Daytona Review, Playoff Predictions, and Darlington Preview | Chasing The Cup S1:E27

In this episode of Chasing the Cup, the host reviews the races from Daytona, including the results and the rain delay. The host also discusses the TV ratings for the race and criticizes NBC for their handling of NASCAR. The host then gives predictions for the upcoming races at Darlington, including the Xfinity and Cup Series races. Finally, the host discusses the playoff grid for the Cup Series and gives predictions for who will be eliminated in each round and who will make it to the final four. The host also provides news updates and previews the Xfinity and Cup Series races at Darlington, giving their picks for the winners. Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cup. I am your host Will England and in this episode I'm going to be reviewing the races from Daytona. I'll take a look at the Cup Series Playoff Grid and give my predictions round per round. I'll also go over the news and I'm going to preview this weekend's races at Darlington including the Southern 500. But first, let's take a look at the results from Daytona. Austin Dillon breaks a 78 race winless streak and becomes the 16th different winner in 26 races, followed by his teammate Tyler Redick in 2nd. Austin Sindra finishes 3rd. Landon Castle finishes 4th. Noah Gregson finishes 5th. Cody Ware finishes 6th. B.J. McLeod finishes 7th. Martin Trucks Jr. finishes 8th. David Reagan finishes 9th. And Kyle Busch both rounds out the top 10 and also rounds out the lead lap cars. Which probably means, you know what? That was a wreckfest. That was a crazy race. First it gets postponed to Sunday morning and then the racing was very good. There were some big ones but the racing was very good overall until it rained in Turn 1. We talked about storms around but the track remained green until we made it past the halfway point and around stage 3 with 21 to go it started pouring in Turn 1 and only the spotters knew that it was raining back there. So the spotters said that you need to be aggressive going into Turn 1. Don't lift. And then as they entered Turn 1 where that wet spot is, the massive one hit. I mean that's probably the biggest wreck that the next gen car has had. Cars skittering and scattering everywhere. It took out basically half the field. And Austin Dillon was able to make it through. And to be honest I thought he would have won at first because of rain. But NASCAR somehow waited long enough to get the track dry and it stopped raining at 3. Which makes me question, why did NASCAR have to start at 10am when they could have waited out the rain and gotten the race started at like 3 and have to sacrifice 3 million viewers because of it. But I'll get to the TV ratings in a little bit. But after Red Flag was lifted and we backed to green, there were only 10 cars left on the lead lap. Now I already gave those. And it's quite topsy-turvy because you got Landon Castle who's in the Spire 77. That's not really competitive. Noah Grixen is in the 62. He gets his first top 5 in the Beard car. And then Cody Ware gets probably his first top 10 and he usually finishes last every week. Same thing with BJ McLeod. He usually finishes last every week. David Reagan is usually a mid-of-the-pack driver when he's in the 15. And then everyone else is pretty good. And then in the closing laps, Austin Sendrick and Austin Dillon were battling for the lead. And Austin Dillon got a little bit into Austin Sendrick and that allowed Austin Dillon to go away with the win. I'd say that was very aggressive and it probably wasn't warranted. He could have passed him cleanly and he didn't really need to do that. Especially when you're going 180 miles per hour in a pack. Although it's a 4 car brake away, it was still a pack. And that led to Austin Dillon getting the victory. Man, there are so many factors I gotta talk about. First off, I gotta talk about NBC again. Because first off, NBC didn't start broadcasting the race until 30 minutes after its start time because they were still showing golf. Which was under a lightning delay itself. Which really shows NBC's hypocrisy. They'll delay NASCAR so they can get golf in, but they won't delay another sport and have to boot NASCAR to cable. Sometimes it's just plain hypocrisy from NBC sports. Especially since NASCAR is probably bigger than most sports that they are making way for. And then, I'm pretty sure it was NBC's idea to do 10am. I think NASCAR was put into a box. I think NBC said, you got 10am and that's it and you're being booted to CNBC. I mean, come on NBC. Why do you have to boot NASCAR to cable every time that it gets delayed or postponed? Why? Fox never did that. Such as with the Bristol Dirt Race last year. They put the Bristol Dirt Race on Monday at a good time and it still did very good in the TV ratings. But, in a little bit I'll take a look at the TV ratings and the ratings are pitiful for Daytona. NBC did a terrible job. Why 10am and why CNBC? That's why I think NBC will not come back after 2024 to broadcast races. Because their priorities are screwed up. They treat NASCAR like trash. As just another sport in their arsenal and not like a top motorsport. Like they treat IndyCar despite IndyCar having very low ratings. It just shows how screwed up NBC's priorities are. So I hope after 2024 I do not see NBC broadcasting NASCAR ever again. At least in this current state. And I hope that the NBC sports crew that does the NASCAR stuff, they find another network to go to that's good like ESPN or CBS or maybe some of them get hired by Fox. Because Fox is very dedicated to the sport. Because on Sunday mornings before the Daytona 500 and the Coke 600, they'll have Fox and Friends at the track. Which is more coverage than MSNBC has of the sport. And they'll have drivers and team owners come up and talk about things. Meanwhile, the other political