Brad Keselowski laid the quickest lap down in practice on Saturday at Dover Motor Speedway, at 158.660 mph, 22.690 seconds. The RFK Racing driver and co-owner ran 15 total laps in the session, which was shortened slightly due to the rain which …
Brad Keselowski laid the quickest lap down in practice on Saturday at Dover Motor Speedway, at 158.660 mph, 22.690 seconds. The RFK Racing driver and co-owner ran 15 total laps in the session, which was shortened slightly due to the rain which canceled the following qualifying session, putting Kyle Busch on pole for Sunday’s race on the Monster Mile.
Kyle Larson (22.809), William Byron (22.815), Chase Elliott (22.850) and Austin Cindric (22.856) had the top five speeds, while Joey Logano (22.857), Martin Truex Jr. (22.879), Ryan Preece (22.900), Denny Hamlin (22.903) and Bubba Wallace (22.912) completed the top 10.
Corey LaJoie has the fastest five-lap average, followed by Elliott, Josh Berry (filling in for the inured Alex Bowman), Truex Jr. and Keselowski. Berry (154.426 mph), Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suarez and William Byron had the quickest 10-lap averages as well.
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Being the first time for any cars on track this weekend, no rubber laid down caused several spins. Austin Dillon backed his No. 3 Chevrolet into the wall, forcing the team to go to a backup car for Sunday’s Wurth 400.
Daniel Suarez and Erik Jones also spun but did not make any contact with the wall.
There are 36 drivers entered for Sunday’s Wurth 400 at Dover.
If someone outside the NASCAR bubble wasn’t watching the racing but formed an opinion by social media chatter, they might think the sky is falling. Bad racing. Unsafe cars. NASCAR officials not listening to drivers. A lack of respect in the garage. …
If someone outside the NASCAR bubble wasn’t watching the racing but formed an opinion by social media chatter, they might think the sky is falling.
Bad racing. Unsafe cars. NASCAR officials not listening to drivers. A lack of respect in the garage. Penalties. The list goes on. It seems there is a lot of negativity floating around the current state of the sport.
But is there really?
“We have a way of making things sound a lot worse than they really are, and that’s just life in general,” Joey Logano said Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway. “People complain more than they give compliments, all day long. You turn on SiriusXM, what does every fan that calls in (say)? They don’t usually give compliments, do they? They usually come in and complain, and that’s just the nature of our society in general. We have negative attitudes.”
The drivers fan those flames, and they admit that.
Logano praised the communication and work between the garage and NASCAR to make things better — particularly the racing. The biggest talking point after last weekend’s race at Martinsville Speedway was the continued lackluster racing on short tracks, and drivers were blunt in their assessment of not being able to pass.
Those thoughts aren’t wrong. NASCAR and its drivers both agree something needs to be done, but it’s not as easy to pick one solution to make it better. Logano pointed out that sometimes drivers get out of the car and immediately start talking…and they give the wrong answers.
“We give you our feelings in the moment, but I think when you take a step back and look at where we are as a sport, as a whole, and the racing that we have, it isn’t that bad,” the two-time Cup Series champion said. “Yeah, we have cars that are very equally matched right now. Does that make it harder to pass? Yes. Obviously. Do we want more tire fall off? Obviously, we do.
“We’re trying to work on that. Goodyear has brought a tire that’s too much; it doesn’t fall off. That’s what you want on your street car but not on the race car. The good thing is everyone’s working together.”
Kevin Harvick said there are times he throws things out in the media just to see what happens. There are other drivers who use the media to get their thoughts out there before talking to NASCAR because it’s easier to say it in front of a microphone and hope it helps the cause.
“I would definitely tell you that the communication is better than it’s ever been,” Harvick said. “We’ve had productive meetings, and I think everybody wants to be able to have the cars do different things and have a different style of racing. The racing was good last year because everyone knew nothing about the car. You didn’t know how to drive it; you didn’t know how to work on it. Now it’s all kind of migrated to the same things – a car with all the same suppliers to everyone and eventually you migrate to a spot that everybody is running a very similar speed.
“It needs to be different. I don’t know what that means. But I can tell you, there is more dialogue over the course of the year than there has been in the past. I don’t know what that dialogue is — I’m not on the team side, but I am on the driver side — and I know the dialogue and conversations we have with NASCAR is probably more than I’ve probably had in 15 years.
“So I think some of those comments are a little bit … you can be as involved, and know as much as you want to know, (if) you want to take the time. I would urge the drivers that don’t feel like they know to go sit with NASCAR folks and ask any questions they want because they have been very open with any of the information you want to ask for.”
Harvick was openly critical of NASCAR last year — saying they didn’t listen to drivers when they express concerns and calling the Next Gen parts “crappy” after fire issues.
But the 2014 series champion said Saturday a new car is always going to bring new problems He also chuckled and said “no” when asked if it’s as bad as the comments would suggest, especially given how fans latch onto negative driver comments.
“I think we’ve made a lot of progress in a lot of things,” Harvick said. “From a safety side of things, we’ve done a lot of work inside the car to put the drivers in a more knowledgeable situation with the inspections and knowing what they’re sitting in and all the process that we went through during the winter. You wouldn’t believe the information we have with mouthpieces and driver biometrics. There’s a lot there.
