 the Toyotas and the Chevrolets pit under green.
KHarv (4) and Brad ‘It’ Keselowski (6) penalized for speeding during the Fords pit sequence.
On lap 164 of 188 there are two lines. The outside line is about ten cars ahead of the inside lane. Ryan Blaney (12) continues to lead.. The inside lane is catching up.
I miss hearing the engines during super-speedway races. I can hear it in the MRN broadcast, but it has a different sound than the television audio used to have. These days you can’t hear the cars for the talking. The guys in the booths babbling away. The overly-loud spotter chatter drowning out the cars. There’s just too much irrelevant noise on the NBCSports broadcasts.
Larson gets out of shape after a hard push by Chase Elliott (9) but saves the car and continues on.
The two relatively tidy lanes continue to run side-by-side. So far Denny is hanging toward the front. Guess he’s earning his nickname today. MRN claimed earlier Denny has finished top ten in all the play-off races and were complimenting his consistency.
Caution on lap 181 of 188 for the 16 car of Daniel Hemric sitting stalled on pit road. His car.
A safety crew appears to be putting a fire out in the grass of the infield as the push-truck pushes Daniel Hemrick’s (16) car off pit road.
For some reason in every race this weekend MRN’s Alex Hayden made a point to stress that there’s no choose-rule for super-speedways, but the leader does choose which lane in which he’d like to restart.
Restarting on lap 186 of 188 with Erik Jones (43) and Ryan Blaney (12) on the front row. Ross Chastain (1) behind Jones and Michael McDowell behind Ryan Blaney. Chase Elliott goes to the outside lane and begins to catch up to Blaney but the line breaks apart.
Ryan Blaney (12) takes the white flag half a car length ahead of Chase Elliott (9).
Chase Elliott (9) holds off Ryan Blaney (12) to win!
It wasn’t a good race overall, but that final restart to the finish made for a very exciting finish. It wasn’t as bad of a race as the Xfinity race; that was awful. They logged laps too much for my liking in the Cup race, but at least the did it double-file when they weren’t prepping for green flag stops. I didn’t feel the intensity until the ends of the stages. I don’t know if that’s due to the dreadful television coverage, or the super consistent side-by-side racing. While there were lead changes, it didn’t feel like there was much action because it mostly looked the same other than the gimmick shots. With the idiot bumper-cam, windshield-cam, and pace-car-cam spread thickly throughout the coverage it was often not a visually stimulating race.
MRN mentioned, at one point during the race, that Noah Gragson had not met Rick Hendrick in his four years with JR Motorsports. They had a bell-ringing ceremony during the week and Dale Jr made a point of introducing Noah to Mr Hendrick.
Ryan Blaney (12) is second guessing his decisions on the final lap, but he seems to believe he made the best choices under the circumstances. He also believes an additional 20 feet would have changed the results in his favor.
The finish was exciting; the majority of the race was not. The race was mildly competitive, but we didn’t really see unexpected cars out front in the key moments. The intensity wasn’t clear. Many of the drivers seemed to be racing hard. So I guess I would call it okay with regard to intensity. With Chase winning it was memorable. The closeness of the battle on the final restart was very enjoyable and probably memorable.