“Summer’s Five Things” is a column by Summer Bedgood for NASCAR fans to catch up on the most recent, relevant, and need-to-know news and information in the sport! While mostly focused on NASCAR, this column may also feature other interesting and exciting moments from the world of motorsports. Enjoy!
1. Ryan Blaney wins first ever “Roval” race
The energy around this race weekend had been buzzing ever since the announcement that it was being added to the schedule — the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course.
Or, in more endearing terms, the “Roval”.
Sunday marked the first ever Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) event on the Roval, a track configuration that includes part of the 1.5-mile oval that the series typically runs on, and a road course layout that goes through the Charlotte Motor Speedway infield.
And if you listened at all to the competitors in the weeks, and even months, leading up to the event, you heard that carnage would ensue, no car would be left unscathed, and there would be great weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Turns out, they weren’t so wrong after all.
Though there was only one incident in the first two stages that brought out a yellow, the final stage saw five caution flags, including a 15-car pileup in the part of the track labeled “Heartburn Turn” that brought out the red flag for almost 15 minutes.
But that finish — oh my, that finish.
No one was really looking for or talking about Ryan Blaney as the laps wound down, even though he had won Stage 2. It looked like Martin Truex Jr. would only have to outrun Jimmie Johnson for the race victory while the rest of the field fought to determine the four drivers who would be eliminated from Playoff contention at the checkered flag.
Then things changed — quickly.
Johnson made an aggressive move to Truex’s inside coming to the frontstretch chicane. His No. 48 then began to spin out and collected Truex in the process…
…which allowed Blaney to sneak right on by for his second career MENCS victory.
“We restarted sixth the last one there and got to third with a couple to go,” Blaney said post-race. “I was really just riding third. We were good to go on points and was going to advance to the next round on points no problems. They were so far ahead I wasn’t even really trying and then I saw them kind of close to each other through the oval track in three and four and I was like, ‘Oh, something might happen here.’ And we went down I there and they touched just trying to win the race and I was lucky to sneak through there. That’s not how you really want to win them. I’d rather go out and dominate the race and win by a lap, but you’ve got to take them how you can get them nowadays.”
The 24-year-old driver earned his first career victory last season in the June race at Pocono Raceway and finished the season ninth in points. The win automatically advanced Blaney to the Round of 12, though he would have advanced on points had he ended up with a third-place result.
Unofficial Race Results
2. Martin Truex Jr. not happy with Jimmie Johnson following last-lap crash
After most of his closest competitors were taken out in a multi-car pileup on lap 104, it looked like Martin Truex Jr. may very well win his fifth race of the season, despite the fact that he was already locked into the Round of 12 regardless of where he finished on the Roval.
That turned out to be a good thing because seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson had other ideas. Facing a 58-race winless streak, Johnson was able to keep up with Truex on the final restart of the day and was right on his rear bumper heading into the final few turns on the course.
An aggressive move to try and overtake Truex caused Johnson to spin out, collecting Truex in the process. Both drivers watched as Ryan Blaney drove by to take the victory.
While Truex’s 14th-place finish didn’t have any ill effects other than the loss of further Playoff points, the consequences for Johnson were much more severe. His eighth-place finish resulted in him being eliminated from the Playoffs, and thus a chance at winning a record-breaking eighth title, after losing a tiebreaker in a three-way tie with Kyle Larson and Aric Almirola.
Truex was hardly sympathetic to Johnson’s plight, instead spinning Johnson out on the cool-down lap and showing no mercy in his post-race comments.
“Last corner desperation behind us, that’s what you get,” said Truex. “I gave him (Jimmie Johnson) the inside lane and he had the run through (turn) four and I was real tight down there. I let him have the inside going down inside coming out of four there to the chicane. He just over-drove it and was never going to make it and used me as brakes and turned us both around. It sucks, we could have raced side-by-side off the last corner for a win and that would have been cool. The fans would have been digging it, but instead we finished 14th and he’s locked out of the Playoffs. I guess that’s what he gets.”
Johnson has endured the worst season of his 17-year career, having yet to make it to Victory Lane and earning only top top fives in 29 races.
3. Kyle Larson makes it into the Round of 12 by skin of his teeth in beat up racecar
When you hear the phrase “it’s never over ’til it’s over”, think of Kyle Larson’s Sunday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
Larson had one of the best cars in the field, leading a race-high 47 laps after starting fifth, and winning Stage 1.
Yet the fact that he wound up making it into the Playoffs was nothing short of a miracle.
In a race that had been filled with mostly one- or two-car incidents, the “Big One” finally struck on lap 104 when 15 cars piled into into Turn 1.
