NASCAR has one job, and that job has two parts. The first part is to race stock cars. The second is to not kill anybody in the process. By this definition, NASCAR aced its test yesterday at Michigan despite sending Corey LaJoie skidding down the asphalt on his roof at roughly one hundred miles an hour:
In case you didn’t have the sound up while watching that clip, the general reaction to the incident was one of alarm. Even in NASCAR, where one hundred yet-to-be-produced promos will show LaJoie’s car careening through the air, cars are not supposed to do that. It happens—it always happens—but it’s not supposed to happen, and each time NASCAR makes a substantial change to the car, it does so in part with the goal to keep the thing on the ground.
Why does it keep happening, then?
I don’t know the answer to this. I’m not an engineer. I don’t work for NASCAR. I don’t think I’ve ever touched a stock car. I will say, though, that it was very windy yesterday, and that there was specifically a strong headwind on the backstretch, meaning as LaJoie’s car spun sideways it came out of the draft and into a wall of air moving roughly twenty miles per hour faster than the car itself. An effective 215-mph wind against the broadside of a car is a lot for the car to handle. It’s enough to match the record for the fastest hurricane wind ever recorded. And while it’s NASCAR’s job to keep cars on the ground anyway, the simplest theory here is that they had only equipped the car to stay on the ground in something like a 200-mph situation.
Again, we don’t know. But that’s the theory, and I’m sure future cars and future car updates will strive to handle the 215-mph mark, at which point something else unforeseen will send someone else skidding along the asphalt on their roof only to miraculously pop out of the window unscathed. Lather, rinse, repeat.
The race:
- Wild move by NASCAR to throw an unnecessary caution just as it was set to escape that race without calamity. Maybe I’m the weird one here, but I’d think the last thing NASCAR would want after realizing their cars could flip over so easily on the backstretch would be a restart, the part of the race likeliest to cause a major accident. Glad Tyler Reddick won anyway.
- It’s fitting that Kyle Larson spinning out caused so much collateral damage, because Kyle Larson spinning out should be a big deal. He doesn’t do that a whole lot. Big break for Ty Gibbs and Ross Chastain, one of whom (Gibbs) capitalized on it and the other of whom (Chastain) later imitated the spin himself.
Other NASCAR:
- I saw mention that Austin Dillon’s appeal should be decided tomorrow? If that’s correct, we’re either going to have a whole extra round of Austin Dillon debate or we will go merrily into Daytona.
- The Clash is going to Bowman Gray Stadium next year, and if you’d like a sense of how the culture war’s gone in sports since 2022, the MLB All-Star Game will be in Atlanta, there’ll be a baseball game at Bristol Motor Speedway, and the Clash will have moved from Los Angeles to a short track in Winston-Salem. The world is a pendulum.
I Wonder Why Roger Penske Scheduled So Many Ovals
The thing about Roger Penske owning IndyCar, the sport, while also owning Team Penske, a team that plays the sport, is that Team Penske kind of makes its own rules. They navigate this adequately. It’s rare to hear too much complaining about Penske. But every now and then, it becomes relevant again. When IndyCar dug into the Push-to-Pass scandal this spring, it was commonly said that Team Penske was investigating itself.
Going off of this…
It’s interesting that there are seven races on ovals this year for the first time since 2011. Especially since, you know, ovals are where Team Penske does best.
I don’t know if Team Penske went to the trouble of doing this intentionally, but after nearly going 1–2–3 at St. Louis (until Josef Newgarden indirectly wrecked a teammate, as one would expect him to do), Team Penske gets to run three ovals over the final four races of the year. After a trip to Portland next weekend, it’s two races at the Milwaukee Mile followed by the season finale out at Nashville Superspeedway, a race that was “supposed“ to be run on the streets of Nashville until IndyCar “learned“ of the long-publicized construction on Nissan Stadium.
Newgarden is almost definitely out of the championship hunt. He made up 19 points on Álex Palou this weekend, but even continuing that pace would leave Newgarden 50 points back of first place. Scott McLaughlin, however, would catch Palou at that pace, as would Will Power, who only needs 17 per race to take the crown.
Had Newgarden not indirectly wrecked Power, that number would only be 12. Power would only be twelve points per race back of Palou. But, again, you kind of expect Josef Newgarden to wreck his teammates. That’s kind of the idea of Josef Newgarden. In that way, maybe he’s the foil these Penske schemes need.
Keep an eye on Colton Herta, who started 15th this weekend because of a qualifying wreck but still finished fourth or fifth, depending who you ask. He’s the guy actually in second place right now.
F1’s Sunday Scaries
For as much as we enjoy making fun of Formula 1, I don’t get the impression its drivers are lazy people. I definitely don’t get that impression about the engineers and the rest of the teams. Still, we’re going to take advantage of this opportunity to wish these poor, spoiled souls the best as their summer break ends and they have to go back to work this week. While it’s still hot, too! A full 66 degrees Fahrenheit in Zandvoort this Sunday!
