Phoenix Review, Atlanta Reconfiguration Opinions, Atlanta Preview, and More | Chasing The Cup S1:E7

In this episode of "Chasing the Cup," the host reviews the races at Phoenix and previews the upcoming races at Atlanta. Chase Ursko wins his first career NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix. The host believes the race was a letdown compared to previous races with the new car. In the Xfinity race, Noah Gregson gets his first win of the season. The host discusses penalties for Corey LeJoy and two JGR drivers. News includes announcements about contract extensions, a concert at the All-Star race, and a tribute to Mark Martin. The host also shares TV ratings, sponsorship news, and a feel-good story about a race win after a tragic accident. The host then discusses the upcoming race at Atlanta, which has been reconfigured to allow for pack racing. The host provides race details and makes picks for the Truck, Xfinity, and Cup series races. Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cop. I'm your host, TheLanguisman. In this episode, I'm going to be reviewing the races from this past weekend at Phoenix. I'll also go over the news and I'm going to preview this weekend's races at Atlanta. But first, let's take a look at the Phoenix results. Chase Ursko in his sophomore Cup Series season becomes the 200th different driver to win in the NASCAR Cup Series and gets his first career win. Second was Ross Chastain. Third, Tyler Reddick. Ryan Bellini, fourth. Kurt Busch, fifth. Kevin Harvick finishes sixth. Kyle Busch finishes seventh. Joey Logano finished eighth. Daniel Suarez finished ninth. And rounding out the top ten is Chris Buescher. And in my opinion, this race was kind of a letdown because after the three fantastic races, four including the clash that we've had with the new car, this car was kind of a letdown. It wasn't a huge disappointment because it's basically how Phoenix was last year, but it was mostly spread out and dirty air and clean air seemed to be a big factor in these races more than the mile and a half. So similar tracks may be kind of like how they were with the 750 package on these mile or shorter tracks and they probably won't show that much improvement. And finally Xfinity. Noah Gregson gets his first win of the season, followed by Brandon Jones in second. Josh Berry in third. Trevor Bain finishes fourth. John Hanonimacek finishes fifth. Ty Gibbs finishes sixth. AJ Amundinger finishes seventh. Daniel Hemrick finishes eighth. Landon Kessel finishes ninth. And Justin Allgaier rounds out the top ten. And it was pretty much an average Phoenix race for the Xfinity cars because they were spread out too instead of maybe a little closer together than Cup, but there was not that much difference either between the two series. So they were pretty much equal and they were both a little underwhelming, especially what we've had with the mile and a half. So in this case, I think it actually is the track that's at fault for the bad racing instead of the cars. So now let's get to the news. First we've got some penalties from this past weekend's races. First is Corey LeJoy's penalties, which violated safety sections 2.5.2.6, loss or separation of an improperly installed tire slash wheel from the vehicle. Crew chief Ryan Sparks and crew members Blaine Anderson and Alan Holman have been suspended from the next four Cup Series events. And then we have two penalties for Xfinity. We have two JGR drivers, which is safety sections 8.8.10.4a, tires and wheels with lug nuts not being properly installed for both teams. Jason Ratcliffe and Jeff Meendering have been fined $5,000. Jason Ratcliffe is the crew chief on 18 and Jeff Meendering is the crew chief on the number 19. It was announced that Tyler Rittich will be under contract with Richard Childress Racing through 2023. John Hunter Niemicek will return to Joe Gibbs Racing for three Xfinity races this year in the number 18. The first race will be at Richmond. Next will be Dover and finally the fall Texas race. Blake Shelton will perform at the All-Star race with a one-hour pre-race concert at Texas for that race. Now we have our Phoenix TV ratings. On Sunday, Fox earned a 2.33 rating with 3.991 million viewers, according to Adam Stern. Compared to the fourth points paying event last year, Sunday's numbers are down 9%. But once again, it is the most watched sporting event of the weekend in the United States. Illinois Governor J.V. Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity have announced that the inaugural race at Gateway will be called the Enjoy Illinois 300, sponsored by the Illinois Office of Tourism. Boris Sedd will return to the NASCAR Cup Series with a start for NBM Motorsports at Circuit of the Americas. Jeff Gordon will return to the Fox booth this Sunday at Atlanta. Brian Kislowski will pay tribute to Mark Martin at Darlington with Mark Martin's 2004 scheme. Zero FG Energy Drink will be sponsoring Brandon Brown at Atlanta. NASCAR has taken responsibility for the truck race at Las Vegas after Spencer Boyd had a crash that resulted in a dislocated arm. NASCAR did not throw a caution for the incident. Finally, a feel-good story. To end this week's news, Taylor Gray, the driver of the 7-Teen for DGR's ARCA-Teen, won at Phoenix this weekend after the hauler driver for his teen was killed in a violent accident while the truck was on its way to Phoenix. According to the preliminary investigation, the wreck was caused when the DGR truck was hit behind by another truck and that sent