It was cautions galore at the Fleetio 200 in Darlington on Saturday. There were seven of them for the first Chase race in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, and the third of those cautions fell because of a particularly aggressive block involving Daniel Dye and Dean Thompson, with 23XI Racing employee Freddie Kraft criticising the former.
During Stage 2, after a round of pit stops, Thompson was running on fresh tires and building momentum in his No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota. On lap 60, he tried to make a move to the inside of Dye approaching Turn 4. Dye, driving the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet, was running 19th on 12-lap-old tires when Thompson made his move.
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Dye responded with an aggressive block, moving to the inside and leaving Thompson with nowhere to go. Thompson nudged Dye out of the way, bringing out the caution. Dye restarted 33rd.
On the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Kraft, who was Thompson’s spotter in Darlington, gave context to where his driver was in the race and the kind of run he was having at that moment before Dye threw the aggressive block.
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“He (Dye) just decides he’s gonna throw like a late block on us (Thompson) for some reason,” said Kraft. “And Dean just kind of ran in the square of the back bumper and buried him so hard it turned him in the wall. But I’ve like, I don’t really. I know the spotter didn’t tell him to do it. I don’t really know. I think I had to assume that Daniel knows now that that was pretty dumb. But it was for like twenty-something’s place. And we were just mowing through the field back there trying to get back to where we were running.”
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Dye ended up in the wall but managed to keep his car on the road as sparks flew from the bottom. Restarting after the caution down in 33rd. Dye’s race didn’t get any better from there. He finished 27th, two laps down, the second-to-last driver amongst those who made it to the checkered flag.
Kraft and Tommy Baldwin discussed why the move from Dye wasn’t a smart one, and Baldwin addressed how the speed difference to make an overtake successfully is around 10-12 mph, and blocking someone coming that fast on tires that are 12 laps fresher makes the block a really difficult one to complete.
Kraft gave examples of tracks like Vegas and Kansas where such aggressive blocks could work and also said that Thompson was so much faster that Dye was only prolonging the inevitable and the block wouldn’t really have made a difference.
While Dye was 33rd after the caution was lifted, Thompson was 19th, and he ended up finishing the race in 11th. While Thompson isn’t in the Chase, the speed would have added a confidence booster for the 25-year-old.
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But it isn’t just Dye pulling moves that spell immaturity. In the last race of the regular season in Daytona, there was trouble at JR Motorsports after three of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s drivers were running in the top three near the end of the race, and none of them ended up in victory lane.
Carson Kvapil was leading Rajah Caruth, who was trailed by championship leader Justin Allgaier. Caruth attempted to hold back a bit in order to build momentum, and Kvapil saw that and decided to fall back himself. All the while, Allgaier was not slowing down because he would end up in the pack. Allgaier gave Caruth a push he couldn’t handle and spun the No. 88 JRM Chevrolet.
The incident brought out a caution with just three laps to go, and the restart and overtime spelled misery for JRM. Kvapil finished third, Allgaier 6th, and Caruth finished 32nd with just enough points to make the Chase cut off. Dale Jr., who has always been someone who allowed his drivers to express themselves, addressed how much of a miss that was for JRM and how bad it looked for the organisation that they couldn’t get one car to victory lane despite running 1-2-3.
Dale Jr. said that he’s going to ensure that something similar doesn’t happen again, as it hurts the organization. Dye will likely feel the same way after seeing how much that one block cost him at Darlington.
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