1. Martin Truex Jr.: Truex crashed out at Talladega with 17 laps to go when he made contact with David Ragan, setting a chain reaction crash that victimized Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, and Kyle Busch.
Nose to tail, side by side, just inches apart, ripping around a 2.66-mile tri-oval that is 48 feet wide with 33-degree banking in the corners at speeds of over 190 miles per hour. It is obvious to anyone watching what could happen. It is amazing when it does not.
It was a home date for most of the teams as the next round of the Chase opened in Charlotte, North Carolina. Martin Truex, Jr.’s outfit hails out of Colorado, so for them every date finds them on the road. It is a road that could take them all the way to the championship.
Martin Truex Jr.: Truex started 17th and Charlotte, but the handling on his No. 78 Toyota finally came around at the right time, and he pulled away to win the Bank Of America 500.
Denny Hamlin captured the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Coors Light Pole Award Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway with a qualifying speed of 191.598 mph. It was his first pole this season, his second at Charlotte and his 25th career pole.
When one of the legends in the sport leaves us, we remember. If a man is known simply by the company he keeps, Robert Yates did very well. As a team owner, he was the boss to such NASCAR luminaries as Davey Allison, Larry McReynolds, Ernie Irvan, Dale Jarrett, and Ricky Rudd.
Kyle Busch: Busch started second at Dover and passed Chase Elliott with two laps to go to win at Dover. "I stood for the American flag," Busch said, "but I was sitting for the checkered flag."
Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet edged teammate Jimmie Johnson by .067 seconds in the 55-minute final tune-up at the “Monster Mile.” Elliott will start 12th in Sunday’s Apache Warrior 400 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM), the final event for the three-race Round of 16 in the NASCAR Playoffs.
When your form of peaceful protest is deemed to be disrespectful to your nation, when the paying customer is offended and decides to take their business elsewhere, maybe one needs to reconsider a more effective form of protest. No matter the cause, you want the people with you, to support you bringing attention to it, to even cause them to rally to deal with the issue. To do otherwise renders the action as ineffective and nothing more than a divisive self-indulgement. Lord knows, we have seen far too much of that lately.
Less than three months to Christmas! If that does not come as good news, then hopefully you are all aquiver over the fact that there are eight races remaining in the NASCAR season. If that does not spark your excitement, enjoy the baseball playoffs and the football season, provided they have not yet ticked you off to the point that you want to boycott them all.
