Cup Series

Joey Logano hadn’t won a race since March’s event at Phoenix, but that changed on Sunday with his win in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas. Logano held off Kevin Harvick in an incredible 45 lap stint that featured Harvick trying to find his way past the 22 of Logano the entire run, but to no avail. It was Logano’s 26th career win and gives him an opportunity to win his second NASCAR Cup Series championship in 3 weeks at Phoenix Raceway, where Logano was victorious earlier this season. “You gotta want it, man,” an exuberant Logano said after climbing out of his car. “What an amazing team this Shell Pennzoil team is. Oh my goodness. Pit stops put us in position and got us the lead. The 4 (Harvick) was fast, he was real fast especially on the straightaways and I thought if I could hold him off the first 15 laps I had a chance and actually dirty air was best for us and as I caught lapped traffic I was able to gap ourselves.”(Cain, 2020) Harvick led a race-high 85 laps, but Logano jumped ahead of him on pit stops under the final caution and led from there to the finish. Harvick stayed within a few car lengths of Logano’s 22 car, but Logano successfully blocked any significant run that Harvick had on him.

There’s more controversy around the current NASCAR aero package, as many fans were disappointed with the difficulty to make a pass despite having a much faster car than the guy in front. There was an evident “wall of air” when a car closed up to the back bumper of another car that created a push effect on the back bumper of the leading car, which essentially stalled out any momentum. As a result, the fastest driver on the track would struggle to pass a car that was the tenth fastest, as this wall of air would completely stall out the faster car’s speed. What was most frustrating to many fans, however, was the fact that the reduced 550 HP on the current aero package allowed the drivers to run nearly full throttle throughout the whole run, making it even more challenging to make a pass. The air effect created by the 8-inch spoilers, the reduction in horsepower resulting in little off-throttle time, and drivers blocking all put together made it way more challenging than it should be to pass. If a car is two tenths of a second a lap faster than the rest of the field, as Kevin Harvick was, than they shouldn’t have an issue making passes. However, due to this aero package, Harvick was stalled behind Logano and wasn’t able to get a win he rightfully deserved. “Last year, this new aero package, everyone was trying to fine-tune the downforce and drag, and it seems like everyone is a lot closer now,” said Kyle Busch. “We drop the green flag and we spread out a little bit. I was running second and the third place guy was running me down and then stalled out and couldn’t pass me. The fourth place guy then ran into the third place guy and stalled out and couldn’t pass. No one was passing and no one is going anywhere.”(Weaver, 2020) The race in Las Vegas a few weeks ago highlighted the issue with this package perfectly, as Kurt Busch caught a caution at the right time during a pit cycle and inherited the lead. He had run mid-pack all day, so he didn’t really have a car deserving of winning the race. However, due to the inability to pass, the much faster cars behind Kurt couldn’t pass him despite the difference in speed that had been ever so evident all race long. Many people also mention the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 in July at Texas Motor Speedway as another race that was ruined by this package, as Austin Dillon cycled to the front after taking two tires on a pit stop with around 30 laps to go. This one was different from Busch’s case though. While Busch literally had a whole line of cars lined up behind him while he was leading, Dillon was able to pull away and gain a sizeable lead over the second place car on multiple restarts, so that argument is largely invalid. The Kurt Busch example and the Logano-Harvick battle on Sunday, however, perfectly highlights the major issues with this current package. Fortunately, only 13 of the 36 races next year will feature this package on the cars in 2021, as the remainder of them will feature the high horsepower/low downforce package (750 HP and a 2.75 inch spoiler) in 19 races and the superspeedway package in the 2 races at Daytona and 2 races at Talladega, so this low horsepower/high downforce package may soon become a thing of the past.

Kurt Busch already most likely needed to win to advance in the playoffs, and his engine woes that relegated him to a 38th place finish in Sunday’s race all but guarantee that he will have to win at Texas or Martinsville to advance in the playoffs. His engine dramatically blew up on lap 197 after experiencing a reduction in power for a number of laps.  He was quite competitive at times throughout the race, as he was able to compete with the leaders at the start of the race and again in the second stage, as he was able to earn some points. “It’s really weird,” Busch said. “Quality control is very high. The amount of attention to detail, that’s at an all-time high. I mean, I haven’t seen an engine failure in years. Whether it’s a Chevy or a Ford or a Toyota, everybody is spot-on. So, it’s one of those fluke things we have to get to the bottom of.”(Waack, 2020) Busch finds himself 73 points below the cutoff heading into Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

