2023 NASCAR Cup Series Race Twenty-Nine Bristol

Cars in field: 36
Pole: Christopher Bell (20)
Outside pole: Denny Hamlin (11)
Stages: 125-125-250
Weather: Periods of rain for at least 60 min. 73 degrees. Feels like 70 degrees. Winds 4-6 mph. Cloudy skies are predicted from around 8pm until 1am.

The race is scheduled to start early due to the possibility of rain. The rain has started as they fire the engines. The start is delayed. NASCAR has told the drivers to re-fire the engines at 1837 eastern time. The drivers have shut the engines off again at 1841 eastern. The engines are re-fired at 1848 eastern and the cars are rolling off pit road.

PRN’s Doug Rice said he feels like “restarts are the best part of the race” while discussing the return of actual breaks at stage end at road-course races. That doesn’t say much about the quality of racing at the events. PRN reports Brad ‘It’ Keselowski (6) says the amount of rain is entirely too much for this track. They also report that crew chief Rodney Childers reminded his driver Kevin Harvick (4) to be careful with the traction compound while it’s wet. It apparently becomes very slick when damp.

The cars are coming down pit road double file at 1857 eastern. They are stopped at 1859 eastern. PRN’s Brett McMillen says NASCAR has told the drivers to stay in their cars. The cars are rolling again at 1909 eastern.

They’re underway at 1910 eastern.

On lap 14 of 500 TV is already bored and is showing a split-screen of a group of about five cars and two cars driving around the track. Bored early. Then again since the PJ1/Traction compound is extra-slippery when damp all of the cars are running single-file in the same line. They’re not wrong about the boring part.

The race is a cut-off race for the playoffs therefore I don’t expect much to happen until the last 5-10 laps of the event. High stakes in NASCAR tends to result in very boring events until the final laps as most of the field go deeply into conservative mode.

Caution on lap 69 of 500 for Austin Cindric (2) running over AJ Allmendinger (16). For unknown reasons – other than a lack of driving skills – Cindric ran up onto the left rear of Allmendinger. Both of them kept going, but the caution came out.

Penalties on pit road – ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) and Austin Cindric (2) speeding and a commitment line violation for Chase Briscoe (14). More issues on pit road – Austin Dillon (3) safety violation. Kyle Larson (5) ran over equipment.

Several cars stay out and will line up at the front of the field. Michael McDowell (34) who won the race off pit road starts seventh.

Restarting on lap 78 of 500 with Corey LaJoie (7) and Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace (23) up front.

The cars penalized are running in the middle lane trying to move up through the field. Everyone is basically avoiding the top on lap 87 of 500 overall. At least there’s some two-wide racing instead of al the single-file action of the pre-caution laps.

TV went to the split screen on lap 97 of 500, then switched to a shot of Kevin ‘KHarv/Happy’ Harvick (4) driving around in circles. Boring television. Now it’s a shot of Corey LaJoie (7) driving in circles.

Caution is out for rain on lap 106 of 500.

They’re back underway on lap 113 of 500.

Christopher Bell (20) wins stage one.

“It’s been a fairly uneventful race at la 131”, PRN’s Doug Rice. He also mentioned that if the race gets to the end of the second stage it’s official.

The caution is extended for a tire on the track from BJ McLeod’s (78) team and some precipitation. On lap 136 of 500 the pace car has brought the cars down pit road. The rain is visible on the pit road camera. Crew members are approaching the cars with covers and the pitbox plastic windows are down. Red flag is out on lap 137 of 500. The track drying teams are headed onto the track. The drivers still sit in the cars.

The teams are rolling the covers off the car.

The cars are rolling back onto the track under caution. Ryan Preece (41) is sitting stopped on the track.

Christopher ‘CBell’ Bell (20) wins stage two.

Very boring event so far. At least PRN has something to talk about throughout the field. Earlier Doug Rice was talking about the fans going to the bathroom when the field was circling under caution. It is not a good idea to provide him with too much time in which he needs to think of something to say, because he will and it likely won’t be what one would hope he would say.

Caution on lap 259 of 500 for an incident involving Joey Logano (22), Corey LaJoie (7), Ty Dillon (77), Ryan Newman (51), Justin Haley (31) when Corey LaJoie went three-wide and got sideways across the track collecting Joey Logano, and getting t-boned by Ryan Newman, collecting Haley and Ty Dillon.

Logano has gone to the garage due to the damage sustained in the incident. He will likely not transfer into the next round of the playoffs. Rick Allen of NBCSports said this is the first time the reigning champion has not moved on to the second round of the playoffs.

Restarting on lap 271 of 500.

TV is so bored on lap 321 of 500 they’ve gone to the track surface shots and shots of a driver driving in the dark (a super dark shot that I can only identify because I’ve been watching racing for years). I wonder why they think shots of anything besides racing would be engaging to the viewer who tuned in to watch the race? It baffles me.

Caution on lap 361 of 500 for Martin ‘MTJ’ Truex Jr (19) getting into the wall, but gathering it up before he spun in front of the field.

Restarting on lap 369 of 500 with ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) and Kyle Larson (5) on the front row.

I wonder why PRN’s live race broadcast is so far behind the television broadcast. They are more than three laps behind the televised action. Between the unfortunate vocal gymnastics of Wendy Venturini – I don’t know why she intermittently uses a different voice that sounds like she’s trying to imitate a man – and Doug Rice’s worrisome babblings – his choices are questionable at best, their delayed audio makes the SMI races more difficult to watch than the MRN events. At least with the MRN events the audio is close enough to the televised video to allow us to enjoy the race call alone or while watching the tv broadcast when they show the on-track action.

At 2204 eastern PRN reports it is drizzling at the track, but not enough for NASCAR to throw the yellow flag at this point.

‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) finishes first.

That was a boring event. I didn’t expect a good race, but I didn’t expect it to be quite as bad as it was. It was really nothing.

Christopher Bell (20) – I’m confused why Denny Hamlin is getting booed tonight.
Brett McMillan (PRN) – Oh that happens everywhere these days.

Eliminated From Playoffs

- - Kevin Harvick (4)
  - Joey Logano (22)
  - Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (47)
  - Michael McDowell (34)

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Next Race: Texas

GO 48 & 9!!!!