Martinsville Review, Post Race Interview Debate, and Bristol Dirt Preview | Chasing The Cup S1:E11

In this episode of "Chasing the Cup," the host, Will England, discusses the races from Martinsville, giving his opinion on the disappointing Cup Series race. He also talks about the Xfinity and Truck Series races, highlighting notable moments and results. Will then delves into a debate on front-stretch interviews versus victory lane interviews and shares news in NASCAR, including driver updates, race ratings, and a scary incident involving threats made towards Chase Cabray, Haley Deegan's boyfriend. Finally, Will previews the upcoming races at Bristol Dirt and makes his picks for the winners. Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cup. I'm your host, Will England, and in this episode, I'm going to be revealing the races from Martinsville. I'll also give my opinion on the debate from last week. I'll also go over the news, and I'm going to preview this weekend's races at Bristol Dirt. But first, let's take a look at the results from Martinsville. William Byron gets his second win of the season, becoming the first multi-winner of the Next Gen era. Joey Logano finishes second after attempting a bump and run, but the bump and run failed for Joey. Third was Austin Dillon. Ryan Blaney finished fourth. Ross Chastain finished fifth. Kurt Busch finished sixth. Kyle Busch finished seventh. Eric Amarillo finished eighth. Chase Briscoe finished ninth, and Chase Elliott rounds out the top ten. I'm not going to cover it up. Martinsville this weekend was a disappointment for the Cup Series. I'm not sure what it was, but it wasn't living up to the Martinsville standards that we had with previous generations of cars like the Gen 4, Gen 5, and Gen 6. And I've heard theories like the hard tire compound and the shifting, but I don't think it's shifting because we've had great races on road courses with this car, so I don't think shifting is the problem. So I think the problem might be with the hard tire compound or something like that. It definitely was not the car itself that was causing problems with the racing. It had to be some other thing. I'm thinking maybe the tire compound, because Goodyear brought a harder compound for Martinsville, I'm afraid that's what may have caused the bad racing, because there's very little tire wear. I'd say also another factor was probably because the drivers had it in their head after what happened the night before, they wanted to race cleanly. In my opinion, a lot of fans are overreacting. This race was bad, but it wasn't very bad. In my opinion, despite Phoenix and Richmond having more cautions, the racing itself for both of those races was pretty bad as well. Meanwhile, Martinsville is a driver's track because of the tight corners, and you need to go fast down the front and back straightaways, and then you gotta brake hard into the corners. Meanwhile, Richmond and Phoenix you can just lift. So in my opinion, Phoenix and Richmond were worse, because those racetracks are too wide, and it's really hard to pass there. And although Martinsville was really hard to pass, it was more of a physical thing, and it wasn't caused by dirty air. It was because of a tire compound. And I'd say probably Goodyear will go back to the drawing board, maybe do a tire test to test the tires. I guess we'll see if the Martinsville and the Follow race is better. I'd say Goodyear might have a better tire compound, and two of the drivers will be definitely more aggressive, because it's the last race before the Championship 4. So this race might be an outlier for Martinsville in the next-gen era. But something that was an outlier for how crazy it was, was the Xfinity race. Brandon Jones gets his first win since Darlington in 2020, followed by Landon Castle in second. AJ Allmanger in third, Austin Hale in fourth, Sam Mayer in fifth, Riley Herbst in sixth, Ryan Trebek in seventh, Ty Gibson eighth, Ryan Segan ninth, and Jeremy Clements, who had Eric Esif's out of the groove on his car, rounds out the top ten, and Dale Earnhardt Jr., who made his return, finishes eleventh. And that race was pretty much a Rickfest. You had guys beating and banging to each other, you had that parking lot on the front straightaway during the first attempt of the Greenlight Checkered, when Sam Mayer couldn't get going, and then AJ got in the back of him, and that sent Sam Mayer into the pack, and that pretty much caused a big parking lot on the front straightaway coming into turn one. And then on the final restart, coming to the white flag, Ty Gibson and Sam Mayer get into each other, and then Ty Gibson gets pissed off, and he rams into the back of the one. They pull into pit lane, Sam Mayer's probably a little