Atlanta Review, The Future of 1 & 1/2 Mile Tracks, COTA Preview, and More | Chasing The Cup S1:E8

In this episode of Chasing the Cup, the host reviews the races from the past weekend in Atlanta. He discusses the results from the Cup Series, Xfinity Series, and Truck Series races. He also talks about a scary moment involving Hayley Deegan and the need for safety improvements. The host then discusses the controversy surrounding the recent reconfiguration of Atlanta Motor Speedway and the potential future of mile and a half tracks. He shares his opinions on the matter and suggests that NASCAR should focus more on short tracks. The host also provides updates on various news items, including sponsorships and driver announcements. Finally, he previews the upcoming races at Circuit of the Americas and gives his picks for the winners. Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cub. I am your host Will England and in this episode I am going to be reviewing races from this past weekend in Atlanta. I'll also go over the future of the Mile and a Half. I'll also go over the news and I'm going to preview this weekend's races at COTA. But first, let's take a look at the results from Atlanta. William Byron gets his third career win with his first win at Atlanta. Rostas Singh comes up short in second. Kurt Busch finished third, Daniel Suarez finished fourth, Corey LeJoy gets his best finish in the Cub Series with a fifth place finish, Chase Elliott finishes sixth, Chris Buescher finished seventh, Martin Trex Jr. finished eighth, Joey Logano finished ninth, and Alex Bowman rounds out the top ten. And in summary, this race was very entertaining. It was basically like a mini Daytona and a mini Talladega. In my opinion, SMI have accomplished what they set out to do with this reconfiguration and this is the result. Next, we have the Xfinity results. Ty Gibbs gets his first restrictor plate win followed by Austin Held in second, AJ Allmendinger in third. Bradley Hurks in fourth, Landon Castle in fifth, Mason Massey finishes sixth, Brandon Jones finishes seventh, Kyle Witherman finishes eighth, Sheldon Creed finishes ninth, and Kyle Sieg rounds out the top ten. In my opinion, the Xfinity race was pretty good as well. The Xfinity package was slightly different because they had their intermediate package with the Super Speedway engine package. Same thing with the trucks. I'd say it put on a pretty good show. I'd like to see if they continue to do plate races. I'd like to see them do the full Super Speedway package. And finally, in trucks, Corey Hine gets his first National Series victory followed by Ben Rhodes in second, Ty Majewski in third, Chandler Smith in fourth, Zane Smith in fifth, Stork Friesen in sixth, Ryan Preece in seventh, Tanner Gray in eighth, Derek Krause in ninth, and Austin Wayne Self rounds out the top ten. In my opinion, this race was good overall too. And, once again, SMI accomplished what they set out to do with this reconfiguration with all three series. One thing I'd like to talk about before we move on is Hayley Deegan's scary moment at the end of stage one. Hayley Deegan got plowed in the back by Colby Howard in the 91. She got a tire down, but then I guess they didn't fix anything, and apparently another tire rub came up, and that started a fire. And when she came down the pit road, they started extinguishing the fire of the tire, but then the truck itself was on fire. They were putting out the fire with the extinguisher, but the gas from the extinguisher was going into the cockpit, which led to the CO2 replacing the oxygen in the car, and that led to Hayley Deegan not being able to breathe. And does it take rocket science to know that humans cannot breathe CO2? There's a reason why we breathe it out. And so, she tried to get out of the car, her crew members helped her out, and she was struggling for breath afterward. She declined to interview. She later posted on Twitter, and as well as on her blog, about her status, and said that she was okay, and recapped the incident on both her tweet and her YouTube video. And so, one takeaway from that, this could have been avoidable in many different situations, but it's quite clear that there may be a safety change that NASCAR may need to do if extinguishing a fire leads to CO2 getting into the cockpit of the truck. So, I think NASCAR is taking a look at this, and they'll probably take a look and see how they can prevent this in the future. I hope they do prevent this, because this was a very scary moment. She couldn't breathe, and it could have gotten way worse. So I hope NASCAR can learn from this, and hopefully make safety improvements that would lead to the driver