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12 Questions with Aric Almirola (2018)

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Aric Almirola has increased his average finish by more than six positions (18.8 to 12.5) from last year. He has already tied a career-high in top-10 finishes for a season. (Getty Images photo)

The series of 12 Questions driver interviews continues with Aric Almirola, who is currently enjoying the best season of his career during his first year with Stewart-Haas Racing. 

1. How often do you have dreams about racing?

Most of my dreams about racing stem from panic. Panic sets in because I’m late to the race. Like I’m trying to put my firesuit on as fast as I can, I’m trying to find my shoes, the cars are lined up, the national anthem just finished, everybody’s getting in their cars and I’m not dressed yet and I’m like in this massive panic to try and get in the car and hurry up and run to the car and get my belts on while the other cars are out on the track making pace laps.

And then usually I wake up in a cold sweat in the bed because I’m freaking out that I’m going to miss the race. So that’s usually what any racing dreams are about.

2. If you get into someone during a race — intentional or not — does it matter if you apologize?

I think it’s very situational. Most of us know when it’s intentional and unintentional. If it’s unintentional, you can typically take care of it on the track, you give a little wave out the window and it’s all good. Life goes on.

But when it’s flat-out intentional or an accident that takes them out of the race, then I think it’s important to be able to work through that and try to hash that out — or at least make an effort.

When everybody’s mad in the heat of the moment, I think it usually falls on deaf ears. But later on in the week or leading up to the next race, once everybody kind of calms down, it usually works itself out.

3. What is the biggest compliment someone could give you?

I feel like through the years, having people walk up to me and say, “Hey, we really think that you’re a class act.” Lately a lot of people have walked up and said, “Hey, the way you handled post-Daytona 500 media, you’re truly a class act and that was awesome of you and we really think the world of you because of that,” or whatever. That makes me feel good. The racing side is one thing, but character is a whole other thing and I think character is really important.

4. NASCAR comes to you and says they’re bringing a celebrity to the track and they want you to host them. Who is a celebrity you’d be excited to host?

I am totally drawing a blank on that. I don’t know.

Are you not much of a celebrity guy?

I’m not much of a celebrity guy. I prefer kind of my own little world and my own little group of friends. I don’t know. I got nothing for you on that one, Gluck.

That’s fine. That’s an answer in itself because it reveals something about you.

I’m not one who really cares or gets that excited or anything about famous people. I like real people. I like the people that are just normal, everyday people — not that celebrities can’t be real people.

5. In an effort to show this is a health conscious sport, NASCAR decides to offer the No. 1 pit stall for an upcoming race to the first driver willing to go vegan for one month. Would you do it?

Can I put bacon on everything?

I don’t think that counts as vegan.

Can I eat a completely vegan salad and then just top it with lots of Smithfield bacon? Would that be OK?

Let’s reverse this in light of your sponsor. What if they said you could get the No. 1 pit stall you went all-bacon for a month?

Bacon only?

Yeah.

Like breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Well, I already do that, so I think sure, why not?

So all-bacon diet for the No. 1 pit stall?

Yes.

That’s a deal.

When are we gonna do that? What race?

Which pit stall do you want the race for? Dover’s a pretty good one to have, right?

Yeah. Well this one (Sonoma). Let’s go with this one. This is like moments before qualifying, right? So can you just go talk to NASCAR and tell them?

Yeah, they’re over there. I can see what I can do.

See if you can do that. Then I’d be done for the day. Then I won’t have to qualify.

6. It’s time for the Random Race Challenge. I’ve picked a random race from your career and you have to tell me where you finished. This is the 2013 New Hampshire spring race.

2013 New Hampshire spring race. Did I finish like fourth or fifth?

You finished fifth!

I remember that race. We had a good car, we ran top 12-ish most of the day and late in the race we took two tires and I restarted on the front row with my now-boss Tony Stewart and I lost a couple of spots to a few cars that had four tires and we finished fifth.

Wow. That’s a really good memory. Brian Vickers won that race, you finished right behind Brad Keselowski and ahead of Jimmie Johnson.

Yeah, there you go.

