Darlington Review, Throwback Scheme Ratings, and Kansas Preview | Chasing The Cup S1:E15

In this episode of Chasing the Cup, the host reviews the throwback races from Darlington, the paint schemes from those races, and previews the upcoming races at Kansas. He discusses controversial moments, such as Joey Logano's win and the negative fan reaction, and shares his thoughts on the incidents. He also provides a summary of the results from the races in the Cup, Xfinity, and Truck series. Additionally, the host reviews various paint schemes and shares his favorites. Finally, he shares news updates, including TV ratings, sponsorships, and upcoming events. For the upcoming races at Kansas, the host picks Chandler Smith for the Truck race and Kyle Busch for the Cup race. 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 reviewing the throwback races from Darlington. I'll also review the paint schemes from those races from this past weekend. I'll also go over news and I'm going to preview this weekend's races at Kansas. But first, let's take a look at the results from Darlington. Joey Logano gets the win controversially at Darlington, followed by Tyler Rittich in second. Justin Ealy, who has a good run, finishes third. Kevin Harvick finishes fourth. Chase Elliott finishes fifth. Christopher Bell finishes sixth. Michael McDowell has a good run and finishes seventh. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. also has a good run and finishes eighth. Austin Dillon finishes ninth. Daniel Suarez rounds out the top ten. I'll tell you what, that was a great race. You got some great passing opportunities. The track was hard to drive. You got car slip and sliding with the old track surface. And of course, we gotta talk about that finish. On the restart, Byron got a little bit into Joey. Just sent him toward the wall. He didn't put him in the wall. But Byron let him back down. But then Joey decides, I'm gonna wreck this kid. He gives him a nudge and he sends him straight into the wall. And Joey Logano ends up getting the victory and none of the other drivers have a chance to run him down. And of course, because it's Joey Logano and based off of what he did, the fans booed him loudly. Which I'm not surprised about because people do not like Joey Logano. People like Kyle Busch. People like Kevin Harvick. Some people like Denny Hamlin. No one seems to like Joey Logano. Except maybe some of the fans that didn't like the Hendrick guys and they're the ones that were cheering Joey. But the majority? Uh, no. So, I'm gonna give my thoughts and my opinion. That was kind of a chicken poof move that Joey Logano made. I mean, all William Byron did was nudge him a little bit towards the wall. He didn't hit the wall or anything. And he let him back down. There's nothing wrong with that warranted giving him a shot into the back and sending him straight into the wall. That's unnecessary, Joey. That's ridiculous. I mean, come on. Now, if William put me into the wall, sure, I wouldn't wreck him. But he just gave him a little nudge. And Joey got so upset and a crybaby and he decided to bump him and put him in the wall. And he said it was payback. Really? Payback for that? That's just ridiculous. Joey's in over his head. That's why a lot of people don't like Joey. Because the way he drives. It's the same thing that he did to Matt Kinseth. Except Kinseth didn't hit the wall. But he did put Byron in the wall from that bump. Now, sure, as a Jeff Gordon fan, I know that there's the bump and run. But bump and runs are pretty much clean. You just hit the bumper and send them up the track and they don't crash or hit the wall. What Joey did, he hit him real hard and sent him to the wall. That's what I call wrecking. There's a difference between bumping runs and wrecking. Now, a lot of people seem to be confusing this incident with bumping runs. That wasn't a bump and run. That was a bump and dump. If you ask me, he just straight up rammed him in the butt and up into the wall he went. So he just dumped him, rammed his butt and sent him in the wall. That's what it was. And it was clear that it was on purpose and it was not warranted. So I expect William Byron to try and pay him back soon. I don't know where, but he's going to try. And William Byron needs to stand up for himself instead of just calling him an idiot. William Byron needs to stand up for himself and say, Joey, I didn't like what you did. If you do it again, I'm going to punch you in the face because I did not like that. I want you to do it again. He needs to show that if he gets messed with, it ain't going to be easy for you to get victories. Don't be a Mr. Nice Guy. Don't be a true X. In 2018, after getting the bump and run from Joey, then he said, he won the battle, but he ain't win the war. And he won the war. So don't do that. Just get out there and race him. Rough him up. Show