having oxygen in the cockpit when CO2 is being blown in, or blocking the CO2 from going in the cockpit. But anyway, with that out of the way, I want to talk about a big story that everyone's talking about after the Atlanta races. After the race at Atlanta, a lot of fans and drivers seem to be upset about the recent configuration. A lot of drivers have said that it just makes the racing worse. But in my opinion, fans don't want to see single-file racing. They want to see pack racing, and close-together racing, and beat and bangin'. They want to be entertained, and if we just repaved Atlanta, then it would have been a single-file race all day. So probably, I think, this option was a median between providing the best entertainment and being the cheapest option. Because I'd say some of the options that Atlanta had was probably to repave the track, which would have led to single-groove racing, and then this option, which would be to increase the banking, which was probably a little more expensive, but not a ton more expensive with the other two options I'll mention. A lot of people want to see the original configuration of Atlanta, but that would have been way more expensive because not only do you have to reconfigure the front stretch, but you'll have to also redo the grandstands to be straight. Then the short track option would have been a way bigger change than turning it into the original configuration for Atlanta. So, in my opinion, this was probably the best option, because it was the most entertaining option that was also one of the cheapest options. In my opinion, they seem to care about the racing product if they decide to reconfigure over just repaving. If they just did that, then I'd say a lot of people would have not been happy. Of course, the track probably over time would have returned to its state as it was in its peak in the 2000s, then slowing to what it was last year, but then it would probably need to be repaved again, and it would be back to the single-file racing again. So, although it's entertaining, a lot of people did not like the fact that it became a track that many people think doesn't show driver talent, because plate racing is a different beast than regular old racing like on a mile and a half or short track, where the best equipment and the best drivers run up front. And although it kind of seemed like that at Atlanta, there may have been some drivers that may have placed in a place where they probably wouldn't have if it was just repaved. But a lot of the big names were up front all day, and there were very few upsets, but I don't think that was a big worry, the minor names going to the front. I think it's more of pack racing being a luck-based race. You could win by just staying clean all day and not wrecking. Meanwhile, at most tracks, if you start last, you're probably going to finish last unless you have the equipment to go up to the front, or the talent to go up to the front. And many people see this race as a Daytona and Talladega race and say that it wasn't legitimate racing. In my opinion, that's kind of true, because there's been many upsets, and many competitive teams have missed the playoffs because someone that probably didn't deserve to be there ended up being there. But then, one thing that triggered the fanbase was that this may be the future of mile and a halfs, because I think this is what NASCAR wanted to do with the 550 package, and all the tracks wanted it to be like that. But now, the answer seems clear, if you want pack racing, increase your banking up to either 28 degrees or even higher than that. And so many people are upset that mile and a halfs with this increased banking and point racing might flood the schedule, kind of like when the road course was dead last year. Although the road course racing, in my opinion, shows a lot of driver talent and less equipment, a lot of people didn't like that because of the traditional ovals that most NASCAR fans want, like short tracks and some intermediates. But they do not like this being illegitimate racing that could lead to easy upsets, like Timmy Hill getting into the playoffs over Kevin Harvick. Because Kevin Harvick would probably be more consistent, but because Timmy Hill won and Kevin Harvick didn't, that would lead to Timmy Hill getting in. In my opinion, that doesn't seem to be fully fair, and many fans and drivers and people inside and outside the sports say, don't do this, you're going to make the racing illegitimate. But I could see, in my opinion, a couple more tracks popping up. But there's only two tracks I think I want to see go this route. First is of course Texas, but now, after the IndyCar race, I'm not sure if