7. Who is the best rapper alive?

(Laughs) I’m not much into rap, so I couldn’t even guess and throw a name out there. But a guy that I listen to who plays country music, or like kind of somewhat of a new age style of country music, is a guy named Corey Smith. And he occasionally breaks off of a chorus and goes into somewhat of what you would call rap, I think. So I’m gonna go with Corey Smith.

8. Who has the most punchable face in NASCAR?

Does it have to be a driver?

No, it could be anyone. It could be me. But give me some warning.

Actually, it would be a toss-up between you and (Bob) Pockrass. I think you would probably get the nod because Bob wears glasses. What movie is that where the guy says, “You would never hit a guy with glasses, would you?” And then he hits him.

I don’t have that luxury. I have sunglasses. I feel like I want to take two steps back now.

No, it’s good.

9. NASCAR enlists three famous Americans to be involved with your team for one race as part of a publicity push: Taylor Swift, LeBron James and Tom Hanks. Choose one to be your crew chief, one to be your spotter and one to be your motorhome driver.

Oh wow. Hmm.

(Note: My recorder died right at this moment. Fortunately, Almirola was willing to resume the interview on the following day. However, he said this secured my position as having the most punchable face.)

I currently have a woman motorhome driver who is amazing. She is an incredible bus driver. She takes care of me like a mom. She cooks awesome. She loves our kids and she’s just great. So I’m going to stick with the woman theme, so Taylor Swift is going to be my bus driver.

I’m going to go with LeBron James as crew chief. He seems pretty methodical and he’s pretty intense, so that’s a guy you would want to lead your team. He does seem like a good leader from time to time. I think his intensity would rub off and motivate the whole team.

And then spotter is Tom Hanks. I think he role plays all the time — that’s what he does for a living. I’m sure if he could just listen to somebody else spot for a few minutes and he could pick right up on it.

10. What is the key to finding the best pre-race bathroom?

Experience. There’s a lot of experience that comes into play with that. Occasionally the racetracks will move where they position the port-o-potties. But usually they’re in the same location at the same track. So after several years of doing this, you get out of the truck you ride around in for pre-race and there’s usually a line of drivers waiting at the same port-o-potties.

11. NASCAR decides they miss the highlight reel value brought by Carl Edwards’ backflips and want a replacement. How much money would they have to offer for you to backflip off your car following your next win?

No amount of money. There would be no monetary figure that would actually help me complete the backflip. If I had a chance, I would throw a big number out there. But I know I have zero chance of completing the backflip. I feel like I would get halfway around and land on my head.

But I’d be willing to give a somersault a whirl.

Maybe they’d give you $1 for that.

That’s where you put your head on the ground and roll ass over teakettle. My 5-year-old son and my 4-year-old daughter can both do it; surely I can do it.

12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next interview. Last week was Chase Elliott, and he wanted to know: What’s the biggest thing SHR does that has helped you this year or your favorite part about being there now?

The thing SHR does that helps me the most is they have the ability to pay attention to every single detail. And that’s something that is new for me. But they have the resources, the manpower and the ability to not only make race cars go fast, but deliver a lot of information to me — tons of data, tons of engineers and people willing to go and get data I’m looking for or sit down and talk with me.

The personal aspect is something I think has helped me the most. Being around a group of almost 400 employees who are hardcore racers and all are pulling the rope in the same direction. To have that many people and all of them willing to work together for a common goal, I just seem to fit in. Everybody has welcomed me with open arms, and they’re all willing to help in any way possible.

Not that I haven’t had that in the past — the attention to every detail — but (now) including me as a detail. At other race teams I’ve been at, the driver carries his own weight. You prepare in your own way and you show up and do your job. But at SHR, you’re part of the team and the detail. They put just as much time and energy into me as they do the race cars.

This might increase my face punchability, but I don’t know who the next interview is going to be with. Do you have a question I can ask another driver in general?

Ughhhhh. Are you really that unscheduled? Do you wing it this often?

Pretty much, yes.

How about you come back to me when you know who the next interview is with?

Will you make sure to give a question?