No, literally, they piled in, after a few drivers up front overshot the turn, creating a domino effect all the way back through the field.
Larson was one of those drivers involved, forcing the team to thrash to get the car repaired enough for them to continue racing while staying within the six-minute damage repair clock. While points had not been a concern all day for Larson, suddenly his cushion dwindled and he was faced with the very real possibility of missing the Playoffs.
With a badly battered racecar and struggling to make minimum speed, Larson was all but certain to miss the Round of 12 despite being in contention for the win just a few laps earlier.
Then the last-lap chaos began, and it wasn’t just Johnson and Truex who found themselves facing the wrong direction. Jeffrey Earnhardt spun out and stalled mere feet from the start/finish line, and Larson’s crew knew that position could be the difference between zero and hero.
“I knew I was in bad shape, so I kind of, I guess you could say, giving up, but I couldn’t even drive my car, it was so bad destroyed,” Larson explained post-race. “But then they said they were all crashed and they were coming to the checkered. I was over here getting on the oval, and they said they were starting to crash, so I ran hard. We had, I guess, so much camber and tow in our car they said if I ran fast I would blow a right front. But I was like, you’ve got to go.
“So, I ran hard through, whatever, 1 and 2 over there and through the Bus Stop, and then blew a right front center of 3 and 4 and plowed the wall, I was like, crap, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get down to make the chicane, but luckily it came down off the banking and I could turn right okay.”
And then, just two more corners.
“So, I got through the 16th corner, and then 17 I hit the wall again on the front stretch, and the 96 was stalled the whole time,” he continued. “I think they told me the 96 was stalled when I was like at the backstretch over there, and he wasn’t able to get his car re-fired ‑‑ He was like 100 feet from the start‑finish line. I could start to see him creep in when I was getting to 16. I was like, gosh, don’t go, don’t go, and we were able to make it. Hey, I was pretty lucky.”
He wound up finishing 25th, and that was all it took. Actually, that was exactly what it took.
Larson found himself in a three-way tie with Jimmie Johnson and Aric Almirola for the 12th and final position. The tiebreaker for these situations goes to the highest finishing position in the current round — which meant Larson was in, having finished second in the Playoff-opening race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
He summed up the race in just one word on Twitter …
4. Jones, Hamlin, Dillon also eliminated from the Playoffs
In addition to Johnson’s last-lap fracas that left him out on the outside looking in for the Round of 12, three other drivers saw their championship hopes go up in smoke as well.
Sophomore driver Erik Jones, who made it into the Playoffs by virtue of his July victory at Daytona International Speedway, was already facing a virtual must-win situation heading into the Roval. He started the day at a disadvantage, having to start at the rear of the field after switching to a back-up car following a gnarly wreck in practice on Saturday.
Like many other drivers throughout the day, contact became an issue pretty quickly. A restart went sour and Jones’ No. 20 car had some substantial damage along with a flat tire that required him to come to pit road.
He was never able to truly challenge for any significant positions on the track that would have moved him into the next round, and he finished 30th.
His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin did not fare much better. Also facing a must-win situation, Hamlin too had to start at the rear of the field. Rather than being able to work his way up through the field or using pit strategy to gain track position, Hamlin had to pit very early in the race due to a tire issue.
Though he was able to recover and finish on the lead lap in 12th, it wasn’t the finish Hamlin needed and he was eliminated as well.
Finally, this year’s Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon was eliminated from Playoff contention after a tough day. The 28-year-old driver hit the wall multiple times, and ultimately had to retire from the race after 64 laps due to damage, finishing 39th.
With the elimination of these four drivers, the Round of 12 has been set.
5. Kasey Kahne may be back in the car this weekend in Dover
Leavine-Family Racing driver Kasey Kahne has missed the last four races due to severe dehydration that he has been fighting for a while now, an issue that became dangerous during the September 2nd race at Darlington Raceway. Kahne said he struggled to keep his eyes open and control his heart rate.
The 38-year-old driver will be participating in a test for a couple of hours this week to determine if he can return to the car for this weekend’s race at Dover International Speedway.
Regan Smith has filled in for Kahne since Indianapolis Motor Speedway, finishing 20th (Indianapolis), 12th (Las Vegas Motor Speedway), 31st (Richmond Raceway), and 15th (Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course).
Kahne announced in mid-August that he would not be returning to full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition in 2019, citing his dehydration issues as one of the deciding factors.
~~
If you would like to receive “Five Things” in your inbox, or just connect with me, you may send me an e-mail at [email protected].
You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram.