people want Texas to be repaved. In my opinion, Texas should not be making a decision to repave until after the NASCAR races and maybe another IndyCar race before they make that decision, and if IndyCar decides to re-up its deal. If IndyCar re-ups, then Texas should not do this. But if IndyCar leaves and NASCAR has some bad races in both the All-Star race and its points-paying race, then they should probably go this route that Atlanta did. And the other track I say is maybe Charlotte, but only under one condition, that it keeps the Roval date. Because, in my opinion, I do not want to see a second Charlotte date in the fall on a Super Speedway layout. Because that would basically be a free race stretch of Talladega, Charlotte, and Texas being all point races. And so here's what I'd do if these two tracks ended up being reconfigured. In February, we have the Daytona 500, we have Atlanta in March, Talladega in April, the Coke 200 in May, and the Move Texas points race in June, have Atlanta in July, possibly, unless I may want to take a date away from Atlanta, have the Coke 0400 in August, and then in October, have Talladega's second date. So that way, we could have both of the Super Speedway pack racing style races in the regular season and only have one in the playoffs. Which would probably be more legitimate than having Las Vegas, Kansas, Michigan, and all these cookie cutters become Super Speedways. I do not want to see more of these tracks, besides those two, become like Atlanta, because they already have some good racing going on, and they already had fresh repaves, and their racing seems to be at its peak. Because Las Vegas had an awesome race, Michigan may have a good race, Kansas I think will have a good race too, in my opinion also, Auto Club should go and become a short track and not join this. Most of these mile and a halves that I mentioned that I don't want to be reconfigured already have good racing as a mile and a half, and with this new car, the racing is even better. Of course, the 550 package was a dud, some of the repaves, a little bit of a dud, but I think it's tracks where, out, the racing will improve, and with the car, it'll be even better than it was with the C.O.T. More than 8 point races, in my opinion, is too much, because although it's entertaining, NASCAR needs to have a bit of integrity when it comes to its point system and its current playoff format. In my opinion, we should be pushing more for short tracks, because eventually when these mile and a halves become too worn out and start breaking apart, they'll need to be either repaved or reconfigured, and in my opinion, they should go with the short track option and not go with this super speedway option that Atlanta created, because short tracks are both legitimate and entertaining, more than the mile and a halves ever will be, because they have too much legitimacy and less of that good racing that people like. Meanwhile, it's the best of both worlds with short tracks, both in the short term and the long term. Meanwhile, with mile and a halves, you have to wait a long time for tracks to reach their full potential, and I want to see the super speedway version of the mile and a half takeover from the 90s, which led to probably the worst racing in NASCAR history, because there are too many new mile and a half tracks, and they all provide some really bad races together because there are so many of them. Meanwhile, if we added a bunch of super speedway races, we'd just end up with too much entertainment and less legitimacy, and so, if NASCAR wants to keep its integrity as a professional sport, they should probably take a look in the mirror and say, is this the right thing for us to do? Should we focus more on entertainment, or should we focus more on legitimacy? Or should we meet at a middle ground that provides both the best racing product and is legitimate? But this is only my opinion, if you have a different opinion, leave it in the comments below. And now, let's move on to the news. Andy Lally will be racing in the Cup Series race at Kota this weekend, driving for Live Fast Motorsports in the 78. For the Atlanta TV ratings, Fox earned a 2.36 rating with 4.003 million viewers according to Adam Stern. Compared to the 5th race of 2021, viewership was up, which was a 2.3 rating with 3.857 million viewers, but that race was at Phoenix. Food City, Gain, and Tide will be sponsoring Petty GMS at the Burst of Dirt race. They did this last year with Eric Jones when Tide was on the 43 for that race, I remember it because I was there, and it looks like Tide and a couple of other companies have re-upped for this race. Front Row Motorsports has a new partner and