No videos today, because nothing all that visually exciting happened.
But.
Pretty good race, at least from my entirely-uneducated-and-didn’t-even-watch vantage point.
Points racing is normally about as boring as it gets. It’s cautious, careful, and low-reward…usually. Today was a little bit different. Jimmie Johnson points-raced the inflammable pants off his teammate William Byron, closing a wide gap in the process and moving into playoff position.
It was a good performance by Johnson, sure. But it was more of a disastrous performance for Byron. So let’s talk about Byron.
The heir to the 24 car fell behind early, and in an attempt to dig himself out of the hole, only sunk deeper. Twice, he and Chad Knaus (his crew chief, Johnson’s old crew chief) pushed it on pit strategy, staying out in the hopes of getting a caution flag and what would effectively have been a free pit stop. Twice, no caution flag came, and by the end of the second stop, he was three laps down.
Meanwhile, Johnson ran in the top ten for most of the day, picked up some bonus points by finishing close to the front in the first two stages, and completely turned the narrative around.
You may be wondering if there was something nefarious going on, what with Byron being Johnson’s teammate, Johnson being the elder statesman, the Chad Knaus connection, etc. Personally, I hope this is entirely the case and I hope it blows up into a major story. How wild would it be if Hendrick Motorsports had intentionally given Byron a shitty car for the weekend? Color me intrigued.
Johnson isn’t safe. He only leads Byron by three points, he’s only 22 ahead of Erik Jones, and he’s 24 behind Matt DiBenedetto for the cushion which would keep him safe from a not-already-in-the-field winner in one of these next two races. Still, he’s suddenly more likely than not to make the playoffs, and considering everyone has the same car tomorrow, he could well be on his way to inflating that gap between himself and Byron.
In non-bubble news, Denny Hamlin won again, tying him back up with Kevin Harvick for the wins lead. If the playoffs started today, Harvick would lead Hamlin by three points, with Brad Keselowski a distant 18 points back.
Vroom Vroom. Back again tomorrow.
