Who… should you be talking about after the race?
Without question, Chase Briscoe was the class of the field on Sunday (June 22) at Pocono Raceway. He earned points with his finish in the opening stage, won the second stage and led the most laps at 72 of 160 overall.
But he still had to finish off the win in the late going, maintaining his lead and also managing fuel mileage to take his first win since going over to Joe Gibbs Racing. More importantly, he clinched a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
On the other hand…
Sunday was forgettable for 23XI Racing, notably Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick. Coming into Sunday, Wallace had no finish worse than 11th in his previous four races at Pocono with Reddick finishing within the top six his last two times at the triangular track.
Given all of that, the expectation for Sunday was for both to run well at a minimum. Those hopes were undone by brake issues. 23XI drivers Wallace and Riley Herbst retired early to come in 36th and 37th with brake issues while Reddick had similar issues later on, limping to finish 32nd.
For Reddick, Sunday was a race in which an opportunity was there for the taking to run well. For Wallace, a strong finish was needed or to avoid a bad finish at a minimum.
After Sunday’s finish, Wallace, a driver without a race win this year, finds himself closer to the playoff cut line. And with Briscoe’s win trimming the field of drivers trying to race their way into the postseason, Sunday at Pocono was the last thing that Wallace needed.
What… does this mean for the points standings?
Briscoe can breathe a whole lot easier now as Sunday’s win locked him into the playoffs. For Wallace? It was his fourth finish worse than 30th in the past seven races. The points cushion built up early in the season is nearly gone for Wallace as after Sunday, he is just 29 points above Ryan Preece, the first driver currently outside the top 16 in the playoffs. Alex Bowman currently holds the final postseason spot.
Where… did he come from?
John Hunter Nemechek proved that a fourth-place qualifying effort was no fluke. By the time everything shook out in the end, he finished sixth for the second week in a row. Nemechek now has back-to-back finishes of sixth at two very different types of race tracks. Those two showings are his best result this season aside from a fifth-place finish in the Daytona 500.
When… was the moment of truth?
It was a double-edged sword in the final stage for Briscoe. He had to save fuel but also be mindful of his advantage ahead of arguably the best current driver to race at Pocono in Denny Hamlin. Briscoe excelled at both, winning by .682 seconds, even having enough fuel for a post-race burnout.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
The racing roulette that is superspeedway-style racing comes next at EchoPark Speedway, just south of downtown Atlanta this Saturday night (June 28). This style of racing can change the dynamic of a driver’s season, and those who need a win due to being lower in the points standings, such as Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch, likely have this week circled as what’s been called in recent years an ‘opportunity race.’
How… did this race stack up?
If you were in search of a caution-fest, this was not the race for you. Sunday saw the yellow flag fly seven times, keeping in tune with a recent trend. Going back to the August 2016 race here, there have been between four and eight cautions in NASCAR Cup Series races at Pocono in all but two events. In short, this was a typical Pocono race.
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.
I’m sure glad that the prime broadcast nightmare is over and that we’re going back to the regular broadcast networks for the rest of the season. I hope Nascar lost in that disaster. It sounds like they did, because I’ve seen numerous headlines that they’re viewership is down 25% over the broadcasts last year. Unfortunately though, I’ve also read that the deal with prime is a signed deal that runs through 2031.
Please don’t shoot the messenger here:
I’ve read roughly the same on total viewership, but that’s only part of the story. It seems NASCAR was expecting lower total viewership, but were able to tap into a more affluent demographic via Amazon, which sponsors and advertisers want.
Also, early reports are the average age of viewer skewed younger, which is a big focus of NASCAR, lest they fall into the hole Indycar has found itself in. They have a massive percentage of older viewers, which means the series is on shaky footing for the future. NASCAR is battling this issue as well, though not to the level Indycar has experienced.
Unless someone throws massive money at NASCAR when the next TV contract is negotiated years from now, I can’t see them abandoning streaming service(s). New, younger fans, coupled with more palatable fans from an advertising perspective make a course adjustment unlikely.