Posted on

The Top Five: Breaking down the Auto Club 400

Five thoughts after Sunday’s race in Fontana…

1. We were robbed

Nothing against Martin Truex Jr.’s dominating win, but Sunday sure could have been a lot more interesting had Kevin Harvick not wrecked with Kyle Larson during the first stage.

What would have happened? Would Harvick have won his fourth straight race? Would Truex have thumped the field anyway?

“We’ll never know,” Truex said.

ARGH! That stinks. Even Furniture Row Racing owner Barney Visser sounded a little disappointed about it.

“After the beginning of the season there, watching Harvick run away with everything, I wasn’t sure where we were at,” Visser said. “I wish he would have not had the problems he had today and we could have run him again. I think we had something for him today.”

Now everyone has to wait for three weeks — until Texas Motor Speedway — to find out who will win a head-to-head battle on an intermediate track (Martinsville is next week, followed by an off week).

Still, the lack of evidence didn’t stop drivers from guessing what would have happened.

“Just the little bit I was around Kevin, I felt like he still had the best car,” Larson said. “Who’s to say, though?”

Truex said he left pit road after the first stop and drove away from Harvick — which leads him to believe the No. 78 car might have won anyway. It was pretty damn fast, after all.

But there’s no way to know for sure.

Sigh. Oh well.

“I’m sure we’ll have plenty of chances to race each other throughout the rest of the season,” Truex said.

2. What was that?

So what exactly happened in the Larson/Harvick incident?

Though it initially seemed Harvick was somehow retaliating against Larson for hard racing (a theory floated by the FOX broadcast), that turned out not to be the case.

Harvick said he went down to side-draft Larson when they came off the corner, and he was “trying to get a little too much right there.”

“That’s my fault for coming down the racetrack and trying to side draft,” he said. “… That was just a dumb mistake on my part.”

Larson had a more detailed explanation when asked if he was surprised Harvick was racing him so hard. Harvick had pitted one lap earlier than Larson, so the Chip Ganassi Racing driver was coming with slightly fresher tires.

“I think he knew he was better than I was overall, so he was just trying to hold me off, race me hard to maybe burn my stuff up, and then he could stay in front of me and not have to worry about me 10, 15 laps later when he would be better than me,” Larson said.

Makes sense, right? At that point, Harvick just made a mistake rather than acting out of malice.

“I was actually having a lot of fun racing like that because this place is really cool and you can just kind of go wherever,” Larson said. “I respect Kevin a lot. I think he respects me a lot, too.  You never want to see anything like that happen.”

3. Harvick, and…

After five races, it’s not much of a mystery which team is the one to beat. And it’s not the one that ended up in victory lane.

“I don’t think anything changes with the 4 car being the fastest car in the field right now,” Brad Keselowski said.

“He’ll be good every weekend,” Larson said.

If that’s the case, Truex — now the points leader — is probably second-best, with Kyle Busch also right there.

But who else is good?

Larson, for one. Keselowski and Joey Logano, too. The thing is, they’re all a half-step away from being able to run up front regularly like Harvick, Truex or Busch.

“I’ve been happy to see how we’ve started so far,” Larson said. “But we still have a little ways to go to win.”

Keselowski said he’s been about a fifth-to-10th place car most weeks and noted the team hasn’t seriously contended for a win. And Logano, who missed the playoffs last year after his infamous encumbered penalty at Richmond, said his team is “getting closer” but isn’t there yet.

“Today we had some decent speed and it’s progress in the right direction,” Logano said. “We still have a ways to go, but we’re getting closer to where we can have solid runs, score stage points, score good finishes and keep ourselves up there for points.”

There are really no surprises in the top half of the playoff standings. Truex and Busch are 1-2, followed by the Team Penske trio of Logano-Keselowski-Ryan Blaney. Then it’s Denny Hamlin and Larson.

4. Standings surprises

Speaking of the point standings, there are still a few unexpected trends after five races.

— Despite winning three of the first five races, Harvick is only eighth in the standings. That’s because of Daytona and Fontana, where he got only two points.

