FORT WORTH, Texas — Five thoughts after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff race at Texas Motor Speedway …
This season, Oakland A’s fans have held some “reverse boycotts” in which they show up in large numbers to remind everyone they support the team — even if they dislike the team owner.
Advertisement
That came to mind Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, when the grandstands looked noticeably fuller than in recent years — this despite the hottest Texas race on record (106 degrees Fahrenheit on the heat index) and a history of lackluster racing at the much-maligned track.
Why did the fans show up? They may hate the configuration of the racetrack, but they still love NASCAR. And they wanted to show support for their home track as well.
Given the support, Texas owes those fans a better product. And it needs to give them a reason to continue their loyalty.
If you’re a season-ticket holder at Texas, you’ve watched 1,500 miles of major-league racing get whittled down to 400 starting next year. The bad racing at Texas first cost the track a NASCAR Cup Series points race in favor of the All-Star Race, and then that date disappeared entirely. On Monday, it was revealed IndyCar — the series that actually puts on phenomenal races at Texas — will not return to the track next season for the first time since 1997. And garage chatter has indicated this NASCAR playoff date will move to the spring, where it will become just another race.
Meanwhile, there are areas of the facility that are glaringly showing their age. This track was once a palace of speed, a shining gem of American motorsports; now, with less frequent usage, it seems like no one quite knows what to do with it.
It’s not like the racing was great before the infamous reconfiguration in 2017, which transformed Turns 1 and 2 into a warped idea of what intermediate track corners should be. Turns 1 and 2 look flattened and stretched out like one of those distorted photos that come through with the wrong dimensions. Trying to apply chemicals to the upper groove then ruined that part of the track instead of helping it, rendering a large portion of the corner completely unusable.
Advertisement
So now what? Texas needs something. It’s too important of a market to let this track rot, and Sunday’s fan turnout showed there’s still a strong support base around. Even fixing Turns 1 and 2 might give Texas a better chance to take advantage of what the Next Gen car can offer on intermediate tracks.
All those hearty fans who sat in the heat to watch subpar racing (which was actually above average by Texas standards) deserve better. Imagine how many people would show up if the product was actually great.
Here are some alternate storylines we’d be talking about today had a few things unfolded differently.
• If JJ Yeley doesn’t spin: A caution with 24 laps remaining erased a large lead for Kyle Larson after he was dominating the final stage of the race. That ended up putting him in a position to battle for the lead again on the ensuing restart, and Larson ended up crashing while racing Bubba Wallace (more on that in a moment). But it also created a split strategy among the field (there were 14 cars who stayed out, while many others took two tires and some took four) and ended up having all sorts of points implications for playoff drivers. The incident was just another reminder of why the NASCAR playoffs can feel so strange at times; a backmarker car’s mishap ends up altering the outcome of a key postseason race — and perhaps the makeup of the next round as well.
• If Larson doesn’t force the issue with Wallace: Even after the Yeley caution, Larson was still in position to win because he stayed out on old tires with a 13-car buffer to new tires and restarted from the lead. But while Larson was battling hard for the win, his car suddenly lost side force and it snapped around on him, sending the No. 5 into the wall. You can’t blame Larson for trying to make the winning move in a playoff race, and that’s what you would expect out of any driver in that situation. But now knowing it ended in a crash, Larson could have hedged against the possible aero effect by being slightly lower on the track and then trying to get Wallace in another corner (there was still plenty of time to make a pass). The problem is such incidents don’t happen very often in the Next Gen car, so drivers try to race much closer together than they did in the previous vehicle. Even if he had finished second, Larson would have left Texas with 29 more points and been 31 above the cutline heading into Talladega instead of two.
Advertisement
• If Erik Jones stays out: Though Jones pitted for four tires while running second to Larson, the original plan (per the team’s post on X, formerly Twitter) was to just follow the No. 5 car. But Larson’s fakeout ended up successfully ditching Jones, who was already committed to pit road. That was the last we saw of Jones in contention, but what if he had still been on the front row for that restart? Could Jones have won? Would Larson not have crashed? What would have happened to Wallace and eventual race winner William Byron after that? We’ll never know, but it’s an interesting thought exercise.
Lots of this question ⬇️
The call over the radio was to follow the 5 car. The 5 faked pitting and the 43 had to commit to pit road. https://t.co/tLf9u6aNcS
— LEGACY MOTOR CLUB (@LegacyMotorclub) September 24, 2023
Hendrick Motorsports’ 300th victory is an eye-popping number that lacks context at the same time. Two years ago, Hendrick became the all-time winningest NASCAR team when it passed Petty Enterprises with Victory No. 269. And now it’s already at 300, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
It’s difficult to even put such a number into perspective. The next-closest active team is Joe Gibbs Racing with 207 — a whopping 93 wins behind Hendrick. Even if JGR continues to be a powerhouse team, it could take over a decade to reach 300 (and who knows how many Hendrick will have by then).