Yes. I could have left you (earlier)! It could have been Eight Questions with Jeff Gluck instead of 12 Questions with Jeff Gluck.

Previous 12 Questions interviews with Aric Almirola:

— Oct. 3, 2012

— Aug. 20, 2013

— July 21, 2015

— Aug. 16, 2016

— Sept. 6, 2017

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The Top Five: Breaking down the Chicagoland race

Five thoughts following Sunday’s thrilling race at Chicagoland Speedway…

1. THIS is why we watch

Yes! Wow, that was so fun. I would have never imagined Chicagoland would put on such an entertaining and exciting race, but NASCAR sure needed a day like that. What we witnessed Sunday was the kind of race you’d show your non-NASCAR friends and say, “See? It’s worth watching!”

Those stand-up-and-scream-at-the-TV finishes have been all too rare lately, especially in this predictable and oft-dry season. But Chicago was a reminder of why so many of us invest our time watching NASCAR. The payoff for those who tuned in for the race was very high, and viewers got rewarded with one of the best finishes in a long time.

When you get a race with lead changes and passing and contact and drama on the final lap, that’s thrilling enough. But when it happens on a 1.5-mile track, it’s oddly even more of an adrenaline rush than on a short track — because you don’t really expect it.

Are we going to see this every week? No, of course not. That’s why a bunch of important people wanted the All-Star package to be used in Cup. So let’s just be appreciative and thankful for seeing a good intermediate track race — and getting the reminder they do exist and can put on an outstanding show under the right circumstances.

2. Totally fair

Kyle Busch’s aggressive bump of Kyle Larson was 100% fair game. Larson said as much in his classy interview after the race, but that won’t keep some people from loathing Busch even more now (I’ve already seen this in my Twitter mentions).

Had it been a driver other than Busch, fans would have been cheering like crazy during his postrace interview. Can you imagine if Tony Stewart had done that? People would have said it was one of the coolest things ever.

Instead, fans showered Busch with boos and jeers. But at least that made him turn to the camera and do the crying face acting, which was hilarious and instantly meme-worthy.

Seriously though, Larson hit Busch in a last-lap battle for the win. You don’t think it’s fair game for Busch to nail him back? C’mon. That’s just silly. That’s pure NASCAR right there, and it’s what distinguishes stock cars from the other forms of racing.

3. Larson’s stock rises

This has been the season of Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. — a whopping 13 wins in 17 races between them! INSANE! So the fact Larson has even been a factor in some of these races is super impressive. He arguably doesn’t have as good of a car as the Big Three and yet can battle with them anyway. Imagine if he was driving a Stewart-Haas Racing car!

Additionally, his racer mentality is a really cool part of his personality and story. Did you expect him to get out of the car and rip Busch for being dirty, or perhaps whine or make a sarcastic personal comment? He didn’t do any of that.

In fact, he did the opposite. He essentially let Busch off the hook and took the high road, then even went to victory lane to congratulate the winning driver! That certainly raised Larson’s respect level in a lot of fans’ eyes.

Look, it’s fun when drivers get angry and punch each other after the race. You can get good videos of that and post them to YouTube, and lots of people will watch.

But it’s also neat to see competitors go all-out during the race and then treat each other respectfully afterward. It’s not like Larson was OK with losing, but he knew what happened was just part of racing — so he didn’t pout about it.

4. Dale’s Debut

Apparently there was a new broadcaster in the NBCSN booth. I’m having trouble coming up with the name. Let me watch the replay of the finish real quick.

(Watches replay)

Oh yeah — SLIDE JOB!

 

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s debut for NBC was refreshing and interesting. He had some good lines (“It’s like driving off a set of stairs,” he said of the Chicago bumps) and shared solid insight (“It does feel good, but it’s early,” Earnhardt said of Aric Almirola, pumping the brakes early in Stage 2 when the rest of the booth was getting excited).

But the best part was Earnhardt’s genuine enthusiasm for what he was seeing. There was nothing forced or fake; he wasn’t trying to sell anything to the viewers or convince people it was a good race — he was simply passing along his passion (or hitting Steve Letarte in the shoulder). It felt more like you were watching the race with a buddy rather than being talked down to by a professional broadcaster.