channel, MSNBC, they don't talk anything except politics. Meanwhile, Fox News will have stuff about NASCAR on those Sunday mornings at Daytona and Charlotte. And Fox has more races on Big Fox and not FS1. Finally, Fox does not boot any of the races to cable for any reason. If it starts on Fox or FS1, it stays on Fox or FS1. And they treat other sports the same way. So Fox really cares about TV ratings. Because they know if they boot a race to cable, then the ratings are going to be atrocious. But NBC just doesn't care. All they care about is how many sports they have and how professional they look. It doesn't matter what type of sport it is. They don't care if it's lacrosse, racing, softball, baseball, football, whatever. If it's a sport, it's a sport. And sports are the least priority for the network. And if it interferes with their politics, then it's getting booted. And then I gotta talk about the Turn 1 stuff. The spotters knew, but NASCAR apparently did not see the rain in Turn 1. Because apparently it hit after the green came out. And it didn't really get started until the front straightaway. So it literally just happened. So I'd say NASCAR may have the benefit of the doubt this time. But I think NASCAR needed to listen to the spotters of the drivers. Because there's some of the spotters that said that it's raining in Turn 1. And I think NASCAR should have checked. Although they didn't have that much time to check. They should have checked it quickly to make sure it was raining. But I don't think they had the time to throw the yellow flag before they came into that section. So this time I'll give NASCAR the benefit of the doubt. And so overall, it was very good for a plate race. But what ruined it was all the crazy racing with the rain coming in the final stage. And then the massive wreck from the rain. And then the pretty boring racing afterward. Next up for Xfinity, Jeremy Clements breaks a 164 race win with streak. And gets his third victory against his first Daytona win. And this is probably the top-siest, terribiest top 10 that I've ever seen in this series. Timmy Hill finishes second. AJ Almdinger finishes third. Brandon Brown finishes fourth. Sage Cairn finishes fifth. Ryan Vargas finishes sixth. Ty Gibbs finishes seventh. Alex Labay finishes eighth. JJ Yealy finishes ninth. And Kyle Sieg rounds out the top 10. So that is just crazy. And I tell you what, the way they raced after the rain delay, after they got started after 10pm. They were just reckless. It was like watching a truck race. They were reckless. There was constantly cautions coming out. And people driving over in their heads. It was like watching a truck race. They were going crazy. And it took out a bunch of good cars. And that's how you got that top-sie, terribiest top 10. But the racing was very good. Besides all the constant wrecking. But before we wrap up this segment, I gotta talk about post-race inspection. Jerry Clements. Yesterday it was announced that this win would not be eligible for the playoffs. Because they found that the intake manifold had been modified. And that led to the win standing. But the win does not count for the playoffs. And he was fined and penalized for it. So sad situation to see there. But overall this was probably the most chaotic weekend in Daytona history. Two chaotic races with two top-sie, terribie top 10s. This has to be probably one of the craziest weekends for both Daytona and NASCAR history. And so with the races review out of the way. Now let's take a look at the playoff grid for the NASCAR Cup Series. Chase Elliott is the Ready for Season champion and right now he is the number one seed with 40 points and is 33 points above the cut line. Joey Logano is the second seed with 25 points and 18 points above the cut line. Ross Jastain is the third seed with 20 points and 13 points above the cut line. Kyle Larson is the fourth seed with 19 points and 12 points above the cut line. William Byron is the fifth seed with 14 points and 7 points above the cut line. Denny Hamlin is the sixth seed with 13 points and 6 points above the cut line. Tied with him is Ryan Blaney who is the seventh seed with 13 points and 6 points above the cut line. Tyler Reddick is the eighth seed and has 12 points and is 5 points above the cut line. Same for Kevin Harvick who is the ninth seed with 12 points and 5 points above the cut line. Christopher Bell is the tenth seed with 11 points and 4 points above the cut line. Kyle Busch is the eleventh seed with 10 points and 3 points above the cut line. Chase Briscoe is the twelfth seed with 9 points and 2 points above the cut line. Daniel Flores is the thirteenth seed with 7 points and 2 points below the cut line. Austin Sendrick is the fourteenth seed with 6 points and 3 points below the cut line. Alex Ferman is the fifteenth seed with 6 points and 3 points below the cut line. And rounding out the playoff grid is Austin Dillon who is the sixteenth seed with 5 points and 4 points below the cut line. So that is your playoff grid. So now I'm going to take a look at who I think will be eliminated per round and who will be my final four. Starting off I have probably the two easiest to put on this list. William Byron and Chase Briscoe. William Byron has two wins but has been very inconsistent. Same thing with Chase Briscoe having one win but has collapsed since that win and he's been very inconsistent. Austin Dillon is also on this list. He's been more consistent than the other two but only has one win. He's probably not going to make it past this round. But I wouldn't count him out getting to the round of twelve. But here's a surprising one and that is Denny Hamlin. Denny Hamlin despite getting his two victories has done very poorly this year. He is not up to his normal self and he's been very inconsistent. And the only thing that put him in the playoffs is his two wins. Besides that he