pissed, Ty Gibson's the big pissed, he comes over to Sam Mayer, they start arguing, and then after having a conversation, they start shoving each other, and then Ty Gibson throws a punch, and it leads to a pretty big fight, and the crowd's going crazy, and then after the fight breaks up, they interview Ty Gibson, and the fans boo him, like Kyle Busch, and then Ty Gibson, of course, went to NASCAR-Holler, not for one thing, but two things. Ty Gibson apparently did not slow down when the caution came out, which of course, is probably like the first rule of auto racing, which is to slow down under caution. It's a mandatory thing that you should know in auto racing, that you should slow down during yellow flag, and then he had to probably go to the Holler to settle his differences with Sam. And tell you what, that race was crazy. And it was probably the best race of the weekend, not because of how crazy it was, but the racing was also really good as well. And finally, let's go over the Truck Series results from Martinsville. William Byron returns to Truck Series victory lane for Spire Motorsports. Johnny Sauter, who was making his first race of the season with Thor Sport, had to start in the back because he didn't have any points, but had the championship provisional. He finished second after a crazy race, beating and banging with different people. Kyle Busch finished third. John Harnonemacek finished fourth. Ben Rhodes finished fifth. Chandler Smith finished sixth. Matt Crafton finished seventh. Grant Anfinger finished eighth. Zane Smith finished ninth. And Tyler Ankrum rounds out the top ten. And that race was pretty good as well. It wasn't as chaotic as the Xfinity race, and was still a solid race. Probably one of the standout moments from that race was Hayley Deegan's confrontation with Wallace Allen, which she posted on her vlog last night, and when I went to watch it before I recorded this episode, it was trending number 12 on YouTube. The only people that were above her were like YouTube juggernauts like Mr. Beast, the Film Theorist, PewDiePie, all them. And she was in the top 12 trending on YouTube. And she had a well-needed good day, finished 19th, but she had issues with two drivers, Johnny Sauter, who straight up put her in the wall early, then Wallace Allen, who was racing her like an idiot, and she was more mad at Lawless than Johnny. And I'd say probably after she confronted Lawless, she probably went to see Johnny Sauter, and they probably settled their differences. To be honest, I'm not sure if Lawless and her have settled their differences, so I wouldn't be surprised if she races him at Bristol Dirt this weekend, especially since she's gonna be one of the favorites this weekend because of her dirt background. So overall, a very solid race, great racing, as well as tempers flaring. So now let's go over a debate that a lot of people inside the sport are discussing, and that is front stretch interviews versus victory lane interviews. The argument began when Seth Sharp posted on Twitter, There's just something about watching a car drive into victory lane. The anticipation of them climbing out of his car for the first time with their entire team right there, cheering and celebrating with them doesn't feel forced absolutely perfect to me. And then Dale Earnhardt Jr. took this conversation further and said, I have to agree that this does more for me than the often awkward front stretch interviews. The first thing a driver usually wants to do after taking the trigger flag is get to his crew to celebrate. It is a special moment. And that's what a lot of fans have been saying, and they mostly like to side with Dale Jr. on this. But there are some that disagree, like Fox Sports' play-by-play announcer Mike Joy, who said, Victory lane got to be a joke. People drape a towel on the driver covering up his poncers, put hats on his head, change the minute interview, stack crap on the roof of the car, and even put up a fence so he couldn't swat competing brands off of his roof. Sad fight for TV airtime. In my opinion, Mike Joy kind of has a point. Front stretch interviews do allow for the driver's immediate reaction after doing a quick burnout, getting out of the car, and of course the fans are right behind him as he's getting interviewed and they're cheering loudly. And then they also can get the driver's sponsors, and then they can go to victory lane celebrate. And although this is great, I have to side with victory lane interviews for specifically one reason, and that is the fans. Although there are fans that are good, there are also fans that are bad. And that really showed itself last year in the Fall Xfinity race, when Brandon Brown got his first Kroger win in an upset after the race was