“Yeah, we’d like the car to crash differently, and I think there is still work to do there, but we’re doing a lot of things inside the car to put ourselves in a better position to make up for the deficit of what the car does, and how it crashes.
“I think the cycle of information and news, it always cycles to the bad (being) more popular. The good stories never really get told as much as the bad stories. We have a lot of good things. Yeah, everyone wants the short-track racing to be better, but if you didn’t watch the race and looked at the metrics, they don’t look that much different.”
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William Byron doesn’t believe the racing is as bad as people think, but there aren’t as many incidents like blown tires and crashes occurring — things that used to fill out the race.
“It could always be better,” Byron said of the sport. “Could always be more consistent. So (we need to) get back to consistency between weeks with decisions and calls. That’s the biggest thing. I think they’ve been trying really hard, though.
“I think it’s just trying to get back to focusing on the best teams and drivers. When I watch other sports, that’s what I want to see.”
Erik Jones pointed out that there are 38 drivers qualifying and living their dream at Talladega Superspeedway and hundreds of individuals inside the sport who come to the racetrack each week. To him, that’s a good sign for where the sport is at.
“Obviously, that’s not everything, but I think there are a lot of things in the works with TV stuff going on right now that’ll be a big direction for us going forward over the next 10 years,” Jones said. “I don’t know anything about it, but I think things are OK. I’ve been getting to do what I love for seven years now and have another couple of years on the contract, so I think things are not as bad as people think sometimes.”
It’s also a different world now. While problems in the sport have always existed, Jones said it’s a more opinionated world, and everyone has a voice, good or bad, and there are more ways to get that voice heard.
“It’s easy to direct a narrative, and obviously we (the drivers) have a lot of direction on the narrative ourselves,” said Jones. “That directs a lot of the narrative, and that’s where fans get their influence from a lot of times. They also have their own opinions, so it’s not all ours, but if their favorite guy gets out and says, ‘Man, this sucks. The racing is terrible. You can’t pass. I don’t know what we’re doing,’ fans are going to say the same thing.
“You have to be honest as a driver, but fans are going to run off that momentum too. We’re paid complainers. All of us are going to complain unless we’re winning every race, so there’s always going to be something wrong.”
That doesn’t mean anyone wants the drivers to stop sharing their personalities and opinions — Harvick certainly doesn’t.
“I’m glad that everybody is giving their opinion,” he said. “I would never tell anybody to not voice their opinion because I think the opinions are what shape our future, and being able to have those opinions and have them talked about. You have to listen to everybody, and when there is somebody who doesn’t like the opinion, we have a group now who will go talk to that individual and say, ‘Hey, tell us more. We want to understand where you’re coming from,’ and it gives them a way to have a voice aside from in (the media center).
“You don’t have to do it in here. Yeah, this is effective if you can’t get very far, but there are other ways to get things accomplished in our garage today.”
NASCAR and the drivers continue to hold meetings during race weekends as needed. Those started last fall at the Charlotte Roval after weeks of drivers publicly complaining there needed to be better communication across the industry, as well updates on safety changes.
As an owner and a driver, Brad Keselowski found the “sky is falling” narrative interesting.
“We have a natural tendency as an industry, because of how small and tight-knit we are, (to) talk about things in such a manner that you could certainly come away with the perception that the sky is falling,” he said. “Whether that’s real or not…in most cases I think it’s probably not real.
“But it’s OK to have those conversations; we should continue to have conversations about where we are and where we want to be and healthy debates. That’s a very good thing for the sport in some ways. But we have to be careful to not get caught up too much in our own press clippings.”
There are significant business affairs facing NASCAR executives as the sport goes forward. Not only is the conversation ongoing around making the racing better, but the media rights package ends after 2024, as does the current charter agreement.
“I think the big question mark, really, for the health of the sport is revolving around the next TV deal,” Keselowski explained. That’s the biggest needle mover. And the relationship with the owners and NASCAR and if it can get to a solid footing to lead the industry for the next 10 years. I think there’s tremendous potential. Whether we can recognize that or not, we’re going to find out here pretty soon. Maybe I’m an optimist, but I’m caught up with the tremendous potential this sport has.”
Brad Keselowski came the closest he’s been in nearly two years of winning a NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway until Joey Logano left him in the dust on the last lap. And yet, the former series champion was pretty content with …
Brad Keselowski came the closest he’s been in nearly two years of winning a NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway until Joey Logano left him in the dust on the last lap.
And yet, the former series champion was pretty content with how it all went down afterward. Keselowski led 47 laps, including 29 of the last 30, en route to earning his first top-five finish of the season.
“Disappointed is a strong word,” Keselowski said. “I’m really proud of how we ran. Glad we’re leading laps. Glad we’re in position to win races. We’re controlling the things we can control.
“I’m disappointed that Joey got such a great run; I’ve got to take a look and see how…he pulled that off. But I’m not disappointed with my team.”
Keselowski and Logano engaged in a back-and-forth battle over the last 15 laps. After initially getting clear of the field with 29 laps to go, the No. 6 controlled the lanes while Logano kept trying to find a run, eventually getting a nose under Keselowski off Turn 2 with 13 laps to go. It pulled the lanes back even, and both fought for the edge.
