1. Should Chase Briscoe Have Gone for Broke Against Denny Hamlin?
First of all, let’s give Chase Briscoe credit for honesty.
Could he have been more aggressive at the end of Sunday’s (July 20) race at Dover Motor Speedway and gotten into Denny Hamlin near the finish to get the win?
Probably.
Whether or not it would have delivered a win is unknown, but Briscoe also acknowledged that racing against his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate for the win played into his rationale.
That’s a problem, without a doubt.
Think about it. Neither Hamlin nor Briscoe had anything to lose with both locked into the NASCAR Cup Series postseason. What harm would it have done, other than making Joe Gibbs upset with mangled sheet metal, to lean on one another for a win at the Monster Mile?
It’s no different than multiple teammates being able to pass one another on a superspeedway but choosing instead to remain single file for a 1-2-3 finish. That’s not racing, those are team orders.
And if Sunday is any indicator, fans may as well get used to them between now and the season finale.
2. Don’t Lambast Alan Gustafson for His Late-Race Dice Roll
Alan Gustafson may as well not only live in a fishbowl, but one illuminated with LED lights.
Like him or not, Chase Elliott is the sport’s most popular driver, and when a racer with that amount of following has anything go wrong, the odds are good that criticism is going to come fast and heavy like an out-of-control freight train.
In his book, “The Big Picture,” legendary crew chief Larry McReynolds even recalls hearing allegations from Dale Earnhardt fans that he was being paid by Ford to sabotage the No. 3 car so that it would run poorly.
Let’s face it. Being a crew chief for a highly visible driver is a thankless job, and one that guys like Gustafson know that they are signing up for. Remember – he also was crew chief for Jeff Gordon.
Which brings us to Sunday at Dover when Gustafson opted for a two-tire call, giving up the race lead with about 60 laps to go. Elliott wound up sixth in the end as a result of a call to take a chance in the late going. The No. 9 team leads the points and is locked into the postseason. Why not roll the dice and take a chance? Sometimes a gamble works, sometimes it doesn’t.
That’s something that should be celebrated, not micromanaged.
3. There’s No Reason for the NASCAR Xfinity Series to Race at the Brickyard
Through 2011, the NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, better known as IRP. Since then, the series moved across town to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Yes, the hallowed grounds of Speedway, Ind., now include being a playground for Cup Series regulars to stomp all over NASCAR Xfinity Series drivers, celebrating in front of a grandstand littered with people disguised as empty seats. All told, four of the nine Xfinity races at IMS have been won by Kyle Busch.
For such a hallowed venue, that’s not very fitting.
What’s more head-scratching is that while NASCAR runs its No. 2 series at the Brickyard, the NTT IndyCar Series has not raced its feeder series event on the IMS oval, the Freedom 100, since 2019. Rather, the series races in May on the speedway’s road course.
Racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway should mean something and be reserved for the sport’s top series. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Xfinity Series joining the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the ARCA Menards Series at IRP.
Racing across the hallowed yard of bricks should mean something, and that includes NASCAR limiting that to its top series.
4. More Pressure Than Usual for Team Penske Drivers?
You don’t want to insinuate too much pressure on a weekend, but is this weekend more than just a race for Team Penske drivers Joey Logano, Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney?
This goes deeper than NASCAR. As an organization, it’s been the year from hell thanks to the IndyCar side of the organization being riddled with unthinkable bad luck and the shame of rules violations that resulted in the departure of key IndyCar team leadership. Oh, and none of the team’s three IndyCar drivers is higher than ninth in the series points standings.
So now NASCAR turns its attention to the track owned by Roger Penske this weekend in Indianapolis.
None of Penske’s three full-time NASCAR drivers enter the weekend worried about a postseason berth as each already has a race win, but it’s hardly a stretch to consider that a win by either one would do wonders on multiple fronts for anyone going to work each day for Team Penske, regardless of racing series.
No pressure or anything, though.
5. Much To Be Learned from Foundational Drivers and Mechanics Like Rex White
At first reference, you probably know Rex White as a NASCAR Hall of Famer, which is true. Prior to his death last week, White was also known in an air of reverence – NASCAR’s oldest living champion, a feat he accomplished in 1960.
White’s part of a breed of drivers and mechanics that the sport is losing more of to Father Time as years go by. When drivers like White pass away, you are not just losing people; you also lose those whose love of the sport built it up over time from the ground up.
Back before the days of driver motorcoaches, living it up at posh resorts and multi-million dollar contracts, drivers and mechanics did what they did for one purpose – to race. It wasn’t about making millions of dollars. It was about doing something they loved.
The chances are good that at any racetrack, be it NASCAR or your local short track, you will find someone who used to race or work on race cars, even if it was a glorified hobby.
Do yourself a favor when you see them. Sit for a few minutes and talk to them. For it is people like that who built the sport. You’ll be better for it. I know I was when I did so outside the infield media center at Daytona International Speedway in 2007 when Rick Minter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution insisted that I needed to meet White and Eddie Spurling.
At the least, people like White need to hear one thing from race fans.
Thank you.
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.