Looking for a quick rundown of what happened in last night’s Coca-Cola 600 so you’re knowledgeable about it when your boss brings it up on tomorrow morning’s MMEITMWKHAWDIOZ (Monday Morning Except It’s Tuesday Morning Weekly Kickoff Huddle And We’re Doing It Over Zoom)?
We’ve got you.
They drove 600 miles.
This cannot be stressed enough.
There was more rain.
Not the world’s longest delay, but a rain delay nonetheless.
They still drove 600 miles.
Again, 600 miles, even after taking a break for rain.
Brad Keselowski won.
Not a surprise—Keselowski was bound to win one eventually. Count him in re: playoffs.
I don’t know whether people like Keselowski or don’t like him. My impression was that they didn’t, but then I didn’t pay attention to NASCAR for a few seasons, and now he doesn’t seem like much of a villain. It’s possible he’s just won over the media. I think they did a montage on the Daytona 500 broadcast this year of him remembering reporters’ names and calling them by said names, but it’s possible I’m misremembering one or more details of that, any number of which could render the point either meaningless or actively misleading. It’s also possible he’s become a sympathetic figure because he has to be teammates with Joey Logano, and Joey Logano is generally the worst, and is specifically a bad teammate (always causing problems for his teammates, which—while NASCAR’s weird in that you’re competing against your teammates—doesn’t fly with the people, or the teammates).
Anyway, Keselowski got a win.
Chase Elliott got mad again.
No middle fingers this time, but another snakebite for NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver.
Late in the race, Elliott looked to have the victory wrapped up, but (his teammate) William Byron blew a tire and spun out, resulting in a caution followed by a green-white-checkered restart (two-lap race to the finish). Elliott, being in first, was screwed, because his crew chief’s options were to have him pit for fresh tires, in which case drivers behind him would have stayed out and passed him during the caution, or have him stay out, in which case the competition would have gone down pit row themselves, grab fresh tires, and tried—likely successfully—to run him down. Elliott’s crew chief opted for the former, the others stayed out, and while he made up a lot of ground after the restart, it wasn’t enough.
It’s one of those things where it’s probably a matter of time before something doesn’t go wrong and Elliott wins one, but there’s also the possibility of an unraveling, and it’s certainly been a frustrating week or so for the lad.
Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson incurred some discipline.
Not the guys you’d expect, which should get it some added attention.
On one of the laps leading up to the beginning of the race, Hamlin lost some ballast, a reportedly 35-pound chunk of metal that keeps cars appropriately heavy for all the physics stuff. No, I don’t know how. It just fell out. Or off. Was on the car. Went onto the track. It’s pretty dangerous when that happens. Almost killed a driver a while back on whatever they’re calling that series one step down from the Cup Series—the one that’s like AAA baseball but for NASCAR. So, some of Hamlin’s crew’s getting suspended, including maybe his crew chief? Didn’t check the specifics.
Jimmie Johnson’s car failed the post-race inspection. Evidently the rear alignment was outside of what’s allowed. The explanation is that something broke during the race, and the counter-explanation is that the rule exists so teams don’t make cars intentionally break in a way that makes them faster. I don’t know if Johnson’s team will have any penalties going forward for it, but he’s been retroactively disqualified from last night’s race, which costs him some points in the standings (he finished second prior to disqualification).
That’s it.
Those are the basics. Think there’s another race Wednesday. Possibly at Charlotte again. Presumably a more reasonable distance, like 400 or 500 miles.