him that you ain't going to be had with. So great race on the Contours finish. Overall, a very solid race for Cup. Next for Xfinity, Justin Allgaier rakes his winless streak and wins. Pat Darlington followed by Noah Gregson in second. Riley Herbst in third. John Hunter Nemechek in fourth. Sam Mayer in fifth. Landon Castle in sixth. Brandon Jones in seventh. AJ Allmendinger in eighth. Austin Hill in ninth. And Daniel Henrich rounds out the top ten. And that race was good overall too, but the finish was kind of lackluster. It could have been a little interesting with the worn out tires, but that didn't really happen. Instead, we just got an overtime restart and Allgaier just straight up drove away. It could have been interesting if Barry and Allgaier raced each other for the victory, but Barry decided to jump the restart. That led to him getting a penalty. So overall, a good race, but it's not as good as the Cup race. Next for Trucks. John Hunter Nemechek gets his first win of the season. Followed by Carson Husavar who finishes second again. Grant Engfinger finishes third. Tommy Majewski finishes fourth. Parker Kligerman finishes fifth. Ryan Preece finishes sixth. Zane Smith finishes seventh. Tyler Ankrum finishes eighth. Todd Bogine has a good run and finishes ninth. And Matt DiVenedetto rounds out the top ten. And this race was better than Xfinity, but in my opinion, it wasn't as good as Cup. But overall, this was a very solid race as well. But we gotta talk about the Front Stretch interview. Once again, the point that I made a couple weeks ago continues to be true that sometimes being near fans is not good. Especially if there's bad fans that really hate someone like the driver. And that showed itself on Friday night because someone threw a beer can at John Hunter Nemechek during his interview. Out of nowhere, you just hear, bang! I'm like, what was that? And then I take a look at the replay, and it was a beer can! The fan just straight up threw a beer can at John Hunter Nemechek. Why would you do that? Is it because you hate him? Is it because he drives for Kyle Busch? Does he win too much? Tell me, why is that necessary? Maybe I guess he was drunk, and he drank too much, and he said, eh, frick it, I'm going to throw the can at him. Watch this, bam! It's just ridiculous, and this really proves my point about the Front Stretch interviews and why we should go back to Victory Lane interviews because of stuff like that. And that really shows why we need to go back to Victory Lane interviews because the driver was in danger. He could have been smacked into the head with that beer can, and that would have been terrible if that guy had a better aim. So Fox, NBC, you got to think about this now that this has happened, now that you realize the driver is not safe out there when there's drunk people that will throw beer cans at him. Fox and NBC, you need to go back to Victory Lane interviews immediately because you're putting the driver in danger, you're putting your crew in danger, your equipment in danger because someone could get hurt or the equipment could be damaged if someone decides to throw a beer can at it. So please, just go back to Victory Lane interviews. So now, I pre-recorded the paint scheme reviews last week, but due to time constraints, I was unable to edit that section before Friday Night's Truck Series race. I did get the episode up before the race, but I did not include the reviews because I still had to edit it, but by the time you probably are listening to this, this will be edited into the episode. So let's go back to last week to our paint scheme review that I recorded, and I'll be back the present day to go over the news. So me from last week, take it away. First is Ross Chastain, who's throwing it back to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s 1998 Japan car, where Jr. made his first race in a cup car in the number one Coca-Cola Chevrolet Monte Carlo and raced against his dad, and it's well known that Dale Jr. got a shoe thrown at him after the race after he got into his dad. And so, this paint scheme looks really good. It looks almost exactly like it was, except for the split up numbers, which is a requirement now for the Cup Series, and although you don't see it right now in the NASCAR pictures that they have for the Throwback Weekend paint scheme preview, they did have to change the numbers slightly to the track house number one with that slash because of guess who? Teresa Earnhardt, that wicked witch of the east. Besides these things, this car looks great. Five out of five for me. Next is Austin Sindrick, who's throwing it back to Rusty Wallace in 2005. In my opinion, this looks okay, but it's kind of lousy because Menards is still using its colors as well as Libman, who was the primary sponsor, and they had to put on the green for that car, so it's kind of lazy because