The two stayed side-by-side until Keselowski got clear of the field again with five laps to go. But again, the run didn’t last. Coming to the white flag, Keselowski ran clear in the lead, Christopher Bell with Logano still charging on the bottom. Logano’s run came into Turns 1 and 2, and he jumped to the outside and around Keselowski.
The RFK driver had yet to see a replay when dissecting the end of the race but didn’t feel he could have done anything differently. It wasn’t that he thought he lost the race, but Logano won it on a great move. The only other move Keselowski had in his arsenal wasn’t one he wanted to pull.
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“He made a great move. He deserves credit for it,” he said. “I don’t really think there was any way I was going to stop that without wrecking us all.”
Former teammates at Team Penske, Keselowski and Logano were not unfamiliar with each others’ superspeedway prowess. But they were just two of the drivers in the main pack who put on a show as the race wound down, as the third and final stage saw the field run side-by-side more than it had in the first two stages — still a much cleaner race than the ones seen Saturday.
“This is actually one of the best races here, I think, you’re ever going to see,” Keselowski said. “I was really impressed that we were able to run the last 40, 50-something laps without everybody just wrecking each other.
“I think it was a good mix of drivers up front that ran smart races and showed you can run side by side and do this without wrecking each other. It really is the drivers that make the decision. I ran next to Joey, I think side-by-side, for 10 to 20 laps, and we were racing really hard, but we didn’t wreck each other. Tyler (Reddick) was behind me and gave great pushes, and he didn’t get crazy on them and cause us all to wreck. I really appreciate that.”
In addition to the laps led and the runner-up finish, Keselowski earned points in both stages. While it’s his first top-five finish of the season, Atlanta now makes two top-10 finishes, and he is fifth in the championship standings after five races.
“It was a good day; really solid,” Keselowski said. “I’m proud of our team, we’re just continuing to improve, and you need days like this. You just wish they were wins, but we were right there.
“It just didn’t come together there at the end. Joey got such a huge run down the frontstretch there was nothing I could do to stop it — other than wreck all of us — and that wasn’t going to do us any favors. Good day for our team overall; just one spot short.”
Including Atlanta, it’s been the best four weeks Keselowski could ask for. There is still speed to be found in his No. 6 Ford and execution that could be better, but the confidence is growing inside his team as they’ve made gains in the right direction from where they were this time a year ago.
“This is exactly the type of days we need,” Keselowski said. “Days where we score lots of points, we show people we can win races and we build our program.”
As the first driver hit with an L2 penalty for modifications made to a single-source supplied part on the Next Gen car, Brad Keselowski understands the situation NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports are in this week. Keselowski, admittedly, is not …
As the first driver hit with an L2 penalty for modifications made to a single-source supplied part on the Next Gen car, Brad Keselowski understands the situation NASCAR and Hendrick Motorsports are in this week.
Keselowski, admittedly, is not educated enough to speak to the specific issue with the Hendrick Motorsports louvers, not having seen the ones confiscated last weekend at Phoenix Raceway. NASCAR officials deemed they were modified and hit the team with 100-point deductions, playoff point deductions and fines.
A year ago, Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford was under scrutiny after the spring race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. His car was one of the random cars taken by NASCAR post-race for further evaluation at the R&D Center. It was found that a tail panel had been modified, which Keselowski later explained was a repair job that could have been better, forcing NASCAR’s hand when it came to issuing a penalty and showing the pieces were not to be touched.
“It was tough,” Keselowski said. “Immediate emotions are to be frustrated and angry, but I don’t feel that way today. In fact, when I saw NASCAR a couple of weeks ago, we had a car get inspected after Daytona, I made a comment to them. Honestly, I told them, ‘Thank you. It’s one of the best things to ever happen to us.’ We came out of it better. It was good for the industry.
“From our perspective, it changed our culture inside of the company to where we had better behaviors. I thought it set a tone for the industry — again, I can’t speak for Hendrick, but with our issues.”
He was forthcoming with information after the process played out with RFK Racing losing its appeal. Not only did Keselowski say he understood the penalty (and later in the year said NASCAR has been too lenient and can control the garage by issuing penalties like candy), but he found the appeals process to be fair and different from what he anticipated. The co-owner continued to share those same sentiments Saturday.
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“I think I made a few comments a month later about the importance of penalties in the garage. They serve a purpose,” Keselowski said. “I think it’s really easy, and I’ve fallen victim to this as well – to look at NASCAR as the boogieman. In a lot of ways, they’re trying to help us and trying to help the sport and make sure that it can be healthy. Whether or not NASCAR is right or Hendrick is right with their penalty, I don’t know to that specific situation, but as a whole, I do understand the inclination and the emotion behind the teams and maybe the fans getting fired up over a penalty.
“But in the end, penalties are there for a reason. They’re there to make this circus somewhat manageable and sustainable, so as to what ends up happening with Hendrick, I can’t speak to it again, not knowing enough, but from my perspective and kind of having lived it, I’m probably 180 from where I was a year ago on it, and I understand it at a high degree.”
Hendrick Motorsports is arguing the parts are not being provided to the teams to the specifications they should be. The organization also said there’s been a lot of dialogue between the teams, manufacturers and NASCAR, but it changes weekly on whether the parts can be cleaned up if they don’t fit properly.
Both a driver and owner, Keselowski acknowledges there are issues with the parts. It comes down to ensuring teams have cleared any work with NASCAR.
