NASCAR’s Cup Series finally races in Iowa tonight, after years of fits and starts towards this end. Fittingly, the situation is chaotic. NASCAR repaved part of the track but not the whole track, meaning only the lower lane will have grip through the corners. What does this do to the racing? It could make it single-file. It could make for a tightrope walk, with cars sliding up into the wall whenever they leave the fresh asphalt. It could mean both. Thankfully, an alternative source of intrigue has emerged. Something’s up with the tires, which were fine during a test earlier this season but started exploding all over the place during practice on Friday.
The hope here is that the tires explode just enough to incite chaos without exploding so much that everyone retreats. The worst thing the tires can do is turn this race into not only a parade, but a parade at 70% speed. The best thing the tires can do is rear their curiously combustible heads at dramatic inflection points in the race.
One of NASCAR’s best tendencies is the one where it doesn’t prepare 100% for things. Where other leagues cross every t and dot every i, NASCAR often finds itself in situations where it is left no choice but to see what happens. NASCAR, more than any other sport, is willing to wing it. God willing, tonight will be a hilarious, stupid race that becomes electrically competitive during the final 50 laps. God willing, NASCAR will inadvertently find a tire solution which makes all short tracks glorious again. The unforced error which is the repave is an endearing wrinkle. The exploding tires, though, are the hook we all need.
Tonight’s race:
- Sunday, 7:05 PM EDT: Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol but Not Actually Powered by Ethanol That Is Just a Sponsorship (USA Network)
Weather should be clear. Only thing unclear is what happened to that bed and breakfast my grandpa’s cousin used to run in Newton. Also haven’t heard much about that cousin lately. Should’ve asked my mom when I called the folks for Father’s Day.
Nobody Can Pass at Road Courses (Except Kyle Larson)
While exploding tires could save the short track, NASCAR’s best solution to boring road course racing could be as simple as the existence of the number 5 car. Should NASCAR make road courses Kyle Larson vs. The Field? I know he’s not dominating them to some obscene degree. But last weekend settled in from the goofy kind of fun race to the competitive kind of fun race, and that had a lot to do with Larson’s capacity to pass towards the end.
Will Brown’s car gave out on him, and that was a bummer. I was hoping the Van Gisbergen movement would slowly reveal to us that Supercars has secretly been the best racing series in the world this whole time. And speaking of Van Gisbergen: What a move. A full-lap victory burnout following the Portland Xfinity race, right in Austin Hill’s face. (Hill had continued his beef with Van Gisbergen with a middle finger out the window after the checkered flag.) Australia is the future of motorsports.
Bon Voyage, Martin
At some point over the last seven years, my memory got garbled and I came to believe Martin Truex Jr.’s dominant 2017 season happened as a Gibbs guy, not with Furniture Row. And while I now remember that the JGR alliance must have helped and the car was, of course, a good car…holy heck. Martin Truex Jr. won a title with Front Row Motorsports in the pre-NextGen era. Wild.
Sad to see the guy retire, but happy for him. Still strongly associate that man with the Number 1 car from EA Sports’s NASCAR 06: Total Team Control, specifically as played on the PlayStation 2.
Other NASCAR news:
- Ryan McGee does a lot of things well, but one thing is explaining things from his world to a mainstream sports audience. On that topic: Here’s a look at the charter situation.
IS MERCEDES BACK?
The big news out of the Canadian Grand Prix was that Max Verstappen respects that groundhogs are tougher than his racecar. The secondary news was that we can now believably claim Mercedes, in addition to McLaren and Ferrari, is closing the gap again on Red Bull.
This is great. Not Mercedes closing the gap, necessarily, although that is also good. What’s great here is that Max Verstappen won a race and we now get to do the, “Yeah, but he didn’t win by that much, and now there are SIX cars in striking distance. Not just four!”
Nice little stretch coming up.
F1 news:
- The FIA reminded everybody yesterday that there are no rules in Formula 1, announcing that because Kimi Antonelli won’t turn 18 until August 25th and Mercedes would like to get him into a practice before then, the FIA has lowered the minimum age for a superlicence* from 18 to 17. Kimi Antonelli will not be old enough to legally drive on roads in his native Italy, but he will be eligible to drive in an F1 race.
- Yuki Tsunoda will be back at RB in 2025. I can sense by your reaction that this is as earthshaking for you as it is for me.
*Dumb name. (Cool name, wish I’d thought of that name.)
Does Scott McLaughlin Also Not Like Josef Newgarden?
Fun to see Will Power get that long awaited win last weekend, especially with the intra-Penske in-race drama.
For some intra-Penske off-track drama…interesting that Josef Newgarden wasn’t in Scott McLaughlin’s birthday picture!
There are a lot of explanations here. The ones I’m choosing to promote are 1) that Josef Newgarden might think himself too good for the tavern at an Elkhart Lake resort and 2) that Scott McLaughlin might deeply dislike Josef Newgarden. Either one feels good.
As for Will Power’s absence? He’s old. When you’re old, that makes it ok to not do things. You don’t need a reason. You can just be old. This is the biggest incentive driving people to become old.
IndyCar news:
- The broadcasts are moving from NBC to Fox Sports next year, changing the Indy 500 from a Kentucky Derby-aligned TV spectacle to a Big Ten football-aligned TV spectacle. Probably a positive step, but for some reason feels icky? Maybe the downfall of the NBA on TNT has finally converted me to the anti-conference realignment cause. Maybe I’m finally out on TV shaping sports. Alternatively, maybe I think Fox Sports has gotten lazy with NASCAR broadcasts and IndyCar on Peacock had the intangibles. It felt right.
- Agustin Canapino will be back in the driver’s seat next weekend, having successfully lowered the temperature on the whole “his fans threatened to kill Theo Pourchaire” thing after his initial reaction somehow managed to raise that temperature. What changed? Well, he has now explained that what we think of as death threats are, to Argentinians, only fans blowing off steam. Impressive pivot. He managed to get his job back while calling all Americans wimps. That slick bastard. I’m gonna kill him!!! (I don’t think I can say this. I’m not Argentinian. I’m not going to kill Agustin Canapino. Or anyone, for that matter. I am a no-kill shelter unto myself.)
Shit. That Was This Weekend.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans happened. No NASCAR car this year, though, which makes me feel better about not realizing the thing was coming. I think they should combine the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Tour de France. How? No idea. Let’s brainstorm sometime.
Housekeeping
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We’re three days late on this one. Our apologies. The plan for Vroom Vroom is still to be a Thursday newsletter once we get through the speed bumps.
Note: This post has been updated to give a better description of the groove situation. I thought one lane of the track had been repaved the whole way around. I was wrong.