Xfinity Series

Chase Briscoe punched his ticket to the Xfinity Series Championship 4 with his 9th victory of the season in Saturday night’s Kansas Lottery 300. Briscoe led 159 out of the 200 laps in a dominating performance that was largely overshadowed by a major crash late in the race that resulted in 21 year-old Anthony Alfredo’s 21 car flipping over after being spun by Justin Allgaier on a restart with 28 laps to go. Allgaier drove into turn 1 on the apron and clipped Alfredo’s car, sending him spinning in front of everyone behind them. Riley Herbst hit Alfredo’s car as it impacted the wall, sending it onto it’s side. The car slid on it’s side for a while before rolling onto it’s roof before coming to a stop. Safety crews came over and rolled Alfredo’s car over so he could get out of it. Fortunately, Alfredo escaped with no injuries. “That was the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced and definitely shows how fast things happen in racing,” Alfredo said. “I’m just glad to be okay and first off, I’ve got to thank the NASCAR safety crew for being there immediately before I even realized it was (flipped) over. It was just racing hard. We had an extremely fast Chevrolet Camaro tonight. I’m very thankful for the safety team, our safe race cars and all the safety equipment that goes into keeping drivers safe in the race cars.”(Cain, 2020)

Truck Series

2018 NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series champion Brett Moffitt finally earned his elusive first win of the 2020 season in Saturday’s race at Kansas after fending off the field on an overtime restart. The win guaranteed Moffitt a spot in the Championship 4, meaning he will have a chance to become a two-time Truck Series champion on November 6th at Phoenix(where he won en route to his 2018 title). “It’s pretty incredible – such a way to turn our season around for this No. 23 team,” Moffitt said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been in Victory Lane. Thanks to everyone at GMS.”(Utter, 2020) He battled with GMS Racing teammate Zane Smith in the lap leading up to the overtime restart, which was caused after Moffitt threw a huge block on Smith that sent Smith spinning on lap 132 out of the scheduled 134 lap distance(race went to 139 laps because of overtime). From there, Moffitt held off a late charge from Sheldon Creed, who’s also a teammate of Moffitt’s at GMS Racing, to earn his 12th career Truck Series win. Moffitt took the blame for causing the spin in a post race interview. “A bad block by me,” Moffitt said. “He got around me in lapped traffic, then I just put it on the line to run him back down. We got there and I tried to throw a block and we’re racing for everything right now. I apologize for that.” (Skretta, 2020)

Cup Points

Here’s the current points standings in the Cup Series:

Driver                                              Points +/- Cutoff

1.Joey Logano                                  ADVANCED

2.Kevin Harvick                              +41

3.Denny Hamlin                             +20

4.Brad Keselowski                          +8

______________________  CUTOFF

5.Chase Elliott                                   -8

6.Alex Bowman                                 -27

7.Martin Truex Jr.                             -31

8.Kurt Busch                                       -73

Written on October 21st, 2020

Sources:

Cain, Holly(19 Oct 2020). Joey Logano Rolls to Kansas Win, Seals Championship 4 Berth: NASCAR. Accessed 20 Oct 2020, Official Site Of NASCAR, www.nascar.com/news-media/2020/10/18/results-cup-series-playoffs-kansas-speedway-race-recap/.

Weaver, Matt(19 Oct 2020). Launch This Package Into the Sun, NASCAR. Autoweek, Accessed 21 Oct 2020, www.autoweek.com/racing/a34409300/launch-this-package-into-the-sun-nascar/.

Czekala, Marty(15 Jan 2020). NASCAR’s New Low Downforce Package: 3 Things to Expect in 2020. Beyond the Flag, Accessed 21 Oct 2020, beyondtheflag.com/2020/01/15/nascars-low-downforce-package-three-things-to-expect-short-tracks-road-courses-2020/.

Cain, Holly(18 Oct 2020). Xfinity Series Race Recap, Results from Kansas Speedway: NASCAR. Official Site Of NASCAR, Accessed 21 Oct 2020, www.nascar.com/news-media/2020/10/17/briscoe-dominates-at-kansas-to-secure-championship-4-berth/.

Skretta, David(18 Oct 2020). Moffitt Wins Wild Truck Race at Kansas to Qualify for Finale. Msn.com, Accessed 21 Oct 2020, www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/moffitt-wins-wild-truck-race-at-kansas-to-qualify-for-finale/ar-BB1a8kNf.

Utter, Jim(18 Oct 2020). Moffitt Grabs First Truck Win at Kansas, Advances to Title Race. Msn.com, Accessed 21 Oct 2020, www.msn.com/en-us/sports/motorsports/moffitt-grabs-first-truck-win-at-kansas-advances-to-title-race/ar-BB1a89vh.