“Yeah, there’s always a part somewhere that’s not what you want it to be, and there’s a portal that NASCAR has to submit those parts to, and there’s usually some dialogue and communication around that,” Keselowski said. “Generally speaking, I feel like NASCAR has been amenable to work through those and has gotten significantly better over the last year.
“We have parts, here and there, that are issues, and NASCAR has come up and said, ‘Hey, you can do this,’ or, ‘You can’t do it.’ It’s really more or less about the communication with them.”
For The Win polled NASCAR drivers to see what they think about their competitors on and off the track.
The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season ended Sunday with Joey Logano winning his second championship after taking the checkered flag at Phoenix Raceway. And the end of the season means it’s time for For The Win’s annual NASCAR Superlatives.
Throughout the last several weeks, we polled 13 drivers with the same 10 questions about their competitors’ skills behind the wheel, as well as their personalities away from the track.
Obviously, there have been numerous examples this year of drivers being furious and frustrated with each other, but some of them are friends who have been racing against each other for a while. Our annual investigation reveals what some of them really think about each other.
Here’s what some of NASCAR’s top drivers had to say about each other this year. And if you’re curious about previous editions…
These answers have been condensed and edited for clarity.
1. Which driver who is not a champion will be a champion at some point?
(Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
Daniel Suárez: You’re talking to him.
Joey Logano: Probably Ryan Blaney. I see the improvement he’s made over the last few years, and he’s got a ton of speed. So I’d say he’s getting closer and closer. He’s consistently in the Round of 8 every year for the last few, so I’d say he’s on the brink of making it to the Championship 4.
Bubba Wallace: Ryan Blaney.
Chase Elliott: Ryan Blaney.
Ryan Blaney: I don’t want to say myself because that would be too obvious of like, boosting your own ego. But obviously you want see yourself win a championship. Other than me, [William] Byron has been strong. Obviously, Denny Hamlin has kind of been on the verge of one for a long time.
Austin Cindric: It’s hard to not say Denny Hamlin. He’s come very close, and I think he’s probably the most realistic answer.
Ross Chastain: Ross Chastain.
Kyle Larson: William Byron. I feel like he’s very driven, very focused, works really hard and has a lot of talent, mentally is pretty tough. He just seems like a NASCAR champion.
Martin Truex Jr.: Christopher Bell.
Alex Bowman: William Byron.
Brad Keselowski: I’m going to say William Byron. He’s growing, he’s maturing, he’s with a great team. I think it will click, it just hasn’t yet.
William Byron: I’d first like to say myself, selfishly. There’s a lot of options there. Denny Hamlin comes to mind. If he’s not a champion really soon, I think he’ll be a champion, just the way that he is able to run consistently well. And I think he’s an intelligent race car driver and knows how to put himself in position towards the end of the year to have a chance to win in this format.
Harrison Burton: I think there’s a lot of good young guys that haven’t won one yet. But I think a good one would probably be William Byron. He’s been fast a lot, won a lot of races, so he’ll probably end up being [a champion] one day.
2. Which driver who hasn’t won the Daytona 500 will win it at some point?
(Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Suárez: Same question, same answer, me.
Chastain: Ross Chastain.
Wallace: Us! It’s funny, [Ryan] Blaney’s also had two or three second-place finishes, so we’re kind of tied on that scenario. But I’m gonna go with myself.
Elliott: Same guy for me, [Blaney]. He’s finished second about 10 times.
Blaney: Either myself or I think Chase Elliott. He runs pretty good at superspeedways.
Truex: [Laughs] I want to say me.
Bowman: Probably also William Byron.
Larson: Ryan Blaney, for sure. I think he’s just a really good superspeedway racer and is in contention a lot of times. All drivers, they’ll probably mostly say Ryan Blaney.
Cindric: Ryan Blaney.
Logano: Pick one, anyone could win.
Byron: I’d say Ryan Blaney because I think he’s really good at the superspeedway races. He’s always, always at the front. He’s very aggressive, knows how to make the right decisions and stuff. He’s been close already.
Burton: That’s a hard, hard race to win. I think Ryan Blaney will probably get one soon.
Keselowski: Shoot, the last three years, I’ve been in the top-3 in the last few laps and gotten wrecked or something’s happened. Just gotta keep [getting into position] and eventually it’ll happen.
3. Which driver has the best social media personality?
Suárez: Oh my god, you want to have the same answer for every question?
Blaney: [Kevin] Harvick’s been cracking me up here the last couple months, which has been fun to watch. He’ll get all sassy with everybody, and I get a good chuckle out of that. He and Hamlin have a really funny Twitter. I love waking up and seeing [Harvick] go on rants the next morning. I love reading all through it.
Cody please take the time to read all of my tweets before typing. Thank you…. https://t.co/uT8hGM4D1G
Chastain: Not Ross Chastain. Pretty much anybody but [me]. I honestly don’t even have a good working knowledge of what people are posting.
Logano: Can I pick myself? I pick myself because I like cars.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CfaMwfjpZ0y/
Wallace: Depends on what you’re going for. First ones that come to mind are Denny, Kyle [Busch], myself.
Byron: I don’t think any of us are that great at it, I’ll be honest. Bubba comes to mind. He’s probably the most comfortable with social media, I would say, so his personality comes across. I would look at it as who’s the most authentic? Whose personality is really showing? And I think he’s the most authentic on there, speaks his mind.
