For an off-weekend, it was anything but quiet.
We can thank the rebirth of Rockingham Speedway for that.
There was also a smattering of other NASCAR and NASCAR-related news over the past week. We’ll get to some of that.
Meanwhile, what’s the opposite of an off-week for the Cup Series? It doesn’t get any more un-quiet than Talladega, where a fast weekend is approaching.
Talladega is where the sudden (yet long-lasting) move to restrictor-plate racing was necessitated, nearly 38 years ago. For better and worse.
This coming Sunday, before going green with the biggest, baddest form of superspeedway traffic jams, Talladega and NASCAR will honor the Hall of Famer whose 1987 crash spurred the whole new era of pack-racin’.
No, that’s not why they’re honoring him.
And yes, we’ll get to that as we go through the gears.
First Gear: The Rock was rocking
The good news: The return to Rockingham surpassed expectations, capped by Saturday’s sold-out Xfinity Series race. The racing was fast and quite similar to what we remember about the high-banked one-miler.
Here comes the wet blanket: No, this doesn’t mean The Rock is ready for a primetime NASCAR weekend that includes the Cup Series.
Our boots on the ground tell us there are still a lot of areas that need work in order to consider a return of big-league ball to the 60-year-old facility. But hey, once North Wilkesboro was paddled back to life and became host to the All-Star Race, you can’t rule out anything.
And that All-Star Race, or possibly the preseason Clash, is probably a better bet for the optimists. Those optimists will obviously point to last Saturday’s sellout, and they should, but maybe we should temper that a bit. Today’s Rockingham seating capacity is roughly half of its peak of 60,000, 20-plus years ago.
Second Gear: Kurt Busch officially racing toward the NASCAR Hall of Fame
Kurt Busch, Hall of Famer?
It seems inevitable, now that he’s been retired long enough to make the official list of nominees. The list was announced Monday, and four men have been added to replace the four Class of 2025 inductees.
On the 15-man Modern Era ballot, Busch and Randy LaJoie replace new Hall of Famers Ricky Rudd and Carl Edwards.
On the five-person Pioneer Ballot, legendary crew chief Jake Elder (Suitcase Jake!) takes the slot formerly held by Ralph Moody, following Moody’s induction.
This year’s Landmark Award went to Dr. Dean Sicking, the SAFER Barrier pioneer. Humpy Wheeler is now one of the five people on that nominee list for the Class of ’26.
Busch, the 2004 Cup champ, seems a shoo-in because former Cup Series champs always get in. Also, his 34 career Cup wins have him 26th on the all-time wins list, and every Hall-eligible racer in the top 34 is a Hall of Famer.
Third Gear: One more lap for Bobby Allison
As mentioned earlier, Talladega will honor a recently departed legend before the start of Sunday’s 500-mile white-knuckler.
Bobby Allison’s 1969 Mercury Cyclone will take a lap after the National Anthem. Behind the wheel will be Bobby’s grandson, Robbie Allison.
Bobby was the leader of the famed Alabama Gang, which originally included his brother Donnie and Red Farmer, and later added Neil Bonnett and Bobby’s son, Davey.
Bobby, who passed away last November, won 85 races and the 1983 Cup championship. His third Daytona 500 victory, in 1988, came two months after he turned 50, and he seemed likely to continue winning into his 50s until a crash that summer at Pocono ended his career.
It was his violent Talladega crash, the previous year, that tore off sections of the frontstretch fencing and came dangerously close to the flag man. That wreck was the final straw for NASCAR.
Restrictor plates were bolted in for Daytona and Talladega, and at that Talladega event a year later, the winning pole speed dropped from 212 to “only” 198.
Fourth Gear: Kyle Larson gets another shot at two straight wins
It looks like we have some potential issues to consider with Kyle Larson’s inability to follow a victory with another great run.
Quick background. Since the start of 2023, Larson has had the following finishes after a victory: 35, 33, 4, 34, 14, 34, 34, 7, 26, 11, 5.
That’s six finishes of 26th or worse, with five of them between 33rd and 35th. Yikes.
But here are two issues. Last month after winning Homestead, he finished fifth at Martinsville. That’s hardly a bad finish, even for a guy who entered as the odds-on favorite.
Also, there was a week off between his most recent win and this weekend at Talladega. Could any shaky post-victory mojo survive a two-week hiatus? We’ll see.
Oops, hold the presses. This just in from the Boys in Stats. In 42 career Cup starts at Talladega and sister track Daytona, Kyle has just as many victories as you do. And shockingly, just two top-fives. He has some serious trend-bucking to do this weekend.
— Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
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