Bowles-Eye View: Smoke & Mirrors With a Little Dead Weight Thrown In
After starting the Chase in critical condition, Tony Stewart’s rocky season has been righted.
After starting the Chase in critical condition, Tony Stewart’s rocky season has been righted.
Apparently, when hyping up this year’s Chicago-based Chase debut, NASCAR forgot to send an invite to Mother Nature.
The “Have At It Boys, Era!” in NASCAR was supposed to create driver rivalries with their peers – not the press box.
Three weeks into August, the only thing missing from NASCAR’s Race to the Chase is that boxing announcer obnoxiously shouting, “In THIS corner….”
What a nice little assist Brad Keselowski got from Mother Nature, right?
I’m a stats guy living in a writer’s body, a failed mathematician with a healthy dose of superstition on the side. So it’s no surprise to me that as Brad Keselowski crossed the finish line, completing one of the great “iron man” performances in recent history all that I could think about was similar to a closing line from Sesame Street:
_This race has been brought to you by the letters K, J, and the number two._
Sounds silly, right? Especially considering what Keselowski did was a physical feat rarely equaled in NASCAR’s Chase era; only Denny Hamlin’s torn ACL, then seemingly instantaneous recovery post-surgery in Victory Lane at Texas last season can compare. It was a _two-pronged_ lift for the driver in his sophomore season – comments after the race, humbly praising soldiers killed in Afghanistan as the real heroes also moved mountains in establishing himself as a role model, not a rebel amongst the fan base. Off the track, Keselowski can no longer be viewed by his peers as a one-hit wonder; he’s the first driver in years to move up the ranks the right way, from Trucks to Nationwide to Cup and develop into a proven major-league talent.
Five years. 167 starts. Four different NASCAR Sprint Cup organizations. For Paul Menard, the numbers were adding up everywhere but the victory column.
As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ends its final off week this Monday, the biggest story affecting the sport has little to do with Nashville’s empty crowd.
A winless Dale Earnhardt Jr. will likely struggle at Indy, where he’s been spotty at best and then the pressure mounts.
As The Kentucky Speedway Turns had its latest plot twist Monday, two days after the sport’s newest Cup Series track took one on the chin.
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