— All four Stewart-Haas Racing drivers are in the top 11 of the standings. In fact, they are 8-9-10-11 (Harvick-Clint Bowyer-Aric Almirola-Kurt Busch).

— Chase Elliott is the lowest-running Hendrick driver (21st) after Jimmie Johnson moved up to 18th in the last couple weeks. The lead Hendrick driver is Alex Bowman, who is 16th.

— Jamie McMurray, who has pointed his way into the playoffs, is only 26th in the standings — behind Michael McDowell and both JTG Daugherty Racing drivers.

— Daniel Suarez is 23rd in the standings while all of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates are 13th or higher.

5. The clock says Bubba Time

As Bubba Wallace walked off pit road following a 20th-place finish at Fontana, he was already looking toward next week — his first visit to Martinsville Speedway since winning the Truck Series race there four years ago.

“Man, I’m so pumped up and so excited to get there,” he said. “I want to win this fucker. … We’ll have to be ready there.”

Unlike recent weeks — such as Phoenix, where two loose wheels turned a possible top-15 day into a 28th-place finish — the No. 43 team might be rolling into the next race with some positive mojo.

There wasn’t anything particularly special about Fontana, except nothing went wrong.

“Smooth on pit road all day, didn’t make any dumb moves on the racetrack and came home 20th,” Wallace said. “We can improve from that.”

Wallace and his team are still figuring each other out, and the team is transitioning to Chevrolet and its alliance with Richard Childress Racing at the same time. But in only nine career Cup starts, Wallace now has top-20 finishes in five of them — all with a mid-level team — and has a three-point lead in the Rookie of the Year battle with William Byron.

“We came back here (after the Phoenix disappointment), regrouped, took a deep breath and can use this as a little bit of momentum going into Martinsville,” he said.

Posted on

Bubba Wallace’s story, star power attracts Vegas sponsor

Bubba Wallace has quickly become one of NASCAR’s breakout stars, and his No. 43 car has another new sponsor this week: The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

The trendy casino hotel in heart of the Strip initially had planned to skip sponsoring a car this year after appearing on Daniel Hemric’s Xfinity Series car last year. A different marketing strategy for 2018, which focused on its recent room remodeling, wasn’t going to include NASCAR.

But after being presented with a chance to sponsor Wallace and researching his story, the rookie driver’s appeal changed their minds, Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas chief marketing officer Tom Evans said via phone.

“We started seeing what Bubba was doing and the opportunity he had out there,” Evans said. “… We thought, ‘This is such a unique opportunity with such a unique person. How can we make this happen?’”

The Cosmopolitan views itself as somewhat of an underdog because it’s surrounded by mega casinos and is “the small kid fight that has to fight a little harder to get our share of the market,” Evans said.

“We thought, ‘If we were going to do this, his story and our story and how we align ourselves with being that underdog really makes a lot of sense,” he added.

Talks were started in late January and a commitment was made right before Wallace’s second-place finish in the Daytona 500 — timing Evans was obviously thrilled about.

“From a marketing standpoint, I couldn’t be any happier,” he said. “If I waited a day, I might have been in trouble.”

Aside from having the logo on the car and getting exposure for the resort that way, Evans said the Cosmopolitan was happy to “have access to Bubba and be able to meet him and talk to him.” In addition, it gives the resort’s 5,000 employees someone to root for.

“Whenever I’ve shown someone that logo painted with the 43 on the car, there’s such a pride that goes along with it,” he said.

Posted on

12 Questions with Bubba Wallace (2018)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | Google Podcasts | RSS

The 12 Questions series of interviews continues with Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr., who is in his rookie season driving for Richard Petty Motorsports in the Cup Series. This interview was recorded as a podcast, but is also available in transcript form.

1. How often do you have dreams about racing?

Once every blue moon. I don’t dream about it every night before I go to bed.

Do you have nightmares about crashing or some crazy thing?

No. I had a dream two or three weeks ago that I was finally racing again. So it was like, “Yeah, that’s cool.”

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

Yeah, it does. For example, I reached out to (Denny) Hamlin to say, “We’re all good?” He’s not good. But I did my part, so it’s like, “OK, I’ve got nothing to worry about.” (Note: The drivers apparently spoke a few hours after this interview was recorded.)

