Daylight Saving Time begins today. Hooray! I’m a fan of it. The stages today are 75-75-162. Sounds like that last stage is going to be brutal to watch. That certainly was the case for yesterday’s Xfinity race. It was not worth the effort in the end. A boring race overall. Congratulations though to Justin Allgaier on his valiant effort and his second place finish. He seemed to just need a little more car at the end to provide a fitting finish to his good run. The sun is shining at the track today so theoretically it won’t be plagued with rain delays. For an exciting race a red flag for rain can ramp up the excitement. These days a race with weather threatening is typically an exercise in logging laps until the last 20 – at the most. Not worth the price of a ticket. I’m hoping for a surprisingly entertaining race with an exciting winner. It can happen. It can. I know, I know it probably won’t if past performance predicts future performance, but I can hope.
Competition caution at lap 35.
Kharv’s 4 team was penalized during the week. The car passed post-race inspection at the track. There were people on social media with pictures of some weirdness with his rear window and during the tear down at the R & D Center NASCAR found the side skirt was bad in some way and fined them 25 points. Happy Harvic is not happy with the decision. He says he disagrees with the decision – that if you tear apart the car looking for something you’ll find something. He definitely attributes the penalty to the social media discussion. He admits the side-skirt was their bad. He says if NASCAR is going to use video to determine penalties they need to do it to every car. He also said it was the same car used last week that passed inspection and the tear-down at the R & D Center during the week.
NASCAR devotes entirely too much attention to social media. People who spend a lot of time on social media rarely have time to look up and see a race or to stop and think for themselves. Professional athletes frequently have people who are paid, as part of the job duties, to post things to social media since they frequently have better things to do with their time than to spend it virtually interacting with virtual fans. It’s virtually like something real, but not, and should be treated as such. Just my opinion.
Martin Truex Jr will lead the field to green.
Caution on lap 25 of 312 for Corey LaJoie in the 72 car blowing up.
Stage one ends with KyBu out front.
Restarting on lap 84 of 312 with KyBu out front.
Caution on lap 121 of 312 for a spin by ‘Kutey’ Kyle Larson.
Restarting on lap 126 of 312.
Caution is out on lap 146 of 312 for Chris Buescher hitting the wall.
Restarting on lap 149 of 312.
Kurt Busch wins the stage.
Several guys, including Kurt Busch stayed out on that caution to get track position for the end of the stage.
I don’t know whom that horrifying, screeching woman is who does a radio spot which begins ‘Things happen fast in racing…’. Well I have an idea who she is, but I’m not certain. I have to kill the volume at that point to stop the bleeding of my poor, abused ears. The spot is loud. Her voice is harsh. It’s a bad combination. I’ll be glad when the spots ends.
Restarting on lap 159 of 312.
Yesterday I heard a reporter ask ‘It’ after the Xfinity race if he backed off at the end. He talked, but never answered the question. Pathetic.
Caution on lap 190 of 312 for Paul Menard hitting the wall.
Restarting on lap 198 of 312.
William Byron leads the field to the green flag in the 24 car.
Denny, Happy, and KyBu all passed William Byron on lap 210 of 312.
Green flag pit stops underway with 58 laps to go.
KyBu had an issue on his stop. I’m not sure it was as scream-worthy as Alex Hayden seemed to think it was, but according to the hysterical Alex the jack dropped. He came in the leader and left in 10th position.
According to the MRN guys Chase Elliott will be the leader when things cycle around.
Looks like there are four cars that are staying out instead of doing their stops so they’re listed ahead of Chase Elliott currently. I’m guessing they’re trying to gimmick the race and stay out until a caution comes out to get better track position since ‘It’ is one of them and he and his crew-chief always seem to be looking for a way to win the race without out running the field. The others are Newman, Stinkhouse and Kasey Kahne.
KHarv is stalking Chase big time.
Happy pases Chase with 38 laps to go.
Now KyBu has caught up to Chase.
The goons up front still haven’t pitted.
Harvick and KyBu has moved up to third and fourth while Newman and ‘It’ remain in the way.
I wonder if Newman knows ‘It’ is drafting off him to let him use more fuel?
‘It’ finally gave up the game and is headed to his pit.
KyBu is stalking KHarv in lap traffic making it messy.
William Byron is keeping Newman from passing him and putting him a lap down.
Newman finally gives up the ghost with 22 laps to go.
Kevin ‘Happy’ Harvick wins.
Kevin has won three races in a row for the first time. He broke the tie with Tim Flock for races won and is now tied with Mark Martin, both Hall of Famers.
Chase Elliott finishes 3rd.
Still waiting for an exciting, entertaining race. Maybe next week. This one was better than the last couple, but still not electrifying.