Gotta love Alabama. During the ARCA race yesterday the camera shot of a wreck included a flag stand with two flags – the confederate flag and a Trump flag. Alabama. Bless their hearts. What I caught of the ARCA race was interesting. I came in on the end of the race – maybe the last 30 laps. The final lap was nose to nose racing. Zane Smith won by .029 seconds. I usually enjoy the ARCA race. You often see interesting, different and surprising things, and usually lots of action. During the broadcast they mentioned that NASCAR is taking over ARCA. Kevin Lee and Phil Parsons tried hard to convince us that nothing will change. Me think they doth protest too much. We’ll see. I appreciated having two different series of stock car racing. NASCAR already has the K&N series which has been used as a stepping stone to the Truck series. Why would they need another lower-level series? Like most things these days a business becomes a monopoly and then spends the rest of the time convincing us that while they have no competition, and we’re not happy with the product, they’re the best in the business and we should be enjoying the crap they’re providing. Maybe NASCAR will surprise me and allow ARCA to continue to be different – or at least seem to be different – but its much easier to manage things after you homogenize everything. Of course easier does not ever lead to top quality.
A beautiful day in Talladega for the Xfinity race. It is a Dash4Cash race. They have Cup drivers in the booth and in the pits playing broadcasters. As bad as the usual guys are they will have to work hard to be any worst. Brad ‘It’ Keselowski and Ricky ‘Stinkhouse’ Stenhouse are on the desk. Joey ‘Squinty-Douchey’ Logano, Clint ‘Drunk Daddy’ Bowyer and Kevin ‘Happy’ Harvick are in the broadcast booth. Ryan ‘Son’ Blaney, Erik ‘Da Brat’ Jones, and Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace are in the pits. The Cup guys showed up after we were plagued with the usual people who force us to listen to radio since the television broadcast audio is so awful. On a day when you’re promoting the drivers on the desk, etc, wouldn’t it make more sense to actually open the show with them doing the job, instead of subjecting the audience to the usual drivel? Just sayin’. It kinda kills the gimmick to advertise ‘Drivers Only’ and begin with the usual suspects.
Daniel Hemric leads the field to the green flag. There will be 113 laps in this race. The stages will be 25-25-53 for this race.
Ty Dillon is in the MRN booth.
They’re single file. BORING.
Jamie McMurray had quite a flip yesterday during practice. He got sideways in front of th 31 car of Ryan Newman, then Jamie’s car tipped up on the hood of Newman’s car and went over on its roof, then began rolling. He got out of the car on his own steam pretty quickly. He says he’s sore today, though not as sore as he though he’d be. He said he went for a run this morning to get the blood flowing. Good on Jamie. Glad he’s okay.
Daniel Hemric wins stage one.
Restarting on lap 32 od 113 with Hemric lead the field to green.
Caution on lap 32 of 113 for a wreck including Dylan Lupton, Ryan Truex, Ty Majewski, Chad Finchum, and Spencer Boyd.
Ty says Shane Lee (3) got the 28 of Dylan Lupton loose and turned around in the front of the field.
RIP James Harvey Hylton and his son James “Tweety†Hylton Jr who were killed in a traffic accident yesterday after leaving the track.
Restarting on lap 41 of 113 with Hemric still in the lead.
More single file.
Elliott Sadler wins stage two as they cross the line single file.
Somebody seems to be blowing up on lap 54 of 113.
Restarting on lap 57 of 113 with Christoper Bell leading the field to green.
So far I’m thankful that we’ve spent very little time looking through the cameras inside the car. The action is on the track throughout the field and its more interesting to watch the on-track action from above – and not from the blimp – than inside the car. If we’re seeing what the drivers see, its boring since we’re almost always just looking at the butt of another car. If we’ve watching the driver drive its more boring, because.
Austin Cindric spins to the bottom of the race track bringing out the caution on lap 62 of 113. TV is in commercial break as it happens.
Restarting on lap 54 of 113 with Elliott Sadler in the lead.
I brought myself bad luck as now we’re stuck looking out the window of a car. BORING. Switched from that to a shot from the blimp. BORING.
Green flag pit stops underway on lap 65 0f 113.
The 42 of John Hunter Nemechek is spinning onto pit road. He and Joseph are both in today’s race.
Elliott got popped for speeding onto pit road while attempting to dodge JH Nemechek.
Ty said there are weepers on that part of the entrace to pit road and that there was so much rain on Thursday its still wet down there.
Matt Tifft seems to have lost a right rear tire on lap 96 of 113. Green flag racing continues as his car limps toward pit road.
Caution on lap 105 of 113 for a right front blowout on the 21 of Daniel Hemric. It did a lot of damage to the right front quarter panel.
Justin ‘Dewy’ Allgaier is out of gas and creeping along the inside lane trying to get to pit road. A wrecker is pushing him now. Joseph Nemecheck is also out of fuel. The 15 is creeping around the apron.
Austin Cindric is in the lead as a result of Dewy’s fuel issue.
The lights are still on on the pace car on lap 110 of 113.
There’s a car stopped on the apron on lap 111 of 113. Now there’s a second car stopped on the apron. One was Kaz Grala and the other David Starr.
So we’re going into overtime.
Elliott Sadler and Justin Allgaier are in 19th and 20th positions, the last cars on the lead lap.
The lights are off on the pace car.
Austin ran out of fuel just before the restart so Tyleer Reddick leads them to green as Cindric dops through the field.
Spencer Gallagher wins!!!! This is his first series win.
Congrats to Justin Allgaier on a third place finish and Elliott Sadler’s fifth place finish and Dash4Cash win.
An exciting end to a boring race.
Ryan ‘Son’ Blaney is interviewing Spencer Gallagher in Victory Lane for family-owned GMS racing. Spencer’s father’s name is Maurice Gallagher Jr.
Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace is interviewing Elliott Sadler with the big $100,000 check. Elliott says his birthday is Monday, so he’s going to get something nice. He says his wife spent last week’s $100,000. Elliott went from 17th to 5th.
That is the first only lap Spencer Gallagher has led in the Xfinity Series.
Next week’s Dash4Cash contenders are:
- Spencer Gallagher
- Brandon Jones
- Justin Allgaier
- Elliott Sadler
Elliott has a chance to win his third $100,000 dollar check.
While the race itself was boring due to too many single file laps, it was a better race for the lack of Cup drivers in the field.
Motorsport News:
- Kevin Harvick wins Busch Pole Award at Talladega.
- NASCAR driver James Hylton dies in highway accident.
- NASCAR’s Alex Bowman Calls Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Replacement ‘Lame’ — Huh?.
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s first book hits bestseller list – and it’s how many months away?.
- Smith nips Graf to win ARCA race in second overtime lap.
- Stenhouse hoping for boost from Kenseth, Talladega return.
- Roush driver Bayne sharing races but says he’s healthy.
- NASCAR acquires ARCA series, a launching pad to top level (.
- Safety measure: NASCAR updates Talladega rules package.
- Trevor Bayne focused on winning as Roush Fenway Racing shakes up team dynamic with Matt Kenseth.
- Watch: Jamie McMurray wrecks hard in practice at Talladega, walks away without injury.
- 2003 NASCAR champion Kenseth returns to Cup series with shared drive.
- Roush delayed Kenseth NASCAR Cup seat call after ‘raw’ first exit.
- In closest ARCA finish in history, Zane Smith takes Talladega.
- Trevor Bayne opens up about reduced 2018 racing schedule.
- Dash 4 Cash: Format explained, recapping each Xfinity Series race.
- Red Bull Global Rallycross shuts down for 2018, leaves trail of unpaid bills.