It could have festered if you didn’t.

I look at the (Matt) Kenseth and (Joey) Logano deal (from Martinsville). You really take notes from that. But you’re gonna be racing these guys every week, hopefully for the next 10, 15 years.

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

“You’re a role model,” or “You’re very inspiring.” A kid came up to me at Daytona and was like, “I’m gonna be the next you.” It was like, “Holy cow, that was cool.” Through all the emotions I was going through right then, I’m like, man, no time for that. “Nice to meet you.” Carry on. (Laughs)             

4. NASCAR comes to you and says, “Hey, we are bringing a celebrity to the race and we’re wondering if you have time to say hi.” Who is a celebrity you’d be really excited to host?

I’ve been thinking about when we go to Fontana, like we get Kevin Hart out. That would be awesome.

I’m bummed I didn’t meet Charlize Theron though (when she was honorary starter at Daytona).

You never met her?

No. I’m a brunette guy, obviously Amanda (Carter, his girlfriend) is a brunette. But (Theron) has always been my top blonde. Ever. Like ever since I was like 10.

And she’s there at Daytona…

She’s there, and yeah…no. Peyton Manning was there though, so (Tennessee) Vol For Life.

I told Amanda that Charlize was there and she was like, “Cool.” She didn’t like it. (Laughs)

5. In an effort to show they are health-conscious, NASCAR offers the No. 1 pit stall selection for an upcoming race to the first driver willing to go vegan for a month. Would you do it?

(Laughs) No. Absolutely not. No.

6. It’s time for the Random Race Challenge. I have picked a random race from your career.

What is this shit that you have? (Laughs)

I looked on Racing Reference, picked a random race and you have to tell me where you finished. This is the 2015 Texas spring race for the Xfinity Series. 

(Makes random thinking noises.)

Are you good at remembering races?

I remember that one. It wasn’t a good finish. Or was it? I don’t know exactly where I finished because if it’s not top 10, then it’s just like, “Eh, top 15.” I think I was 20th or something. I think I blew a tire. I think that race rained out and we ran the next day. No? (Note: He was thinking of the Texas fall race that year.)

This is a top-10 finish, I’ll give you a hint.

Oh wait, that must have been the fall race. I’m sorry. I finished seventh?

Sixth.

Sixth. Oh, go figure.

I picked a sixth because of all your sixths last year. You started eighth. You led three laps and Erik Jones won. And I swear on my life this is completely random, but after I already picked this race, I realized Austin Dillon finished in front of you and Denny Hamlin finished right behind you.

(Laughs) That’s pretty funny.

7. Who is the best rapper alive?

I have to go Lil Weezy (Lil Wayne).

8. Who has the most punchable face in NASCAR?

I’ve seen this question, and…who has the most punchable face? This is funny. I couldn’t think of one right when I’d seen it. That’s tough. I don’t know.

Some people just have annoying faces, it doesn’t necessarily mean…

Yeah, I’m just trying to think. Who has that one face? I’ve seen people that have that face, but nobody in the garage.

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.

It’s a toss-up between Tom Hanks as being the crew chief or the motorhome driver, because Tom Hanks is just awesome. He’s like that older guy that you’d want driving your bus, who’d just take care of everything. But then he’s so knowledgable and I feel like he has so much strategy to be the crew chief.

But I’ll put him as motorhome driver, have LeBron be the crew chief. Shit, that leaves T-Swift up to being the spotter. Ah man, that’s a tough one.

The thing about T-Swift is that she might get over-excited.

I know. My spotter Freddie (Kraft), he’s from New York, and our first race together, he was super excited, yelling, and I was like, “Dude you have to chill out because we’re gonna wreck.” Because I got excited. So I think I went through that emotion, and now I’m OK.

So if she got excited, I would be like, “Alright, cool, just try to calm down please.”

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

So I’ve never been able to take a poop in any public place.

Not a port-a-potty or anything?

Oh hell no. Absolutely not.

Is it because of the comfort of your own toilet or the cleanliness of your own toilet?

