Monday, November 02, 2020
COMMENTARY: Harvick’s Demise No Grounds For Format Change
Despite being the dominant driver of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season, Kevin Harvick will not race for the championship Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.
A nine-time winner in Cup Series competition to date, the Stewart Haas Racing driver suffered through a decidedly sub-par performance yesterday at Martinsville Speedway, struggling with early race handling issues before cutting a tire and losing two laps while pitting under green for repairs. His team made modest improvements to their Mobil 1 Ford in the second half of the race, but despite long runs of green flag racing, Harvick struggled to regain that lost ground.
He eventually scrapped his way back into contention and was briefly tied with Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski for the final two spots in the Championship Four. As Chase Elliott crossed beneath the checkered flag, Harvick stood one point below the cutoff line. He attempted a desperation, dump-and-run maneuver on Kyle Busch, door slamming the defending series champion in the final turn and causing both drivers to spin.
Harvick came to rest just a few yards short of the checkered flag and eight points short of a title opportunity in Phoenix.
His failure to advance has triggered an interesting tumult of complaints from some corners, alleging that NASCAR’s playoff format is flawed and should not allow a driver as dominant as Harvick to be eliminated.
Here’s a dose of reality, for those either unable or unwilling to see it: The system did not cause Kevin Harvick’s playoff demise.
A lack of late-season performance – and an average finish of 12.7 in the last six weeks – caused Harvick’s elimination from the championship picture. He admitted as much following the race, saying, “We didn’t put together these last few weeks like we needed to.”
A truly dominant regular season allowed Harvick to enter the playoffs with a substantial safety net. He received 15 points for clinching the regular-season title; the equivalent of three race wins. His cushion grew even larger when he won two of the first three playoff races at Darlington and Bristol. Those bonus points camouflaged a handful of lukewarm outings in the Rounds of 12 and 8, but another poor performance at Martinsville yesterday consumed the final few bites of that safety net, leaving Harvick with his back unexpectedly to the wall.
A cut tire put him behind the eight-ball early yesterday. But he had 320 laps to regain two lost laps and save his bacon. He got one of those laps back almost immediately by taking the Wave Around on Lap 188, but spent the next 200 laps trying unsuccessfully to put himself in position to earn the Free Pass. Unfortunately, an ill-handling race car prevented him from doing so.
In the final analysis, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski did what they had to do yesterday, turning in championship-caliber performances when the chips were down.
Harvick did not.
As shocking as it was, the demise of the No. 4 team is far from unprecedented. In NASCAR – and in other sports – the best team over the course of the season quite often fails to win the championship.
In 2008, the New England Patriots ran the competitive table on their way to Super Bowl XLII, entering the final game of the season with an unblemished 18-0 record. They lost the championship game to a New York Giants team that lost four games in the regular season.
Closer to home, Alan Kulwicki won the 1992 NASCAR Cup Series title, despite winning only two races and going winless in the final 16 weeks of the campaign. Championship runner-up Bill Elliott won five times that year.
In 1993, Rusty Wallace won 10 races, but lost the championship to six-time winner Dale Earnhardt.
Terry Labonte won two races en route to the 1996 Cup Series championship, with 10-time winner Jeff Gordon finishing second.
Nobody howled “unfair” back then, and no one called for the system to be revamped so a team with more wins could be crowned champions, even after losing a critical playoff game.
Right now, the knee-jerk reactionaries have the stage. Overflowing with fire and brimstone, they demand that immediate changes be made, outlawing the kind of stunning upset we saw last night at Martinsville Speedway. We’ve heard calls today for NASCAR to begin seeding the regular-season champion all the way to the Championship Four in coming seasons, a move that would allow a driver to finish dead-last in nine consecutive playoff races, before being crowned champion in the season finale.
That, my friends, is overreaction in the extreme.
The people making noise today were eerily silent last week, apparently seeing nothing wrong with a system that -- since its inception -- has made the kind of upset we saw yesterday a distinct possibility. They have also had virtually nothing to say today about Gander Truck Series regular season champion Austin Hill, who saw his playoffs end Friday night in almost-identical fashion, after suffering a blown engine.
Why is that? Why so much outrage over Harvick’s Cup Series dismissal, with none on the Truck Series front? It’s a question I cannot begin to answer.
Let’s be clear about one thing. Despite his recent struggles, Kevin Harvick is a true racer, a championship-caliber driver with a top-notch team behind him.
It’s not easy to maintain regular-season momentum through a full, 36-race season, and while obviously disappointed, Harvick, Rodney Childers and company have absolutely no reason to hang their collective heads. They will be back next season to contend strongly for the championship as they always do, using the hard lessons learned in the last few weeks to make them even better than they were this time around.