Larson: Probably Denny [Hamlin]. Over the last probably three or four or five years, he’s really stepped up, it seems, his social media stuff, and he’s pretty funny on there. He does do, I would say, a lot of it himself, but I know his social media guy, and he’s pretty witty with all that too.
Cindric: I don’t really like Twitter. I use it, but I don’t like it. I like Instagram a lot better. But I don’t know.
Burton: I don’t follow them all. So I don’t know. I would say my dad, Jeff Burton. He’s killing his Instagram game recently. For an old guy, he’s doing pretty good.
4. Which driver has the best sense of humor?
(Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)
Truex: I got nothing.
Bowman: Definitely me. Dry as the desert.
Blaney: Bubba [Wallace] and Chase [Elliott]. I think you get different personalities out of people away from their job. It’s kind of hard to judge somebody from how they act at the race track or something because a lot of times, you’re you’re dead-set focused on the task at hand, and it’s hard to kind of really let loose or joke around too much. Everyone’s personality is very different away from the race track.
Wallace: Myself.
Chastain: Ryan Blaney. It’s dry, but I think I understand it though. Most people probably don’t.
Keselowski: Blaney. He’s just a fun guy to be around, and he’s chill.
Elliott: Skip.
Logano: This used to be the Clint Bowyer answer back in the day. Can I pick myself again? I can’t keep picking myself [laughs].
Cindric: Kevin Harvick has a pretty dry sense of humor, which I always enjoy. Sometimes it’s at the expense of something or someone else, but it’s Kevin Harvick.
Byron: Kyle Busch kind of has a pretty funny sense of humor. Like, when I drove for for [Kyle Busch Motorsports], I always thought he was kind of funny. He’s pretty brash, but it’s kind of funny sometimes because he’s so unfiltered.
Suárez: Probably Noah Gragson.
Burton: Todd Gilliland is the guy that probably makes me laugh the most in the garage. He’s a rookie, so I hang out with him quite a bit. And yeah, he’s funny as heck, that’s for sure.
Larson: The first name that came to my mind was Corey LaJoie. He’s really funny and quick.
5. Which driver is most likely to drop an f-bomb in a live TV interview?
(Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)
Logano: Typically, I’d say Kyle Busch, but he seems like he’s cleaned it up a little lately. Kevin [Harvick] is not likely anymore either. Those are two likely candidates back in the day. Bubba [Wallace] maybe?
Suárez: Probably me! I did that a few times after I won.
Cindric: Kyle Busch.
Keselowski: Yeah, probably Kyle Busch.
Chastain: Darrell Wallace.
Elliott: [Kevin] Harvick.
Byron: Oh, for sure [Kyle Busch]. I think that’s already happened. He’s for sure halfway there, if not already there.
Burton: Kyle Busch, I’d say it’s a good guess.
Truex: Kyle Busch.
Larson: Probably Noah Gragson.
Wallace: Noah Gragson.
Bowman: Noah Gragson.
Blaney: Man, I think any of us are capable of it. It’s just a matter of how upset you are. But I feel like that’s a big one to drop. I could see dropping a number of other cuss words, so you really have to mean it to drop that one. I could see Kyle Busch dropping one, but he hasn’t yet, I don’t believe, in his whole career, so maybe he won’t.
6. Which driver has had the most surprising season?
(Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)
Truex: I would say Ross Chastain because they just consistently perform well, and they’re still a fairly new team.
Keselowski: Ross Chastain. He’s still in the final four, and I guess I probably didn’t see that coming.
Blaney: Chastain’s had a really good first year at Trackhouse. Not surprising, he’s doing well, but I think he’s, you know, run better than people have thought in his first year over there. Another one who I’m surprised hasn’t run better or won like they’re used to doing is [Martin] Truex.
Cindric: Daniel Suárez. He’s been in the sport for a while and, quite honestly, in very capable cars. And whether he’s grown or he’s in a great situation or he wasn’t in good situations before, I feel like it’s kind of his third attempt at being in a top team, and he’s done very well with it.
Wallace: Probably Briscoe. Obviously got that win at Phoenix [in the spring], and the Stewart-Haas [Racing] cars haven’t been that great all year. But the last 10 races, he’s gotten hot at the right time.
Byron: Definitely Ross Chastain. I assumed he would be a playoff contender, for sure, based on how he ran the 42. But I felt like it would just be a steady progression from last year and the 42 car. Those guys, as soon as the season started, have been contenders and been difficult and hard to beat basically a lot of tracks.
Suárez: My team as a whole — not just myself but my teammate as well. Trackhouse as a whole, more [successful] than most people expected. We are having some good success and that has been very, very good.
Bowman: Ross Chastain. I just didn’t see that much success coming this year. They’ve been really strong, and I know Ross is really good. I just didn’t expect them to do what they’ve done.
Logano: This whole year’s been a surprise. Kurt Busch is one who comes to my mind, not for good reasons. Obviously, the win early in the year was great, but his whole year is just a surprise probably to all of us.
Burton: Chase Briscoe is having a really good year. Not that it’s surprising, I guess, because he’s won a lot of races in Xfinity, but he’s done a really good job from last year to this year, making it as far as he has in the playoffs and getting good finishes when he hasn’t run well. I feel like there are days where he’ll run towards the back and then find a way to finish up front, which is really hard to do in this series.