Both. I have maybe gone once or twice when I was little and I can’t remember. But I never did in middle school, never did in high school and I’ve never done it at a racetrack. Ever. Unless I have a motorhome. Motorhome, it’s all mine.

Can I tell you something? In about 10 years you won’t be able to hold it as well.

No, I will hold it.

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?

We were just talking about this at dinner last night. I have always been scared to do a backflip — rightfully so, because I could manage to land on my neck and die. We went on a cruise, and we were in the water launching people off our shoulders, and I just freaked out and flailed my arms in mid-air. I just couldn’t do it.

So then a month ago, we went to a trampoline place in Charlotte and in the foam pit, I did it. I’m like, “OK, I know what to do, your legs is all the momentum that you need.” So I kicked really hard and I actually perfectly landed on my feet for a backflip. I’m like, “Hell yeah!” I’m not ready to do it on hard surfaces, though. It’d have to be lots of money.

12. Each week, I ask a question given to me from the last interview. Last week, I interviewed Corey LaJoie. Apparently he used to give you a ride to school for two and a half years, and he claims it cost him an extra 20 minutes off his day, every day — and you only gave him $20 total for all the chauffeuring that he did. So I think he wanted to say, what was up with that?

So it wasn’t 20 minutes. He and I lived the same distance on opposite ends of school. I was a mile and a half on one side, he was a mile and a half on the other. So he’d drive three miles to my house, and a mile and a half back to school. So four and a half miles, which is not 20 minutes. And traffic wasn’t bad at all.

Twenty bucks is a little shy. But hell, I’m running Late Models at that point, I’m not making anything. It’s just a funny story because everything that we do for each other, it’s like, “Hey man, remember I gave you $20? We’re good.” And we die laughing over that.

But there were some moments where I’m sitting at the house and school started at like 7:15 — and it’s 7, 7:05, 7:10…

“Hey, where you at?”

“Oh, I’m not coming today.”

It’s like, “Damn!” He did do that a couple of times. He’s like, “Oh yeah, I’m racing somewhere today.” No notice. So luckily I made it on time, but yeah, there were a couple of instances like that. So what he would have earned, he lost because of those moves.

He got docked.

Yes, sometimes I had to do detention for him.

There’s fines involved.

Yeah.

So the next interview I’m doing is with Alex Bowman. Do you have a question for him?

Alex Bowman…that’s a tough one. I don’t really know Alex that well, but I do because we’ve raced together since K&N days a little bit. Just ask him how long it took to get over me wrecking him at Homestead of 2016.

Coming to the line, I had the run on Aric Almirola and Bowman happened to get a run on me, so it was like an accordion effect. I went to dive under just to try and get the spot on Almirola, and Bowman was under me. So it looked like Blake Koch and me at Phoenix, and I just felt so bad because my spotter was probably saying, “Inside, inside,” and I turned hard left and destroyed his car.

I didn’t have Bowman’s number or anything, and I felt like crap all the way up to Dale Jr.’s wedding, which was a month and a half later.  And I saw the crew chief (Dave Elenz) at the wedding and I was like, “Look, man, I totally apologize, I didn’t mean to do that, I know I ruined y’all’s day.” He was like, “Yeah, we were all pretty pissed at you for a little bit.”So yeah, just see how long it took for him to get over it. Because last time I met him it was like, “Hey man, what’s up?” I’m like, “Ah it’s good, thanks.”

Previous 12 Questions interviews with Bubba Wallace:

— May 29, 2013

— Sept. 24, 2014

— July 19, 2016

Posted on

12 Questions with Corey LaJoie (2018)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | Google Podcasts | RSS

Corey LaJoie (second from left) stands with former NASCAR Next drivers who competed in this year’s Daytona 500. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

The 12 Questions series of interviews continues this week with Corey LaJoie of TriStar Motorsports. LaJoie finished 40th in the Daytona 500 after an engine failure.

1. How often do you have dreams about racing?

Not a whole lot. When you’re a little kid, you have a little more vivid dreams of trying to win the 500, and then you get here and you’re kind of fighting an uphill battle every week with a couple of places I’ve been. So your dreams start to be a little more realistic, and you dream of like maybe running 12th on a good day.

