Josef Newgarden and Tim Cindric nailed strategy again and got a victory. Sebastian Vettel was upset in Montreal as Formula One faces another existential crisis during an already dreary time for the series. NASCAR didn't really get rained out from Michigan but more or less was misted out and will run at 5:00 p.m. ET on a Monday due to Fox Sports' FIFA Women's World Cup commitments. The Truck series may have a depth problem. Scrutineering has begun at Le Mans. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
The One Thing NASCAR Has Yet to Learn From the All-Star Race
This is a bit late but May is a busy month and the exhibition race that is the NASCAR All-Star Race has to take a big seat for a few weeks.
Every NASCAR race looks like the All-Star Race. It was the birthplace for double-file restarts green-white-checkered finishes, stages and the current aero package. NASCAR has taken its special event and applied all that made it special to the 36-race season. In turn, it all has become bland, just part of the scenery. Everything is watered down. The tricks are gone. All the races are the same, albeit a few do not pay points.
The All-Star Race still exists but in an evolving time when teams are trying to get cost under control, the $1 million prize does not carry the same weight that it once did and NASCAR is trying to end the season earlier, you have to ask whether the All-Star Race still has a place as NASCAR enters the 2020s. Every race is an All-Star Race. What is the point of having one that pays no points to the championship but has a million dollar prize? Wouldn't it make more sense to drop that race and spread the money out around the field? That is a topic for another day but there was something from that Saturday night that stood out, the one thing NASCAR hasn't taken and applied to the rest of the schedule.
The Open, the race to make the race, has been a feature for all the non-race winners, the prelim, the last chance qualifier for the rest of the field to get in and take on the big boys. It was once a race where only one driver advance but it has changed as NASCAR has changed and like everything else when it comes to sports everything is becoming less exclusive, even the All-Star Race.
Instead of one race winner, The Open has three race winners. With the introduction of stages, the top driver at the end of each stage advances to the All-Star Race. One driver after 20 laps, another driver after 40 laps and the leader after 50 laps all make the All-Star Race. It is watering down the main event but I have to admit it might be the one NASCAR has not taken from the All-Star Race that it should.
Each of the first two stages featured late cautions and a debate over whether to take tires or not. Some stayed out hoping to turn track position into a transfer. Some teams took tires figuring they could charge back to the front. The first stage featured Darrell Wallace, Jr. and Kyle Larson battling for that transfer spot only for the two to make enough contact to allow William Byron to get to the line first and advance.
In the second stage, Wallace played the same strategy, he again was coming to the line to transfer but he had Daniel Suárez charging him down. This time, Wallace finished first and Suárez spun through the infield.
The final stage had Ty Dillon stay out to take the lead. Dillon led five laps before Larson retook the lead and Larson took the final transfer spot without as much drama as the first two stages.
We know NASCAR wants to maximize the action. It wants drivers beating on each, it wants close racing every lap at every track even though that is unrealistic and it knows short periods of racing produce that. Restarts produce that and nobody loves restarts more than NASCAR. It is the illusion of close racing that can be advertised and sold even though it is a true representation of the product.
But if that is what NASCAR wants then the All-Star Race format provides it and maybe it should be expanded to the full calendar. Maybe we do not touch the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600, the Southern 500 and the road course races but the rest are up for a change and instead of stages being intermissions with a handful of points handed out, maybe they should mean more.
Maybe a NASCAR race, outside of the six mentioned above, should be a bunch of 10-lap heat races with the leader at the end of each advancing to a final and after 12 or 15 or 20 of those depending on the race track there is one lengthy final race.
Take your typical 1.5-mile oval: Instead of running 267 laps for 400 miles, why not run 15 heats, 10 laps each and the winner of each advances to the final, a 100-lap main event. There would be incentive to win early and advance but the more the races went on the pressure would increase and drivers would get desperate. You would have mixed strategies, drivers staying out to get track positions, drivers taking a gamble and hoping tires could allow them to pick up six or seven positions in ten laps. All the on-track action could be shown and not missed because of commercials. The fans actually could get more green flag racing shown on TV.
It is what NASCAR wants. NASCAR does what it pleases; why not evolve a little bit more?
It could be fun at short tracks. It could be 20 heats. Ten laps of beating and banging. Nobody would fall a lap down. The field would remain close. Green flag pit stops would pretty much be abolished but that could be a decrease in cost. There would be no need to send cars home. Everyone that shows up gets to race and get on television, which is good for sponsors. NASCAR isn't getting any more than 41 or 42 cars at a race anyway. It wasn't that long ago the field was 43 cars. Just let them all race unless we start getting to 48-55 entries but that doesn't seem likely anytime soon.