Larson: Surprisingly good — great! — Ross Chastain. I knew he was going to be good. I wasn’t surprised to see them strong early in the year, but I thought that that team might tail off as the season got on. But they haven’t. Surprisingly not good — not that he hasn’t been great because he’s been in contention a lot — but Martin Truex. I’m just surprised that they haven’t won.
Chastain: Ross Chastain. I’ve never won races. I’d only finished in the top-5 three times in my career before this year, and now we’ve done it [15] times. Brand-new team, new ownership and two drivers that had never competed at the front consistently, and we’ve done that this year. I’m a [watermelon] farmer, so it’s surprising that I can drive a race car.
7. You’re leading the race and there are two laps left; which driver would you want behind you?
(Logan Riely/Getty Images)
Blaney: None of them. I don’t think you want any of them within a car length or two of you.
Logano: All of them.
Elliott: No one. I hope they’re far enough away or nobody’s close to you.
Wallace: I’ll go with Blaney.
Bowman: I don’t care.
Truex: Probably Kyle Busch, just because I know he’d race with respect. We have a good relationship, and we always race well together. Very, very hard racing, but clean and fair.
Byron: A teammate would be better than than others probably. So I’d say maybe Chase [Elliott] or Alex [Bowman] or Kyle [Larson]. Any of those three would be a good one to have.
Larson: I guess it depends on the race track, but I don’t I don’t really care. I guess any of them.
Suárez: For a comfortable situation, I’d say my teammate, Ross [Chastain].
Keselowski: Probably Chris Buescher. He’s a good teammate.
Burton: Another rookie, probably Todd Gilliland or Austin Cindric, I’d say, because I feel like we’re all in the same boat. So we’ll be in good shape there.
Chastain: Line ’em up however they want, doesn’t matter.
8. You’re leading the race and there are two laps left; which driver do you absolutely not want behind you?
(John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports)
Logano: I really don’t care. You’ve got to beat them all, so it doesn’t matter. Whoever, I don’t think it makes a difference, honestly. Everybody’s gonna be willing to do something to win a race, and what they’re willing to do is sometimes pretty fluid. I think you treat them all the same because you just don’t know.
Suárez: A driver that is in a must-win situation, that has a lot of pressure. Any of the drivers that are in the playoffs that are below the cutline, those guys, they have to do whatever they have to do. If I was in their position, I would do the same thing. Those guys, it’s not good to have them behind me because they will have to do dumb moves to do whatever they have to do to get the job done.
Keselowski: Probably Chase Briscoe. the last few times he’s been running second with like two or three laps to go, he’s wrecked the leader — in case you were wondering the rationale.
Byron: Man, I don’t want any of them behind me. But I don’t think really any of them intimidate me, per se. I think some are more strategic than others. It just depends on the situation. I can’t pick one there.
Blaney: It doesn’t really matter. To me, you kind of understand and you race around guys enough to where you know who will be more aggressive than others. But this year, everyone’s been really aggressive, so you never know.
Burton: I think I don’t want Ross Chastain behind me because I feel like he’s gonna probably put me in a spot where I’m gonna either have to crash us both, or crash him to try and win. So it’s gonna be crazy at the end if he’s right behind you.
Larson: Seems like Ross Chastain — and I’m not saying this on the on the part that he would crash you for the win — I just feel like he’s really good right now, and he’s really fast. He understands traffic really well. I feel like he does the best job of passing.
Cindric: Ross Chastain. Probably a popular answer.
Chastain: I don’t discriminate. Pick anybody you want, put them right behind me. That’s fine by me.
9. Which driver is most likely to believe in wild conspiracy theories?
(Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)
Blaney: Oh, gosh, Chase [Elliott]. This was when we were living in the same apartment complex together in North Carolina years ago, like 2015. He’d go down rabbit holes of conspiracy theories all the time. And I’d be over at his apartment sitting there, and he’d just go into a deep dive. I don’t know if he’s still that way or not. But back in 2015, ’16, Chase was a big conspiracy theorist on the aliens, government schemes, all this kind of stuff. And I wasn’t really interested in them. But yeah, he was pretty big into it a handful of years ago.
Wallace: Brad Keselowski.
Logano: Brad [Keselowski] will read the conspiracy theories, for sure, and get fairly deep into stuff before he realizes what the heck’s going on.
Byron: Oh man, I’d say Brad Keselowski. He comes across that way on social media, I think. He definitely reads into things for sure. So I would say him. I’ve seen him do some things with his methods, [like] when he goes out to qualify, he’ll do something different than everybody else.
Bowman: Brad Keselowski.
Keselowski: Me. I’m assuming everybody else has answered me.
Larson: Kyle Busch, for sure. Kyle or Kurt — either of the Buschs.
Burton: I don’t really know why, but the first guy that came to my mind is Denny Hamlin.
Elliott: Tyler Reddick. He just strikes me as a conspiracy theorist maybe, I don’t know.
Cindric: Oh, Michael McDowell. I’ve got a hunch, I’ll leave it at that.
Chastain: Michael McDowell. I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves. I know him well, and so I can say this: He doesn’t get the credit he deserves for being a little different, little out there in some ways. I love him. I love everything about him and what he stands for and being his friend. But you give him a few crumbs of maybe truth, and he’s gonna run with it.
