Auto Club Review, Auto Club Renovation Postponed, and Las Vegas Preview | Chasing The Cup S1:E5

In this episode of Chasing the Cup, the host reviews NASCAR's return to Auto Club Speedway and discusses whether the track should remain in its current configuration. He also previews the upcoming race at Las Vegas and gives his top picks. The host highlights the good racing at Auto Club Speedway, but also mentions issues with the car's tires. He mentions the results for both the Cup Series and the Xfinity Series races. The big topic of the week is Auto Club's future, as the planned renovation to a short track has been put on hold indefinitely due to COVID restrictions and material shortages. The host shares his opinion on why the track should go ahead with the renovations. The host also discusses some news, including a new partnership between United Rentals and Storch-Haas Racing, TV ratings for the Auto Club race, talks of a street course race in Chicago, and details about the next TV deal for NASCAR. The host previews the upcoming races at Las Vegas, including the Truck Series, Xfin Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cup, I am your host Bill England and in this episode, I'm going to review NASCAR's triumphant return to the Auto Club Speedway. I'll also discuss whether Auto Club should remain in its current configuration. Of course, I'll also go over the news and I'm going to preview the race this weekend at Las Vegas and give you my picks. But first, we had some surprisingly good racing this past weekend at the Auto Club Speedway, so let's take a look at the results. Kyle Larson continues his winning ways with a victory at Auto Club. He was followed behind Austin Dillon who finished second. Eric Jones finished third. The man that battled Kyle Larson in the closing laps of the race, Daniel Torres, has to settle for a fourth place finish. Fifth was Joey Logano. Eric Amorolo finishes sixth. Kevin Harvick finishes seventh. Kurt Busch finishes eighth. Daniel Hemrick finishes ninth. And Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finishes tenth. And that is your top ten. If you want to take a look at the further results to see where your favorite driver finished, and if they did not finish in the top ten, then you can go to NASCAR's website, NASCAR.com, to take a look at the results. And I tell you what, this race was probably one of the best intermediate races we had in a very long time. Of course, the car was unpredictable along with the slick track, because Auto Club is actually older than what Atlanta was, but it hasn't worn that much because of the warm California climate. We got cars sliding all over the place, some spinning out by themselves, both caused by the slick surface and the unpredictable nature of the next-gen car. And we also had some drama. Kyle Larson was battling Joey Logano for the lead, and Chase Elliott got a big run on the front stretch. Then Kyle Larson put a late block on him and put him in the wall. Chase Elliott stayed out for a few more laps, and he showed his displeasure with Larson for his car broke for the second time that day. And Kyle Larson said that it was all his fault, and he didn't see him there until his spotter told him at the last second. And his spotter also said that too, he didn't notice. And so it is, of course, Kyle Larson's fault, and also Chase Elliott has the right to be mad. Kyle Larson put a very late block on him, and that was just not a great move, although it wasn't intentional. And although the racing was good, there seemed to be one issue, and it's with the car's tires. Anytime that the tires blow out, the car will not move because of the thinner tire. Because it's not as thick, and it doesn't have the coating that surrounds the tire like the Gen 6 had. And so if cars blew their tires, then they would not have the ability to go back to pit road on their own power, and they'd need the help of a wrecker. And so NASCAR began implementing new rules for that, but it's clear that it needs some more work. NASCAR started this with a new rule that if the only reason why you can't get moving is because of your flat tires, the wrecker will tow your car to pit lane and you can get a fresh set of rubber before you get back on the track. And so I hope NASCAR finalizes these rules, and also Goodyear can fix the tires so that way they can be able to be driven flat. But that's all the complaints that I have, because it was pretty good racing, because we didn't have the dirty air of the Gen 6 and COT. And it helped with more passing. If you were the dominant car, you could just pass someone straight up. You didn't have to sit in their dirty air. And it really shows how good this next-gen car is. As well as the Perry, Tyler Reddick was the dominant car, and Eric Jones was battling with him. Both of them were usually top 20 drivers last year. This really shows how the car is closing the gap between the big teams and small teams. Next, I'm going to discuss the Xfinity Series race, which was on Saturday. Your winner is Cole Kester for SS Greenlight Racing, who got their first win this past weekend. Noah Gregson finished second. Trevor Bayne in his first race with JGR finishes third. Josh Berry finishes fourth. Anthony Alfredo finishes fifth. Sam Mayer finishes sixth. AJ Almendinger finishes seventh. Justin Allgaier finishes eighth. Riley Hurst finishes ninth. And Ryan Sieg rounds out the top ten with a tenth place finish. If your driver did not make the top ten, then you can do the same thing as for Cup and go to NASCAR's website, which is NASCAR.com, and you can take a look at where your driver finished in the final running order. And the Xfinity Series was pretty decent, too. It was not as good as the Cup race, probably because the current generation of Xfinity cars has some dirty air problems. Not as bad as Gen 6 was, but they seem to be a little worse than the next gen car. But it was still overall pretty good racing, and you had some backmarkers make their way up to the top ten, which is cool to see. And I think that the Xfinity Series field is loaded for this year. We could see multiple drivers get wins this year. And those are your results from Auto Club for both series. And now let's discuss the big topic for this week, which is Auto Club's future. It was announced this weekend that the Auto Club renovation to a short track has been put on