That said, I’m worried people are setting Earnhardt up for failure. NBC promoted the crap out of his debut, and everything leading up to the race was all about the guy in the booth — not anything to do with the cars or current drivers. So the expectations for what Earnhardt can bring to the broadcasts is very, very high.

That’s unreasonable. No matter who the broadcaster is, people aren’t going to tune in on a large-scale basis just to hear someone talk. I mean, the ratings didn’t even go up for Earnhardt’s final race last season at Homestead (they actually went down 20% and had a decline of 1.4 million viewers over the previous year)! So how can Earnhardt be expected to stop NASCAR’s ratings slide just by his presence as a broadcaster?

Everyone should just let Dale be Dale. Appreciate his insight and voice in the booth, which will fit seamlessly into the NBC broadcasts. But don’t expect he’s going to save the sport at this point. No one individual can do that.

5. Points Picture

With nine weeks to go in the regular season, there are still a whopping 10 spots available to make the playoffs on points.

Brad Keselowski is the current leader among those who haven’t won yet, followed by Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney. Aric Almirola is also comfortably inside the playoffs at this time.

The cutoff right now is Alex Bowman. Those above him in points are Jimmie Johnson (+52), Chase Elliott (+45) and Erik Jones (+18).

Those on the outside are Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-23) and Paul Menard (-28). Daniel Suarez is the next-closest, but he’s pretty far out of it (-74 points).

Next week is Daytona, which represents an opportunity for someone like a Jamie McMurray or Bubba Wallace to steal an unexpected playoff spot.

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Post-Chicago podcast with Kate Ertmann and Brian David Johnson

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This week on the post-race podcast, I’m joined by two people who have made names for themselves in their respective industries — and happen to be NASCAR fans who live in Oregon. Kate Ertmann, who is now a management consultant for small businesses,  and Brian David Johnson, a futurist and bestselling author, help me break down the exciting Chicago race.

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Update on the ICYMI Racing Newsletter (now the “Morning Warmup”)

Last year, I started a daily racing newsletter with the intention of making it a long-term project.

But keeping up with it proved to be too much for one person, so I put the newsletter on hiatus last July. However, I still kept paying MailChimp a monthly fee and retained the email list for sometime down the road.

That time is now — or at least this month. Together with up-and-coming racing journalist Aaron Bearden, we’re going to attempt to do a newsletter for every day in July as an experiment.

Aaron already does something similar on his Facebook page and calls it the Morning Warmup, so we’re going to use that name. It’s going to be the same newsletter as before — quick-hit racing news you might have missed, links and a look ahead to the day’s activity — just now managed by two people instead of one.

My personal goal with re-launching the newsletter is to attract some advertising revenue that will provide a source of income for Aaron. I think he’s really talented and deserves the opportunity to make a living in racing. Since he’s already doing something similar to this on his own, it seemed like a natural fit to combine our efforts.

Anyway, let us know what you think of it. The newsletter should hit your inbox each morning if you already signed up, and here’s the link to do so if you haven’t yet.

We would appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

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12 Questions with Chase Elliott (2018)

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(Photo by Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images)

The series of 12 Questions interviews continues this week with Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports. These interviews are recorded as a podcast but also transcribed for those who prefer to read.

1. How often do you have dreams about racing?

Racing’s weird. A lot of times I lay in bed at night — I don’t go to sleep very quickly — and I’ll think about it a little bit before going to bed. Especially if it’s race weekend or something like coming (to Sonoma), kind of running laps around the road course in your head. And when I do that, I never fall asleep, so it kind of keeps me up. So my mind wanders elsewhere.

The last dream I had about racing was, somehow or another I was running the Indy race somewhere. Actually it was an F1 race. Weirdest thing ever. And I get in the race, qualified like third or fourth, and we’re going out to the grid. We’re about to get into the cars and I realize I didn’t have my suit on. I was in my street clothes, and I had to go run and change really fast and I missed the start of the race. Nightmare, basically.

Lewis Hamilton’s not going to let you win when that happens.

No, definitely not.

