NASCAR’s at Darlington for its fourth major, or its fifth if you include Talladega from the old Winston Million. The moment the South has waited for: Its 500 (the Southern 500, of course) has arrived.
For those not already locked in, playoff qualification is also on the line.
Already in:
- Kyle Larson
- Christopher Bell
- Tyler Reddick (also leads for the regular season championship, but Larson and Elliott could catch him)
- William Byron
- Ryan Blaney
- Denny Hamlin
- Chase Elliott
- Brad Keselowski
- Joey Logano
- Austin Cindric
- Daniel Suárez
- Alex Bowman
- Harrison Burton
Effectively already in on points:
- Martin Truex Jr. (leads Bubba Wallace by 58)
Probably in on points:
- Ty Gibbs (leads Wallace by 39)
- Chris Buescher (leads Wallace by 21)
Chasing those two:
- Bubba Wallace (21 behind Buescher)
- Ross Chastain (27 behind Buescher)
The best-case scenario here is Ty Gibbs missing the playoffs. Everyone immediately behind him is fun. Most potential surprise winners are fun (there are hardly any, this is Darlington, it is very hard to win at Darlington). Ty Gibbs is not fun. He might be one day, but right now he still has too much Draco Malfoy in him.
More NASCAR:
- They announced next year’s schedule. Or at least leaked it. No new surprises. I think everything on there besides a few date changes had already been reported.
The weekend schedule:
- Saturday, 10:30 AM EDT: Xfinity Practice (NBC Sports Streaming)
- Saturday, 11:10 AM EDT: Xfinity Qualifying (NBC Sports Streaming)
- Saturday, 12:35 PM EDT: Cup Series Practice (USA)
- Saturday, 1:20 PM EDT: Cup Series Qualifying (USA)
- Saturday, 3:30 PM EDT: Xfinity race – Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200 (USA)
I’m sorry, but we have to pause. Even by Xfinity Series standards, that is an incredible name for an automobile race.
- Sunday, 6:00 PM EDT: Cook Out Southern 500 (USA)
Cook Out’s a worthy sponsor.
Power vs. Palou, Penske on a Paperclip
Two races in Milwaukee. They already practiced, yesterday, and Will Power wasn’t all that fast? He and Álex Palou both were around the edge of the top ten. Josef Newgarden put up the best times, and Scott McLaughlin was fifth, so Penske cars are probably appropriately fast and Power will probably contend. But it would be kind of a dud if Power didn’t find his way into the podium picture.
The deal’s simple. Power has three races to make up 54 points on Palou. Two of them are this weekend. All three are on ovals. 18 points a race is possible.
One theory around the practice results: Practice is boring and not very fun. Milwaukee is a great time. Maybe Josef Newgarden was taking practice seriously, like a loser, while Power and McLaughlin were getting ready to drink beers.
Just a theory.
The rest of the weekend schedule:
- Saturday, 1:00 PM EDT: Indy NXT Qualifying
- Saturday, 2:15 PM EDT: IndyCar Qualifying (Peacock)
- Saturday, 3:50 PM EDT: Indy NXT Race (Peacock)
- Saturday, 5:40 PM EDT: Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile Race 1 (Peacock)
- Sunday, 2:30 PM EDT: Hy-Vee Milwaukee Mile Race 2 (USA)
Love that they just called them Race 1 and Race 2. I feel like that fits the Hy-Vee identity. Keeping it simple. Not trying to do too much. Doing the little things well.
Does F1 Hate America, or Was Logan Sargeant Just Bad?
I think it’s both.
Sargeant’s finally out at Williams, and I think this quote from his old boss James Vowles was supposed to be nice:
“We’ve had enough experience under our belt to know he’s reached the limit of what he’s able to achieve — and in fact it’s almost unfair on him furthermore continue with him.
“If you look at his face when he gets out of the car, he’s given you everything he possibly can, and it’s not enough.”
Ouch!
Anyway, fair is fair, and like we’ve said before, this is probably better for global perceptions of American driving ability. Let everybody forget about Sargeant. Franco Colapinto gets the seat now. 21-year-old. Argentinian.
Now, it’s off to Italy, where Lewis Hamilton was fastest in the second and third practice and the Ferraris still looked pretty fast? Nice little recipe there.
The rest of the weekend schedule:
- Saturday, 10:00 AM EDT: Qualifying (ESPN2)
- Sunday, 9:00 AM EDT: Italian Grand Prix (ESPN)
Only other news is that Mercedes made the Kimi Antonelli announcement. No surprises there. Nothing surprises us, dear readers! Nothing!!