they didn't change the colors to whatever it was, which I believe was either blue or something, but I'd say it's still okay. Three out of five. Next is Kevin Harvick, who's throwing it back to his RCR days with the Ring Chasing a Cure paint scheme, which he ran back in the early 2010s. This car's pretty good. It's kind of lousy because he's throwing it back to himself and it's rather modern, but it's still pretty good. I'll give it a four out of five. Kyle Larson is throwing it back to Tim Richmond and throwing it back to how Hendrick Motorsports was back in the day, and this paint scheme is a great tribute to the past of Hendrick Motorsports, now that they're winning his team in NASCAR. It's a good tribute back to those early days in the mid-80s. I'll give it a five out of five. It looks really good. Next, Brad Keselowski is throwing it back to Mark Martin and his mid-2000s Viagra schemes, and this paint scheme is overall good. It's not accurate because there's some minor changes for the sponsor, but I'd say it's still good overall. I'll give it a four out of five. Next is Coriel Joy, who's throwing it back to Marty Robbins with the infamous number 777, and I really do love this paint scheme. It looks really good. Throwing it back to Marty Robbins with that purple and yellow, I'll give it a five out of five. Chase Elliott is throwing back to Jimmy Means' 1993 scheme, and the paint scheme looks pretty good. It's the newer NAB font and slightly different colors. This paint scheme still looks really good. I'll give it a four out of five. Next, Denny Hamlin is throwing it back to his 2016 Daytona 500 win. This paint scheme looks really good, but it's kind of lousy because he's throwing it back to himself again. I'll go four out of five. Chase Briscoe is throwing it back to Tony Stork's 2001 Indianapolis 500 car, and this paint scheme looks good, but it's not really a NASCAR he's throwing it back to. He's throwing it back to an Indy car when Tony Stork last attempted the double, when Tony became the only driver to complete all 1,100 miles. I'd say it's still a pretty good looking scheme. I'll do four out of five. J.J. Yelly is throwing it back to Clint Boyer's 2013 scheme, which of course was the Spingate scheme, and that paint scheme looks really, really good. It's a dark horse candidate for the best scheme. I'm thinking about giving it a five out of five, but I think I'll just go with a four out of five. Since I've not got Rick Ware racing right now, I'm going to go over Cody Ware's scheme, which is, I'll throw it back to Mike Stefanik's 1996 scheme. This paint scheme is pretty solid as well. I'll go four out of five for it as well. Next, Chris Buescher is throwing it back to Mack Kinsey's 2004 paint scheme, and this paint scheme looks really good too. Although the colors are not as accurate, the paint scheme still looks very solid. I'm going to go four out of five. Next, Kyle Busch is throwing it back to Ernie Irvin's 1998 paint scheme, which was part of a fan vote, and this was the car that ended up winning. This paint scheme looks really good as well, throwing it back to the years where M&M's was just starting out. I'll give it a four out of five. Christopher Bell is throwing it back to himself with his 2017 Truck Series Championship winning scheme, and this paint scheme, it's okay, but it's kind of a mess with the cub car, and it doesn't look as good, and it's kind of lazy because he's throwing it back to himself. I'm going to go two out of five. Harrison Burton is throwing it back to his father's 2000 paint scheme when he was racing for Roush in the number 99 Exide scheme, and this paint scheme looks very good, although it's not super accurate. It still looks like a very solid scheme. I'll go four out of five. Joey Logano is throwing it back to his first quarter minute paint scheme, and I don't really like this scheme because it's just a solid red with some yellow stripes. It's simple, but the Pennzoil logo seemed to ruin it a little bit. I'm going to give it a two out of five. Bubba Wallace is throwing it back to his 2008 late model, and this paint scheme's good, but it's kind of lazy because he's throwing it back to himself and was on a late model, and it's not really nostalgic. I'll go three out of five. And now a very nostalgic scheme, William Byron is throwing it back to Jeff Gord's 2007 paint scheme, which was the same paint scheme that he had from 2001 to 2008. This one is in the running for probably my favorite. It's a five out of five without question, and it looks great. It was a great paint scheme to begin with with Jeff Gordon, and it looks really good as well with this throwback as well. Five out of five for me. Cole Custer is throwing it back to Jason Leffler's paint scheme from 2003 and 2004. The paint scheme's good, but I think the colors aren't very accurate. I'm going to go three out