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BROOKLYN, Michigan – With the NASCAR regular season finale now looming in Daytona, Sunday’s thrilling finish in Michigan gave a taste of the insane drafting ordeal that can determine a Cup race.
“It was like an old school superspeedway draft feeling on a 2 mile track,” said Kurt Busch.
And just like a typical old-fashioned plate race at Daytona or Talladega Superspeedway, everyone except race winner Ryan Blaney was questioning their moves in the final laps.
Let’s start with Busch, who went from eighth to fourth after the final restart with eight laps remaining, but was still baffled to finish behind Blaney with the Chevrolet Hendrick Motorsports of William Byron and Kyle Larson.
“It’s so blurry the last two restarts, I don’t know what happened, Busch said.“ I have to go watch the tape. I’m just stunned that a Chevrolet didn’t win today. .
Calling it a “disguised plate race”, Busch said he “wanted a recovery” after watching Blaney timing all the right moves after taking the lead from second on a push from Kyle Busch in the inside lane. not preferred.
“It was like an old-fashioned chess match and then it becomes your choice of path,” said Kurt Busch. “Lease on your boyfriend. Take a seat when you can. If your momentum is cut off, you need to start blocking. You only take what you can get.
Larson, who finished third after leading a record 70 in 200 laps, also lamented some of his own mistakes, which he attributed to worrying too much about maintaining his regular-season points lead over fifth-place Denny. Hamlin.
“Honestly, I probably had too many points on my mind,” said Larson. “It cost me a win, but I just didn’t want to go in there and make a move too bold and make a mistake and destroy and lose a bunch of points and positions. We really have to win this regular season championship.
The No.5 Chevrolet driver, winless at Daytona and Talladega, was also a little less in love than Busch with momentum-based racing.
“Yeah, I mean, like the ARCA Daytona race where we’re just single file,” Larson replied with a smile when asked if it looked like a Daytona-style draft. “Yeah, I don’t know. I’m glad we don’t have too many. I think we still have one or two of those package races (550 horsepower) left. You can’t really run here. You just run on restarts and run at the end. Other than that, you’re just trying not to run so you don’t get stuck.
“I feel like every reboot, here and in Kansas, places where you depend on a push, the top lane can stay organized and gain momentum, and at the end of the day everyone is so desperate it sort of shatters, and the shorter distance (on the inside lane) wins.
A little less frustrated was teammate Hendrick Byron, who led before the final restart. The top three of Byron, Hamlin and Larson all chose the outside. While Blaney made the winning call of the fourth to restart (“nobody took the background, and I said thank you”), Byron lost his mind fending off a challenge outside Hamlin.
“You don’t want to pick the top, because there’s obviously more room for someone to walk around you, but you have to pick the top just so you can defend the side draw, so it all depends on your lifter,” Byron said. , who finished second after overcoming a slip earlier in his pit. “You have to log into the restart zone which gets your lane moving forward and then it all depends on how they stay with you in the middle of 1 and 2 because there is still enough grip to take a kick. eye on the outside, but that’s just depends on what they want to do. This is only part of it.
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