Time to cycle through the transmission for another edition of Four Gears.
This week, our resident NASCAR analysts are asked to rate the regular season’s of both the Camping World Truck Series and XFINITY Series, if any of the Hendrick drivers will win in the remaining races, what their takeaways were from the post-race inspection failures this past weekend at Chicagoland and what are their thoughts on NASCAR and tracks bringing in children’s shows to sponsor races.
FIRST GEAR: With the regular season’s for both the Truck and XFINITY Series in the books, how would you rate the racing in each series this season on a scale of 1 to 10?
For the Truck Series, I give it an 8/10. The racing in the series has been truly amazing this season and only three of the events were won by Cup drivers. I won’t say every race was a barn burner, but they were few and far between. I would’ve given this season a 9/10 if not for the stupid caution clock.
As for the XFINITY Series, I give it a 3/10. The series has been lackluster for many years now and it was at its worst this season. We saw some truly abysmal racing this season considering only three XFINITY Series regulars won a race this season. The rest were won by Sprint Cup Series drivers and Justin Marks at Mid-Ohio. The only reason it’s not a 1/10 is because of the five-race stretch from Iowa in July to Road America in August.
With only one real standalone remaining this weekend at Kentucky Speedway, I don’t see it improving. — Tucker White
The truck series has been good to great so far and was an 8. It’s a bunch of young guys fighting to get into the Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series, and Matt Crafton is there too.
XFINITY Series gets a 2. The Chase has too many people in it and the battle to get into it wasn’t really that dramatic, JGR has a complete stranglehold on the series and wins all of the races and all of the poles. The racing is boring and half the field has half the budget the other half does. It’s a mess of a series that desperately needs an overhaul. — Michael Finley
SECOND GEAR: Three of the four Hendrick Motorsport cars finished in the top-10 this past Sunday and Jimmie Johnson had a strong car before a speeding penalty cost him a great finish. Will any of the Hendrick drivers win a race in the final nine races of the season?
I’ll keep my answer short. History says Jimmie Johnson will win a race in the Chase. He’ll win a race before the season is over. — Tucker White
If Hendrick comes out this weekend and is as strong as they were in Chicagoland, no question multiple Hendrick cars will win the next nine races. I’m not convinced yet either on this being a one race deal or a sign of things to come. — Michael Finley
THIRD GEAR: The cars of Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson failed post-race LIS inspection, but neither were considered “encumbered” and won’t result in a P4 penalty or “loss of finishing benefits.” What’s your takeaway from this?
I went into much greater detail about this following Sunday’s race, so I’ll just give you the cliff notes. I thought NASCAR inadvertently incentivized cheating with the wording in the rulebook regarding post-race LIS failure.
Alas, this is definitely moot now, hopefully, with NASCAR announcing yesterday that LIS failures will now result in a P4 penalty. — Tucker White
It’s NASCAR’s world and we live in it. If NASCAR’s rule book was a Wikipedia article, it would overtake the page on George W. Bush as the most edited page on the site in a couple of year’s time. — Michael Finley
FOURTH GEAR: The last two years in the Sprint Cup Series has seen two races with entitlement sponsors of kids shows (the SpongeBob SquarePants 400 at Kansas Speedway in May of 2015 and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway this past weekend). What are your thoughts on NASCAR and tracks doing this and what other ideas for race sponsors for attracting children would you suggest?
Oh, I’m going to have so much fun with this one.
Since we’re on a kick of sponsoring races based on products that were big in the 90’s, the next few should be the Pokémon 3oo at Suzuka, the Animaniacs 400 at Auto Club Speedway and my personal favorite, the Disney Afternoon 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
We missed the boat on doing this in the early 2000’s. We could’ve had races like the Kim Possible 400 at Kansas Speedway, the Teen Titans/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway and the King of the Hill 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
At this point, I’m just waiting for the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
As to my thoughts on it, we got to get the kids in the seats somehow and this could be a great way to do so. I mean I got into NASCAR via a show called NASCAR Racers. — Tucker White
One thing I love about those two sponsors that nobody brings up is their willingness to step up and partially sponsor cars on one race deals. It’s great that the small No. 95 team got some much-needed publicity at both races by featuring popular characters from the two franchises, and also probably received a nice little check for their efforts. As far as other race sponsors, I’d love to see a brand like Pokemon sponsor a race. Plenty of people of all ages like and play Pokemon, and they have literally hundreds of recognizable characters to market the brand with. — Michael Finley
