If you watch Talladega racing at all, you know that just about anyone can win the event due to the style of racing. If you watched on Sunday, Kyle Busch was probably not one of the drivers you picked to win. He wasn’t racing in the Top 10 most of the day and the field was bunched up about as tight as you could make it.
Kyle Larson won his first ever grandfather clock after leading just 30 laps. Larson flirted with the Top 10 most of the race but wasn’t in position enough to be considered a contender. On a day full of long green flag runs, a late race caution mixed things up based on race and pit strategy putting him in position to win.
I have never been a real fan of the Bristol dirt race but I have to say this was the best Cup race I have seen on the dirt. The crowd was still not “old Bristol” worthy but it was a decent show considering it was a bit chilly.
The race was not without incident and one of the cool things about the dirt is that cars that did a 360 could get themselves straightened up without a caution flag needing to be thrown.
Let’s start this off with a huge hand clap for Tyler Reddick as he overcame a difficult track under hot conditions battling an opponent who was better than he was on restarts. Reddick led 41 laps while battling William Byron, who led 28, in a race that saw them seesaw the lead back and forth after starting out on the front row.
Last week, I laid out a formula for winning at Atlanta by leading a lot of laps.
Joey Logano did just that leading 140 of the 260 laps from the pole. Brad Keselowski placed second and led a distant 47 laps. Eleven other drivers led but they weren’t even close to the top 2 lap leaders.
Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron (64) and Kyle Larson (201) teamed up to lead 265 of the total laps at Phoenix and dominated the race. Kevin Harvick (14) and Brad Keselowski (1) were the only non-Chevy drivers to lead any laps at all in a race flat out owned by Chevy drivers.
Man, and some of you thought Fontana was a boring racetrack. Compared to what was on display at Las Vegas this weekend, NASCAR might want to think about razing that track instead of Fontana.
With rain canceling qualifying and practice, Kyle Busch started 21st in the 36 car field. That was good for Ross Chastain; otherwise Busch might have led even more laps on his way to his first victory for RCR.
This was the final race on the current track layout at Fontana and it didn’t disappoint. Cars were racing all over the track but having the lead was important to keep clean air on the nose of the car.
Welcome back race fans! Long time to be away from racing. As many of you know, the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona is the kickoff to the season for me but I have to admit my attention was elsewhere a lot of this young season. After watching qualifying for the 500, I pretty much missed the Duels for the first time in forever.
There have been a fair amount of changes this year leaving me to question just how good the racing was going to be.
Joey Logano and teammate Ryan Blaney made up the front row one-two and finished the race the same way. Ford dominated the race with the two drivers leading a combined 296 of the 312 laps. Logano led 187 laps, Blaney 109.
