1. Farewell to the Honey Badger?
After days of waiting, the rumors were finally confirmed in the Formula 1 world: Daniel Ricciardo is once again out of the series, departing the Visa Cash App RB Formula One Team.
It wasn’t a surprise to many following the series, as Ricciardo had spent last weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix all but saying that he was out of the seat.
The reality of the situation is that Ricciardo came to the team to beat Yuki Tsunoda. He was largely inconsistent in this endeavor, showing pace depending on the track, but Tsunoda was able to come out on top.
You can say that how RB made the swap was bad, because Ricciardo left without a true blue goodbye. But the swap itself was not the problem.
Sports are not entertainment at their core. Happy endings don’t always happen. The reality of the situation is that Ricciardo was on his second chance at F1, and it ended with him giving his seat up to a driver who could eventually win races for the main team. The fact that he was and is a big star with a number of fans could only take him so far.
If anybody is getting screwed or ignored at RB, it’s Tsunoda. Liam Lawson will be his fourth teammate and potentially the third he will beat. If he wasn’t there primarily because of Honda, it’s clear he’d be gone because it doesn’t have the faith to move him up to the main team and pit him head-to-head with Max Verstappen.
2. So, what’s next for Ricciardo?
Thanks to the sponsors that would jump to get involved with him, Ricciardo has a number of options for the future of his racing career — most of which involve a roof and fenders.
The one book that has been pretty definitively closed is F1. Going to the Red Bull junior team and losing is usually the end of your career.
Maybe Ricciardo signs with another team as the reserve driver once more, but he’s not going to be able to parlay that into a seat on the grid again. That’s a card that can only be played once, and only after getting beaten by a generational talent like Lando Norris.
He was open as late as last weekend at his disinterest in racing in the NTT IndyCar Series due to the ovals. A road course-only schedule in that series could be interesting to Ricciardo, but it’s unlikely he could get that with how the IndyCar Silly Season has gone.
Endurance racing is an obvious choice if he wants to do it. Going back home to race in Supercars would be an option for him. It would allow him to stay home while still giving him plenty of space on the calendar to go do other series if he wants.
A lot of NASCAR fans and industry people love Ricciardo thanks to both his Drive To Survive appearances and because of his tribute to Dale Earnhardt; Ricciardo chose his F1 driver number as No. 3 to honor Earnhardt, of whom he grew up a fan.
Ricciardo himself is pretty open to potentially trying out NASCAR. An interview just a couple of weeks ago with Tourism Western Australia, as transcribed by SI.com, makes this pretty clear:
“‘There’s things I would like to try and experience, I don’t know, let’s say on a competitive level,” Ricciardo said. “It’s, you know, I grew up a fan of NASCAR, I’d love to drive a NASCAR [car]. I’d love to drive around Daytona [International Speedway] for example.”
It would be shocking if he doesn’t even just make a road course cameo at this point. There’s far too much money that would be left on the table. Justin Marks will want him if he is serious about restarting Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 next season.
If Ricciardo wants to dip his toes into NASCAR with just a NASCAR Xfinity Series race or two, that’s also fine. I can see Ricciardo at least wanting to give it a try on an oval. NXS would also be the best option for him there.
3. Why is NASCAR actively screwing ticket-buying race fans?
NASCAR has made a change for the worse in terms of how it sells tickets.
Ticketmaster is one of the worst companies in America, with its policies being so genuinely awful that the DOJ is actively investigating it.
I shouldn’t call Ticketmaster a monopoly, but it sure does act like one, much like another of parent company Liberty Media’s properties, F1.
It’s just another reason why attending NASCAR races is a losing game. The races start at like 3 or 4 p.m., the traffic getting in and getting out is lousy. Now those same fans are going to be subjected to junk fees that, as a bonus, won’t be going into anybody but Ticketmaster’s pockets.
Yes, I know SMI has been using Ticketmaster. That is not a company to aspire to be like. If the NASCAR-owned tracks is a losing game, the SMI track experience is a broken one. Don’t bring a cooler to the summer race at Nashville Superspeedway even though it’s 372 degrees; you have to buy the water that may or may not have run out.
4. Is The CW truly free?
The CW, the Xfinity Series’ latest broadcast partner, provides no way for me to stream the network without paying a lot of money. My Verizon FIOS TV service doesn’t allow me to stream CW, and instead I can only watch the network on my TV, which is a no-go.
Considering the entire point of this new contract with NXS was to have every race on free-to-broadcast air, this is a total and abject failure. It’s not like this with FOX or NBC, where I can use my cable login to watch races on their apps. No, instead the CW app only offers next day streaming, which doesn’t help me as Frontstretch‘s resident NXS livetweeter.
Don’t take my word for it. A number of people had issues trying to watch the darn race last week.
This has got to change. There’s zero reason to not allow people to watch on the app, live, with ads. Not everybody can just stick a digital antenna on their television.
Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021, and also formerly covered the SRX series from 2021-2023. He now covers the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and road course events in the NASCAR Cup Series.