This Saturday night, the boys and girl head west. The way I hear it, if you are going to play in Texas, you got to have a Biffle in the band. That may be true, and it may be a fact this weekend, but sadly such edicts do not include our Hot 20. Greg sits 16 points shy. Maybe the following week.
During his media availability at Martinsville Speedway yesterday, the driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford was asked if he had gotten around to analyzing Darrell Wallace Jr.'s performance with the Tennessee Volunteers when he was practicing with the team in Knoxville, Tenn. the previous week.
A full field. I may be a traditionalist in many ways, but a 40 car field seems about right to me now. It costs money to put a car on the track, to fit the templates, to run fast enough over a lap or two to qualify. That is even so when that auto is destined to simply start and park.
Five races into the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney have risen to the top of the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings leaving the rest of the contenders to play a game of “catch me if you can.”
Best damn finishes ever. Well, for two of the four events to date, that has been the headline for NASCAR in 2016. Daytona and Phoenix were decided by gaps measurable with a ruler, and that has to be a good thing. Hell, a great thing.
A year ago, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won at Phoenix. Five of the six before that, Kevin Harvick claimed the prize. Now, if anyone could use a win this weekend, Danica Patrick, Chase Elliott, and Clint Bowyer would be among them. They sure are not among the Hot 20 going into Sunday’s action.
Ryan Blaney drove his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford to a sixth-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, capturing his first top-10 of the season. It was especially gratifying after a last-lap crash last week at Atlanta relegated him to a discouraging 25th place result.
Rules be rules, and the book was tossed at a number of folks after Atlanta. The biggest hit was taken by Martin Truex Jr. after a roof flap issue meant the loss of 15 points.
The drivers liked it. I think most pure race enthusiasts liked it. I kind of liked it. It was not the visual experience Daytona provides, granted, but you could not to sure of anything until it ended.
While the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 race at Atlanta Motor Speedway may have been the first test of the new low downforce rules package, the biggest surprise for many of the NASCAR drivers who competed may just have been the ‘big one’ that occurred on the very last lap.
