Atlanta Review, COTA Preview, and More | Chasing The Cup S2:E7

In this episode of Chasing the Cup, the host reviews the races from Atlanta. Joey Logano wins, followed by Brad Keselowski. The race had few cautions and was compared to a race at Daytona. Mike Joy calls out the Keyboard Warriors and the National Anthem had an embarrassing moment. The Xfinity race had many crashes and a driver refused to park his car. The truck race was less exciting. In the news, there will be a NASCAR Day Give-A-Thon, Quaker State renews sponsorship, Denny Hamlin appeals penalty, and more. The Phoenix TV ratings were down, potentially due to Chase Elliott's absence. Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cup. I'm your host Wiley Langland and in this episode I'm going to be reviewing the races from Atlanta. I'll also go over the news and I'm going to preview this weekend's races at Circuit of the Americas. But first, let's get to the results from Atlanta. Joey Logano gets his first win and Ford's first win of the season. And he's followed by Brad Keselowski who finishes second and becomes the only driver to finish top five in all five races so far this year. Christopher Bell finishes third. Corey LaJoy gets a top five and fourth. Tyler Reddick in fifth. Danny Hanlon finishes sixth. Ryan Blaney finishes seventh. Eric Jones finishes eighth. Ty Gibbs finishes ninth. And Kyle Busch rounds out the top ten. In my opinion, I think I enjoyed this race. There was not that many cautions. There were only three cautions for incident. One was from bubble balls getting turned around and hitting the inside wall in stage one. And then two incidents in stage three. The first was a massive pileup on the backstretch which Kevin Harvick, Chris Buescher, and several others got involved. And then Eric Omarola on 73 lap old tires blows a tire and he gets turned in front of Kyle Larson and both of them wreck out. And this race was pretty much watching a race at Daytona. You got the packs and the side-by-side racing. And unlike Daytona, you could run three wide. So in my opinion, it was actually better than the Daytona 500. But we gotta talk about two things. First off, Mike Joy once again calls out the Keyboard Warriors. This time he called him out when they were showcasing the new ticker and he decided to call him out then. And he said to give him his opinions on his Twitter and that he knows that you know where to find him. And it's just insulting because there's a lot of gripes that I have with Fox Sports, but that doesn't make me a keyboard warrior. But there are a lot of keyboard warriors out there that are just trashing on Fox Sports without providing any solutions to how they could improve their coverage. But if some of these people that are critical of Fox provide any suggestions, then Fox should really try to listen to them and try not to give the haters power. And the final thing, we gotta talk about that National Anthem. It was a pretty good National Anthem by that artist, I don't remember his name, but we gotta talk about that last note. I don't know what that was, but his voice was not designed to go that high. It just led to a screech at the end, the home of the... And instead of singing brave, he goes... And that was just embarrassing. And what's even more embarrassing is that Fox Sports decided to post it on Twitter and they immediately got hammered by the fans and the haters over that. That was just an embarrassing moment. And it's just trending everywhere. But it was not the trendiest thing to come out of the Atlanta weekend, and I'll talk about that in a little bit. But overall, this race was pretty good, a 5.6 super speedway race. And a lot of people that seem to be aiding on this race are those that do not like super speedway racing. But super speedway racing is a lot different to traditional racing, where it's all about the equipment and lifting off the gas, sometimes using a brake to get into corners. Meanwhile, you mostly go flat-footed around the racetrack, but you do it in several packs. You have to use your visual instincts as well as help from the spotter to make passes and make daring blocks. And if either you and or your spotter mess up, it's going to be detrimental. But those who like super speedway racing probably enjoyed this race like I did. But it's just not everyone's taste, in my opinion. Next up for the Xfinity race, Austin Hill goes back-to-back at Atlanta, and he's followed by Daniel Hemrick in second, Ryan Truex in third, Parker Kluckerman gets turned and finishes fourth backwards, Riley Herbst finishes fifth, Brett Moffat finishes sixth, Josh Berry finishes seventh, John Honoremacek finishes eighth, Sam Mayer finishes ninth, and Justin Healy rounds out the top ten. And man, that was a wreck-fest. It seemed like every few laps during that first and second stage, there was always a crash, and I don't think all those drivers had control of their car. I know NASCAR made some changes to the Xfinity cars over the off-season, but they have really changed how the cars feel in the draft, particularly at this racetrack. And we gotta talk about the moment of the race. After Josh Williams gets patched up and the track goes back green, the caution comes out for Bear Bond coming off of his car. And instead of penalizing him for a few laps, NASCAR decides to go all-outs for it and decides to park him. But Josh Williams refuses to park it, and instead continues to run caution laps around until he decides, well, I'm gonna park it, but I'm gonna park it on the front straightaway, right in front of all the fans and all of the NASCAR officials in the tower. That was a ballsy move, and he paid dearly for it. He was immediately called to the NASCAR hauler, where he was basically kept in NASCAR jail for the entire race. And this was done probably because he couldn't get his butt chewed until after the race. After the race, I'm pretty sure his butt got chewed a million times sideways. But he was finally let go later that evening, and he talked to the media about it, and he went viral for it. Everyone in and out of the sport was talking about it, and he was trending on Twitter. And I believe he peaked at number one, but I posted on Facebook when I saw he was at number three. And everyone was talking about him, including Antonio Brown, that this race