2. If you get into someone during a race — intentional or not — does it matter if you apologize?

I think it kind of depends on the circumstance and whether or not the other person knows whatever drove to that contact in that situation. Sure, if I get into somebody — whether it’s on accident, on purpose, whatever — I do think if an explanation is needed, it’s probably in your best interest to at least say something. You race around the same people every week, so you’re gonna be around that person again and they can make your life easier or harder.

3. What is the biggest compliment someone could give you?

Within racing, I just think the kind of competitor you are. If somebody’s bragging on the type of competitor you are and how you conduct yourself, I think that’s a pretty big compliment regardless of performance. I just think if you’re appreciated and respected from your peers, I think you’re doing something right. It’s not necessarily a compliment, but if respect is there, I think that’s a pretty big one in itself and you can typically tell whether someone respects you or not. I think that goes a long way.

4. NASCAR comes to you and says they’re bringing a celebrity to the track and they want you to host them. Who is a celebrity you’d be excited to host?

I had a chance to hang out with Daniel Ricciardo from the F1 side (at Texas last fall). He’s not a celebrity — a California celebrity — but obviously a very well-known racer. Had a lot of fun with that.

I think kind of keeping it in the racing community, hanging out with people that understand what you have going on is a lot more fun than hosting somebody that has no clue. I’m a fan of different things. But hosting other people within a type of racing, I think is very cool because they know a lot about racing,

Obviously if they’re invited here, they are well-known in whatever area they race in. And they know a lot about it, they just don’t know a lot about this kind of racing, and I don’t know a lot about their kind of racing. So it’s an easy cross and an easy thing to talk about the differences and similarities as well.

5. In an effort to show this is a health conscious sport, NASCAR decides to offer the No. 1 pit stall for an upcoming race to the first driver willing to go vegan for one month. Would you do it?

No, absolutely not. No. I’ll take my chances.

6. It’s time for the Random Race Challenge. I’ve picked a random race from your career and you have to tell me where you finished. This is the 2015 Kentucky Fall race for Xfinity. It wasn’t really the fall, but second Kentucky race.

Second Kentucky race 2015 — was it repaved yet? No, it was not repaved in 2015. I wanna say we finished either second or third to Brendan Gaughan?

Nope, this was P4.

P4, I was close.

Blaney won this race.

That’s right.

You remember this?

I remember that now. There was another one, we had a real huge race with Brendan Gaughan and I think Ty Dillon, us three raced really hard there at the end for a race. That might have been the first Kentucky that year, maybe it was in ’14. But I remember that one too.

How good are you at remembering races in general?

Depends on the race. If something memorable happens or you’re up towards the front and you’re contending — I feel like I remember a lot more from when I’m contending or am relevant in a race. When you’re back there rooting and gouging for 15th, 12th or worse, I try to forget those really fast.

7. Who is the best rapper alive?

I’m a J. Cole fan, so I think he’s pretty good for a rapper. I don’t know a lot about the rapping world, but always kind of liked his music.

8. Who has the most punchable face in NASCAR?

I think it depends on the week. To be honest with you, I feel like that probably changes often. I had a favorite there last fall. You all can figure that one out.

9. NASCAR enlists three famous Americans to be involved with your team for one race as part of a publicity push: Taylor Swift, LeBron James and Tom Hanks. Choose one to be your crew chief, one to be your spotter and one to be your motorhome driver.

That’s pretty funny. I’m going to say LeBron on the crew chief side because his ability to remember plays in a game is very impressive to me. I’m going to say Tom Hanks spotting because I think he’ll keep his mouth shut. And Taylor Swift can drive the motorhome just because I would get to hang out with her more in that sense, so that would be a good option for her.

10. What is the key to finding the best pre-race bathroom?

Finding one that nobody else is going to. That’s the key, going off the beaten path. When Dale Jr. was here, there was one in his hauler, so I went there every Sunday before the race. And then this year, for some reason — there’s a lot of people not happy about this, me being one of them — it’s no longer there. They turned it into an IT room to house a bunch of the electronics and whatnot. I always went there. So this year has been tough. That’s an important part of your Sunday is getting that done at the right time.

