Congrats to William Byron on his third Xfinity race win.
Nice battle at the end of the race between Will and Paul Menard.
Apparently NASCAR was testing a new package in this race and the end was definitely the best racing I’ve seen at this track in many years.
Congrats to Alex Bowman who was named the new driver of the 88 car in 2018.
We went to see the latest Spiderman movie. It was a lot of fun. I would say its the best Marvel movie I’ve seen – and since Bunny is a fan I end up getting dragged to most of them. This one was really enjoyable and quite funny. We agreed that it was funny in the way Deadpool attempted and failed miserably.
Surprisingly ended up not missing most of the race due to a weather delay apparently. When we got back from the movie they were in delay coverage with 12 laps completed.
Chase Elliott blowed up on lap 28 of 160 bringing out the caution.
David Ragan, Jeffrey Earnhardt, and JJ Yeley involved in a wreck on lap 57 of 160 – shortly after the restart. Thrilla hit the inside wall hard, but walks to the ambulance.
On lap 71 of 160 JJ Yeley gets into the wall bringing out the caution.
caution on lap 75 of 160 as Dale Jr goes up in smoke.
KyBu wins stages one and two.
Due to a rain delay after 12 laps in the race NASCAR is hurrying the stage breaks, according to PRN.
Restarting on lap 105 of 160.
Caution on lap 107 of 160 for a big hit to the inside wall by Ricky Stenhouse.
Caution on lap 110 of 160 on the way into turn one on the restart as Martin Truex and KyBu wreck big. Truex’s car goes up in flames. He’s out of the car and walking over to the safety crew. Both took hard shots into the outside wall.
Ty Dillon barely missed KyBu who bounced off the wall down the track in front of the field. Great driving rookie. The entire field manage to avoid Kyle. Pros at work.
Truex said he had to run the car into the wall again just to get it stopped in order to get out of the car. He said the fire was really bad and he didn’t have any brakes.
Restarting on lap 119 of 160 with Kenseth in the lead.
The camera shot is so far away we’re having trouble seeing who’s doing what on the track. It seems we’re either stuck too far away or enduring the boredom of being inside the car. The long in-car shots are like sitting in the passenger seat of any car and watching the driver – amazingly boring. And it seems someone has a lot of affection for that boring shot. The shots we’ve been having at the beginning of this run was a little bit better than the blimp shot, but ends up looking like the tiny window shot during a commercial. You end up with a general idea of what’s occurring, but can’t see the specifics.
We’re talking fuel strategy on PRN now and I’m yawning a lot. Lots of cars driving around in circles with a few hoping they won’t run out of gas before the end of the race. 12 laps to go.
There are a lot of empty seats in those grandstands. Team Penske is talking in code – going with the red dog plan. Neither ‘it’ nor Jimmie Johnson, nor Trevor Bayne have come in for their final pits sotps.
Caution for a wreck including Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch and others on lap 150 of 160. Erik Jones was involved. Jamie Mc got some damage. Clint hit the inside wall hard twice and got hit by Kurt Busch whom he spun in front of. Kurt’s car was on fire a bit.
Kasey Kahne was on pit road at the time of the accident.
The red flag is out with ten laps to go.
There are no lights at Indy. The sun is setting behind some clouds so the track is in shade. PRN is saying there’s at least an hour more of daylight.
There’s a chance Trevor Bayne and Michael McDowell may be able to stay out to the end. ‘It’ in first and Jimmie in second have to come in.
Sunset is at 21:08 this evening.
Trevor and It had a minor meeting of fenders on pit road.
Kasey and Newman stayed out on this pit stop.
Restarting with 8 laps to go.
Caution for a fiery wreck involving Kyle Larson with six to go. Blaney pinched him down to the inside wall while Ty Dillon was blocked Kutey Kyle, who got loose and hit the outside wall quite a bit.
We’re down to four to go as the track clean up continues under caution.
The clouds have moved on so there’s sun on the track now. The pace lights are on on the pace car.
Restarting with two to go.
Caution is out as Jimmie gets pulled around by Kasey and hits the wall. He had a left rear tire down.
We’re heading to overtime.
PRN said race director David Hoots was calling for the 48 to get out of the way, then Jimmie took the lead.
Wreck on the restart
Denny Hamlin, Aric ‘Afterburner’ Almirola, Gray Gaulding, Joe Gase, Ryan Blaney, Trevor Bayne, Austin Dillon, Michael McDowell all involved.
The race is red flagged again
Jimmie said it started smoking and he’s not sure if he spun in his own oil or if the two cars racing closely together took the air off him. He said he could smell that it was engine oil smoke. He also said the car was running well after the smoking began and he was able to pull up to the front-runners.
One of the guys on PRN said they’re taking quite a while to clean up because “they only have so many wreckers” at the track.
There are 24 cars on the lead lap.
Some clouds have moved in and we’re 28 minutes away from sunset.
Last light is at 21:37 and sunset is at 21:06 according to someone at JGR.
There are lights in the infield where they had a concert last night and those have been turned on. The cars are rolling around at 20:50 EDT.
Michael McDowell’s car looks like someone took a can opener to the right front.
Another overtime attempt
Denny spun and the caution is out with Kasey in the lead. Menard is throwing sparks.
The white flag and the yellow flag are out.
They’re saying the yellow flag didn’t come out until he crossed the overtime line. The wreck happened before the overtime line was crossed, but the caution didn’t come out until after they breached the overtime line.
The 102 race winless streak has ended for Kasey Kahne!
Mr Hendrick now has ten Brickhouse 400 wins – 5 with Big Daddy, 4 with Jimmie Johnson and 1 with Kasey Kahne.
Kasey says he’s exhausted. He’s cramping. He says he wishes Tanner was there. Kasey’s sitting down by the car now. Crew chief Keith Rodden is trying to get his uniform off him. He says he’s never been so exhausted, so drained. They’re giving him wet towels to put around his neck. He seems to be slurring a bit. He needs to visit the infield care center in my non-professional opinion.
3 hours 43 min and 45 seconds race time. The race actually began around 14:45 and ended just before 21:00.
John Andretti is at home and they said they’ve had some good news from him in the past few days. Jeff Hammond is “keeping the seat warm” for John.
Chadley just went along the line and slapped hands with each member of the 5 team as they were knelt on the bricks, post kissing.
As Kasey continues to do the post-race events Kasey continues to cramp. He tried to lift the trophy and couldn’t. Someone has passed him something to drink and he’s sitting down again. They’ve also brought him a bottle of water. He’s stopped down. Keith is putting the drinks down on the ground for him. He’s sitting behind the podium holding the trophy.
He’s back up as the ceremony continues and Kasey continues to cramp at 21:26 EDT.
NASCAR News:
- Kahne Wins Brickyard 400.
- Truex, Kyle Busch Wreck for the Lead.
- Earnhardt Jr. 36th in Final Brickyard 400.
- Early Exit for Elliott at Indy.
- A Dream Come True for Bowman.
- Goodyear’s Campbell Set to Retire.
- Johnson to Start at Rear of Field.
- Larson Has a Recommendation for ’77’ Car.
- Bowman to Drive No. 88 in 2018.
- MRN, Martinsville Speedway Go Under the Lights.
- Tire Test Wraps Up at Darlington.
- Pocono Raceway Announces Leadership Changes.
- Byron Best at The Brickyard.
- Crafton Conquers Eldora Dirt.