The sun is out and they say rain is in the area around Long Pond Pennsylvania. Amazingly KyBu is not on the pole for the Xfinity series race. Cole Custer and Ryan Truex lead the field to the green flag. The stages for this race are 25-25-50. While Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch isn’t on the pole, I’m sure he’ll lead the charge to the checkered flag. Best wishes to John Andretti and family in your difficult time.
Caution on lap 32 of 100 for a spin by Michael Annett.
Restarting on lap 35 of 100 with Cole Custer in the lead.
Restarting on lap 56 of 100 with JH Nemechek leading the field to green.
Caution is out for Chase Briscoe in the 60 tackling the wall after getting knocked into it by another car on lap 58 of 100.
Restarted on lap 61 of 100 and there’s quickly a wreck as the 7 of Justin Allgaier hits the wall then bounces off in front of the 20 of Christopher Bell. Looks like Dewy got some helpf will that from his teammate the 1 of Elliott Sadler. It also appears Elliott might have gotten a push from behind. They’re so clustered together its hard to tell.
White flag with KyBu unsurprisingly in the lead.
KyBu easily wins.
MRN was using the battle for second between Daniel Hemric and Chase Elliott as their ‘exciting’ racing.
MRN says KyBu lead for 2/3rds of the race. Kyle is a good driver – no doubt about it – but it really feels like he is racing against soap box derby cars driven by 10 year olds most of the time in the Xfinity and Cup series. I appreciate his doing the best he can every race he runs. I’d also like him to do more – even more than he already does – to help those who need the money and the wins. It’s great that he can come to the Xfinity and Truck series and win at will – barring unforeseen circumstances. He’s a great driver and should be able to do so. The drivers we see in those series often end up competing against him in the Cup series pretty quickly though. So it seems that if they’re actually ready for the Cup series, they should present some serious competition for him in the other series. They rarely do. Kyle does a lot for the younger drivers and therefore for the sport – seemingly more than any other driver. I’d like him to do more – because he has so much to give. I’d like to see others follow his lead. KHarv used to provide similar opportunities in the Truck series. He felt he had to withdraw from his participation and good on him for recognizing and addressing his needs. I miss what he brought to the Truck series. He seemed to be doing it for the same reason as Kyle and its a shame no one stepped up to take his place.
NASCAR needs drivers for the future as well as the current drivers and it needs the experience of the past. There should be a place in the top 3 touring series for the young and the old of NASCAR. Currently the Cup series is a marketing exercise with little organic competition or excitement and as they change the other two series (Trucks and Xfinity) to be more like the Cup series they’re leeching the competition and excitement from them. I’d like to see the Cup series actually represent the top stock car drivers, the Xfinity series comprised of the up-and-coming stock car drivers and the Truck series to include the drivers looking at the sunset of their careers as well as those who are beyond the K&N series, but not yet ready for the Xfinity series. The Xfin drivers should be within 5 years of moving into the Cup series – and stay in Xfin for 5 years or more. They really should make their name there and bring their hard-won fans and records to the Cup series necessitating a much shorter learning curve. The same holds true for the Truck series. The drivers should be in the series a minimum of 3 years to get used to the overall demands of being a part of a touring series as well as competing against better drivers. Better competition and drivers whom naturally gain a following and skills should draw long-term fans to the sport. Using gimmicks to chase the fickle attention of the 18-25s will, at best, result in a temporary bump in audience, then when they move on – and they always move on – years spent chasing for their attention again, along with extra effort to win back the fans that were discarded in the chase for a group that consistently remain inconsistent.
NASCAR has a lot going for it and shouldn’t sell itself short by imitating other sports. There’s a maxim currently – if you’re not growing you’re dying. Well that seems dumb to me. Everybody and everything is dying. So there’s no way to avoid dying. Growth has a ceiling – in people and in a business. Unless and until there are more people with more resources growth will be limited to the size of the available human resources. That’s why businesses merge and call it growth, because they reach the limit and have to put something in the spreadsheet to make the business school grads happy. A merger never actually increases audience share – it just rearranges the distribution of the same audience.
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