I dream about weird stuff, but for the most part I don’t have vivid racing dreams.

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

Oh yeah, you’ve gotta address it right up front. You can’t let it fester. It’s just like life: If you do it wrong, it just only gets worse, and tempers only get more bitter the longer you go and you don’t address it.

A big reason why people get into it is because they race each other hard week after week, and if you race that person week after week, that means you’re gonna be parked next to them, right? So that’s how it always happens: You get in a fight with somebody, and then you’re riding in the (driver) intros truck with them the next week. Something like that happens all the time.

So nip in the bud, grow a pair. If you didn’t mean to, just tell them, “I didn’t mean to.” I’ve had to do that a couple times, but you can’t let that grow because you’ll end up like a Matt Kenseth and Joey (Logano) situation, and that didn’t end up good for any one of them.

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

For the stage that I’m at in my career, you’re just trying to survive and scratch and claw and stay in the sport because you’re hoping for an opportunity to get in a well-funded car. But for now, you’re here, you’re digging, you’re scratching, you’re clawing, and when people from the other side of the garage acknowledge that they know how hard I’m working and they see me develop as a race car driver — even though the results may not show it every week — when somebody actually on that side notices and says, “Hey man, you’re doing a good job, keep it up,” it definitely makes the hard work worth it sometimes. Because then you know it’s not going unnoticed.                                

4. NASCAR comes to you and says, “Hey, we are bringing a celebrity to the race and we’re wondering if you have time to say hi.” Who is a celebrity you’d be really excited to host?

Probably Ryan Reynolds. That guy’s a stud. I think he’s funny. I think that’d be just a hilarious day of just walking around with that guy and showing him our sport and showing him everything that our lives are every week and kind of see what he thinks. I think that’d be my choice.

I mean, (wife) Blake Lively might come with him, so then you’ve got to think about who his plus-one is.

5. In an effort to show they are health-conscious, NASCAR offers the No. 1 pit stall selection for an upcoming race to the first driver willing to go vegan for a month. Would you do it?

(Laughs) No, man! No. That No. 1 pit stall ain’t worth like a good pizza and a cheeseburger and some beer. No pit stall is worth that. I can’t do that.

6. It’s time for the Random Race Challenge. I have picked a random race from your career and you have to guess where you finished. This is the K&N East series, 2012, the year you finished second in points, the September race at Loudon.

I finished second to (Kyle) Larson by like three inches.

Wow! You remembered that one right off the bat.

Right off the bat. That’s the one that still stings because I led, I don’t know if the race was 150 laps and I led…

You led 25 laps.

I led like the last 25, and on the last, late-race restart, I couldn’t get going on the short run and Larson rolled the top on me and I got back to him in (Turn) 3 and moved him when he crossed the line. He beat me by like three inches. I hadn’t won at Loudon up to that point, always ran good, but that one was too close to home.

So I brought up a bad memory.

No, it’s all good. I mean, obviously it kind of brings up back when people used to think I was a good race car driver. So that feels like a lifetime ago. But that was a fun race. Darrell (Wallace Jr.) finished third in that race.

Yeah, I have here that Larson won, Bubba finished third and Chase Elliott finished fifth, so it was a pretty stacked field.

Yeah, K&N was tough back then.

You won five races that season. You finished that season with five straight top-twos, and three of your five wins came in those final five races. So that was a pretty strong finish.

Yeah, and then we had a judgment call on a carburetor that cost us 25 points, and we lost the championship by six points.

Oh, is that what happened? I don’t even remember that. Dang. Was it the right call?

Depends on whose truck you’re sitting on. Not mine, I can assure you.

7. Who is the best rapper alive?

That’s a good question because I like rap music. I like all music. I’ll have like some MercyMe followed up by Tupac or totally out there. Let’s see my latest. (Opens iTunes.)

What’s on your phone here?

I like Rick Ross.

Rick Ross, the Boss?

Yeah, Rick Ross the Boss. Meek Mill is good. (Keeps scrolling through iTunes.) I’ve got a lot of Rick Ross in here. I like Gucci Mane, too. Yeah, so I like rap music. I like it all.

So you’re going with Rick Ross for your answer?