11. NASCAR misses the highlight reel value brought by Carl Edwards’ backflips and decides a replacement is needed. How much money would they have to pay you to backflip off your car after your next win?

I couldn’t. I cannot backflip off the side of a car, so the price would be high. Real high.

12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next interview. Last week was Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He wants NASCAR to race at Bristol on Wednesday nights once a month as points races. Would you be up for that?

I would entertain that idea. Bristol’s pretty close to me and that’s a fun place, so why not?

The next interview is going to be with Aric Almirola. Do you have a question I can ask him?

To be honest with you, I don’t really know Aric that well.

That’s so interesting to me when drivers say that. I think it was Noah Gragson who tweeted you this week and he’s like, “Chase Elliott knew who I was!” I was like, “Why would Chase Elliott not know Noah Gragson? Of course he knows that.”

Well, I think he was being a little sarcastic. Maybe he wasn’t, but I’m pretty certain he was. But yeah, I thought he did a good job there at Iowa, put on a show. So that was fun to watch for me.

But as far as for Aric, I don’t know. Really the most I’ve learned about him in recent times was his show he did, I guess, he went to Cuba, right?

Yeah, FS1 did a feature on that.

But I think kind of keep it more on a racing side. … Obviously his switch, he has an opportunity to drive some really good cars this year. What does he feel like SHR does as a whole is better or what his favorite part about being there now is? What is the best thing that’s helped him from where he’s been in years past? I think that will be interesting to know.

Previous 12 Questions interviews with Chase Elliott:

— April 15, 2014

— May 6, 2016

— Aug. 23, 2017

 

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The Top Five: Breaking down the Sonoma race

Five thoughts after Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway…

1. Trick Play

Rodney Childers climbed down from the pit box with his headset still on, bent down to tie his shoes and tapped the button on his radio.

“I kind of let everybody down,” he told driver Kevin Harvick and the No. 4 team.

“All good,” Harvick replied. “Always want to win, but that stuff happens.”

“That stuff” was getting duped by an unusual case of trickery that likely cost Harvick the race on Sunday.

Here’s how it went down.

The No. 4 was the fastest car — as has been the case so often this season — with Martin Truex Jr. as the second best.

With that in mind, Truex crew chief Cole Pearn pulled off an Oscar-worthy performance to try and lure Harvick into the pits. He told Truex to pit and had the crew jump on the wall like a pit stop was about to happen, then called Truex off.

It didn’t work the first time. So then Pearn tried it again — he told Truex to pit, then reversed the call before Truex came down pit road. Truex had no idea what was going on (there was no code language or anything), but just knew to trust his crew chief.

This time, Pearn’s ploy worked. Childers — who was scanning the No. 78 team’s radio — took the bait and called Harvick to the pits earlier than originally planned, which opened the door for Truex to then stay out longer.

In turn, that gave Truex an advantage late in the race with fresher tires, which he used to easily pass Harvick.

“We’re in California — they went to acting school this week,” Truex said with a grin. “They were in L.A. for a couple days on the off weekend learning how to do screenplays and such.”

Furniture Row Racing president Joe Garone said he was aware of what Pearn was trying to do and termed it as a “flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” call when it appeared the No. 4 car was going to win out if the race went green.

“Obviously the first time we called it, it didn’t work,” Garone said. “So it was really cool that we were able to call it the second time. What a great move by Cole.”

Pearn downplayed the move and said it was just a product of road-course racing. where a fake-out has a longer window of opportunity to work. Childers echoed that sentiment, saying road courses are the best place to try a move because “you’ve got time to react.”

Unfortunately for Childers, he did react — even though he had been determined not to let another team influence his strategy.

“I’ve been preaching for two days to not worry about what everybody else was doing,” he said. “… We could have just turned the scanners off altogether and just ran our race. Probably would have been better off.”

Harvick, though, gave Childers his full support. He walked over to the crew chief and patted him on the back afterward, and the two spent several minutes speaking to one another.

“He shouldn’t beat himself up over a pit call,” Harvick said.