of five. And now another one for probably my favorites are the Petty GMS schemes, starting off with Ty Dillon, who's throwing it back to Lee Petty's 1959 D2500 winning paint scheme. That paint scheme looks really good. I'm going to give it a five out of five. It looks really nice. Same thing with Eric Jones, throwing it back to Richard Petty with his first 500 paint scheme. It looks solid too. I'm going to go five out of five. Richard Petty, of course, did run that race, but he DNF'd early from an engine failure. So five out of five for both Petty GMS cars. Next, Kurt Busch is throwing it back to Bill Elliott's 1996 paint scheme. And this paint scheme looks pretty good too, except for the fact that Monster had to take a part of the scheme in the back, and it looks kind of funky back there. I'm going to go four out of five. Alex Bowman is throwing it back to Mark Martin's 1992 paint scheme. And this paint scheme looks pretty good too. Almost accurate to Mark. The colors are correct. It looks pretty good. I'll go four out of five. Lee J. McLeod is throwing it back to his 2004 weight model, which Josh Williams will be running in the Xfinity series as well. And this paint scheme looks okay. It's got the flames. So it's kind of a self-throwback as well. And the paint scheme is just pretty bland overall. I'll give it a three out of five. And that's it for the paint schemes. And for my favorite, it will probably be the 24. The 24 looks solid and throws me back to when I was a kid with my Jeff Gordon merch. It looks really nice. So that's it for the paint scheme ratings for the throwback race. So now let's take a look at the news. Starting off with TV ratings for Darlington, the cup race earned a 1.45 rating with 2.6 million viewers for the Goodyear 400, which beats out the F1 race at Miami by a significant margin when it comes to overall viewership. The Miami Grand Prix had a 1.08 rating with 2.066 million viewers, according to Adam Stern. But one big thing is the 18 to 49 demographic. 517,000 viewers watched the NASCAR race. Meanwhile, the F1 race got 735,000 viewers. So it's clear that F1 seems to appeal more to a younger crowd. But overall, their viewership isn't reaching the levels of NASCAR, even NASCAR on table. Brothers Osborne will have a on-track concert at the Nashville Super Speedway on June 26th. Renegade Insurance will be sponsoring Eric Balmarola. And their first race as a primary sponsor for the team will be for the Southern 500 in September. DoorDash is going to be the title sponsor of the truck race at Sonoma. It will be called the DoorDash 250. CRC Industries will also be the title sponsor for the truck race at Pocono. It will be called the CRC Brake Lane 150. A confluence festival has been created to celebrate the inaugural cup weekend at Gateway. Chase Elliott will be competing in the SRX season finale in July at Sharon Speedway, along with Ryan and Dave Blaney. Kings Hawaiian will be sponsoring Brad Keselowski for two races. These races will be Kansas and Nashville. Trevor Bayne, during the next couple of weeks, will be on standby for Kyle Busch because their surrogate is expected to be delivered sometime in the next couple of weeks. So Bayne is needed. He'll be there to standby at Kansas. He was there for Darlington, but he wasn't needed then because Kyle Busch ripped out, of course. But if Bayne is needed, he'll be put into the car. An update for the Goodyear tire test at Pocono, the test has been rescheduled for Wednesday, May 11th. And finally, O'Reilly Auto Parts will be sponsoring the truck race at Mid-Ohio. It will be called the O'Reilly Auto Parts 150. And so that's it for this week's news. So now let's preview this weekend's races at Kansas. First we have the truck race, which is the Heart of America 200. The race will be 134 laps and 201 miles. And the race will be on May 14th at 8pm Eastern Time. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with Chandler Smith. Chandler Smith won at Vegas, which is similar to Kansas. And he's been running good this year, so I think he'll get his second win of the season at Kansas. No expedity this weekend, so let's move on to the cup race, which is the Advent Health 400. The race will be 267 laps and 400 miles. And the race will be on May 15th at 3pm Eastern Time. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with Kyle Busch. Kyle Busch was in a position to win at Las Vegas, but a restart took him out of contention because Larsen and Buben were there to take it away from him. But I think this time he'll get redemption, and I think he'll win this weekend at Kansas. And so that's going to be it for this week's episode. If you enjoyed this episode, please like and subscribe for more. And if you're going out to Kansas this weekend, I hope you have a good time. And if you're not, have a good time wherever you are, and I'll see you next week.