And when they do -- despite all the noise being made right now -- they will do so under exactly the same playoff system.
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Did Kyle Busch Contribute To His Own Team’s Demise?
Kyle Busch’s defense of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series championship is over.
It ended with a whimper rather than a bang Sunday, with his Joe Gibbs Racing M&Ms Toyota sputtering out of fuel with three laps remaining in the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Busch collided with fellow playoff contender Clint Bowyer and cut a tire near the end of Sunday’s second stage, forcing crew chief Adam Stevens to play a “Hail Mary” strategy card, leaving Busch on the racetrack when the balance of the field pitted. It earned Busch a few encouraging laps at the head of the field, but his team’s prayers for either a race-ending monsoon or a lengthy caution ultimately went unanswered.
Essentially helpless on old rubber, Busch faded to the tail end of the Top-5 – when only a win would do – then ran out of fuel with three laps remaining, eventually finishing 30th.
“It’s just been a year (where) nothing has played out or been on our side,” said Busch, who saw a streak of six consecutive Championship Four appearances snapped. “It’s just been unfortunate circumstances and a lot of bad luck. The guys on this M&Ms team never give up and they fight all year long, every race, every lap, every pit stop. But man, this is just one of those off-years, a terrible year for me.”
Scratched from the list of 2020 title contenders, Busch will now spend the final four races of the season trying to snap a 32-race winless streak – the longest of his career – and a lengthier competitive drought that has seen him visit Victory Lane just once in his last 54 Cup Series starts.
Perhaps he will approach those races with a positive, “How can I help?” attitude.
Perhaps not.
Past history indicates that it could go either way.
Three weeks ago, after a strong runner-up finish at Bristol Motor Speedway qualified him for the Playoff Round of 12, Busch was asked if his team could contend with the speed and performance displayed this season by Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin.
“No” said Busch bluntly. “We’ll be eliminated in the next round, so I don’t care”
It was a shocking statement, one that quickly drew the ire of Joe Gibbs Racing Competition Director Jimmy Makar and others within the JGR hierarchy. Makar called Busch’s comments “disappointing, but not surprising,” and while the two-time series champion eventually backpedaled, saying, “You know me, I say stupid (things sometimes).”
The damage, however, had already been done.
Busch’s doomsday prediction became a self-fulfilling prophecy, after a sixth-place showing in Las Vegas was followed by a 27th at Talladega and Sunday’s 30th-place showing on the ROVAL.
Through it all, Busch continued to downplay his team’s chances, repeating his “We’ll be eliminated” prediction on multiple occasions. After cutting a tire at the end of Sunday’s second stage, Busch once again seemed to run-up the white flag of defeat, saying “Good job this year, guys” on his in-car radio.
That message – and those that preceded it -- will not easily be forgotten, nor undone.
It was the auto racing equivalent of Tom Brady conceding defeat to the Atlanta Falcons after trailing 28-3 in the third quarter of Super Bowl LI.
It was Michael Jordan walking off the court with 2:00 remaining and the Bulls down by 10, or Kirk Gibson saying he was too hurt to pinch hit with two outs in the bottom of the ninth in Game One of the 1988 World Series.
As Yogi Berra so famously said, “It ain’t over until it’s over.”
While Busch’s chances were admittedly slim in Sunday’s final stage, a severe thunderstorm with more than enough wallop to pause (or even end) the race was churning straight at Charlotte Motor Speedway, just as Stevens’ desperation ploy played out in the final laps.
When things go badly – in sports or in life – adversity often provides a critical opportunity for self-examination. If we’re willing to take a long, self-deprecating look in the mirror, we often discover “bad luck” taking the blame when bad decision making, poor execution and a negative outlook are truly at fault.
Within minutes of Busch’s elimination – and for the three weeks that preceded it – rumors circulated about possible changes to Busch’s team during the offseason. After a losing campaign, football teams generally retain the high-dollar quarterback at the expense of the head coach, leaving Stevens as the most likely scapegoat for his team’s 2020 shortcomings.
But it’s also fair to ask whether Busch did everything he could do this season – both on and off the racetrack – to mitigate his team’s struggles.
Was he a leader, lifting his team’s morale in troubled times and displaying the “never say die” attitude that separates winners from loser in sports, business and life? Or did he drag his Cup Series team down with predictions of continued hardship and failure, while attributing his four Xfinity and Truck Series wins to “KFB;” Kyle Effing Busch.
Busch is correct in saying that most drivers would happily trade seasons with him and his No.18 JGR Toyota team. But most drivers are not Kyle Busch; a generational talent who has more skill in his left pinky finger than most drivers have in their entire bodies.