the DGR truck around and that caused the truck to roll over on its side and into a center median. So it's great to see a feel-good story after that terrible accident. The team who lost its hauler driver won the race after the incident. And so that's it for the news. Let's talk about Atlanta. One of the most anticipated races of the year will be this weekend at Atlanta after the Atlanta Motor Speedway reconfigured the track. The track was reconfigured from 24 degrees of banking to 28 degrees of banking, making it steeper. The track width at the front stretch was shortened to 52 feet, the back stretch to 42 feet, and the turns to 40 feet, making it a whole lot narrower. The goal in mind for this track was to basically turn it into a Daytona slash Talladega super speedway kind of race so that way the track would allow pack racing. It was either that option or repave the track or maybe reconfigure it to a short track or another configuration. But they decided to go with this option because of the Atlanta market and to help with the attendance and to create a big show unlike any other. At first many drivers seemed to be upset about this change. I'd say now a lot more drivers have been open to it, especially after the Goodyear test. Some of the drivers have said that it will be kind of like Daytona and Talladega, but it will be shorter and it will be more kind of like Daytona before it's repaved in 2011. And so, in my opinion, although they're trying to do this, I'm not sure if it will become like a Daytona and Talladega. It's going to be hard to tell what the racing is until probably practice on a Friday, so I have no idea what to expect. No one has any idea what to expect. Will it be pack racing or will it be something entirely different like the All-Star package where basically it's just a slower but slightly more compact version of the 550 package? This is fun, but I highly doubt that would be what we see because Texas is a lot wider and it has a lot less steep banking because turns 1 and 2 are 20 degrees, which was the original configuration before they had to reconfigure it a third time in the late 90s and while turns 3 and 4 were just repaved with the standard 24 degrees. And Charlotte is pretty much standard 24 degrees in both turns. Meanwhile, this is 28 degrees, which is what we currently have at Bristol. So let's go ahead and preview each series races. The truck series is back this weekend at Atlanta. The truck race is the FR8208. The race will be 135 laps long and 208 miles. The race will be on Saturday, March 19th at 2.30pm Eastern Time. It will be on FS1 and MRM. So for my pick for trucks, I'm going to go with somewhat of a safe pick. I'm going to go with Ben Rhodes. He's very good at plate tracks and he's pretty much good everywhere else as well. So he'll be a pretty safe pick because I have no idea what to expect. He's climbing up a hole right now and I think he'll climb out of that hole with a win. Next for Xfinity, the race is Denali Cars 250. Their race will be 163 laps and 251 miles. Their race will also be on Saturday, but it will be after the truck race at 5pm Eastern Time. And their race will be on FS1 and PRN. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with someone safe. I'm going to go with Daniel Hamrick because he's with the powerhouse at plate tracks. And it is colic racing. And Hamrick's also fast at tracks like Atlanta, another mile and a half. And he could have won his first race at Atlanta if he didn't get wrecked by Kyle Busch on a restart. So my pick is Daniel Hamrick. And finally for Cup, we have the full Silvanor Quick Trip 500, which will be the last time that Quick Trip will sponsor the race. The race will be 325 laps and 500 miles. It'll be on Sunday, March 20th at 3pm Eastern Time. And now let's take a look at the weather for the Cup race. It'll be sunny with a high of 68 degrees. Winds northwest at 5-10mph with a 3% chance of rain. So it'll be warm early on, but I think as the race goes on, it'll get more cold. So if there's like a bunch of wrecks and stuff during the race, especially because now it's a super speedway, it may continue into the night. And the low will be 39 degrees, which is not super cold. It can be a little chilly. You're not going to freeze to death. I'd say you may want to pack a coat just in case if the race drags on into the early hours of the night. And so the Cup pick is going to be really hard to decide because you've got the safe drivers for both plate tracks and intermediates. I don't think that the same drivers that were dominant at intermediates will also be good at this track, which will be kind of like a plate race. So it's going to be hard to decide. I'm going to go with someone that's won at Atlanta's past configuration and is also a good plate racer himself. I'm going to go with Brad Kislavsky. Kislavsky's usually up front at these plate races, and he was also good at Atlanta on his old configuration, but that was with Penske. Now he's at Roush Finlay and is also a co-owner in his team. I'd say Atlanta will be an equalizer and it won't be equipment based and more of a plate race talent base. So I think with Kislavsky's skill behind the wheel at a plate race, I'm going to go with him. And so that's it for today's podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave a like and subscribe for more episodes. And if you're going out to Atlanta this weekend, I hope you enjoy the race. And if you're not, enjoy watching the race wherever you are on TV. And I'll see you next week.