their partnership will kick off at Kota with Boot Barn. Kurt Busch has donated 500 tickets to the military and veterans through Vette Tix for the Cup race at Richmond on April 3rd. Hendrick Motorsports and NASCAR have announced that they will pursuit a Garage 56 entry at Le Mans using a modified Next Gen car. Jerry Clements will honor Bud Moore and Dale Earnhardt for the throwback weekend and they'll throw it back to Dale Earnhardt's number 15 Wrangler ride that he drove for Bud Moore in the 80s. McNally Hegelman Racing announced that they have planned to field a third entry with 17 year old Jake Garcia who races Super Late Models and Pro Late Models and he'll make his Top 3 National Series debut at the Truck Race at Martinsville in May, along with a number of races at Gateway, IRP, Richmond, and Bristol. Derek Griffith is set to make his Xfinity Series debut at Richmond with Sam Hunt. Scott Heckard will be competing at Kota for BJ McLeod Motorsports in the number 5 in the Xfinity Series. Shellen Creed will be returning to the Truck Series at Kota this weekend for Young Motorsports. Will Wallace will be driving for JGR part time in their number 18 in the Xfinity Series beginning at Kota this weekend and he'll also race at the Indy Road Course. Dr. Pepper will be sponsoring him at Kota. Finally, Ross Chastain will be competing in the Xfinity Race this weekend at Kota in the number 92 for Megan Gosselin. And that's it for the news, let's preview the races at Circuit of the Americas. The Circuit of the Americas will be the first road course race of the year for all three series. First with trucks, the race will be the Xpel 225. The race will be 42 laps and 143.22 miles. The race will be on Saturday, May 26th at 1pm Eastern Time. And so my pick for the truck race, because he's back in the 51 this weekend, I'm gonna go with Kyle Busch. Kyle Busch is probably one of the most dominant drivers in trucks right now because of his cup experience running full time and he won in the Xfinity Series race last year. So I'm gonna go with Kyle Busch. Next for Xfinity, we have the Pit Boss 250. The race will be 48 laps, which is 156.86 miles. The race will be on Saturday after the truck race at 4.30pm Eastern Time. And for this race, I'm gonna go with one of the hottest drivers right now in the Xfinity Series, Ty Gipps. Ty Gipps got his first win in his first start last year in the Xfinity Series at Daytona. He also won at Watkins Glen. And so in my opinion, he'll definitely be a competitor alongside with drivers like AJ Allmendinger. I think he will be the one that gets the win. And finally, we have the cup race, which is the Echo Park Automotive Grand Prix. The race will be 68 laps and 231.88 miles. The race will be on Sunday at 3.30pm Eastern Time. Now let's take a look at the weather for this weekend at Kona. Abundant sunshine is expected with a high of 87 degrees. Winds south to southwest at 10 to 20 mph with a 3% chance of rain. So it'll be both very sunny and hot as well as very windy. So that might affect the Outrack Prada because it's both very sunny and very windy. But it's going to be a whole lot less wet than it was because it was pretty much a monsoon at the Kona race last year. But it's going to be the complete opposite. It's going to be almost 90 degrees. But it will be also very windy. So if you're going to Kona, if they'll allow you, take some sunscreen. But from what I've heard from people who went to Kona last year, they don't allow you to bring sunscreen in. So I'd recommend you apply it beforehand. And if they do allow you to take it in, then you may want to reapply or maybe take some breaks from the grandstands and sit in the shade for a little amount of time and just try to stay cool. And so my pick for the Kona race is the defending race winner Chase Elliott. Although Kyle Larson was close to winning last year, Chase Elliott ended up getting that win after it was declared official after a large amount of rain came in at the end. But I think this time Chase Elliott will win without rain shortening because road courses are his best skill. In my opinion, he's shown more consistent speed this year than Kyle Larson has so far. But he hasn't had the finishes to show it because he's been taken out of contention so many times from wrecks and bad pit calls and just overall bad days in general. But I think he'll overcome these issues this weekend and win. And so that's it for this week's episode. If you enjoyed, please leave a like and subscribe for more episodes. If you're going out to Kota this weekend, I hope you have a good time. Try to stay cool. If you're not, have a good time wherever you are. And I'll see you next week.