1. Sorry, Phoenix: South Florida’s The Perfect Place to Crown a Champion
If you came of age as a race fan in the late 1980s and into the 1990s, seeing a champion crowned at Atlanta Motor Speedway was what you came to expect. But once the late 1990s started a brief shuffling of the season finale, NASCAR did the next best thing: move the last race of the season southward to Homestead-Miami Speedway.
The South Florida track is intermediate in length, but also just different enough from a standard quad-oval that it’s enough of a change-up for drivers. That combination made it a natural place to host the last race of the season and crown a champion, and its layout lends itself to racing on multiple grooves.
What we saw on Sunday was no fluke — it’s the racing that we’ve come to expect at Homestead. Phoenix Raceway? Generally, the key to winning there is getting a car hooked up in clean air or making sure you are the first car off of pit road late in the race, something that at times goes a long way toward determining a championship.
Phoenix is one of the most postcard-worthy settings in racing with its backdrop against the desert sun, but this sport needs to be about what showcases the sport’s best, and what you saw this past Sunday (Oct. 27) reinforced that.
If NASCAR truly wants to adjust the schedule for the betterment of the sport, it should move the final race of the season to Homestead.
2. Kyle Larson Needs a Win to Prevent Tarnished Season
Outside of 2021, it’s hard to argue with the fact that this season has been the most impressive one for Kyle Larson. With six wins on a wide range of tracks, it’s difficult to be let down with this season if you’re a fan of the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
That is, of course, unless you look at the current playoff standings. After Sunday’s up-and-down day, Larson not only finished 13th but also failed to earn a single postseason point, placing him seven points shy of the cut line entering Martinsville Speedway.
Simply stated, Larson likely needs to win to advance to the Championship 4. It’s hard to argue with recent odds going into this weekend. Like many to have raced for Hendrick Motorsports, running well at Martinsville is no issue. In the past four races at the paperclip-shaped track, Larson has one win and just one finish worse than second.
So the job is simple going to this weekend for Larson: win.
If not, this season will be remembered not for numerous trips to victory lane, but rather by wondering how such a promising title shot slipped away.
3. Series Owners Should Self-Police Erratic Drivers
Any time a driver ends up in the hospital, it’s a bad thing. It’s worse when it’s due to another driver’s mistake. It’s even worse still when it’s avoidable.
The knee-jerk reaction over the weekend, after Matt Mills’ injury from what appeared to be deliberate contact by Conner Jones, was to basically kick Jones out of the garage and throw away the key.
Let’s not mince words in this situation. There’s no place for the driving that we saw from Jones in NASCAR, and a strong penalty is warranted. But this isn’t a time for the sport to level an iron fist. This is a case where nobody in charge should have to do anything because the owners in any national division should be expected to use common sense and police things themselves.
These owners, regardless of level, are businesspeople. No businessperson worth their salt wants someone in a sport who everyone knows will endanger those around them. Yes, there are times for NASCAR to step in, but there’s also something to be said for course correction. And the more that it’s evident that owners, regardless of how much sponsor money is in tow, will say no to drivers who make boneheaded decisions, racing at NASCAR’s top levels will be all the better for it.
4. Is Chase Elliott About to Party Like It’s 2020 All Over Again?
If ever there was a year that we’d like to wash from our memory and forget, it’s 2020. To stick to racing, we won’t mention many of the things that occurred that season.
On the track, however, there is one driver with very fond memories of that year: Chase Elliott. If there’s any driver with confidence going to the final race before the Championship 4, it’s the one who is the furthest back from the cutoff. You can make the case that Sunday in South Florida may have been his best overall drive since his spring win at Texas Motor Speedway, and there’s no reason to think that won’t carry over to a track where he has proven that he can win when the stakes are sky high.
Needing a win to race for a championship in a last-gasp attempt is exactly what Elliott and crew chief Alan Gustafson had to do in 2020, and they did just that. The result? A championship that was only possible because of what happened the week before at Martinsville.
Elliott has not been the story of dominance this year but has been consistent. He rates within the top eight in laps led and top fives in addition to fifth in top-five finishes.
If he can do that through the first two stages on Sunday, he’ll have a puncher’s chance to win his way to the Championship 4.
5. Team Orders? At Martinsville?
Nobody wants to talk about them, but they’re liable to come into play on Sunday at Martinsville.
Team orders.
It’s one thing to expect them on restrictor-plate tracks and envision one teammate getting a well-timed push into the lead for a win. But remember, this is a short track, a type of racing that at least in today’s NASCAR can make it hard to pass.
Theoretically, what if Ryan Blaney needs to hold off Denny Hamlin in the closing laps for a win and a spot in the Championship 4? What’s to stop Joey Logano from injecting himself into things and acting as a buffer? Ditto for Ty Gibbs. Would he slow up someone like William Byron to help Hamlin in the closing laps?
As much vitriol was thrown toward Austin Dillon at Richmond Raceway, it highlighted that sometimes drivers will do anything to help their postseason hopes.
We will see Sunday if that includes dancing in the gray area of the “100% rule.”
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.
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Remember when teams had a short track car, an intermediate track car and a super speedway car? They even had a car for concrete. And the NA$CAR brain trust think they can make their atrocious “race” car work on all of them?
Maybe the Brain Trust can figure out if the current abortion is a short track car, an intermediate track car, a super speedway car or a concrete car and then design a “race” car for each of the other three? Considering their record, I wouldn’t bet on it! Maybe that is why it is “better” on certain tracks.
…and qualifying motors, testing, actual practice. Not to mention actual fans in the stands.
And actual broadcasts that covered the racing instead of CGI gophers.