“Just when I think you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this … and totally redeem yourself!”- Harry Dunne, Dumb and Dumber
I take it back.
Not all of it, but some of it.
Thank god for win and you’re in.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the unfortunate culmination of NASCAR’s “Win and You’re In” culture with Austin Dillon‘s tainted victory at Richmond Raceway.
Then Harrison Burton and Chase Briscoe went and made my heart grow by three sizes.
It was really hard to be a cynic after Burton’s last-lap charge to beat Kyle Busch and claim Wood Brothers Racing’s 100th NASCAR Cup Series win.
And to do it when he was the last full-time driver in the point standings and after he was essentially fired from his job.
Then Briscoe went and threw down the gauntlet.
After the three-wide pass for the lead to end all three-wide passes for the lead, the soon-to-be Joe Gibbs Racing driver held off a charge from Busch to give Stewart-Haas Racing one last shot at a Cup Series title.
It’s enough to make one believe in love again.
Racing under the pressure of the hopes of everyone that works for a four-car team is … not something I would want to experience personally.
Briscoe is built differently.
“I think I definitely run better under heavy pressure,” Briscoe said Sunday night (Sept. 1) after conquering Darlington Raceway. “For whatever reason, I’ve always been like that. …
“I started tearing up in the car thinking about how much was riding on my shoulders at that point.”
Richmond was by far the low point of the season.
To follow that up with two consecutive weekends of feel-good, underdog wins going into the playoffs is more than NASCAR could have asked for.
NASCAR’s oldest team gets one more win. Another team gets potentially its last.
It’s all a reminder about the good that comes with “Win and You’re In.”
The more stories in the playoff field, the better.
Good to Go to Mexico
It’s about damn time.
After NASCAR failed to seal the deal with scheduling a Cup Series points race in Montreal last year, it finally stuck the landing with a new race in Mexico City.
Fifteen years after the NASCAR Xfinity Series raced there and in Canada, and years after the Craftsman Truck Series’ time spent north of the border, the A-listers are going to race internationally.
I’ve never quite understood why in the 2000s and 2010s NASCAR sent its lower series to compete in our neighboring countries instead of the Cup Series.
It was confusing in the same way that NASCAR reviving racing at Rockingham Speedway with Xfinity and Trucks and not Cup is.
Don’t just test the waters about the track’s potential viability.
Jump into the deep end of the pool.
Thankfully, 27 years after its three-year experiment in Japan, the Cup Series is finally doing a points-paying cannonball into international waters.
Anyone claiming that NASCAR is ignoring its fans by taking one Richmond date and taking it to Mexico isn’t arguing in good faith.
Look at next year’s schedule.
Bowman Gray Stadium.
North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Rockingham Speedway.
Iowa Speedway.
You can’t get these tracks on the schedule and make a legitimate complaint about where Mexico’s date is coming from. And if you’re really upset about Richmond losing a date, make sure its remaining race gets your support.
Now, if you want to complain about having yet another road course on the schedule, then you have something.
Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast "Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin" presented by Democrat-Gazette.
You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.
All the other Chase did was play by NA$CAR “rules”.
So if Hamlin gets desperate and wrecks Elliot and Truex, not at the start finish line, but back in the pack on the last lap. Does the championship get taken away? Is it different if they’re coming to the flag?