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Denny Hamlin explained it perfectly back in 2015.
“I just can’t get over what this series has come to, just how f***ed up it is,” Hamlin said to his crew at Martisnville. “How do you crown a real champion now? It’s just the wild, wild West.”
Seven years later, those words are more profound than ever.
That race at the much maligned Texas Motor Speedway was embarassing on all accounts and it’s everybody’s fault. Goodyear has dropped the ball all year long and Sunday was the worst tire disaster since the 2008 Brickyard 400.
On top of the bevy of problems with the tires, NASCAR dropped the ball in a big way. After William Byron was squeezed in the wall by Hamlin off of a restart, Byron responded at the caution by blatantly spinning Hamlin through the grass. What did NASCAR do? Why they sent Hamlin to the back of the pack for not maintaining caution speed, no penalty to Byron.
As if that punishment, or lack thereof, wasn’t bad enough, NASCAR’s response was so much worse. In front of media members, NASCAR’s Scott Miller said that they didn’t have eyes on the accident and thus couldn’t take action, but would have had they seen it. If you can’t already tell that this explanation is bogus, let me remind you that you can now see an in-car shot of every car on NASCAR’s website. If Joe from Delaware can see Byron’s car, how in the world can’t NASCAR?
Tyler Reddick won the race but that seems like an afterthought. The thing with these historically bad races is that nobody remembers the winner. The two races that come to mind under this blanket are the aforementioned 2008 Brickyard 400 and the 2013 Fall Richmond race mired by “Spingate”. If anyone remembers who won both those races without Google, they’re either a liar or have a memory like an elephant.
The only positive from this race is that Cody Ware wasn’t as hurt as we feared. For those that missed it, Ware lost it in turn 4, smacking the wall head on and seemed to have lost brakes. He proceeded to fly down pit road and hit the inside wall, barely missing the access way near fans and Alex Bowman’s crew. After collapsing to the ground and needing a stretcher, Ware’s x-rays came back negative and didn’t appear to have a concussion.
That race could have been avoided in so many ways. This sport is taking it from everywhere and everyone, with nobody to blame but themselves. There is way too much on the line for these continuing problems, both in terms of the Playoffs and drivers’ health. Talladega is next week, what is going to happen if we get a similar outcome.
I said it last night and I’ll say it again: NASCAR’s product has been too good this year for them to continue getting in their own way. These are the playoffs, where everyone should be at the top of their game. Instead, we got a race that fans, drivers, teams, executives and Goodyear would all like to forget.
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