By Adam Carabine & Logan Morris
Logan Morris: Adam, here again after a wild and wooly race at the paper clip. Denny Hamlin dominated in pretty spectacular fashion as he secured his 55th career win to pass the great Lee Petty on the all-time wins list. What were your thoughts?
Adam Carabine: Yes, we are back! Denny Hamlin gets off the Martinsville schneid, so to speak, with his first win there in 10 years. But don’t be fooled, he’s quite gifted at Martinsville, that’s now his 6th career win there in the Cup Series.
The race was fairly disjointed with a bunch of cautions, and then a long green-flag run to the finish. Was it my favourite race we’ve had this year? No - but a day at the races is always better than nothing! How about you?
LM: Well, we got lucky and our rain dances paid off for once. The forecast looked pretty rough as the week wore on and thankfully there wasn’t a drop to be found today. The race did plunge into chaos come the final stage. One thing I want to note is the rubber build-up we saw on Sunday. It was everywhere! I thought this was one of the better short-track races we’ve seen in this era. Is there more work to do? Yes. But it felt like we saw some progress finally.
AC: Yes, it’s nice that NASCAR (and Goodyear, I suppose) is getting aggressive with some of these softer tire compounds, which really does help the racing product. One thing we talked about a while back when Martinsville was a complete dud was that there wasn’t enough tire fall-off. It’s fitting that one of the best at tire management ends up winning the race, Denny Hamlin.
From a viewer’s perspective, I can understand why this race wasn’t as popular as others. There was a little less action at the front of the pack, and most of the cautions we saw were for backmarkers spinning, or light contact. When there’s a wreck at Martinsville, there’s just nowhere to go - so I think they’re quicker to throw a caution. And while I agree with that approach - safety first, of course - it can get a little frustrating when there are multiple restarts over and over. You wind up seeing more laps under caution than under green. Did that bug you today?
LM: Yes. I really believe some sort of limit should be enforced as far as laps per caution. I know the thought of even more new rules makes some people anywhere from a little easy to flat-out ready for a stiff drink. However, I think it’s important for the paying customer to get their money’s worth if it can be helped. Weather is one thing, wasting copious amounts of laps under caution is another. I’m not upset at the quick caution calls. As you said, Adam, safety first. But, viewers want to see as much green-flag racing as possible. We saw Zane Smith fall victim to the tighter conditions today.
AC: We did, but he also put up a pretty solid finish, considering he hasn’t been the most impressive driver so far this year. He’s actually doing better than the eye-test might show when you look at his stats, but I feel like I haven’t really heard much Zane Smith talk at all this season. He finished P16 on Sunday which is within the realm of expectation for him.
Something else I wanted to touch on was the battery issues for both Josh Berry and Austin Cindric. The guys in the booth touched on it lightly, but I wondered what you thought - was this just a freak accident? Or did they try something aggressive setup-wise that backfired?
LM: Between the battery issues, and Blaney’s recent engine issues, I’m of the opinion that Team Penske is pushing the envelope and paying for it early in the season. I do not doubt that the contact between Berry and Bubba Wallace on pit road early in the race caused trouble for Berry’s first battery of the day. But, he went through three of them and then there were none for Cindric.
AC: I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a car having to retire from the race due to not having enough batteries left! Craziness. It’s still earlier in the season, and maybe this experimenting will pay off later on down the line for the Penske/Wood Bros teams, but for now things are not going the way they’d like.
LM: Is it still too early to worry about anyone’s season?
AC: I think it’s a case-by-case call. Who do you have in mind?
LM: Austin Cindric comes to mind.
AC: That’s fair. After his DNF this week, and his 50-point penalty earlier this season, he’s certainly in a hole. He’s currently 24th in points, and it’s a steep climb to get back into the playoff picture. I would say that Team Penske has the equipment for him to get a win at some point, but certainly not if they keep experimenting.
What about Brad Keselowski?
LM: I’m concerned about Keselowski, the way he’s running compared to his teammates/ drivers doesn’t give me a lot of optimism for his season at the moment.
AC: Agreed. Now finally, before we get to our weekly awards, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you about the Erik Jones DQ - Thoughts?
LM: I’m hoping Legacy has grounds to appeal. But, NASCAR usually gives teams a lot of leeway before disqualifying them, so I would guess that Erik Jones’s points deficit just got a lot deeper.
AC: Yeah, you never like to see anyone get disqualified, but post-race weights are a tough one to appeal after the fact. The ol’ post race inspection strikes again!
Anyway, let’s give away some awards!
Best Performer
LM: My best performer is without question, Denny Hamlin. He put on a clinic today. There is no other option.
AC: It’s hard to disagree with that. Once he got up into clean air, he was unstoppable. He had a little trouble from time to time with some lapped traffic, but he really did a great job of managing the gap back to 2nd.
Biggest Move of the Race
LM: I’ll give my biggest move of the race to the 22 team. They battled some adversity to get their first top-ten of the season. They also scored a stage win. Under the radar days like this can make a huge difference later.
AC: Quit stealing all of my answers! I was going to specifically call out Logano and essentially his final 20 laps or so. When he restarted with 75 to go, he was in 25th. It’s one thing to make a pass when you’ve got fresh tires, or when you’re on a different strategy, but he made some major ground up in those final 20 laps. He finished P8 (a total gain of 17 spots), including three spots in the final 10 laps. Awesome work.
Biggest Disappointment
LM: My biggest disappointment goes to SVG. It has not been a great start for him this season, you have to wonder if he was rushed through the ranks.
AC: Yeah, I saw you mention that in our group chat. I actually disagree. Obviously his strong suit is road courses, ovals were always going to be a challenge for him. He was brought in to be a threat on the road courses, likely with the understanding that he wouldn’t be as competitive on ovals, at least for now. There’s definitely a learning curve there, especially in a new car to him, as it’s quite different from the Xfinity car, but I think for a team like Trackhouse, the risk was worth the reward. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an SVG win at a road course this year. Hopefully he can reign in his oval skills.
As far as my biggest disappointment - I’ll say it so you don’t have to. The Jones DQ is a gut punch to a team that’s already a fringe contender to make the playoffs. He’s shown some fleeting moments here and there, but hopefully this doesn’t kill morale at the 43 team.
What to Watch for Next Weekend
LM: Next weekend we’re onto the Lady in Black as she’s known. It’s throwback weekend, which is one of my favorite weekends of the season. I know my favorite throwback already! Denny Hamlin has a very real chance of going back-to-back. You mentioned Erik Jones, we know how strong he can be at Darlington.
AC: Darlington is one of my favourite tracks to watch, so I’m looking forward to it! While throwback weekend doesn’t necessarily get me as excited as it does for others, there has been some widespread backlash against Chase Elliott’s throwback scheme, so I’m interested to see how they navigate that in the broadcast booth.
I’d keep an eye on Chase Briscoe. He won the Southern 500 last fall (with yours truly in attendance, no less), and he’s in better equipment this time. This would be an important statement from him and the 19 team.
Whatever happens, we’ll be here to break it all down for you post-race. See you next week!
LM: I’ll be chilling with my boombox!
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