I’m gonna go with Rick Ross, the Boss.

Kyle Busch last week said Eminem, so we have one vote for Eminem.

(Laughs) He has to say that, because that’s what the big yellow thing is on the hood of his car.

8. Who has the most punchable face in NASCAR?

Wow, what a question that is. I don’t know, it just depends whose face needs to get punched in certain situations. I mean, I pretty much like everybody.

Some people just have annoying faces though.

Now there’s people’s faces I don’t want to punch, I can tell you that. Like (Ryan) Newman. That guy’s neck is so solid, you punch his head, it’s like one of those little guys in martial arts — the little blow-up thing with the black base, and his head just bounces right back off your fist. So Newman would be a guy I would not want to mess with. He’s like cornbread-fed.

I feel like Newman would be one of those people in a superhero movie when they start attacking the guy and it has no effect on him whatsoever.

He’s like the rock guy (Thing) from the X-Men.

Yeah, he’s like that. Keeps coming.

So I would say Ryan Newman has the least punchable face.

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 easy. LeBron James will be the crew chief, he’s a great leader of men, he would get that ship rolling good. He probably doesn’t know how to take a tire off, but he can get them people working like in a synchrony. I don’t even know if that’s a word. Symphony, maybe?

Tom Hanks on the roof spotting because — what’s that movie he was in with the plane? (Sully) He’s a familiar voice, it’s kind of like a calming Tom Hanks voice up on the roof, so you don’t get fired up.

And then T-Swift will drive the bus, and I’ll let her sing karaoke all she wants.

You’d hang out for the weekend?

I’m engaged, so I can’t answer the question like that…

OK, well you can bring your fiancee. I’m sure she would want to hang out with her.

Yeah, for sure. So yeah, T-Swift driving the bus, Tom Hanks on the roof, LeBron James calling the shots. That’s a dream team.

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

I’ve always said if you’re a fan, you find the closest port-o-potty to wherever (drivers) get off the trucks from driver intros. You can meet everybody from Danica to Dale Jr. to anybody else if you stand to the closest one off the driver intros truck. Usually there’s a line about six deep with all drivers (waiting to pee).

So that’s a little tip for the fans: If you want to get an autograph, don’t worry about waiting around all day by the pit area, because they’re not gonna sign it. Go to the port-o-potty, and preferably try to have them sign it before they use the bathroom, because there’s no sink in there.

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?

How much money? Does that include the medical bills they would have to pay for?

You would probably have to negotiate that into it.

You ask that question to (Daniel) Hemric, and he’s gonna tell you, “For free.” That’s his thing. But for me, I have a hard time doing a backflip on a trampoline, so I’d probably do it for $100,000. And I’d be close to sticking it.

So you wouldn’t get hurt that bad?

No. But I would make sure to park in the grass. I would do it in the grass, for sure. But yeah, 100 grand, I’ll do it.

12. Each week, I ask a question given to me from the last interview. Last week, I interviewed Kyle Busch. His question was: With life on the road, how do you balance the travel with each location, whether you go out, you stay in a motorhome — you have a motorhome?

No.

OK, so a hotel. How do you decide if you’re just gonna chill, or go do something fun in that city — what goes in the decision?

Since I stay away from the racetrack, I can see the surroundings when I leave and kind of pick different restaurants on the way back. You’ve got your one or two restaurants you want to hit up in every city you go to. I go to Phoenix, I’ll hike up Camelback (Mountain). Or there’s a really good steakhouse in Atlanta which I go to, little things like that.

But you try to keep it routine. You want to go to bed fairly early, maybe see some friends who don’t live at home and live somewhere else and meet up with them.

I like to stay at hotels. For one, it doesn’t cost me anything — I just show up and get in the rental car and go to the hotel. But everywhere has its little perks. There’s some places like Pocono where there’s nothing really to do there, so everywhere has its pluses and minuses.

So you don’t have to worry about race traffic too much in the morning? You get there early enough?

Yeah, so I leave fairly early. That is a nightmare of mine, waking up in a cold sweat and waking up late on a race day like, “Oh.” Then you’re like, “It’s 3:30 in the morning, let’s go back to sleep.”

