Boring boring boring NOT BORING.
The Winner
Kyle Busch! Is he back????????????????????????? (sorry I didn’t know the appropriate number of question marks for a kind-of-sarcastic question)
The Race
Not a lot of action most of the day, but when a tire got away from…I forget whose pit stall it was, and sat in the grass next to pit row, intrigue began. Would NASCAR wave the yellow flag to get the tire out of there? Or would they wait until the final round of green-flag stops was complete? They waited, then waved the caution, which brought about a few more restarts with a few more cautions in between. Busy finish.
Notable Names
Kevin Harvick got a good result, finishing 2nd.
Brad Keselowski held the lead out of the gate for a while and was poised at one point to take it on a restart, sitting third with fresh tires, but it didn’t happen. 3rd place for him.
Matt DiBenedetto had another strong day, coming in 4th.
Chase Elliott made some things happen late and survived when those things led to turmoil. He was 5th.
Martin Truex Jr. was 6th.
Tyler Reddick was 7th.
Chris Buescher got a big top ten, coming in 8th. He might have won had the caution come out early in the tire saga, as he’d tried a long-pit strategy, waiting for a caution.
William Byron was 9th.
Austin Dillon was 10th.
Denny Hamlin was a late leader, but pressure from Kyle Larson forced him to push it, and pushing it made him hit the wall, and hitting the wall eventually made his tire go down which made him hit the wall again. He was 12th.
Michael McDowell was 13th.
Kurt Busch was 15th.
Ryan Newman was 16th and was black-flagged early in the race for making some body modifications.
Joey Logano was 17th.
Alex Bowman had some issues, I think. I forget the specifics. He was 18th.
Kyle Larson had the best car most of the day, as has often been the case, but he turned Ryan Blaney on a late restart and ended up in the wall himself. 19th place.
Chase Briscoe had an early speeding penalty on pit row and never got back in it. 20th.
Blaney was 21st.
Cole Custer was 24th.
Erik Jones was 25th.
Bubba Wallace kept hitting the wall trying to push it high. He was 26th.
Christopher Bell spun on a late restart and wound up 28th.
Aric Almirola’s struggles continued. 29th.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. pushed it on a long-pit strategy, like Buescher, but it 1) didn’t work and 2) he was knocked out of the race on one of the restart crashes anyway. 34th place.
Standings
Eleven down, 15 to go pre-playoffs.
1. Truex (2 wins)
2. Byron (1 win)
3. Logano (1 win)
4. Blaney (1 win)
5. Keselowski (1 win)
6. Larson (1 win)
7. Kyle Busch (1 win)
8. Bell (1 win)
9. McDowell (1 win)
10. Bowman (1 win)
11. Hamlin (243 points ahead of first driver out)
12. Elliott (111 points ahead of first driver out)
13. Harvick (110 points ahead of first driver out)
14. Dillon (57 points ahead of first driver out)
15. Buescher (20 points ahead of first driver out)
16. DiBenedetto (last driver in, 12 points ahead of first driver out)
17. Kurt Busch (first driver out, 12 points behind last driver in)
18. Reddick (18 points behind last driver in)
19. Stenhouse (18 points behind last driver in)
20. Newman (31 points behind last driver in)
21. Wallace (43 points behind last driver in)
…
25. Custer (59 points behind last driver in)
26. Briscoe (78 points behind last driver in)
27. Jones (81 points behind last driver in)
28. Almirola (83 points behind last driver in)
Thoughts, Implications
Tough ending for Stenhouse, who’d been above the cut line. Curious how nervous guys like McDowell are who have a win but aren’t great on points. He and Bowman are only 30 and 22 points ahead of Kurt Busch, respectively, so if we get 17 winners, they could be in a lot of trouble.
Happy to have Kyle Busch back competitive. He hasn’t been as great as he was a few years ago, but he hasn’t been bad, and getting the win is, of course, massive (helps once he’s in the playoffs, too).
What’s Next
Throwback race. Darlington.
Videos, Fun Stuff
End of Stage One:
Cody Ware spinning after pushing it going into pit road:
Hamlin giving up the lead under pressure:
The Bell/Stenhouse wreck:
I got a kick out of this:
Larson taking himself and Blaney out trying to make something happen:
The final restart:
Kurt Busch’s birthday present to his brother:
