Charlotte Review, Gateway and Portland Preview, and More | Chasing The Cup S1:E18

The host of the Chasing the Cup podcast, Wendell England, gives a summary of the recent races at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He talks about Denny Hamlin's win in the Cup Series, Josh Berry's win in the Xfinity Series, and Ross Chastain's win in the Truck Series. He also mentions some controversies and disappointments from the races. Wendell then provides updates on news and announcements in the NASCAR world, including driver changes, sponsorships, and TV ratings. He concludes by previewing the upcoming races at Gateway and Portland, and makes his predictions for the winners. Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cup. I'm your host, Wendell England, and in this episode, I'm going to be revealing the races from Charlotte. I'll also go over the news, and I'm going to preview this weekend's races at both Gateway and Portland. But first, let's get to the results from Charlotte. Danny Hamlin gets his second win of the season after starting on the pole, followed by Kyle Bush in second, Kevin Harvick in third, Chase Briscoe in fourth, Chris Grabelle in fifth, Tyler Reddick in sixth, Rick Easton House Jr. in seventh, Michael McDowell in eighth, Kyle Larson in ninth, and Alex Bowman rounds out the top ten. And so, wow, that was an amazing race. The Coke 600 did not disappoint. There was plenty of multi-groove, side-by-side racing, as well as major big wrecks, including Chris Buescher's big flint. I'm glad to see him get out of there safe and unscathed for the most part. And there was a lot of aggressive driving toward the end. Chase Briscoe tried to pass Kyle Larson on the inside, but he ended up just breaking himself and bringing out the caution for overtime. And then Austin Dillon had a big run on the first overtime restart, and as they came out of turn four, they went four wide. They just started a big wreck. And then Denny Hamlin meddled side-by-side with Kyle Busch until they got to the back straightaway and Denny Hamlin got the edge over Kyle. And one thing we gotta talk about is all these DNFs. Only 19 drivers completed the whole race. Jay Logano, Cole Custer, Austin Dillon, Noah Gregson, Daniel Suarez, Chris Buescher, Justin Haley, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Brett Kieslowski, Kurt Busch, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Austin Sendrick, and a whole bunch of others DNFed during this race and only 19 cars finished. Of course, some of it was caused by the five minute caution clock. Because if you can't get your car fixed in five minutes and meet minimum speed, you're done for the day. And that really resulted in more DNFs. Because drivers can't fix their cars after five minutes unless they're able to meet the minimum speed and they can come back in for another five minutes. So a lot of the big heavy hitters did not finish this race. But overall, this was an exciting, thrilling race with multi-groove racing, with a lot of big wrecks including that flip, and thrilling finishes toward the end. By far, in my opinion, the best race of the year. Next up is the Xfinity series. Josh Berry gets his second win of the season and wins in dominating fashion over Ty Gibbs, who finishes second, Sam Mayer in third, Noah Gregson in fourth, Ryan Preece in fifth, Daniel Hamrick finishes sixth, Justin Allgaier finishes seventh, Sheldon Creed finishes eighth, Trevor Vane finishes ninth, and Myatt Snyder rounds out the top ten. And that race was also pretty good, but there seemed to be a dirty air issue compared to the Cup series. Mostly because the Xfinity series is more closely related to the Gen 6, which creates some dirty air problems. After Josh Berry got into Justin Allgaier, he had a huge lead over Ty Gibbs. It was like 17 seconds. It was a massive lead. And then afterward, you had a controversy between Noah Gregson and Jeb Burton. Jeb was mad that he was raced pretty dirty by Noah Gregson. That led to a conversation after the race where both of them were not happy. So overall, Xfinity was good, but definitely not as good as that Cup race. I'd say the closest thing to topping the Cup race, although it really didn't, the closest race that nearly topped the Cup was probably the truck race. Ross Chastain returns to the Truck Series victory lane, followed by Grant Enfinger in second, John Hunter Demachek in third, Christian Ekes in fourth, Zane Smith in fifth, Kander Gray in sixth, Kyle Busch in seventh, Chandler Smith in eighth, Dirk Friesen in ninth, and Ben Rhodes rounds out the top ten. And so this race was better than Xfinity, and it's pretty close to Cup, but the Cup Series was just so much higher than the truck race. I mean, it was just a fantastic race for Cup, and Trucks was also great, but it didn't reach the pinnacle that Cup did. But Trucks was also a great race, even better than Xfinity. And the race was known for some temper slaring between Carson Husavar and Ryan Preece, who did triple duty in all three races. Coming to the white flag on an overtime restart, Ryan Preece was battling hard with Carson Husavar. Carson Husavar got into him, that sent both of them into the wall. Afterward, Carson Husavar was emotional because he still has to get his first win in a Truck Series, but Ryan Preece was quite mad at him, saying that it was just a dumb move on his part. And I guess both sides are correct. Yes, Carson Husavar didn't need to rough up Ryan Preece that much to cause both of them to get out of contention, but Carson's going for his first win. He needs to do whatever he can to get that win. Now, one disappointment was Haley Deegan, who finishes 27th. Haley had a mechanical issue during practice, and that led to her skipping qualifying to get that mechanical issue fixed, which they did, but they had to come up from the back. But she didn't really do that, and she stayed mostly up and out all day. But one thing that concerned me is that it looks like Haley Deegan is losing some of her support from the NASCAR fanbase, as a lot of people are calling her a bust. And yes, Haley Deegan isn't really living up to her current hype right now, but she is no bust. I can name several drivers that are even worse than Haley Deegan, even