1. What’s Next for Daniel Suarez?
It’s fair to say that Spire Motorsports’ gamble on Daniel Suarez this past offseason has been nothing short of a success.
Most NASCAR Cup Series drivers are lucky to get second chances. Suarez’s Spire ride represents his fourth chance on a major team (without counting his Gaunt Brothers Racing stint). He’s always been a serviceable driver, with one excellent win at Sonoma Raceway and one lucky win at EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta, but he’s never been that impressive.
This year, his strong spring was capped off with a big victory in the Coca-Cola 600, easily the biggest of his career. Only the second foreign-born crown jewel winner after Mario Andretti, Suarez now sits a very solid 10th in points.
It’s a new peak after a year-long valley that saw him finish a miserable 29th in points in 2025. And at this point, with Trackhouse Racing largely struggling to find consistent oval speed, it’s hard to say his move to Spire wasn’t a step up.
2. The Rain Was Here, There, and Everywhere
It’s interesting that of the five major race series run this past weekend, rain affected each of them differently.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series both spent Friday night and all of Saturday fighting a losing battle with the rain.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway had a couple of issues with rain in the latter half of the race but was able to continue and finish all 500 miles.
In Montreal, the race started in dry conditions. Rain itself did not actually come during the race, which ended up ruining the race for McLaren after its drivers started the Grand Prix on intermediate tires.
Finally, the Coca-Cola 600 wasn’t affected by rain until the final quarter of the race, much like Indy. Unlike Indy, however, the skies opened before the race concluded and the sanctioning body decided it wasn’t worth waiting hours to complete the final 27 laps.
Rain usually affects at least one race this weekend, but I don’t recall a time when so many were. Here’s to hoping that’s not an omen with the summer now upon us.
3. The NASCAR Time Limit Has Ended This Headline
The Truck race was ended at noon on Sunday, not because of rain, but because of a hard time limit FOX Sports had put on the broadcast.
There were plenty of people unhappy about this. It’s understandable on both sides that nobody likes to see TV interfere with the actual sporting aspect of the series. It’s the same reason why there’s been a big backlash on stage break lengths this year.
But from FOX’s perspective, it made zero sense to have any NASCAR race on its channel peel viewers away from the Indianapolis 500 pre-race ceremonies. This is the biggest moment at the biggest spectator event in the world, an event that FOX now has a vested ownership interest in. Unlike NASCAR, which it is subsidizing by paying for the broadcast rights.
I also didn’t mind that this particular race was given the hook. It was on pace for the longest Truck race of the year, a total mess with a series-record 11 cautions at Charlotte that came after two long days for this Truck garage already having to process the death of its most winningest driver last week. It was time to end it.
I actually don’t mind the idea of having a maximum race time for NASCAR. We see this in F1, F2, and F3, with it coming up more often in the latter two series. I shouldn’t sit down and spend more than three hours watching the lower series races. And TV, I’m sure, doesn’t tend to like it either when NASCAR blows past its time slot.
Maybe don’t have a maximum time limit for the crown jewel races. But for the other Cup races? It becomes just a grind after three and a half hours; set that as the time limit if they can’t complete the laps in that amount of time.
4. Eric Brennan Is Pretty Good at This
I am a big fan of Eric Brennan; he does an excellent job covering the CARS Tour and moonlighting as a fill-in Truck announcer.
I was not expecting that he was probably the best lap-by-lap announcer all Memorial Day weekend, with all due respect to Adam Alexander and Alex Jacques.
Go back and listen to the Atlanta Truck race a couple of months ago. In part because of who won it, but also because of how terrible the commentary was. There was no real sense of importance as to the clock ticking down in that race as well.
Brennan took the ball and ran with it on Sunday morning. It felt like the center of the world was predicated on this clock going down.
At the same time, earlier in the week, he did a stellar job in the impossible task of being the first lap-by-lap NASCAR broadcaster on-air following the death of Kyle Busch.
It’s illogical for Brennan not to be used when he is available for these Truck broadcasts, and to continue to rely on a Jamie Little experiment that has never worked in her five years in the booth.
5. Should the NASCAR Hall of Fame Change Its Processes for Kyle Busch?
NASCAR continues to reel from the death of Busch, a sudden event that has produced ripple effects throughout the industry.
Something I’ve seen some people suggest is to change the rules for the NASCAR Hall of Fame. In a Friday (May 22) press conference, NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said that NASCAR was considering making an exception to the HOF eligibility rules for Busch. One proposal is to hold a special session and vote him into next year’s class, which was voted on last Tuesday (May 19). Others have suggested waiving the minimum waiting period and have him voted on next year for the 2028 class.
Neither is a good idea. It’s unfair to Busch to treat him any differently than you would another HOFer. I keep track of the ballot voting history, and it would suck if I had to put an asterisk next to Busch’s name to explain why he was in this or that class.
It’s also unfair to the 2027 class and the eventual 2028 class. The Modern Era ballot next year will almost certainly include Martin Truex Jr. Tacking Busch onto the ballot would create an unnatural logjam, costing the other eight nominees another year toward their maximum of 10 years on the ballot.
Allowing him to be on that 2028 ballot would also deny him the chance of becoming the first, at least since the inaugural class, to be voted in via unanimous ballot. There would be votes that wouldn’t go to him because they disagree with the choice to waive his waiting period.
What’s more, we are going to see hundreds of Busch tributes over the next few years. His name isn’t going anywhere. Stuffing him into the Hall now would cheapen the induction and make it another thing. Wouldn’t it be better if he goes in for 2030, when things have slowed down a bit and the induction can be savored just a little bit more?
Michael has watched NASCAR for over 25 years and has covered it on-and-off for 14.
In addition to Frontstretch he also writes sporadically for his own websites GrandPrixFocus.com and StockCarFocus.com.
KB is one of the greats on the track–any track. He is definitely HOF material and should get in as soon as he’s eligible. However, I don’t think rules should be changed for him. Furthermore, I seriously doubt that he himself would want a rules change/quick way in.
Kyle Busch will get into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, so I don’t see any reason to expedite the process. Let the ballot evolve naturally according to the rules instead of making exceptions.
I don’t think it would be unfair to put Kyle in the Hall of Fame this year. He’s earned the right to be there as a Top Ten driver of all time and Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick knew him very well. Including Kyle doesn’t detract from their honors.
Ahh, Jamie Little was at Indy, that’s why Eric was in the trucks booth. Now I understand.
I hate to say it, because I like Jamie, but she’s at her best on pit road. She’s decent as a broadcaster, but Eric is better. He’s good at taming Waltrip’s antics in the booth, too.
Is there a precedent from other sports when an athlete dies before they go in the Hall of Fame? I’m fine either way, but not if Busch’s inclusion would remove another eligible driver’s chances.
The only time I can remember is when MLB waived the 5 year waiting period for Roberto Clemente after he died in the plane crash bringing supplies to Nicaragua after the earthquake.
Kyle Busch was a great driver, but not all that great a person. He needs to wait just like everyone else.
I think he deserves an induction now and I thought that it was very considerate of Elliott to think about pulling his name out of the voting for most popular driver, too. I am a huge Elliott fan but that shows great sportsmanship. I would vote for Kyle if Elliott pulls out of the ballot.
at the earliest put him on ballot for next year’s class. but rules are rules and now the 5 year clock is set for him.