There’s your racing dream.

Yeah, that’s one of the dreams I’ve always had, waking up and you’re late to practice, you’re late to qualifying or something, and you wake up and you’re like, “Oh. Phew. Good thing.”

I don’t know who the next interview is going to be with, but do you have a question I can ask another driver for next time?

You should do Bubba, and then you should ask him how much gas money he gave me for driving him to school for three years.

What’s the story there?

We went to the same high school. He was a year and a half younger than me, so I drove him, picked him up. I lived like five minutes away from school, so I had to drive past the school like 10 minutes, turn around and come back. So it was an extra 20 minutes twice in my day, right?

I drove him to school for two and a half years. And he gave me $20 the entire time!

You ask him that question, he’ll bust out laughing. So ask him how much gas money he gave me for wasting valuable time to come pick his ass up and bring him to school. I love Bubba, but he should have given me more gas money.

So he still owes you, with interest.

Yes. He can afford it now, I’m sure.

Posted on

The Top Five: Breaking down the Daytona 500

Five thoughts after Sunday’s 60th running of the Daytona 500…

1. That’s racing

I’m sort of baffled by the outrage over Austin Dillon driving through Aric Almirola — after Almirola admitted he saw Dillon coming and threw a last-ditch block. There’s no sound reason behind the anger here, other than fans can’t stand Dillon and his perceived silver spoon background — while Almirola would have been a likable winner and feel-good story after last year’s broken back and transition to Stewart-Haas Racing.

I get that Dillon irritates fans (he doesn’t care, by the way; Dillon believes in the “as long as they’re making noise” philosophy), but geez. Seriously, folks? Take the emotion out of it for a second.

Dillon had a huge shot of momentum from a Bubba Wallace push when the Almirola block happened, and it was on the last lap of the freaking Daytona 500. So what was Dillon supposed to do, let off the gas and cut Almirola a break?

“I guess I could have lifted and gave it to him, and not had this Daytona 500 ring that I’m wearing,” Dillon said.

But even if he did lift, Dillon probably would have gotten turned by Wallace behind him.

After all, that’s what seemed to happen when Ryan Blaney blocked Chase Elliott in the first Big One (Elliott lost momentum, got loose and spun off Brad Keselowski, starting a pileup). And when Denny Hamlin blocked Kurt Busch in the last Big One, Busch lost his momentum and got turned by the air off Blaney’s nose.

As we saw throughout Speedweeks, superspeedway racing has evolved into a risky, ballsy game of chicken when it comes to blocking. Almirola had no choice but to throw that block — in hopes Dillon would somehow blink — and Dillon had no choice but to drive through him.

Unless he wanted to lose, of course.

“I had such a run,” Dillon said, “and I had to use it.”

2. A star is born

NASCAR got stuck in some political debates last year, which prompted outsiders to once again bring up stereotypes about the sport’s fans.

But the majority of race fans aren’t racist. How do I know? Because Bubba Wallace is quickly becoming one of the most popular drivers in NASCAR.

Fans at Daytona gave Wallace a loud cheer before the 500, and his high profile in the media this week (including a feature on ESPN, a six-part docu-series on Facebook and then some air time in front of the largest audience NASCAR has all year) allowed fans to take a closer look at whether they like him or not.

It certainly seems like they do. And it has everything to do with his personality, which is refreshing, energetic, fun, raw and real.

I mean, what other driver shows emotions like this?

If Wallace can do anything in the 43 car and is even halfway competitive, it will be massive for NASCAR. His profile only grow if that’s the case.

But Richard Petty Motorsports has a lot of work to do judging by last year’s results, and if Wallace doesn’t run in the top 10, he risks becoming another Clint Bowyer.

Fun guy, hilarious, great personality, people love him, but…

At the tweetup on Sunday, fans emphasized they seek the perfect combination of personality and results. A driver needs both to truly be a superstar.

Those who deliver in both ways are the types of drivers NASCAR needs to succeed. Wallace certainly has the personality; now we’ll see whether he can produce on the track.