was an absolute dumpster fire. With all the wrecks, and then this? It was just a dumpster fire. And finally, for the truck race, Christian Eckes gets his second career win, and he's followed by Nicholas Sanchez in second, John Hradonimacek in third, Bailey Curry in fourth, Ben Rhodes in fifth, Matt DiBenedetto in sixth, Chase Purdy in seventh, Timmy Hill in eighth, Jack Kraft in ninth, and Jack Wood rounds out the top ten. And this race was probably the second best of the weekend. It was not a wreckfest, but it was kind of boring compared to the cup race. The race wasn't as exciting, because there was the lack of pitch strategy, because of all the cautions, and the finish was kind of mediocre. And so overall, I think it was a solid weekend for Atlanta. I'll think everyone likes that Atlanta has become a super speedway, but I think most of the fans that did not enjoy the final years of Atlanta with the 550 package probably enjoyed this race. They probably missed Atlanta from the early 2000s into the early 2010s, but I think this is probably second to the best racing in Atlanta. Now I could tell that the track has aged. In my opinion, I saw a little bit of the old Atlanta in there. It'll be interesting to see how this track continues to age, but I don't think that pack racing is going to be sustainable. And when pack racing is no longer sustainable, I hope that NASCAR decides to take the restrictor plates off and try out the intermediate package. And so with that out of the way, let's get to the news. The NASCAR Foundation and Speedway Children's Charities will be hosting a NASCAR Day Give-A-Thon. It will begin on Tuesday, May 16th at 5 p.m. Eastern Time and goes through 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, May 19th. The goal will be to raise $750,000 in charitable funds. Quaker State has renewed its sponsorship of the Summer Atlanta Race and has added a sponsorship at Track House Racing. Denny Hamlin will be appealing the Phoenix penalty for getting into Chastain. And what he did with the media over the weekend was funny because when he was asked about it, he says, I think you should get your shingrits shingles vaccine. Black Rifle Coffee Company will be sponsoring Noah Gregson in multiple races this year. Kevin Harvick will once again run the 29 for the All-Star Race in tribute to his first season in the Cup Series and particularly his first Cup win at Atlanta. And speaking of penalties, both Collegue and Hendrick Motorsports will appeal their penalties. Each team was fined 100 team and driver points except the 9 which did not lose driver points because Josh Berry did not declare points for the Cup Series as well as 10 playoff points. The Crew Chiefs will be suspended for 4 races which started at Atlanta and they've each been fined $100,000. And for Hendrick, it is the biggest single fine in NASCAR history at a whopping $400,000 if they lose this appeal. The previous record was Michael Waltrip racing with Spingate at $300,000. So this is going to be huge if this penalty ends up standing. Rising Country Superstar Parker McCollum will be the headliner for the pre-race concert for the Ally 400 at Nashville Super Speedway. The Nashville Fair Board has approved the plans to renovate the Nashville Fairground Speedway. This is a huge step in the right direction for those who want the Nashville Fairground Speedway to return, but it still has to go through the Metro Council. But things are certainly going well. And for the cars that opposed the renovations, nice try, but you lost. NASCAR's expecting 50,000 people per day for the Chicago Street Race. And finally, we have the Phoenix TV readings. Fox earned a 1.93 reading and 3.4 million viewers from last Sunday's race, which is down pretty significantly from a 2.33 reading and 3.991 million viewers last year. But it is up compared to the season finale, believe it or not, which really shows how bad the playoffs are with TV ratings. And it was the third most watched sports event of the week behind NCAA March Madness. And the Players' Championship, which is golf. And I think the primary reason why it's down so significantly is probably Chase Elliott. Because ratings were okay for the beginning of the year, but then after Chase Elliott was injured, they have taken a nosedive. And I'd say Fox's coverage and now more competition coming in with March Madness and golf is not helping either. And it doesn't look good, especially since negotiations with other broadcast networks are about to start. Fox and NBC's grace period of negotiations are about to end, if they haven't already. And so that's it for this week's news. And now it's time to preview this weekend's races at Dakota. Starting off with the truck race, we have the XPAL 225. The race will be 42 laps and 143.22 miles. And the race will be on March 25th at 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with Alex Bowman. Alex Bowman is running the truck race in the number 7 for Spire Motorsports. And he was close to winning last year until he collided with two other trucks, which were Kyle Busch and Stort Friesen. But I think this time Alex Bowman will win at Dakota. Next for the Xfinity race, we have the Pit Boss 250 presented by USA Today. The race will be 48 laps and 156.86 miles. And the race will be on March 25th at 5 p.m. Eastern Time. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with Parker Kligerman. Parker Kligerman has shown some great speed out of that 48 car for Big Machine Racing. And last year in the truck series, he won on the road course at Mid-Ohio. And because Parker Kligerman is pretty good at these road courses, I think he'll win at Dakota. And finally for the cup race, we have the Echo Park Automotive Grand Prix. The race will be 68 laps and 231.88 miles. And the race will be on March 26th at 3.30 p.m. Eastern Time. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with Tyler Reddick. Tyler Reddick won twice last year, getting his first career win at Road America. And he got his second win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. And so because he's fast at these road courses, I think he's going to get his first win with 23.11 by winning at Kota. 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 the Circuit of the Americas 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.