called short because of limited daylight. And although the fans loved that he won, there was only thing that they hated that they wanted to get out of their mouth. That it was the current President of the United States, Joe Biden, saying three specific words that have become synonymous with the hatred of this President. But then NBC Sports, instead of trying to keep up with the interview, they decided they wanted to try to cover it up. And so Kelly Savasse said that they're chanting, let's go Brandon. And that led to a lot of conservatives now use the term, let's go Brandon. And it's become such a divisive chant that it has basically ruined the man that the chant was supposed to be named after. But instead of being Brandon Brown's chant, it was a chant for the hatred of Joe Biden. As a way to work around saying cuss words of cussing Joe Biden, they can say the same thing by saying, let's go Brandon. In my opinion, NBC Sports probably needs to pay back Brandon Brown for ruining his life for that. That is just ridiculous. That Kelly Savasse and her bosses would try to cover that up by saying, let's go Brandon. In my opinion, this shows that front stretch interviews probably should not be a thing. Because of the rowdy fans. Because all they want to do is cheer for their driver and hate the people that they hate. Like President Joe Biden. In my opinion, that is why we need to go back to Victory Lane celebrations. Because although the sponsors are being covered up and there's crap on the roof like Mike Joyce says, you'll be able to celebrate with the crew and as well you'll get away from those rowdy fans that only seem to care about the hatred of the President of the United States. And not much about NASCAR itself. The people that are chanting this are probably those conservatives that are on Facebook and always typing the comments of a NASCAR post saying, NASCAR died with Dale. Of course, NASCAR is not dead. In my opinion, it's more healthier than it probably has been in a while. In my opinion, NASCAR needs to try to stay away from those fans as possible. Although most of them are probably your core audience, they are very toxic. And they need to stray away from them when they're angry at somebody like a person in power. But let's get out of this debate as well as get away from these politics. Instead, let's go over the news in NASCAR. Kaz Grahl will be driving for Big Machine Racing at Talladega and Dover in the number 48. The reason why they're putting Grahl in the car instead of Jade Buford is that Big Machine Racing wants to evaluate the aspects of the team and determine how to run up front according to team member Scott Porchetta. Jacob Construction will join Cole Custer for the Bristol Dirt Race on the number 41 for SHR. And now we have to get into the Martinsville TV ratings, which don't look as good as they were in previous weeks. Because this race was on FS1, Fox averaged a 1.10 Nielsen rating and 1.885 million viewers according to showbuzzdaily.com, which was down more than half from the previous week's race on Fox. And I'd say the reason why it was below the average was because it's on cable and according to Adam Stern, there was no direct competition, which means there were not a lot of other people watching cable on Saturday night. But NASCAR is still up 17% from last year, probably because the Daytunnel 500 did not get rained out. And I'd say it'll probably keep going up if Bristol does not get rained out this weekend. Josh Williams will make his NASCAR Cup Series debut at Bristol this weekend for Live Fast Motorsports in the number 78. The number 3 is back in the Xfinity series, as Jeffrey Earnhardt will be driving for Richard Childress Racing in the Xfinity race at Talladega. Jeffrey, of course, is the grandson of Dale Earnhardt and the nephew of Dale Earnhardt Jr. And if you're a Jimmy Johnson fan, you probably were kind of upset to hear this, that Jimmy Johnson was injured on Friday during a practice crash at Long Beach, where he was cleared to race. And then yesterday, he underwent surgery, and Jimmy is expected to make a complete recovery and will be unaffected for his Indy 500 debut on May 29th. Justin Allgaier will be driving for Spire Motorsports number 77 at Bristol Dirt this weekend. Darrell Waltrip will be back in a Fox Sports booth this weekend at Bristol Dirt, joining Mike Joy and Clint Boyer. And if you're going up to Bristol this weekend, souvenir programs for the Food City Dirt Race will be available for free in both print and digital formats. I've been going to Bristol for years now, and usually these souvenirs are usually like a few dollars, including a t-shirt and a die cast, as well as the starting lineup. And I'd say probably if you want to get the die cast