3. For Blaney, wait til next year

This really seemed to be the Ryan Blaney 500, especially after so many other contenders wrecked out. It looked like Blaney had the strongest car and could do anything with it. He led 118 laps in playing the typical Keselowski role, a dominating performance on a day when no one else led more than 22 laps.

Blaney was leading a single-file line with 10 laps to go when William Byron spun in his damaged car, which brought out a caution that ultimately cost him the race after the ensuing restart.

“That stunk,” Blaney said of the caution. “That grouped everyone back together. I tried to block as best I could, but it’s just so hard when they’re coming so much faster than you.”

Still, a green-flag finish wouldn’t have guaranteed a Blaney win. He had the best car of those remaining, though that doesn’t mean everyone would have stayed in line. But he’ll always wonder.

“It definitely was going to get tough there, and it was starting to brew up to where people were going to start to go,” he said. “With five to go, it was probably crunch time — and we were five laps away from that.

“But I thought we could control the lead pretty good, and it just didn’t play out that way.”

Ryan Blaney collects himself after climbing from his car following a seventh-place finish in the Daytona 500. (Photo: Jeff Gluck)

 

4. Logic doesn’t prevail

I don’t know if this will go down as one of the best Daytona 500s ever, but it was certainly one of the most entertaining.

Honestly, it shouldn’t have been.

With drivers knowing their cars were less stable than in previous years thanks to the new rules package, it seemed running single-file (like in the Clash) would be the smart way to go.

It certainly would have been very boring, but logic dictates that’s what the drivers should have done in order to still be racing at the finish.

Instead, the drivers got all crazy over the end of Stage 1 and took out a bunch of great cars. Then more wild moves finally bit them just after the halfway point.

“It looked like everybody thought that was the finish of the Daytona 500 and it was really only lap 59 coming to 60,” Jimmie Johnson said of the first incident. “… I’m not sure everybody was thinking big picture and really using their head through that.”

I’m sure they weren’t. But I can’t really figure out why. Drivers had privately predicted a single-file race, perhaps even with several groups of six-to-12 car lines spread across the track. Then they would all go hard for the win at the end.

Instead, it seemed like the opposite happened in the first two stages. It was weird. Super entertaining, but weird.

Perhaps the start of a new season left everyone too antsy to use the patience required to make it to the finish, or maybe racers just can’t help themselves from racing hard — even when it’s not necessary at the time.

5. Underdogs shine

Speaking of those who patiently bided their time and made it to the finish, there were some surprise names who had solid results after others wrecked out.

Chris Buescher previously had only one top-10 finish at a restrictor-plate track in nine starts, but he finished fifth on Sunday.

Michael McDowell finished ninth to record his sixth career top-10 finish — five of which have come at Daytona.

Justin Marks had a surprising run in his first career Cup race at Daytona and finished 12th despite being one lap down.

Also, David Gilliland made his first Cup Series start since 2016 — and recorded a 14th-place finish, his first top-15 since the 2015 Daytona 500.

And finally, despite all the drama and questions about whether it could even get the car on the track, BK Racing got a 20th-place finish with Gray Gaulding. Not a bad day for a team that just filed for bankruptcy protection.

Posted on

NASCAR Preseason Playoff Predictions with Bubba Wallace

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Android | Google Podcasts | RSS

It’s time to make playoff predictions for the upcoming NASCAR season, which means picking the 16 drivers and the champion. But it would be boring if I just rambled about the predictions by myself, wouldn’t it? That’s why I invited Rookie of the Year contender Darrell Wallace Jr. to give his picks as well — and tried to find out how many drivers we agreed on.

Common picks (both Jeff and Bubba):

— Martin Truex Jr.

— Kyle Busch

— Denny Hamlin

— Kevin Harvick

— Kyle Larson

— Jimmie Johnson

— Chase Elliott

— Ryan Blaney

— Joey Logano

— Brad Keselowski

— Erik Jones

— Ryan Newman

— Jamie McMurray

Jeff only:

— Clint Bowyer

— Kurt Busch

— William Byron

Bubba only:

— Bubba Wallace

— Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

— Austin Dillon

Jeff’s championship pick: Kyle Busch

Bubba’s championship pick: Kyle Larson