It was an enjoyable Saturday night of cup series racing, heading into arguably the most anticipated night race of the year. We’ve had a few headlines, like two previous champions Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick below the playoff cut line. Not to mention the news of where one of those guys will be in 2023. However, the stories are about how Bristol chewed up the new car and spared no one. We saw the last great coliseum take those who are the best in the sport and send them home early.
The Battle of Attrition
If you watched the broadcast, you heard the term attrition multiple times from Rick Allen. Now if you were one of the lucky ones to be at the track Saturday night, then you saw it first hand. However, it started with what seemed to be a Ford camp-based issue with blown tires by the twenty-one car and the fifteen-car. Then we proceeded to see the two-car and twelve-car which were the first of the playoff drivers have issues with right front tires. Some would argue it was a setup issue, or tire pressure issue either way something went terribly wrong fast at Bristol.
Tire wear was almost nonexistent across all three series this weekend. That made track position that much more important. Even with the blowout issues we saw, teams were willing to risk it for the track position. After Brad Keselowski blew his right front while leading, his teammate Chris Buescher’s crew chief decided to go with a two-tire pit stop. However, on that stop, the story was how arguably one of the best pit crews all season lost the battle at Bristol. Kevin Harvick was in a must-win situation to advance in the playoffs and even pitted before the eventual winner. However, he has one of the best crews on pit road, and unfortunately, they had a hiccup occur. Not so much the team but the “crappy parts” provided to them caused the tire to not lock down all the way when the crew member attempted to tighten.
Bristol Loves to Hate the Toyota’s
it was an interesting night for the Toyota camp. We saw Kyle Busch come in below the cut line after makeuping so many positions to start the night. Then you had Christopher Bell who was the only driver locked into the next round before the start of the race Saturday night. It was looking like it was going to be a good night overall for some guys who needed a solid Bristol. The next-gen car was about to be tested and to the limits.
Things quickly changed as the twenty-three-eleven team cars started off the power steering issues. They then transferred to their JGR friends, with Martin Truex Jr having the seals blow out of his power steering system giving him a DNF. Then not too long after Kyle Busch’s car blew a motor the second one in a three-week span, which ultimately led to his elimination from the playoffs. With his departure from the camp at the end of this year, Kyle Busch had some interesting comments stating his team’s problem was Toyota’s problem. Martin Truex even doubled down on the crappy parts quote we heard from Harvick a week or so ago. Bristol woke up Saturday morning and chose hatred for the Toyota’s.
Let’s Wrap This Up
Well race fans, did the Bristol night race put on another good show? It was an interesting show for me at least. This is one of my favorites; if not my favorite race of the year. Not to mention we have now seen three non-playoff drivers sweep the first round of the playoffs. Congratulations to Christopher Buescher and the RFK Racing team on snapping a long winless drought. However, I think heading into this weekend’s race at Texas we are going to see the non-playoff driver wins come to an end at least for now.
Texas is arguably one of the most boring tracks on the circuit. So I think that we will see the playoff teams and drivers get things together and inevitably we will see a playoff driver back in victory lane. The question now though is who will not have to worry about Talladega in two weeks by winning.
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