1. Are Bubba Wallace’s Playoff Prospects Coming Undone?
A few months ago, Bubba Wallace was not locked into the postseason, but the No. 23 team didn’t feel like one in the midst of desperation.
Solid runs were there for Wallace. The team was not running awful, but not great, either. The team had enough performance of which one felt like if it could stay on that plane and avoid a cluster of bad days, running well could lead to a win or what Wallace did last year — getting into the postseason via points.
Like other sports, you are only as good as your most recent showing. But Wallace and the No. 23 team have been not quite as good recently.
Through the first eight races of the season, Wallace had four top-five finishes. Sunday’s (June 23) crash at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, a rare DNF for the No. 23, added to a recent string of undesirable results for Wallace, who has finished outside the top 10 for five races in a row.
The result, combined with Joey Logano and Team Penske finding their footing as expected, has Wallace below the playoff cut line.
It’s not desperation win or else mode for Wallace yet, but it may be soon if the No. 23 team can’t find a way to put some solid top-10 caliber finishes together.
2. Postseason or Not, Todd Gilliland is Setting the Standard at Front Row Motorsports
Front Row Motorsports can produce results good enough for a driver to race in the postseason.
That’s a proven fact as shown by the fact that even if Michael McDowell did not win a race last year, his performance — demonstrated in part by earning the 12th-most playoff points of any driver — illustrated an ability to run near the front on a regular basis.
No, it’s not top five-type results, but it’s solid enough to get you in the postseason.
Here we are in late June, and both FRM drivers, McDowell and Todd Gilliland, are below the playoff cutline but within striking distance to get close to it if they string a few strong finishes together or use a steady progress to set the stage for a race win.
You can’t help but wonder if Gilliland knows that he has the onus on him to lead his team with McDowell headed to Spire Motorsports when this season ends. When a driver is the longest-tenured one on a race team, there’s a level of expectation to set the standard.
Gilliland continues to show that. He has seven finishes in a row of 20th or better and spent the whole race at New Hampshire inside the top 15. That does not happen by accident, it’s a direct result of a driver and team meshing.
Gilliland may or may not get to the postseason this year, but he is showing that whatever future Front Row Motorsports has, he’s not afraid to be the leader on and off the track.
3. Let The Crew Chiefs Crew Chief
It has been imprinted into the mind of race fans over time that as long as it rained, there was no way cars could race. Even with the slight advent of wet-weather tires, they were only for use on road courses.
But like many recent things in NASCAR, new eras make their way in. Things that you thought would never exist in this sport such as pre-planned breaks in races and events on street courses are part of the sport. We saw another further advent of something new to the sport this weekend with wet-weather tires allowing the event to be run at its full distance due to wet track conditions.
One thing that needs to be altered, however, is letting the crew chiefs … crew chief. You saw it on Saturday (June 22) as well during the NASCAR Xfinity race, as NASCAR mandated when teams had to transition from wet to standard tires and vice-versa.
These crew chiefs are smart individuals. In fact, crew chiefs today might be technologically smarter than they ever have been in the sport’s history. With a generation of race car that takes more creative ingenuity away from the teams than ever before, why not let teams go at it for when to take weather-specific tires off and on? Why not let someone go longer and roll the dice and see how tires can perform?
These crew chiefs are smart. It’s time to treat them as such.
4. Should Someone Field A Modified ‘Local All-Star Car?’
During the SRX Series, one of its features at each venue was the advent of what amounted to a ‘local all-star car,’ a car filled by a local to the region or racetrack hot shoe.
Yes, many regions have their share of racing talent, but few areas of the country can boast per-capita what the northeastern United States boasts. From modified legends such as Ted Christopher and others from nearby who have gone south to find success such as Geoff Bodine, Randy LaJoie, Tommy Baldwin, and Ryan Preece, the region near Loudon, N.H., is hardly short on racing talent.
The latest example was Saturday (June 22)’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race in which Justin Bonsignore fought from a mid-pack starting spot toward the front and led three laps. If not for some late-race carnage, he’d have likely finished in the top 10 despite limited seat time in the Xfinity Series.
What Bonsigmore was able to do serves as a reminder that these drivers from the northeast can rise to the occasion, especially at a flat track like New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It’s something that needs to happen more often at Loudon, and I’m pretty sure anyone in charge of ticket sales at NHMS would not mind that, either.
Could Heim Show He’s Cup-Ready This Weekend?
There used to be an unwritten rule, a mindset if you will, that a driver had to race in NASCAR’s highest feeder series before a full-time chance at the Cup Series level.
But when you’re ready to move up, you are ready, and Corey Heim has a prime chance to back up that belief this weekend at Nashville Superspeedway. The best way to see if someone is Cup-ready is to put them in a car to see what they can do, and the leadership at 23X1 Racing has apparently seen it that way, planning to put Heim in the team’s third entry for Sunday (June 30).
Heim has the benefit of being in a good situation this weekend. This is not a 20th-place caliber race team. This is one where multiple drivers have won on intermediate tracks with Wallace, Tyler Reddick and Kurt Busch.
This weekend’s track layout? Intermediate.
Heim does not need to go out and set the world on fire this weekend. But similar to Carson Hocevar last year when he filled in at Worldwide Technology Raceway, if he can have a solid day and have a clean race, his path to the Cup Series will be accelerated.
About the author
Brad joined Frontstretch.com in 2020 and contributes to the site's 5 Points To Ponder column and other roles as needed. A graduate of the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has covered sports in some capacity for more than 20 years with coverage including local high school sports, college athletics and minor league hockey. Brad has received multiple awards for his work from the Georgia Press Association.
A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.
I’d say there is a good chance there will be two new winners in the next 8 races, so yes Bubba’s and anyone else that doesn’t have a decent cushion (Bowman, Buescher, Logano) playoff hopes are in trouble.
All three of those drivers have picked up the pace recently and could reel off a win before the “playoffs”. Brisco too.
There are also two crap shoot races (Chicago and Daytona) where there could be a surprise winner.
How sick am I about every other column or photo being about Wallace? Very, very sick. Quit shoving the guy down our throats. I don’t care if he’s black, green, orange, or whatever. He needs to shut up, drive his car, and stop being so petty about everything. And the media need to ignore him until he proves himself.
BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA! BUBBA!