and t-shirt and all that, you probably have to pay a little extra, but the program itself will be free. Clint Boyer will be inducted into the Talladega Walk of Fame on Friday, April 22nd. Matt Jaskal has been released from G2G Racing. RFK's penalties have been upheld, which means that RFK will have the 100-point penalty and $100,000 fine. And Brad Kisnowski finally gave the details why they were given the penalty. It was because of a repaired tail panel. Apparently NASCAR did not like. Wise EV has joined as a partner for Michael McDowell and Front Row Motorsports, starting at Texas. The search engine known as Yahoo has joined TRD in a multi-year sponsorship agreement and has become the official partner of TRD and will receive assets as part of the agreement, including primary schemes with Toyota-backed Joe Gibbs teams. Harrison Burton will drive for DGR in the Bristol Dirt Track Race this weekend, and like I said last week, here are the Richmond TV ratings. Fox earned a 2.3 rating and 3.98 million viewers for the Richmond Race, which is up double digits from Bristol Dirt last year and Richmond Spring event last year. And finally, I'm going to go over probably one of the scariest news stories, which is Threats Made former ARCA Menards Series driver Chase Cabret, who also is the boyfriend of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver Haley Deegan. Apparently, a man in his mid-30s was being catfished by a fake Haley Deegan account that was telling the guy that Chase Cabret was abusing Haley, and that led to him making threats toward Haley's boyfriend, Chase Cabret, and that has led to Haley missing the Freedom 500, which is a race that is put together by YouTuber Cletus McFarland, and her father Brian Deegan actually won that race, but she had to miss it because of this. I tell you, that's also the reason why she didn't post a blog for COTA, because Chase probably didn't go because of the threats made. So I hope they can get this settled out, and I hope they can settle this without any big problems. And so, let's preview this weekend's races at Dirt Bristol. For the truck race, we have the Pentees Truck Race on Dirt. The race will be 150 laps and 75 miles, and the race will be on April 16th at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. So for my pick for the truck race, I'm going to go with Joey Logano. He'll be racing in the 54 for DGR, and DGR has looked pretty strong, and as well, Joey Logano won the first Cup race on Dirt at Bristol last year, so I'm going to go with Joey Logano. No Xfinity races this weekend because the Xfinity race does not run on Dirt. So finally, we have the Cup Series, which is the Food City Dirt Race. The race will be 250 laps and 125.5 miles, and the race will be on Easter Sunday, April 17th at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. So now let's take a look at the weather for the Cup race. The forecast is probably looking the best it has been for a while now. Sunday night, partly cloudy skies with increasingly cloud cover overnight, with a low of 46 degrees Fahrenheit, with winds southeast at 5 to 10 miles per hour, with a chance of rain of 24 percent. And so, this is probably the best the weather has looked, because usually the forecast has been either raining all day, or sunshine today and rain at night. But now, it looks like it's not going to rain, or if there is, it might just rain a little bit. Of course, the low will be 46, so it'll be kind of chilly. Probably won't be freezing cold, but I'd say you probably want to bring a coat to keep yourself a little warm. I'd say probably you do not want to wear any shorts or short-sleeve shirts, because of course it's a night race and it can get a little chilly. And so, my pick for the Cup race, I'm going to go with Daniel Suarez. Daniel Suarez straight up moved Martin Trucks Jr. out of the way during the Bristol Dirt Race last year, and that was in the Gen 6 car when track house racing was on the rise. So with this new car, with everything being more equal, I could see Daniel Suarez getting the win. And I'd say he'll definitely be a threat. So keep an eye on Suarez this weekend, as well as other dirt track specialists like Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell. They probably will run good as well. But I think because of how good track house racing looks, I'm going to go with Suarez. And so that's it for this week's episode. If you enjoyed this episode, please like and subscribe for more. And if you're going out this weekend to the Bristol Dirt Races, if you have a good time, I'll be there. I may record a vlog. I'll see what I get into. A lot of other YouTubers will be there as well. And if you're not, have a good time wherever you are. I'll see you next week.