in that series, that race, and that competitive equipment. I think what made Haley Deegan run so par on Friday was because of her truck. Her truck was probably broken because of that mechanical issue, and then the speed wasn't there. I don't think both used this race as an excuse to say that she's a bust. Don't. There were other factors than her driving that truck. There was a mechanical issue, and I bet you the setup did not have much speed. All the other races, like Kansas, I could tell where her level is at. I think she's on the level of Riley Herffs right now, because her and Herffs were running about the same at Kansas. But something happened to her truck in the closing laps, and that led to her fading in the closing laps to finish 17th. To be honest, if her truck didn't become too ill, she probably would have gotten higher, maybe even a top 10 at Kansas. But this weekend, she just had a bad truck, and that led to her finishing well outside of the top 20. So don't give up on her just yet. She still has things to learn, and plus, the series is just filled with a bunch of idiots. So overall, a great weekend of racing at Charlotte, and it really shows that the next-gen car has really improved mile-and-a-half racing, and especially good because Gateway might put on a great show this weekend. Although it's the first time Cup's going, I think we're in for a good show at Gateway. But we'll get to that in a little bit. But first, let's get to the news. Gutt Heckard will be returning to BJ McLeod Motorsports in the number 5 for this weekend's race at Portland. Darren Dilley will be making his Xtend-A-Series debut at Portland for RSS Racing. Phoenix will be once again hosting the Championship weekend in 2023. Eric Jones says that he would like to return to Petty GMS in 2023. So that's a little Saly Season news for ya. The NASCAR Technical Institute and Napa Auto Parts have launched a new collaboration with Chase Elliott and Ron Kaps. Worldwide Express will be sponsoring Carson Josefvar in 8 races. ESPN said that they will be talking with NASCAR about their next media rights deal, but is right now happy with F1 as the flagship racing property for ESPN. So keep an eye on that. ESPN might be part of the next deal if they are still interested. Shell and Pennzoil have extended their partnership with Team Pesky. Kimi Räikkönen, the 2007 Formula 1 World Champion, will be making his Cup Series debut at Watkins Glen as part of the Project 91 entry from Trekhuis Racing. Connor Mosack will be making his NASCAR XFAMILY Series debut at Portland with Joe Gibbs. Mason Phillippe has joined DGM Racing at Portland International Raceway. Bomberito Automotive Group will be sponsoring Eric Jones' number 43 at this weekend's race at the Worldwide Technology Raceway. And since I didn't get to go over it last time, here are the All-Star Race TV ratings. FS1 got a 1.38 rating and 2.481 million viewers for the All-Star Race, which is down from a 1.64 rating and 2.735 million viewers from last year, which was in mid-June, with the 18-49 demographic bringing in 545,000 viewers. So it seems to continue to get more clear that cable is dying as the cable ratings continue to go down to oblivion. And that's something I'm not hopeful for with the NBC portion of the schedule. I hope that they can get more viewership on USA than Fox is getting on FS1, which is possible. USA has more subscriptions than FS1, but we'll have to see. Corey LeJoy and Kelly LeJoy have announced the birth of their son, Jensen Daniel LeJoy. This is LeJoy's second child as their son, Levi, is two years old. And so that's it for this week's news. Let's now preview this weekend's races at both Gateway and Portland. I'm going to begin with the outlier, which is the Xfinity race at Portland, which will be called the Pacific Office Automation 147. The race will be 75 laps and 147.52 miles. And the race will be on June 4th at 4.30pm Eastern Time. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with AJ Almendinger. AJ Almendinger is just one of those drivers that is just a road course specialist. And I think he'll get his second win of the season this weekend at Portland. Now let's move on to both the truck and cabruces at Gateway, starting with the trucks. We have the Toyota 200. The race will be 160 laps and 200 miles. And the race will be on June 4th before the Xfinity race at 1.30pm Eastern Time. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with Carson Hosovar. Carson Hosovar was so close to getting the win at Charlotte, but I think this time he'll get redemption and will win this weekend at Gateway. And finally, we have the inaugural Cup Series event, which is the Enjoy Illinois 300 presented by TicketSmarter. The race will be 240 laps and 300 miles. And the race will be on Sunday, June 5th at 3.30pm Eastern Time. So let's take a look at the weather for Sunday's race at Gateway. On Sunday, it'll be mainly cloudy, with a stray shower or thunderstorm possible with a high of 82 degrees Fahrenheit. Winds south at 510 miles per hour and a 24% chance of rain. So a possible rain shower probably won't affect the race long term. Probably just a little pop up and then they can get the track dried. Hopefully it's not a series of pop ups. But they do have lights, but it's not looking good as we go later on during the day. On Sunday night, it'll be partly cloudy with an isolated thunderstorm possible after midnight to the low of 65 degrees. Winds south to southeast at 5 to 10 miles per hour with a 31% chance of rain. So the later on they go into the day, the higher the chance of rain. So I hope they can get the race in during the day when there's not a huge chance of rain, but we'll have to see what happens. So you may want to bring your umbrella or poncho just in case of a stray shower pops up or those isolated thunderstorms set during the night if it's delayed that long. And so for my pick, I'll go with Kyle Busch. Kyle Busch won Xfinity Series race here back in 2009 and he's been doing good so far this season and I think he'll be a contender and he'll win the inaugural race at Gateway this weekend. 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 to either Gateway or Portland 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.