Beyond that? RFK Racing’s 141 victories aren’t even half of Hendrick’s total. So the still-rising Hendrick number might end up as one of NASCAR’s most untouchable records — right up there with Richard Petty’s 200 wins. It just feels impossible any other organization could ever replicate what Hendrick has done, with its steady excellence over decades.
In some ways, the way Hendrick won Sunday’s race was symbolic of its team-wide strength. Larson was going to give team owner Rick Hendrick an easy victory with a blazing fast car until he crashed; but when that happened, another Hendrick driver stepped up and won instead. Reaching 300 isn’t because of an owner finding one or two Hall of Fame drivers over the years; it’s multiple cars consistently showing up with race-winning speed and having talented personnel across each of its teams to execute.
In this space throughout the playoffs, we’re taking a look at the current power rankings for the Championship 4 and comparing them to our pre-playoff picks (Denny Hamlin, Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Larson).
1. Hamlin (pre-playoffs: 1; last week: 1).
Even with damage from his pit road collision with Ty Gibbs, Hamlin still seemed to have a top-three car yet again. The pit call to take two tires didn’t work after 14 cars stayed out in front of Hamlin and the No. 11 team settled for a fifth-place result. But the speed was there again — though not as fast as Larson — and Hamlin now enters the final two races of this playoff round with a 37-point lead over the cutoff line.
Advertisement
2. Larson (pre-playoffs: 4; last week: 2).
Despite the crash and 31st-place finish, Larson showed phenomenal speed and clearly had the fastest car in Texas. That said, it feels a little shaky to put him this high in the power rankings when he’s only two points above the cutline — especially with a superspeedway up next where Larson has just three top-10 finishes in 17 career starts. He’ll need to avoid a wreck at Talladega unless he plans to go win at the Roval, which wouldn’t be a very comfortable position.
3. Byron (pre-playoffs: 2; last week: 4).
Even for much of Sunday’s race, it was a bit concerning that Byron was a non-factor. Shouldn’t he have more speed on a 1.5-mile track in the playoffs? But Byron kept climbing toward the front, got track position by staying out and then took advantage of a distracted Wallace battling with Chase Briscoe on the final restart. Now he has a series-leading six wins and is through to Round 3 for the second time in his career. A Vegas-Homestead-Martinsville round sets up well for Byron, and his playoff points should be enough to get him a spot in the final four.
4. Chris Buescher (pre-playoffs: not ranked; last week: honorable mention).
We’re finally out on regular-season champion Truex after another disappointing race (his fourth straight sub-15 finish to open the playoffs), and it doesn’t figure to get better at Talladega (where Truex has one top-10 since 2016). So who do we put in his spot? There are a few decent candidates, but Buescher gets the nod for now. Though he finished 14th on Sunday, he scored the fourth-most points (thanks to stage points) and is 22 up on the cutline heading to two good tracks for RFK Racing’s No. 17 team.
Honorable mention: Christopher Bell, Truex, Ross Chastain.
• Erik Jones (P30): We’re continuing to mention Legacy Motor Club every week in this space, but the team certainly is worthy of praise. Jones’ run was outstanding on Sunday, and he put himself in position to run second — ahead of 15 drivers who made the playoffs — until the misplayed pit strategy left him mired in traffic and ended in a crash. But the speed was great to see, regardless of the result.
• Chase Briscoe (P10): All Stewart-Haas Racing drivers have pretty much been left as an afterthought in this miserable season. None of them have won and none of them are still in the playoffs. But there was Briscoe, taking advantage of a late strategy call and racing for the lead with Wallace. Byron ended up passing both of them, and Briscoe faded to 10th, but it was still the first top-10 finish for the No. 14 car on a 1.5-mile track in nearly a year (Las Vegas last October).
• Chase Elliott (P11): Quietly, Elliott and the No. 9 team just keep chugging along in the owner point playoffs. Elliott scored stage points in both stages on Sunday and ended up with the seventh-most points in the race. That was good enough to move the No. 9 car to ninth in the owner standings, just two points behind teammate Larson for the Round 3 cutoff.
GO DEEPER
Inside the garage with Parker Kligerman in the Xfinity Series playoff battle
(Photo: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57k3FwcG5kZnxzfJFsZmlxX2eCcLrArJqaql2luaLFzp%2BdrGWbrrmmecuaqaynnmK1prrDq6Cco18%3D