NASCAR used all of the tools at their disposal to restart the race and run it to the advertised distance of 499 miles, plus a few more, rather than calling it when the red flag flew for rain on lap 124. That threw out a ho-hum finish, turned it wild and gave the Davids a chance to beat up on Goliath.
_Did you miss an event during this busy week in racing? How about a late-night press release, an important sponsorship rumor, or a juicy piece of news? If you did, you’ve come to the right place! Each week, The Frontstretch will break down the racing, series by series, to bring you the biggest stories that you need to watch going forward for the week ahead. Let our experts help you get up to speed, no matter what series you might have missed, all in this edition of Pace Laps!_
*In A Nutshell:* With varying pit strategies, and after a number of wrecks, the final 20 laps came down to a battle between Takuma Sato, Josef Newgarden, and James Hinchcliffe. Sato held strong, with a few questionable moves that seemed like blocks, but he could not gap those behind him and ultimately fell victim to Hinchcliffe’s better car during the final lap. Hinchcliffe earned his second win of the year (and his career) while Sato took second, Marco Andretti third, Oriol Servia fourth, and Newgarden faded to fifth.
Talladega Superspeedway is a favorite among NASCAR’s viewers, but it has fewer fans amongst the garage area. For fabricators, it means even longer hours in the shop. For drivers, it means a gamble, roll of the dice chance of winning the race or winding up with a heap of scrap metal to be loaded back onto the hauler.
For Ryan Newman, it’s been more of the latter. Eight DNFs in 28 races — including last Sunday’s unbearably long event — is a good indication as to why.
Daytona and Talladega have been considered major equalizers in NASCAR’s national series for many years. Sure, the guys who you’d expect to win tend to do so, but that’s not before a couple of underdogs who challenge for the victory in some capacity, either eventually scoring solid finishes or wrecking out trying to do it.
Sunday night didn’t change that trend forever, but it did throw a real wrench into the equation. Front Row Motorsports _won_ a NASCAR race.
It’s not often NASCAR races threaten to be called by sunset, especially with many tracks having installed lights. But when an afternoon event is delayed three hours due to rainy weather, these things tend to happen.
Not that Regan Smith probably minds. After NASCAR cut the race by ten laps Saturday, with looming darkness while a late crash by Joey Coulter dragged the event further into black skies, Smith made a daredevil move coming into the tri-oval on the final lap. As he dove to the inside, several cars wrecked behind him, but Smith pulled ahead right at the point of caution, winning the Aaron’s 312(ish).
Never Fear, the Underdogs are Here: Richmond I Edition by Amy Henderson Editor’s Note: This year, we’re going to switch things up a little bit. …
After a pair of incidents that ended with torn-up race cars and hurt feelings (not to mention Denny Hamlin’s hurt back) it seems as though the Hamlin-Joey Logano spat is the latest in a line of mini-rivalries to crop up when two drivers just can’t seem to stay away from each other on the racetrack. Before that, there was Jeff Gordon and Clint Bowyer, culminating in an ugly ending at Phoenix. It seems as though every time two drivers are angry with each other after a race, people want to make the incident into a brewing, long-term rivalry for the ages. The only problem is… they aren’t.
NASCAR needs a rivalry, and it’s certainly easy to see two drivers feuding and to cultivate that into something it’s simply never going to be.
Dear prospective buyer,
Let me start off by saying that I understand your potential concern. NASCAR is not the quickly-growing sport it used to be, and Nationwide Series races aren’t supremely well-attended.
But really, give the NASCAR Nationwide Series a chance.
*What’s News?*
Longtime series participants Dreyer & Reinbold Racing have announced the No. 22 car driven by Oriol Servia will continue to run through the Indianapolis 500; then, the team will be shutting down with hopes of regrouping for a return in 2014. Servia finished sixth in Long Beach and will be running in Sao Paulo this weekend; however, his plans beyond this month are unknown. DRR formed a strategic alliance with Panther Racing prior to the Indy 500 last season and notes that Panther’s operations will be unaffected by this decision.