2. Fair game?

Was Pearn’s fake-out a cheap move? Childers didn’t think so at all and instead tipped his hat to the No. 78 team, even going to victory lane to offer his congratulations. As we’ve seen several times this season, the No. 4 team shares a mutual respect with both the Nos. 18 and 78 teams, which make up the big three contenders of the season (they’ve won 12 of the 16 races so far).

“That’s really why I like racing those guys the most — the 18 and the 78,” Childers said. “Those guys are really good at what they do. They make all of us better. And we make them better every week. It’s awesome what they did and I have to congratulate them for that.”

It’s refreshing that although the top three teams keep running up front together each week, there’s no bad blood between them. Sure, a bitter rivalry would be fun — very fun, actually. But it’s also cool to see the mutual respect and sportsmanship that exists.

After all, Pearn noted, they’re just playing a game.

“We have a great relationship,” Pearn said of Childers. “I respect him a lot, and I feel like he does the same. Him and Martin worked together back at MWR, so they’re good friends. I always try and congratulate them when they win, and he always does it when we win.

“There’s plenty of days where they’re going to be up. Kevin Harvick is an awesome race car driver, and I’ve got a lot of respect for him. I think it’s pretty cool to be able to race them like we do.”

3. Unusually calm

There were the fewest “natural” cautions (yellow flags other than stage breaks or competition cautions) in track history on Sunday. The only yellow flag other than the end of Stages 1 and 2 was for AJ Allmendinger’s car on the track after he blew an engine.

So what’s up with that?

For one thing, drivers say the field has gotten more skilled at road racing. Truex pointed to the Xfinity and Truck Series running more road courses, which means the younger drivers have a chance to get used to that type of racing by the time they reach Cup. Meanwhile, the Cup guys have raised their game as well.

But another reason is stage racing. It’s had a profound impact on road courses because the races turn into more of a strategy play than a straight-up, head-to-head battle. When the field gets spread out while using various strategies, there’s less chance for a wreck and no one is pushing the issue.

Still, that doesn’t mean NASCAR needs to change anything or suddenly get rid of stages at road courses. It’s much better to have a consistent race format for each week of the season than get into the business of tweaking it at certain venues in the name of entertainment.

That might produce some Formula One-type races at times —where strategy seems to prevail over all else — but it’s not like it happens every week.

4. ‘Dinger’s Despair

We all know there are pretty much two shots for Allmendinger to make the playoffs each season: Sonoma and Watkins Glen. And while Allmendinger has a decent track record at the Glen, Sonoma has been a nightmare.

Something always seems to either break on the car or Allmendinger loses his cool when faced with mid-race adversity. That’s why the talented road racer has more career finishes of 35th or worse at Sonoma (five) than top-10 finishes (two).

In that sense, his team’s strategy Sunday was puzzling. With Allmendinger in agreement, the 47 team had its driver stay on track for stage points while the other leaders pitted late in Stage 1. Allmendinger ended up winning the stage and got 10 stage points — but for what?

The driver entered the race 23rd in points. He’s not racing for points; he’s racing for wins.

After that decision — with all his track position lost and now tasked with trying to come through the field — Allmendinger made a mistake, missed a shift and blew his engine.

Race over.

The whole sequence just didn’t make sense, and it turned into another deeply disappointing day for the ‘Dinger.

5. Points Positions

In this unusual NASCAR season — perhaps historically so, with the fewest winners through 16 races since 1978 — one item in the Top Five will be a weekly look at the point standings.

After all, this playoff field is shaping up to have the most drivers getting their playoff spots on points since the start of the Win-And-In Era.

With Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon outside the top 16 in the standings, that moves the cutoff position to 15th in points — which is currently Alex Bowman. He’s safe by 17 points over Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and by 25 points over Paul Menard.

Erik Jones has a 13-point lead over Bowman (and thus a 30-point cushion to Stenhouse). After that, the cutoff isn’t really close because Chase Elliott is another 35 points ahead of Jones and therefore 65 points inside the cutoff.

The winless drivers who would make the playoffs right now are Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Aric Almirola, Ryan Blaney, Jimmie Johnson, Elliott, Jones and Bowman.