Summer’s Five Things: What You Need To Know For October 1, 2018
“Summer’s Five Things” is a column by Summer Bedgood for NASCAR fans to catch up on the most recent, relevant, and need-to-know news and information in the sport! While mostly focused on NASCAR, this column may also feature other interesting and exciting moments from the world of motorsports. Enjoy!
1. Ryan Blaney wins first ever “Roval” race
The energy around this race weekend had been buzzing ever since the announcement that it was being added to the schedule — the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course.
Or, in more endearing terms, the “Roval”.
Sunday marked the first ever Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) event on the Roval, a track configuration that includes part of the 1.5-mile oval that the series typically runs on, and a road course layout that goes through the Charlotte Motor Speedway infield.
And if you listened at all to the competitors in the weeks, and even months, leading up to the event, you heard that carnage would ensue, no car would be left unscathed, and there would be great weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Turns out, they weren’t so wrong after all.
Though there was only one incident in the first two stages that brought out a yellow, the final stage saw five caution flags, including a 15-car pileup in the part of the track labeled “Heartburn Turn” that brought out the red flag for almost 15 minutes.
But that finish — oh my, that finish.
No one was really looking for or talking about Ryan Blaney as the laps wound down, even though he had won Stage 2. It looked like Martin Truex Jr. would only have to outrun Jimmie Johnson for the race victory while the rest of the field fought to determine the four drivers who would be eliminated from Playoff contention at the checkered flag.
Then things changed — quickly.
Johnson made an aggressive move to Truex’s inside coming to the frontstretch chicane. His No. 48 then began to spin out and collected Truex in the process…
…which allowed Blaney to sneak right on by for his second career MENCS victory.
“We restarted sixth the last one there and got to third with a couple to go,” Blaney said post-race. “I was really just riding third. We were good to go on points and was going to advance to the next round on points no problems. They were so far ahead I wasn’t even really trying and then I saw them kind of close to each other through the oval track in three and four and I was like, ‘Oh, something might happen here.’ And we went down I there and they touched just trying to win the race and I was lucky to sneak through there. That’s not how you really want to win them. I’d rather go out and dominate the race and win by a lap, but you’ve got to take them how you can get them nowadays.”
The 24-year-old driver earned his first career victory last season in the June race at Pocono Raceway and finished the season ninth in points. The win automatically advanced Blaney to the Round of 12, though he would have advanced on points had he ended up with a third-place result.
Unofficial Race Results
2. Martin Truex Jr. not happy with Jimmie Johnson following last-lap crash
After most of his closest competitors were taken out in a multi-car pileup on lap 104, it looked like Martin Truex Jr. may very well win his fifth race of the season, despite the fact that he was already locked into the Round of 12 regardless of where he finished on the Roval.
That turned out to be a good thing because seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson had other ideas. Facing a 58-race winless streak, Johnson was able to keep up with Truex on the final restart of the day and was right on his rear bumper heading into the final few turns on the course.
An aggressive move to try and overtake Truex caused Johnson to spin out, collecting Truex in the process. Both drivers watched as Ryan Blaney drove by to take the victory.
While Truex’s 14th-place finish didn’t have any ill effects other than the loss of further Playoff points, the consequences for Johnson were much more severe. His eighth-place finish resulted in him being eliminated from the Playoffs, and thus a chance at winning a record-breaking eighth title, after losing a tiebreaker in a three-way tie with Kyle Larson and Aric Almirola.
Truex was hardly sympathetic to Johnson’s plight, instead spinning Johnson out on the cool-down lap and showing no mercy in his post-race comments.
“Last corner desperation behind us, that’s what you get,” said Truex. “I gave him (Jimmie Johnson) the inside lane and he had the run through (turn) four and I was real tight down there. I let him have the inside going down inside coming out of four there to the chicane. He just over-drove it and was never going to make it and used me as brakes and turned us both around. It sucks, we could have raced side-by-side off the last corner for a win and that would have been cool. The fans would have been digging it, but instead we finished 14th and he’s locked out of the Playoffs. I guess that’s what he gets.”
Johnson has endured the worst season of his 17-year career, having yet to make it to Victory Lane and earning only top top fives in 29 races.
3. Kyle Larson makes it into the Round of 12 by skin of his teeth in beat up racecar
When you hear the phrase “it’s never over ’til it’s over”, think of Kyle Larson’s Sunday at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
Larson had one of the best cars in the field, leading a race-high 47 laps after starting fifth, and winning Stage 1.
Yet the fact that he wound up making it into the Playoffs was nothing short of a miracle.
