Darlington Review, North Wilkesboro Preview, and More | Chasing The Cup S2:E13

In this episode of Chasing the Cup, the host Will England reviews the races from Darlington. William Byron wins the Cup Series race, while Kyle Larson wins the Xfinity Series race and Christian Ekes wins the truck race. There were some incidents involving Ross Chastain and Kyle Larson, leading to controversy and anger. The TV ratings for the Darlington race were slightly lower than last year, but NASCAR has seen a 5-week streak of viewership increases. There are negotiations between NASCAR and team owners over charters, and there is speculation about Carl Edwards potentially returning to racing. Alex Bowman and Kurt Busch are both unsure about their return to racing due to injuries. NASCAR has announced their 75 greatest drivers. The upcoming races are the Tyson 250 truck race and the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The All-Star Race will have a unique format with heat races and a pit crew challenge. The race at North Wilkesboro is highly anticipated as it is the Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cup, I'm your host Will England and in this episode I'm going to be reviewing the races from Darlington. I'll also go over the news that I'm going to create in this weekend's races that I can't believe I'm seeing this at North Wilkesboro, but first let's take a look at the results from Darlington. William Byron, one year after that heartbreaking loss, wins at Darlington, and he's followed by Kevin Harvick in second, Chase Elliott in third, Brad Kieslowski in fourth, Bubba Wallace in fifth, Harrison Burton in sixth, Kyle Busch in seventh, Justin Haley in eighth, Brian Blaney in ninth, and Chris Buescher rounds out the top ten. And so this race was pretty good, there's plenty of action going on, not a lot of passing but that's how Darlington was designed, but I'd say it was definitely a little more harder to pass in that race than the Xfinity race, which I'll cover in a little bit, but we gotta talk about, once again, Ross Chastain. So Ross Chastain's antics begin at the end of stage 2 when he was battling for the stage win with Martin Truex Jr., and basically what happened is that they came up to the left car of Daniel Suarez in turn 3, and Chastain was already attempting to pass, but he was put into a bad position, and that led to him getting into Truex, and Truex slid down the racetrack, and that allowed Ross Chastain to get the stage win, and that wasn't really on Chastain because he was put into a tight position because of Truex, and of course his own teammate Daniel Suarez being a lap down, and putting him in that position, but then we gotta talk about him and Kyle Larson, and so basically what happened, I'm not sure if Chastain got into him before that other restart, but on that restart, Larson was just door slamming the one, probably on purpose, meanwhile they were wrecking behind them, and Chastain did not take kindly to that, and on the first overtime restart, Chastain went to the inside, and basically did a Denny Hamlin at Phoenix earlier this year, and basically took them both out intentionally, and Kyle Larson was furious, he was so furious in fact, that he did not talk to the media, but Rick Hendrick did, and Rick Hendrick was not pleased, he said that he doesn't care that he's part of Chevrolet, if he messes with his guys, then he expects his guys to pay him back, and he also talked a little bit about what Dale Earnhardt said to him one time, that Ross Chastain has a lot of talent, but he can't race, and I'm kinda with Rick and Dale on this one, Ross Chastain definitely has a lot of talent, he's got two wins in the Cup Series, and he got those in his sophomore season, but he's a little rough around the edges, he's a little too aggressive at times, and that leads to incidents like at Gateway, Pocono, and even this weekend at Burlington, but I don't think that Ross is going to change at all, this is pretty much his driving style, I don't think he's going to change, he says he's going to change, but there is no way that I see him changing at all, there is no way, but overall, a pretty solid race for the Cup Series, although it did kind of turn into a wreck fest at the end, with all the overtimes, and late race cautions, it was still a pretty good race to watch, in my opinion. Next for the Xfinity race, Kyle Larson picks up the victory for College Racing, and he's followed by Justin Allgaier in 2nd, Cole Custer in 3rd, Austin Hill in 4th, John Hunter Nemechek in 5th, Carson Josevar in his 2nd start finishes 6th, his first top 10, Josh Berry finishes 7th, Sam Mayer finishes 8th, Kaz Grola finishes 9th, and Corey Heim in his 2nd career start rounds out the top 10, and this race was awesome, there was plenty of passing going on, and a lot of action, he also had the big one, the first big one in the Xfinity Series since 2019 at Daytona, and we gotta talk about that finish. So, on the final lap, Kyle Larson went down the inside on the back straight, and John Hunter Nemechek was on the outside, Kyle Larson put on the block in turn 3, and they both got into the wall, John Hunter Nemechek went low and had a big run, but then Kyle Larson hit the wall 4, and that sent the 20 into the inside wall, and Larson picked up the victory while John Hunter Nemechek finished the race backwards while wrecking, and stopped just beyond the start finish line, and that finish kind of reminded me of 2003, with the other great finish that happened that weekend, of course you had Kurt Busch and Ricky Craven, but you also had the battle between Todd Bodine and Jamie McMurray, and it was kind of similar because off of turn 4, McMurray also wrecked while battling for the lead in the final lap, and Bodine went on to get the victory. So that'll go down as another great Xfinity Series finish at Darlington, which has been the case for most of the Xfinity Series races at that track, beginning with the 2020 race in the spring between Chase Frisco and Kyle Busch, and many others that have gone on since, and so overall, a great race for the Xfinity Series, and they continue to put on great shows at that track, probably thanks to the Xfinity Series package. And finally, for the truck race, Christian Ekes gets his second win of the season, and he's followed by Stuart Friesen in 2nd, Tanner Gray in 3rd, William Byron in 4th, Carson Josevar in 5th, Raja Karuth in 6th, Bobo Wallace in 7th, Corey Haim in 8th, Dean Thompson in 9th, and Caden Honeycutt