People complain about the racing but it is hard to complain when it is ten-lap increments and it is nothing but a ruthless sprint for two hours. After all, people seemed to love The Open, the banging between Larson and Wallace even though it was a possible scenario where both could damage their cars to win the battle and lose the greater war.
If NASCAR is all about moments this is the format for the series. It would get 15 to 20 checkered flag finishes each race. Think about all the sizzle reel material that would be created! Think about the commercials!
Championship points can still be distributed. The drivers that make the final race get 1st to 15th or 20th place points depending on how many heats there are and the remaining drivers get points from 16th or 21st from how they finished in the final heat race. Maybe there could be a sliding scale of points for the earlier you win a heat. The first heat winner gets ten bonus points with the second heat getting nine and third getting eight and so on with the last six or ten heat races only being worth an additional point.
This feels like the next step of evolution for NASCAR. It is never going back. Stages are not going away the same way double-file restarts, green-white-checkered finishes, the Chase d.b.a the playoffs and so on have not gone away. It is only going to get more contrived and as much as I dislike it I actually want to see what this could look like.
It has its flaws, many of course. How could you justify the first heat winner sitting on the sideline for 90 minutes or more? What if it rains? What if only three heat races are done when it rains? What if 13 of 15 heats are done? What happens if a car is totaled because it was spun head first into the wall crossing the line but that car won its heat? How are tires allocated? It is far from perfect but it could be what we see in 2022 at this rate. NASCAR is all for making changes and calling it progression even if it isn't solving any problems.
I still kind of want to see it because maybe it is NASCAR's answer. It doesn't seem like NASCAR is big into promoting a race but an event. It is why we have everything in NASCAR, double-file restarts, two guaranteed cautions a race, high downforce packages and tampered spacer, NASCAR wants a successful event; not necessarily a pure race.
If NASCAR is going to do that it should embrace and stop being an actual race. It should completely change the format for all but the few crown jewel events and the road courses. NASCAR fans don't do well with change and this would have its opponents but the one thing NASCAR fans like is the masquerading nature of adopting local short track racing. If you change heats into stages, called the final race an A-Main and had only a portion of the field make the main event you would have been applauding the decision as returning to the roots of the motorsports. It may actually draw in people.
NASCAR is hyping schedule re-arrangement for 2020 and a rejuvenation of the schedule in 2021. NASCAR has been tweaking the championship format since 2004 and it has been playing with the race format since 2017. Nothing points to the series stopping. Our craziest ideas might actually become reality.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Josef Newgarden but did you know...
Lewis Hamilton won the Canadian Grand Prix after Sebastian Vettel was handed a five-second penalty for unsafely rejoining the circuit after going off in turn three.
Tyler Reddick won the NASCAR Grand National Series race from Michigan. Greg Biffle wo the Truck race at Texas in his first start in the series since 2004 and it is his first victory since 2001.
The #61 R.Ferri Motorsport Ferrari of Toni Vilander and Miguel Molina won the first Blancpain GT World Challenge America race from Sonoma. The #58 Wright Racing Porsche of Patrick Long and Scott Hargrove won race two.
Michael Cooper and Ian James split the GT4 America sprint races from Sonoma.
The #91 Rearden Racing Audi of Jeff Burton and Vesko Kozarov won the first GT4 America SprintX races. The #34 Murillo Racing Mercedes-AMG of Christan Szymczak and Kenny Murillo won the second SprintX race.
Marco Wittmann went from last to first to win the first Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters race from Misano. Nico Müller won the second race, his first victory since the second race at the Norisring in 2019.
Jamie Chadwick won her second race of the W Series season from Misano.
Álvaro Bautista won the first two World Superbike races from Jerez but he crashed in the third race and Michael van der Mark took that victory. Federico Caricasulo won the World Supersport race, his second victory of the season.
Coming Up This Weekend
The 87th 24 Hours of Le Mans.
MotoGP will be in Barcelona.
World Rally Championship contests Rally Italia Sardegna.
Supercars will be at Hidden Valley Raceway outside Darwin.
NASCAR's Cup Series is off but its other two national touring divisions will be at Iowa.
Covering All Motorsports. From Indianapolis to Le Mans, Daytona to Monaco.
