NASCAR is the perfect level of a debacle.
The Winner
A.J. Allmendinger, which is probably the third-biggest story of the day. He’s not running a full season in the Cup Series, so no playoffs for him this time, but he won the race.
The Race
Holy heck. So. To set the scene, Kyle Larson had the lead, by virtue of a late-second stage pass of Chase Elliott, when some debris…popped out of the curb in Turn 6? That’s kind of what it looked like? Turn 6 had eaten a splitter or two already, and had a grand performance a bit later, and—well, this is what it looked like:
The caution came out. The field re-bunched. And all hell broke loose.
The curb, which again, had been an issue, came up. It came off the ground. And when it did…
NASCAR, saying, “Well, we can’t have that,” waved the red flag to do this:
But the curb was not a standalone entity. There was some ramping there, basically, and without the curb…
Credit to NBC for having these angles. NBC took some heat last year, deservedly, for not having angles on big happenings, but they had angles yesterday. Now, they did move the finish of the race to NBCSN because NASCAR took forever to get the curbing dragged off, but I don’t know, I feel like NASCAR deserves the heat for that because again, they put the curb there.
Anyway, that actually wasn’t all. There was more to come.
Chase Briscoe, a rookie, is far back of the playoff cut line in the standings but’s been getting better results lately. A win would have put him in the playoffs. So when he got pushed out wide early in the last restart, he didn’t blink:
Now, that isn’t legal. You can’t just cut across the infield and say you were pushed out wide (dumb rule if you ask me, build a wall if you don’t want guys racing). He was penalized, but his spotter didn’t tell him?? Because we then got this sequence, and if you have the sound on you’ll hear the broadcast announcing his penalty when he allegedly didn’t know:
With Hamlin out and Briscoe having to eventually try to serve the penalty (the spotter did tell him, with Hamlin in the grass, and no, he didn’t successfully serve it because it was too late by that point so NASCAR just parked him and placed him last on the lead lap), it was Allmendinger’s win. Allmendinger, for Kaulig Racing, a young entity still a year away from its first full Cup season. Wild day.
Results
Ryan Blaney wound up 2nd.
Larson was 3rd.
Elliott was 4th.
Matt DiBenedetto finished 5th.
Kurt Busch was 6th, with a big hole in the front of his car.
Erik Jones was 7th.
Ryan Newman was 10th.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was 11th.
Chris Buescher was 12th.
Bubba Wallace was 13th.
Kevin Harvick was 14th.
Martin Truex Jr. was 15th.
Alex Bowman was 17th.
Aric Almirola was 19th.
Kyle Busch was 20th.
Tyler Reddick won the first two stages, but got caught up in all the mayhem and finished 21st.
Hamlin was 23rd.
Brad Keselowski had his share of issues again, finishing 24th.
Cole Custer was 25th.
Briscoe was 26th.
Ross Chastain was 29th.
Michael McDowell ended up 30th, having participated significantly in the ghost-curb crash (the one after the curb crash).
Austin Dillon was a factor in the first two stages right behind his teammate and bubble competitor Reddick, but he got swallowed up in the mayhem and finished 31st.
William Byron was the one whom the curb bit first (we’re calling the earlier bites nibbles), and he finished 33rd.
Joey Logano survived that hit with the tires just fine, finishing 34th.
Ryan Preece was 35th.
Christopher Bell was 36th.
Daniel Suárez was 37th.
Standings
The first 14 have clinched playoff spots.
1. Larson (5 wins)
2. Truex (3 wins)
3. Bowman (3 wins)
4. Kyle Busch (2 wins)
5. Elliott (2 wins)
6. Byron (1 win)
7. Logano (1 win)
8. Blaney (1 win)
9. Keselowski (1 win)
10. Kurt Busch (1 win)
11. Bell (1 win)
12. McDowell (1 win)
13. Almirola (1 win)
14. Hamlin (293 points ahead of first driver out)
15. Harvick (95 points ahead of first driver out)
16. Reddick (last driver in, 28 points ahead of first driver out)
17. Dillon (first driver out, 28 points behind last driver in)
18. DiBenedetto (145 points behind last driver in)
19. Buescher (146 points behind last driver in)
20. Chastain (176 points behind last driver in)
21. Stenhouse (187 points behind last driver in)
22. Wallace (202 points behind last driver in)
23. Briscoe (242 points behind last driver in)
24. Suárez (258 points behind last driver in)
25. Jones (258 points behind last driver in)
26. Newman (273 points behind last driver in)
27. Preece (284 points behind last driver in)
28. Custer (298 points behind last driver in)
Thoughts, Implications, Up Next
Remarkable restraint by Hamlin after the race.
Personally, I like Tyler Reddick, so I hope he makes the playoff. But from a drama perspective, it’d be fun if we got a wild card winner next week at Michigan so that Daytona, the last pre-playoff race, could be Harvick vs. the field for the final spot.
Videos
Keselowski hits the wall:
Larson v. Elliott for what became the start-of-the-final-stage lead after pit cycles:
Fun starts and restarts at a lot of these road courses:
The curb ate some metal:
Pit problems for Elliott late:
Wonder if a caution here would’ve saved Hamlin:
Allmendinger and his team celebrating:
Hamlin talks to Briscoe:
Hamlin talks to world:
Briscoe talks to world:
Briscoe’s boss talks to Briscoe:
Not impressed with Briscoe one bit. He should have known that he would be penalized for his expedition across the grass, regardless of how quickly NASCAR/his spotter could get the information to him.
And then to wreck Hamlin like that is just lame. And I’d say that even if we take Briscoe at his word that he thought he was still racing for the lead.
That’s a fair take. I think both of those things get a more charitable reading because he’s a rookie (and honestly, because Hamlin didn’t flip out, which he would have been justified in doing—Hamlin was very kind about it) – not knowing the rule, doing something dumb enough to wreck someone.
I will say, on the first point (whether or not he knew he’d get the penalty), NASCAR is dumb enough that it wouldn’t have shocked if they didn’t penalize that. They didn’t penalize Ross Chastain for something kind of parallel at Sonoma (url below, it’s the Harvick/Byron wreck video in there), they had just taken out half the field with a poorly-constructed curb…anything is possible with NASCAR. So: If I’m Briscoe, I absolutely would not assume I’d get the penalty, but yeah, probably should’ve tried harder to pass him clean, especially since (like Hamlin said) they hadn’t even gotten to the white flag yet.
https://thebarkingcrow.com/kyle-larson-and-hendrick-motorsports-are-dominating-right-now/