rounds out the top 10. This race was great as well. There was more passing going on than the cup race, and the racing was really fun to watch. And before the caution came out in the closing laps, there was going to be a great battle for the win between Ekes, Byron, and Raja Karuth, who was gaining fast on the two leaders. It looked like Raja Karuth had a chance to get his first win that night, but it was not to be when that caution came out, and Raja fell to 6th during those restarts. But overall, it was still a great race, and overall, it was a great weekend at Darlington, and so with that out of the way, let's get to the news. Mechanicswear has been named the presenting sponsor of the NASCAR Pit Crew Challenge during the All-Star Race weekend. Next we have the Darlington penalties. A 45 team of Taleredic has been penalized by NASCAR for violating sections 14.11.2.1.A of the NASCAR rulebook, which states, any and all ballast added to the vehicle must be secured inside all ballast containers. Additional ballast containers will not be permitted to be added to the chassis, and that led to NASCAR docking 10 driver and owner points. NASCAR has also issued suspicions for two crew members of Eric Jones' team, the number 43, because of the wheel being dislodged during the race. Next we have the Darlington TV ratings. FS1 got a 1.43 rating, and 2.689 million viewers for the Darlington race, and compared to last year, it had a slightly lower rating, with last year having a 1.45, but there was a higher viewership number, with last year getting 2.614 million viewers. Which leads to the 5th straight week of viewership increases for NASCAR, and was the number two sport of the weekend behind the NBA playoffs. Though I'd say that will not last for long, with NBC about to take over, and they have been notorious for riggings drops, except for last year when they switched to USA. NASCAR and team owners are still negotiating over charters. NASCAR does not want the charter system to be permanent, but the teams do, but it looks like they have come up with a good revenue split for the next TV contract. And we have some speculation going on on Carl Edwards, who in my opinion did a great job in the Fox booth during stage two, and during the broadcast he was questioned by Mike and Clint and he said that he may test on the simulator so that way he is prepared when he wants to return. So it sounds like he may want to return to NASCAR for at least a race or two, since he said that he's done everything he has wanted to do during his NASCAR hiatus since 2017. And whether or not he returns to racing, he should return for more races in the booth. I hope Fox Sports is getting to it, because he was great. It was almost like he never left, like he was in the booth since he retired, instead of being on a NASCAR hiatus. Alex Bowman is currently unsure when he will return to racing after his crash on April 25th. And Kurt Busch still hopes to return to Cup Stories Racing this year, but has yet to clear a concussion protocol, and it's been nearly a year since that crash at Pocono. NASCAR has officially named their 75 greatest drivers. Kyle Orson will be driving for Spire Motorsports in the truck race this weekend at North Wilkes Borough. And so that's it for this week's news, now it's time to preview the all-star weekend at North Wilkes Borough Speedway. Starting off with the only points-paying race of the weekend, which is the truck race, we have the Tyson 250. The race will be 250 laps and 156.2 miles. And the race will be on May 20th at 1.30pm Eastern Time. And so for my pick, I'm gonna go with William Byron. William Byron has been fast at the short ovals, like Phoenix, where he won in the Cup Series. And I think driving the 51 for KBM, I think he'll get KBM's 100th victory at one of NASCAR's most historic tracks by winning at North Wilkes Borough. And finally, we have the NASCAR All-Star Race. The race will be 200 laps and 125 miles. And the race will be on May 21st at 8pm Eastern Time. And the All-Star Open will be beforehand at 5.30pm Eastern Time. And as for the format, there will be the Pit Crew Challenge, where qualifying will be based on pit stop time only. There will be a four-tire pit stop with no fuel. The results will determine the starting lineups for the Heat Races and the All-Star Open. The Heat Races for the All-Star Race will be 60 laps each. The results of Heat 1 set the All-Star Race inside row. And the results of Heat Race 2 set the All-Star Race outside row. The All-Star Open will be 100 laps, with a break around lap 40. The top two finishers will transfer on to the All-Star Race. And there also will be, of course, the Fan Vote. The All-Star Race field will consist of 2022 and 2023 Cup Winners, past All-Star Race winners and Cup Series champions, the All-Star Open top two finishers, as well as the Fan Vote winner. For the All-Star Race, all laps will count, overtime rules will be in effect, and there will be a competition break around lap 100. After the break, only one additional set of tires may be used, which is going to be key for pit strategy because of the old surface, which has been around since the early 80s. And it's probably the oldest surface that most of these drivers have raced on. And that's saying something, since the oldest surface that NASCAR used to run on, back in the late 2000s and early 2010s, was Daytona, which aged 31 years, before being repaved, meaning all this track has not been repaved in 41 years. So pit strategy and tire conservation will be the keys to winning this race. And so for my pick for the All-Star Race, I'm going to go with Chase Elliott. Chase Elliott has won the only other short track All-Star Race back in 2020 at Bristol, and he has the most experience at this track, having won in a late model in 2010, and he ran last night in, I believe, a super late model. And I think he'll go back to back on short tracks for the All-Star Race by winning at North Wilkesboro. And so that's it for this week's episode. If you enjoyed it, please like and subscribe for more. If you're going out to North Wilkesboro this weekend, I hope you have a good time. If you're not, have a good time wherever you are. This event has been a long time coming since Dale Jr. wanted to get the track scanned for iRacing, and that led to a revital of the race track in 2022, and here we are with the first cup race at the track since 1996. Junior Johnson and Vinnie Parsons would be proud. But that's it for now, and I'll see you next week.