hold. The project was supposed to begin last year after the Auto Club race, but due to COVID restrictions being put in place by the California governor, the renovation was then pushed to after this year, but due to material and labor shortages, it was announced this weekend that the project has been postponed indefinitely, which means that we do not know when this project will begin. It could happen, it could not happen. Before the races that happened this past weekend, a lot of people said that it was a no-brainer that the short track should happen. They said it back when we had the Gen 6 car and the 550 package was the main deal, and many people thought that NASCAR's future was at short tracks. But after this weekend's race, a lot of people have changed their minds. Some say that they should just repave the track, while others say to continue with the short track. But in my opinion, there's a couple of factors that would oppose keeping the track in its current state. One is that the track is wearing out and it requires a repave. But when you look at the repaving job at its sister track in Michigan, that job lets the track becoming really bad and hasn't returned to that state. And if this was done for Auto Club, I think the racing would be just as bad, and the track would probably be in the same state. But you may say, well, an X-Gen car is supposed to make the racing better and not worry about the air dependency. Well, the reason why the racing was so good for Cup this weekend was probably because teams have not dialed in this car. Probably because it's too new to dial in correctly to get the fast speeds. I think once the teams figure this out, how to get the car dialed in properly, I think the racing would get worse because the gap would widen again at these tracks. So, in my opinion, they should go ahead and go with these renovations. It's probably best for the track's future because it will allow for better racing in the long term. Meanwhile, Auto Club in its current form will only provide good racing in the short term. And the land that once occupied most of the track can be used for developments like a park, a museum, a mall, and any other business that could bring in more fans and improve the experience. And with these facts in mind, I say go ahead and go with the short track once all these issues have been solved with shortages. Now that I'm done talking about Auto Club, let's get to the news. United Rentals has joined Storchhaus Racing as a partner and will be the primary sponsor of the team's reserve driver, Ryan Priest, for select races this year. The TV ratings for the Auto Club race, Fox earned a 2.61 rating for Sunday's Wise Power 400 and had 4.57 million viewers and is by far the most watched sports event of the weekend. But it's down from the second points races in recent years. The Daytona Road Course got 4.75 million and Las Vegas got 5.5 million in 2020. NASCAR still has shown interest in running a street course race in Chicago. NASCAR remains in talks with the city to bring a street race to Chicago and the goal is to hold an event for the first time in 2023. NASCAR President Steve Feltz has released some details about the next TV deal and as I mentioned last week about what I want to see from the next one. Steve Feltz has said that the primary focus is to have most if not all races on network television. And also Steve Feltz has said that streaming is also an option on the table but streaming will not be exclusive because of teams sponsorship. I have an update from last week in that there are no penalties for the wheels used at RFK in Penske. But we have two major penalties for both Justin Haley and Kaz Grawler. Both are from safety section 10.5.2.6 which is the separation of an improperly installed tire slash wheel from the vehicle. The money team did not want to appeal this but from what I've heard a colleague is trying to appeal. One thing I didn't talk about last week was the Daytona 500 TV ratings. Fox averaged a 4.7 rating and 8.87 million viewers on Fox. With 8.8 million across all platforms which makes it the highest rated and most watched edition of the race since 2019. Which had a 5.3 rating and 9.17 million viewers. Despite the numbers the 500 was the most single watched networked sport cast of the entire weekend topping the Olympics and NBA All-Star game. And that's it for the news so now let's preview this weekend's race at Las Vegas. The truck series is back this weekend at Vegas with the Votorious Voice Foundation 200. The race is 134 laps and 200 among miles. The race will be broadcasted on Fox Sports 1 and the race will be at 9pm Eastern Time. My pick for the victory will be the dominant truck from last year John Hunter Niemicek. He was dominant last year and if it wasn't for him struggling the final race at Phoenix he would have won the championship. And because he's with a dominant team and he is a very skilled driver I think he will win this weekend. Next is the Xfinity series All-Skills Forms 300. The event will be 200 laps and 300 miles. It will be broadcasted on FS1. The race will be at 4.30pm Eastern Time on March 5th. My pick for the Xfinity series is AJ Allmendinger. Although he wasn't a contender at Auto Club I think he can still get the job done this weekend. He's still with a dominant team in Colic and I think he'll get the victory. And finally we have the Cup Series which is the Benz Oil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube. The race is 267 laps and is 400 miles. And the race will be on Fox on March 6th at 3.30pm Eastern Time. So now I'm going to take a look at the weather in Las Vegas for Sunday. We're going to have partly cloudy skies with a 15% chance of rain with a high of 57 degrees. Winds west to southwest at 10-20 mph. And so we may have a little rain but I'd say it'll be nothing to worry about. And I think mostly it'll just be a little shady and hopefully it won't be too hot out there. And my pick again is Kyle Larson. He was the fastest car at Auto Club and he won this race last year. I think he'll do it again. He'll continue his winning ways and will be one of the fastest cars all season. And so that's it for this week. If you enjoyed the podcast please like and subscribe for more. And if you're going out to this weekend's race, I hope you have a good time. If you're not, have a good time wherever you are. I'll see you next week.