It wasn’t Barney Hall, Mike Joy or even Ken Squier, but Jerry Ford who once said, ‘Our long national nightmare is over.”
He was speaking, you know, about an actual nation, not NASCAR Nation. But in a way, the sentiment holds.
That’s right, Chase Elliott once again smells of champagne. His 44-race winless nightmare ended Saturday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which isn’t Atlanta Motor Speedway anymore and, frankly, not in Atlanta. And it’s not necessarily Chase’s home track, but we’ll get to all that in a bit.
“I’ve never in my life … This is unbelievable,” Chase said in the immediate aftermath of his late-race pass for the victory.
Really, had it gotten so bad he felt it was unbelievable that he finished first?
Not to downplay the long-awaited Victory Lane visit by the sport’s most popular driver, but guess what: Somebody had to win that thing. And roughly half the contenders were halfway back to Charlotte when time came to settle things.
Most others were wondering how to repair their brackets — work they could begin during a commercial break. What? More on all that to come as we attack the gearbox.
First Gear: Several strangers in the top 10 at Atlanta
Yes, that was Brad Keselowski and Alex Bowman, side by side, following Chase to the stripe to end a thrilling final few laps.
On most occasions over the past several years or more, that trifecta would sound plausible.
But Bowman has been in a funk and Kez’s season has been downright dismal — even when he runs well, something bad usually happens to knee-cap his finish.
But we all knew, entering Atlanta, it was a week for the Have Nots to snag a quality finish and maybe even win and earn a playoff berth. Damn near happened for Kez, who sure isn’t gonna make the playoffs on points (he vaulted all the way to 27th!).
That would’ve been true even with a relatively clean race, but was particularly true after more than half the field, including several weekly favorites, got all or part of that Lap 69 pileup. And that’s why, as usual at a “restrictor-plate” race, a handful of drivers booked a rare top 10.
Among them: Erik Jones (5th), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (6th), Zane Smith (7th) and Ty Dillon (8th).
For many, the next good chance won’t come until the regular-season finale, Aug. 23 at Daytona.
Second Gear: In-Season Challenge bracket busting courtesy of Big One
A lot of you were already ignoring the inaugural in-season bracket challenge, featuring a 32-car field, whittled in half after each of four races before it’s down to just two drivers in four weeks at Indy.
After Atlanta, a whole lot more of you are ignoring it. The favorites took a beating, largely due to that Lap 69 Big One.
This is like the NCAA basketball tournament in just one way: brackets. But instead of traditional head-to-head matchups, like you get in team sports or, say, Wimbledon over the current fortnight, the drivers are racing their race and then comparing finishes with this week’s bracket opponent.
And that’s how 32-seed Ty Dillon ousted 1-seed Denny Hamlin, who joined that 22-car mayhem on Lap 69. And look at these other departures: Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney and Chase Briscoe.
There’s a million bucks waiting for the eventual winner, and given the nature of this beast, don’t be shocked if it comes down to something like Ryan Preece vs. John Hunter Nemechek.
Yee-ha.
Third Gear: Plenty of Atlanta tracks not in Atlanta
Welcome to Geography class, where we explain that Atlanta Motor Speedway, Road Atlanta and Atlanta Motorsports Park are varying day-trip distances from the heart of Georgia’s state capital.
If we’re being literal, Chase Elliott’s actual home track is Atlanta Motorsports Park, a renowned but private road course literally located in Chase’s Dawsonville hometown.
Measuring from Atlanta’s world famous Varsity burger-and-dog joint at the corner of North Avenue and Spring Street, Dawsonville’s road course is 60 miles away.
Road Atlanta, the beautiful layout that’s host to IMSA’s season finale, is located in Braselton, 53 miles from The Varsity. Atlanta Motor Speedway, or EchoPark as its now known, is south of town in Hampton, and it’s the closest — just 30 miles away.
But Chase’s EchoPark “home track” is actually 85 miles from the famous Dawsonville Pool Room, a drive of 1 hour and 45 minutes according to MapQuest, though Chase can probably get there a tad quicker.
Fourth Gear: TNT takes over NASCAR TV coverage, Dale Earnhardt Jr. sticks around
Good news nearly all around for the anti-Amazon Prime crowd. The Cup Series concluded its five-week Prime run and moved back to basic cable this past weekend — TNT began its own five-week slate of Cup fare.
And along with that, you still get Junior Earnhardt in the booth. He’s been signed to do the five weeks for both Prime and TNT, and that’s a good thing because he’s a genuine pleasure due to his knowledge of current affairs, NASCAR history, and his excitement level.
What’s that? You need some bad news to balance things out?
Here you go: Full commercial breaks are back. Let’s compare the final Prime race at Pocono with the first TNT race this past Saturday, courtesy of the CawsNjaws.com folks.
Prime at Pocono: 205 total minutes of racing, five minutes of traditional breakaway commercials, 39 minutes of side-by-side featuring both a commercial and live racing.
TNT at Atlanta: 214 minutes of racing, 35 minutes of commercial breaks, 16 minutes of side-by-side.
For the anti-streaming crowd, commercials never looked so good.
— Email Ken Willis a ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
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