The gap between NASCAR champion and playoff also-ran is slimmer than ever these days, and if Busch’s legendary hair-trigger temper and careless comments played even a tiny role in his team’s 2020 downfall, it is a topic that needs to be addressed.
Monday, October 05, 2020
COMMENTARY: NASCAR's "Yellow Line Rule" Is Imperfect, But What's The Option?
NASCAR finds itself on the hot seat today, in the aftermath of a race at Talladega Superspeedway that featured 13 caution flags – three of them red – and required Triple Overtime to complete.
Wild even by Talladega standards, yesterday’s race saw a number of penalties assessed for either racing below the double-yellow line at the bottom of the speedway, or forcing another driver to do so.
The most controversial penalty was assessed to driver Matt DiBenedetto, who swerved down the track while leading in the final turn, in an attempt to block challenger William Byron. Contact was made, with NASCAR ruling that Byron was forced below the double-yellow line. Eventual winner Denny Hamlin also drove below the line in an apparent attempt to avoid Byron.
NASCAR issued an immediate penalty to DiBenedetto, moving him from second place to 21st (tail end of the lead lap) for violation the provision of the NASCAR rule book that states, “Race above the double-yellow line. If – in NASCAR’s judgement -- you go below the double-yellow line to improve your position, you will be black flagged. If – in NASCAR’s judgement – you force someone below the double yellow line in an effort to stop them from passing you, you may be black flagged.”
A crestfallen DiBenedetto admitted driving aggressively on the final lap saying, “I was blocking everyone’s lane. That was pure desperation, but that’s how I drive every race.”
Hamlin supported the decision, saying, “Finally NASCAR put their foot down. You can’t use the yellow line as a defense. You have to play within the boundaries that they set.”
Chase Elliott was also penalized for going below the line on the final lap. His Hendrick Motorsports team filed a formal protest, and Elliott was reinstated after a NASCAR video review indicated that Chris Buescher had forced him out of bounds.
Elliott ended up fifth, with Buescher demoted from sixth to 22nd.
NASCAR’s post-race penalties drew the ire of many observers, with calls for the so-called “Yellow Line Rule” to be modified or abolished outright.
There is no doubt that the “Yellow Line” rule is subjective. Subjectivity and judgement calls are a regular (and sometimes unpopular) part of sports officiating. Unfortunately, there are very few black-and-white calls in sports, or in NASCAR. No two incidents are exactly alike, making “one size fits all rules” difficult to write and even more difficult to apply.
Disliking the current rule is one thing, coming up with a better alternative is something else altogether.
In situations like those that presented themselves yesterday at Talladega, opinions are sometimes formed based on who we like and who we root for. Chase Elliott and Matt DiBenedetto are two of the most popular drivers in NASCAR, and lots of people were understandably rooting for them to win yesterday. That desire – while the basis of fandom – sometimes clouds our perception of what actually happens on the racetrack, and how it should be dealt with.
NASCAR obviously cannot rule on popularity. They need to interpret their rules as evenly and unemotionally as possible, attempting to go “by the book” in every instance, even when the situation is not as black-and-white as we might like.
Calls for the abolition of the “Yellow Line Rule” are worthy of discussion, but before agreeing to do away with any rule, we need to decide what to do instead.
Legalizing an Oklahoma Land Rush of drivers racing six-wide onto the apron at 195 mph does not seem like a prudent option. While some drivers insist that they can be trusted to do the right thing on the final lap of a critical playoff race -- conducting themselves in a manner that endangers neither themselves nor others -- their ability to follow through on that pledge remains in doubt.
A few years ago, NASCAR announced that it would no longer enforce the proper installation of lugs nuts, leaving it up to the teams to ensure the safety of their drivers. Almost immediately, drivers begged the sanctioning body to get back into the lug nut business, admitting that the lure of omitting a lug nut or two in an effort to be first off pit road on a late-race pitstop was too much for them to resist.
If we can’t trust drivers and teams to tighten five lug nuts on the last pit stop, what makes you think we can trust them to exercise discretion and race safely on the final lap?
Sometimes, we need a higher authority to make sure things are done safely and correctly. And until someone can come up with a new edict that eliminates the subjectivity of NASCAR’s “Yellow Line Rule,” the present system will almost certainly remain in place.
Let the discussion begin.