would probably miss the playoffs. Next up those I think will be eliminated in the round of twelve are Alex Bowman, Austin Sendrik, Daniel Suarez, and Tyler Reddick. All these guys have been more consistent than the other four drivers of the round of sixteen but their stats aren't that good as the other guys that will move on to the round of eight. They've been very consistent. I put Tyler Reddick in instead of Austin Dillon because he has two victories but they aren't up to par like the other drivers on this list. And then finally for the round of eight the drivers I think will be eliminated are Kyle Bush, Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, and here's the surprising part I think the current champion Kyle Orson misses because despite his two wins he's not been as consistent as the drivers that I think will make it to the final four. And these guys also have been not as consistent as the final four that I have. So that's why I think they will miss the final four. And finally here is my final four. Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, and although he never won a regular season race he's had a very consistent year and I think Ryan Vlaney will either point his way in or he'll get a victory during the postseason and he'll make it to the championship round and will race for his first championship. But right now the favorite for the championship has to be Chase Elliott. He is weeks ahead of the other three with an average finish of around 10.5 and unless he has a collapse I think he is easily a final four favorite and he may get the championship this year and this year he may become a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion but he is currently not my pick yet. I'll give my official pick when I give my Phoenix picks in November. And so with that out of the way let's get to the news. Harrison Burton and the Witt brothers will be honoring motocross city's anniversary with a special scheme this weekend at Darlington. Akimotika will be sponsoring Danny Hamlin at Kansas. Derek Griffith will be returning to Sam Hunt Racing at Kansas and Talladega. Southeastern Equipment and Supply will be sponsoring Todd Gilliland at Darlington. Ross Chastain will be driving for Big Machine Racing for the Xfinity race at Darlington. Next is the Daytona TV ratings and this has to be a disappointment. CNBC got a 0.88 rating and 1.406 million viewers on Sunday morning and that is pitiful. It is down 64% compared to last year which had almost 4 million viewers. And it's all because NASCAR got booted to cable and it was postponed to 10 a.m. instead of a good time like 3 p.m. I don't know why NBC chose to put it at that time and told NASCAR that they would have to do that but that was just a stupid decision on NBC's part. RCR's Carolina Cowboys will be sponsoring Anthony Alfredo at Darlington. The Chase Elliott Foundation Designed to Drive will be returning to Darlington this weekend to benefit the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Bee Fitzlips for Dinner will be returning as a sponsor for the 2023 Xfinity season opener at Daytona. Princess Cruises will be giving away free cruises for NASCAR fans if Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain win in the Princess cars during the playoffs. And some big news, it is official now that Eric Amorillo will be returning to Storehouse Racing and putting retirement aside for 2023 and also returning in Smithfield. And here's some big news for the Truck Series, it is official that Cressman has returned as the title sponsor for the Truck Series. Daniel Suarez will be staying at Track House for 2023. Alex Bowman's crew chief Greg Ives will be stepping down as crew chief at the end of this year. Zane Smith will be returning to Front Row Motorsports in 2023 for the NASCAR Truck Series. Also, as part of the deal, Smith will make his Daytona 500 debut with Front Row Motorsports as a plan that will include NASCAR Cup Series starts for him as well as Xfinity races in collaboration with the team. Probably with a team like RSS Greenlight I guess or maybe BJ McLeod. Four time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon will be coming out of retirement to race in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend. And finally, Joey Logano and Team Pink Ski have agreed to a contract extension for the long term. And so that's it for the news, now to preview this weekend's races at Darlington, including the Southern 500. Starting off with Xfinity we have the Sports Clips Haircuts VFW Help a Hero 200. The race will be 147 laps and 208 miles and the race will be on September 3rd at 3pm eastern time. And so for my pick I'm going to go with Noah Gregson, Noah Gregson won this race last year and he's been one of the best this year so I think Noah Gregson will be a contender and will probably win this weekend at Darlington. Finally for the Cup Race we have the Cookout Southern 500. The race will be 367 laps and 501.3 miles and the race will be on September 4th at 6pm eastern time. On Sunday it will be mostly cloudy and humid with average wind gusts of east to southeast at 4mph and a 25% chance of rain. So it will be very humid, there is a little small chance for a shower but it seems very unlikely so it will probably be fine for this weekend. We shouldn't have any rain delays this time. And so for my pick I'm going to go with Kyle Larson. Kyle Larson although he only has two wins, he's been very good at Darlington. He finished second both times last year and he didn't do so hot this year so far but I think this time I think he'll get the victory at Darlington and get his first Southern 500 victory. So that's it for this week's episode. If you enjoyed it please like and subscribe for more. And if you're going out to Darlington this weekend I hope you have a good time. If you're not have a good time wherever you are and I'll see you next week.