Nascar is back!

      After a two week break that felt like an eternity to the race fan in me, NASCAR racing returns tonight with NASCAR rolling into Richmond. The break was a breath of fresh air but I do rather miss seeing cars on track so I’m eagerly awaiting to see the Craftsman Truck Series and the Cup Series return to action. 

   As this starts up the second part of the season it brings up some interesting questions such as can anyone beat Kyle Larson right now, what’s going on with RCR and trackhouse and basically any Chevy cup team outside of HMS, and also silly season has gotten quite silly to say the least. Then this weekends Cup race will feature different tire compounds that teams can use so this could get interesting. 

      So far in the truck series it has been the Corey Heim show, with Christian Eckes in hot pursuit. These two should be a lock on favorites to make the final 4 as both guys are in a league of their own as the two have combined to win 8 of the first 15 races with Heim winning 5 and Eckes winning 3. The next closest challenger to them is Ty Majeski who is 3rd in points and is fresh off a win at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. With Richmond being another flat slick track I think one of these 3 guys will be the favorite to win here tonight.

       As for the Cup side of things Richmond tomorrow could be interesting due to the different tire compounds and the conditions of practice and qualifying could differ from race time conditions. This tire idea is one of the different ideas that NASCAR has done to try and improve short track racing with the Next Gen. This idea before had only been permitted for the All Star race. Tomorrow is the first points paying race. Do I think a difference will be made? I think maybe a few tenths but depending on how big the drop off is I’m not sure.

      As far as race contenders and headlines, Kyle Larson probably is the fastest man in the garage right now coming off of an impressive win at Indy, and I don’t see that letting up here as despite a late race spin at this track back in March, he still rebounded to a 3rd place finish. Denny Hamlin was the winner here last year and benefited from the late race yellow and even was involved in some late race restart controversy over jumping the restart and passing Martin Truex Jr, who also had a fast car back in the spring. Both Truex and Hamlin are coming off of bad finishes at Indy with Truex after two spins finishing 27th and Denny Hamlin getting involved in a big crash late in the race and finishing 32nd. Both of these guys are hoping for a better outing tomorrow.

      With that being said, tomorrow I will have my eyes on the Chevy camp as the speed just hasn’t been there outside of HMS. The manufacturer in cup only has one win outside of HMS, and that came at Atlanta with Daniel Suarez. The Hendrick camp has all 4 cars inside the top 10 in points, but then you look down the list and the next closest Chevy driver is Ross Chastain in 13th 54 points back. You then have to go to 17th and 18th in points to find Suarez and Kyle Busch who are nearly 100 points behind Ross. Either HMS is just that much better or the support in TRD and Ford for the teams is more stronger this year because Chevy outside of one team just doesn’t seem to have the speed this year. 

     With the last point I want to talk about, it’s definitely silly season. Corey Lajoe is currently searching for a ride for next season, Josh Berry is going to Wood Bros racing replacing Harrison Burton, Noah Gragson to FRM racing replacing Micheal McDowell who is going to Spire, Chase Briscoe to the JGR 19 to replace a retiring Martin Truex Jr are just just some of the confirmed moves so far. The 7 car is still open, and there are also about 3 charters that are up for grabs with SHR closing up shop at the end of the year and HAAS retaining 1 of the 4 charters to operate their own team. Trackhouse and 23XI are two teams likely to acquire charters with hopes of putting SVG in a charter for trackhouse and rumors of Riley Herbst in the 3rd 23XI car. It’s still a long way to go to next season but things are heating up.


      

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