10. Which driver is having the largest impact on the sport this season?
(Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)
Logano: Kurt Busch. Kurt, right now, has a very loud voice, and he has more time than anybody to focus on the health of our sport and health of our drivers and health and the safety of our cars. And he has taken the ball and run with it. And we all should be appreciative for what Kurt’s been doing for us lately. Kurt takes the cake by a mile.
Truex: Kevin Harvick has had a big impact, especially in talks with NASCAR about the Next Gen car and just bringing things out in the open. And I feel like things are starting to get changed and looked at a lot harder because of him being outspoken.
Completely unacceptable that those in charge have let things get to this point. I remember it like it was yesterday @dennyhamlin in the presentation of the new car to the drivers pleading that the car was to stiff. Data didn’t agree. TIME TO LISTEN TO THE DRIVERS CRASHING THEM! https://t.co/Q9urnlbaWa
Cindric: I’d say it’s a toss up between Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin. I wouldn’t say it’s positive or negative, just impact on the larger scale. They’ve been very outspoken about the car and the series and some things are productive. Some things probably aren’t aimed at being productive. So, from that standpoint, they’ve definitely been been the leaders in that category.
Keselowski: Probably either Kevin Harvick or Denny Hamlin because they’re so outspoken across the board.
Larson: Probably if I had to pick one over everybody, Harvick just on the safety side. Him and Denny together, them two. They’re moving the needle.
(Logan Riely/Getty Images)
Wallace: Ross Chastain. He’s obviously made a lot of headlines this year for the way he races, and obviously, Martinsville was no shortage of that.
Blaney: Honestly, I think like last two years, we’ve seen Bubba [Wallace] have a huge impact on the sport, reaching new audiences, and that’s grown the sport tremendously. I think he’s had a great influence on it. He’s grown different fan bases and grown the sport in a good way. So he’s had a massive impact on it, and I think it’s really cool what he’s done.
Chastain: I’ll say Darrell [Wallace]. He won a race. The following he has and the reach that he has, [it’s] far beyond what I have, in good and bad. What he does travels farther, and what he says carries a heavier weight than something I say. So I think in his winning moments and his not great moments, his car makes it to front pages and headlines farther than mine. He has this opportunity to carry the sport through his career and through his accomplishments on track that I hope to get to. He’s got the potential to just really elevate this sport. I’m glad to be his friend and a competitor. I want to beat him, right? But yeah, I think he’s got the most potential.
Suárez: Honestly, I will say myself because of the win that we had in Sonoma and everything that came with that. I felt like we gained a lot of traction with the Hispanic community, and that was great and I feel like that was amazing, not just for myself but for the entire sport and the history of the sport. So I think that that was pretty remarkable, and it just happened that I was driving.
Byron: I’d say Denny Hamlin because of just the 23XI being a new team and the national presence that the Jordan brand has and stuff like that. So I would say they’ve had the biggest impact on on the way the seasons gone with how vocal they are.
Blaney: Hard to argue against Ross [Chastain] after [Martinsville].
Burton: I’d say probably Kevin Harvick. Actually, I take that back — I’d say Kurt Busch is. Even though he was out for the year, he has been a really good advocate for the drivers and comes to meetings with NASCAR and the drivers and is really involved still. So a guy like that who kind of has just recently announced his retirement, I think he’s been really influencing the sport a lot. So either those two guys have been really influential though.
Chase Elliott: Ross Chastain has certainly been a storyline a lot throughout the year, both good and bad. But he’s been talked about quite a bit, so seems like a pretty good story between him and and Trackhouse and the things they’ve had going on.
For The Win polled NASCAR drivers to see what they think about their competitors on and off the track.
The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season ended Sunday with Joey Logano winning his second championship after taking the checkered flag at Phoenix Raceway. And the end of the season means it’s time for For The Win’s annual NASCAR Superlatives.
Throughout the last several weeks, we polled 13 drivers with the same 10 questions about their competitors’ skills behind the wheel, as well as their personalities away from the track.
Obviously, there have been numerous examples this year of drivers being furious and frustrated with each other, but some of them are friends who have been racing against each other for a while. Our annual investigation reveals what some of them really think about each other.
Here’s what some of NASCAR’s top drivers had to say about each other this year. And if you’re curious about previous editions…
These answers have been condensed and edited for clarity.
1. Which driver who is not a champion will be a champion at some point?
(Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
Daniel Suárez: You’re talking to him.
Joey Logano: Probably Ryan Blaney. I see the improvement he’s made over the last few years, and he’s got a ton of speed. So I’d say he’s getting closer and closer. He’s consistently in the Round of 8 every year for the last few, so I’d say he’s on the brink of making it to the Championship 4.
Bubba Wallace: Ryan Blaney.
Chase Elliott: Ryan Blaney.
Ryan Blaney: I don’t want to say myself because that would be too obvious of like, boosting your own ego. But obviously you want see yourself win a championship. Other than me, [William] Byron has been strong. Obviously, Denny Hamlin has kind of been on the verge of one for a long time.
Austin Cindric: It’s hard to not say Denny Hamlin. He’s come very close, and I think he’s probably the most realistic answer.
Ross Chastain: Ross Chastain.