Monday, September 21, 2020
COMMENTARY: Critical Week Coming For Kyle Busch
The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion has struggled to repeat a 2019 campaign that saw him win five times and post 27 Top-10 finishes in 36 starts. This time around, the Las Vegas native has struggled to keep pace with dominant drivers Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin, going winless in his last 29 starts – since last year’s Homestead Miami finale – with only 16 Top-10 finishes in 29 outings this season.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver finished a close second to winner Kevin Harvick Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway; a track where he has won eight times in the past. A thrilling, 60-lap duel saw Busch muscle the top spot away from Harvick with 41 laps remaining, only to relinquish the lead just 10 laps later. Busch hounded Harvick’s back bumper the rest of the way, with the pair slicing through Bristol’s typically heavy lapped traffic in a duel to the finish that had the fans – quite literally – on the edges of their seats.
Never one to celebrate a runner-up finish, Busch was typically salty after the race, blaming lapped traffic for costing him the race, despite using a lapped car as a pick to pass Harvick on Lap 469. He singled out drivers Joey Gase and Garrett Smithley for criticism, calling them "dips#it kids" for not giving way in the closing laps.
He also had harsh words for 11th-place finisher Joey Logano, blasting the Team Penske driver for racing the leaders while a lap down in the late going by saying, “He's nobody's friend for a reason."
The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion also blasted Daniel Suarez earlier in the race, after the Gaunt Brothers Racing driver momentarily blocked him in on pit road, questioning the loyalty of his fellow Toyota driver in a profanity-filled radio tirade.
No stranger to Busch’s critical crosshairs, Smithley responded angrily via Twitter Saturday night.
“Even when I don’t do anything, @KyleBusch blames me,” he said. “Went outta my way to give him room tonight. Think he might have thought I was in a different car.”
Busch’s post-race unhappiness was no surprise. As his personal winless streak has grown, so has his level of frustration. At various times this season, Busch has pointed an accusatory finger at NASCAR for eliminating practice and qualifying during the COVID-19 pandemic, and at his own team for failing to provide him with cars capable of running up front and winning races.
When he loses, it’s someone else’s fault. When he wins – once in the Xfinity ranks and three times in the Gander Trucks this year -- the deciding factor is declared to be “KFB;” Kyle Effing Busch.
From this side of the fence, the lack of practice and qualifying does not appear to have negatively impacted the caliber of competition. And even if it has, it impacts all teams equally. It’s not like the rest of the garage is out there turning laps on Friday and Saturday while Busch remains parked in the garage. Granted, Busch is one of the best in the sport at diagnosing an ill-handling race car and prescribing a cure. But the shortcomings of his M&Ms Toyota team – if there are any – cannot be blamed entirely on COVID-19.
The pandemic has certainly not caused the 18 team to fail a troubling series of pre-race inspections this season, forcing Busch to race from the rear of the field in each of the last two weeks, while his fellow title contenders start in the front eight rows.
Busch and JGR teammates Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones all dropped to the rear of the field Saturday night after flunking multiple pre-race inspections. While Hamlin and Jones struggled to move forward at the drop of the green flag, Busch slashed his way through the pack, finishing an impressive second in the opening stage and winning the second.
Was slower traffic somehow less of an issue in the opening two stages?
Likely not.
In the final analysis, Busch got outrun in the final laps Saturday, by a driver and team that have made a habit of outrunning people this season.
Busch’s post-race outburst was not unexpected, but it is absolutely a cause for concern for his fans and supporters.
Asked for his take on the upcoming Playoff Round of 12, Busch answered, “We'll be eliminated next round.”
Allowed to fester, that attitude could easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
By his own admission, Busch’s hair-trigger temper has negatively impacted the morale of his Joe Gibbs Racing team in the past. He has pledged to do better in the future, and in fairness, has kept his lip zipped more often than not this season, despite a winless skein that is uncomfortably long and worse than it looks at first glance.
All told, Busch has only one checkered flag in his last 51 NASCAR Cup Series starts, dating back to the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 7, 2019 . One win every 17 months is not a recipe for championship success, and Busch knows it.
Perhaps Saturday night’s post-race spleen venting was a simple case of a professional athlete letting off steam in the immediate aftermath of a disappointing, close-but-no-cigar playoff defeat.
Perhaps Busch will circle his emotional wagons in the days to come, put Saturday’s runner-up finish in its proper context and show up at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend ready to rumble. If not, his “Sky Is Falling” outlook could easily damage a team that is ready, willing and able to hit its postseason stride, despite the pressure-cooker atmosphere of the NASCAR playoffs.
The choice is his.
Monday, July 27, 2020
COMMENTARY: On The Passing Of Bob Bahre
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
An Open Letter From Angie Skinner
Thursday, June 11, 2020
COMMENTARY: The Time Was Right For NASCAR's Confederate Flag Ban
of NASCAR.