In a race that had been filled with mostly one- or two-car incidents, the “Big One” finally struck on lap 104 when 15 cars piled into into Turn 1.
No, literally, they piled in, after a few drivers up front overshot the turn, creating a domino effect all the way back through the field.
Larson was one of those drivers involved, forcing the team to thrash to get the car repaired enough for them to continue racing while staying within the six-minute damage repair clock. While points had not been a concern all day for Larson, suddenly his cushion dwindled and he was faced with the very real possibility of missing the Playoffs.
With a badly battered racecar and struggling to make minimum speed, Larson was all but certain to miss the Round of 12 despite being in contention for the win just a few laps earlier.
Then the last-lap chaos began, and it wasn’t just Johnson and Truex who found themselves facing the wrong direction. Jeffrey Earnhardt spun out and stalled mere feet from the start/finish line, and Larson’s crew knew that position could be the difference between zero and hero.
“I knew I was in bad shape, so I kind of, I guess you could say, giving up, but I couldn’t even drive my car, it was so bad destroyed,” Larson explained post-race. “But then they said they were all crashed and they were coming to the checkered. I was over here getting on the oval, and they said they were starting to crash, so I ran hard. We had, I guess, so much camber and tow in our car they said if I ran fast I would blow a right front. But I was like, you’ve got to go.
“So, I ran hard through, whatever, 1 and 2 over there and through the Bus Stop, and then blew a right front center of 3 and 4 and plowed the wall, I was like, crap, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get down to make the chicane, but luckily it came down off the banking and I could turn right okay.”
And then, just two more corners.
“So, I got through the 16th corner, and then 17 I hit the wall again on the front stretch, and the 96 was stalled the whole time,” he continued. “I think they told me the 96 was stalled when I was like at the backstretch over there, and he wasn’t able to get his car re-fired ‑‑ He was like 100 feet from the start‑finish line. I could start to see him creep in when I was getting to 16. I was like, gosh, don’t go, don’t go, and we were able to make it. Hey, I was pretty lucky.”
He wound up finishing 25th, and that was all it took. Actually, that was exactly what it took.
Larson found himself in a three-way tie with Jimmie Johnson and Aric Almirola for the 12th and final position. The tiebreaker for these situations goes to the highest finishing position in the current round — which meant Larson was in, having finished second in the Playoff-opening race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
He summed up the race in just one word on Twitter …
4. Jones, Hamlin, Dillon also eliminated from the Playoffs
In addition to Johnson’s last-lap fracas that left him out on the outside looking in for the Round of 12, three other drivers saw their championship hopes go up in smoke as well.
Sophomore driver Erik Jones, who made it into the Playoffs by virtue of his July victory at Daytona International Speedway, was already facing a virtual must-win situation heading into the Roval. He started the day at a disadvantage, having to start at the rear of the field after switching to a back-up car following a gnarly wreck in practice on Saturday.
Like many other drivers throughout the day, contact became an issue pretty quickly. A restart went sour and Jones’ No. 20 car had some substantial damage along with a flat tire that required him to come to pit road.
He was never able to truly challenge for any significant positions on the track that would have moved him into the next round, and he finished 30th.
His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin did not fare much better. Also facing a must-win situation, Hamlin too had to start at the rear of the field. Rather than being able to work his way up through the field or using pit strategy to gain track position, Hamlin had to pit very early in the race due to a tire issue.
Though he was able to recover and finish on the lead lap in 12th, it wasn’t the finish Hamlin needed and he was eliminated as well.
Finally, this year’s Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon was eliminated from Playoff contention after a tough day. The 28-year-old driver hit the wall multiple times, and ultimately had to retire from the race after 64 laps due to damage, finishing 39th.
With the elimination of these four drivers, the Round of 12 has been set.
5. Kasey Kahne may be back in the car this weekend in Dover
Leavine-Family Racing driver Kasey Kahne has missed the last four races due to severe dehydration that he has been fighting for a while now, an issue that became dangerous during the September 2nd race at Darlington Raceway. Kahne said he struggled to keep his eyes open and control his heart rate.
The 38-year-old driver will be participating in a test for a couple of hours this week to determine if he can return to the car for this weekend’s race at Dover International Speedway.
Regan Smith has filled in for Kahne since Indianapolis Motor Speedway, finishing 20th (Indianapolis), 12th (Las Vegas Motor Speedway), 31st (Richmond Raceway), and 15th (Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course).
Kahne announced in mid-August that he would not be returning to full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition in 2019, citing his dehydration issues as one of the deciding factors.
~~
If you would like to receive “Five Things” in your inbox, or just connect with me, you may send me an e-mail at [email protected].
You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram.