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If there was just one race to watch the entire NASCAR season, it would be that of the new version of Charlotte.
NASCAR has claimed the "best drivers in the world" and is on Sunday exposed at a bonus day on the NBC network at the same time as the NFL. Watch them try to conquer this new Charlotte Motor Speedway circuit, a mysterious circuit where the seasons are at stake, as four drivers will be on the field of the 16-round playoffs.
Add to that a season of desperate free agents during which a large number of veterans are chasing the scarce jobs available. Times are tough in NASCAR and jobs are going in younger, less expensive drivers, so everyone needs a good race Sunday to show that they deserve a place.
And so they got the idea from Marcus Smith and Speedway Motorsports Inc., And this track upset those drivers.
Well done, shouts the fans, excited because this idea is new.
"We need to take more risks," said Jeff Gordon, a five-time retired champion, today a television analyst who plays an active role in fighting the NASCAR spiral.
"We have to get out of this comfort zone and take more risks – Sunday could be a great day."
Smith came out of the box because he has a boring speedway of 1.5 miles. The good or the bad, it's his baby. It's already a hit because fans are really discouraged about Sunday, in part because it could be a disaster for four playoff contenders.
"When training is fun to watch, imagine how fun the race will be?" Smith said a bit seriously about what is just one of the many forward-looking SMI projects.
The hybrid course of 17 turns over 2.28 miles, whose altitude is changed by 35 feet, uses part of the Charlotte Speedway with a dip in an indoor road course. It was indeed entertaining to watch every session during which these "best drivers of the world" are put to the test.
But that was miserable for many pilots.
Start with Bubba Wallace, who was shipwrecked when he was the first pilot to take the track at the first test during the summer. Well, he had five more incidents this weekend alone.
The iconic # 43 was crumpled during a head-on collision with a tire barrier. She was so halted that she stopped on Saturday to repair the barrier on the back of Turn 12. Moments later, playoff player Erik Jones destroyed his car and the barrier was again severely damaged.
NASCAR has pushed the barrier angle of about four feet before the final cutaway, and Smith insists that he is open to any changes that pilots might have. need. The tires are there, Smith said, because the drivers asked for them as visual aids. If they need to be changed, let them know, he said.
Well, everyone has an opinion, especially after going around this particular provision. The Xfinity series was relatively clean, and Justin Marks, a seasoned sports car racer who has toured the world, compared it most often to the Montreal road course. Chase Briscoe, the winner of the race, said he relied on his experience on the Eldora Speedway dirt road in Ohio to attack the flight.
The time has come for four of them to try to eliminate the playoffs, which includes Jimmie Johnson, seven-time champion of the Cup, eight-time winner on the boring old oval of Charlotte. Denny Hamlin and Jones, Kyle Busch's "Big 3" teammates, are both breaking up and eliminating two of Joe Gibbs Racing's Toyota cars.
Hamlin and Jones, and Wallace, of course, will both be backing up on Sunday. As well as Brad Keselowski, winner of three consecutive games in September in a Ford for Team Penske, which made him a contender in title. Keselowski fell in the final laps of Saturday 's final practice session.
His problem was not the difficult quarrel, but part of the track in which the designated "turtles" had to slow down the cars. The pilots stupid enough to hit the artificial blue bumps were launched, and Keselowski's car did just that, then lost control, turned and hit an outside wall.
Keselowski, however, is already stuck in the second round of the playoffs because of his victory in the first game. But the danger of elimination is due to Clint Bowyer, one of Ford's other powerful competitors, who has been tough on the mighty Stewart-Haas Racing.
His teammate Kevin Harvick, a member of Bowyer, is part of the "Big 3", as is Martin Truex Jr., the reigning champion of the series who won this race on a regular oval last year. They have been unobtrusive on the track this weekend, but it is amusing to find that expensive and sometimes dangerous wrecks are part of a trial and error to see what works in this crash.
Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola, Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were all seen assisting their crew members with repairs, as pilot errors resulted in overtime.
What else is there on demand?
Do not cut the corner:
NASCAR released Saturday clarifications on what it considers to be the shortcut to a chicane, which will be considered judgments if "the four tires are all on the non-track side of the red and white rough stripes that define the chicanes". Among the rules, there is a driving penalty if NASCAR believes that a driver is deliberately missing a chicane. It can be seen that a competitor has accidentally missed a chicane and not be penalized.
And do not be like that
Sherry Pollex will be driving the pace car to open Sunday's race, and Martin Truex Jr.'s long-time partner has been advised by the reigning Cup champion for her journey around the roval.
Pollex is a survivor of ovarian cancer and has been chosen as an honor car as part of Charlotte Motor Speedway's longstanding commitment to breast cancer awareness. But the changes made to the layout will make it a challenge for the novice Pollex.
"I just told him to stay on the track," Truex said. "It sounds easy, is not it? I've heard that a racing car has been developed recently, is it true?" So I simply told him to stay on the track, to stay outside sidewalks and brakes. "
The race car ran well Friday morning around the track long before the Coupe drivers made their first laps.
Do not mention this car:
DeAngelo Williams, a former Carolina Panthers running back, was scolded about the difference between a lap and a crash during his Saturday training of the Xfinity Series race car driver. Williams recounted that he had been jokingly asking his instructor that he had seen the video of a punctured car "being" crushed "and that he had learned the nuance between demolishing racing cars and skidding while avoiding damage.
It turned out that Williams was making fun of the driver who had spun on Friday morning.
Williams was told to drive 40 mph, which was very fast. But it was stressed that the car will be faster when the real driver will be behind the wheel and that Williams should not be intimidated.
"I was like" OK, I'm going to do it and not shoot like you, "Williams said.
Williams' race car was a pink Toyota Camry in support of Breast Cancer Awareness and its DeAngelo Williams Foundation, which on Saturday received a $ 10,000 donation from Charlotte officials. Williams has long had a visible community presence and Charlotte is one of the cities where he paid for mammograms. For those who had cancer detected in mammograms, Williams said his foundation covered all costs, from detection to the end of treatment.
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