Kyle Larson: William Byron. I feel like he’s very driven, very focused, works really hard and has a lot of talent, mentally is pretty tough. He just seems like a NASCAR champion.
Martin Truex Jr.: Christopher Bell.
Alex Bowman: William Byron.
Brad Keselowski: I’m going to say William Byron. He’s growing, he’s maturing, he’s with a great team. I think it will click, it just hasn’t yet.
William Byron: I’d first like to say myself, selfishly. There’s a lot of options there. Denny Hamlin comes to mind. If he’s not a champion really soon, I think he’ll be a champion, just the way that he is able to run consistently well. And I think he’s an intelligent race car driver and knows how to put himself in position towards the end of the year to have a chance to win in this format.
Harrison Burton: I think there’s a lot of good young guys that haven’t won one yet. But I think a good one would probably be William Byron. He’s been fast a lot, won a lot of races, so he’ll probably end up being [a champion] one day.
2. Which driver who hasn’t won the Daytona 500 will win it at some point?
(Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Suárez: Same question, same answer, me.
Chastain: Ross Chastain.
Wallace: Us! It’s funny, [Ryan] Blaney’s also had two or three second-place finishes, so we’re kind of tied on that scenario. But I’m gonna go with myself.
Elliott: Same guy for me, [Blaney]. He’s finished second about 10 times.
Blaney: Either myself or I think Chase Elliott. He runs pretty good at superspeedways.
Truex: [Laughs] I want to say me.
Bowman: Probably also William Byron.
Larson: Ryan Blaney, for sure. I think he’s just a really good superspeedway racer and is in contention a lot of times. All drivers, they’ll probably mostly say Ryan Blaney.
Cindric: Ryan Blaney.
Logano: Pick one, anyone could win.
Byron: I’d say Ryan Blaney because I think he’s really good at the superspeedway races. He’s always, always at the front. He’s very aggressive, knows how to make the right decisions and stuff. He’s been close already.
Burton: That’s a hard, hard race to win. I think Ryan Blaney will probably get one soon.
Keselowski: Shoot, the last three years, I’ve been in the top-3 in the last few laps and gotten wrecked or something’s happened. Just gotta keep [getting into position] and eventually it’ll happen.
3. Which driver has the best social media personality?
Suárez: Oh my god, you want to have the same answer for every question?
Blaney: [Kevin] Harvick’s been cracking me up here the last couple months, which has been fun to watch. He’ll get all sassy with everybody, and I get a good chuckle out of that. He and Hamlin have a really funny Twitter. I love waking up and seeing [Harvick] go on rants the next morning. I love reading all through it.
Cody please take the time to read all of my tweets before typing. Thank you…. https://t.co/uT8hGM4D1G
Chastain: Not Ross Chastain. Pretty much anybody but [me]. I honestly don’t even have a good working knowledge of what people are posting.
Logano: Can I pick myself? I pick myself because I like cars.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CfaMwfjpZ0y/
Wallace: Depends on what you’re going for. First ones that come to mind are Denny, Kyle [Busch], myself.
Byron: I don’t think any of us are that great at it, I’ll be honest. Bubba comes to mind. He’s probably the most comfortable with social media, I would say, so his personality comes across. I would look at it as who’s the most authentic? Whose personality is really showing? And I think he’s the most authentic on there, speaks his mind.
Larson: Probably Denny [Hamlin]. Over the last probably three or four or five years, he’s really stepped up, it seems, his social media stuff, and he’s pretty funny on there. He does do, I would say, a lot of it himself, but I know his social media guy, and he’s pretty witty with all that too.
Cindric: I don’t really like Twitter. I use it, but I don’t like it. I like Instagram a lot better. But I don’t know.
Burton: I don’t follow them all. So I don’t know. I would say my dad, Jeff Burton. He’s killing his Instagram game recently. For an old guy, he’s doing pretty good.
4. Which driver has the best sense of humor?
(Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)
Truex: I got nothing.
Bowman: Definitely me. Dry as the desert.
Blaney: Bubba [Wallace] and Chase [Elliott]. I think you get different personalities out of people away from their job. It’s kind of hard to judge somebody from how they act at the race track or something because a lot of times, you’re you’re dead-set focused on the task at hand, and it’s hard to kind of really let loose or joke around too much. Everyone’s personality is very different away from the race track.
Wallace: Myself.
Chastain: Ryan Blaney. It’s dry, but I think I understand it though. Most people probably don’t.
Keselowski: Blaney. He’s just a fun guy to be around, and he’s chill.
Elliott: Skip.
Logano: This used to be the Clint Bowyer answer back in the day. Can I pick myself again? I can’t keep picking myself [laughs].
Cindric: Kevin Harvick has a pretty dry sense of humor, which I always enjoy. Sometimes it’s at the expense of something or someone else, but it’s Kevin Harvick.
Byron: Kyle Busch kind of has a pretty funny sense of humor. Like, when I drove for for [Kyle Busch Motorsports], I always thought he was kind of funny. He’s pretty brash, but it’s kind of funny sometimes because he’s so unfiltered.
Suárez: Probably Noah Gragson.
Burton: Todd Gilliland is the guy that probably makes me laugh the most in the garage. He’s a rookie, so I hang out with him quite a bit. And yeah, he’s funny as heck, that’s for sure.
Larson: The first name that came to my mind was Corey LaJoie. He’s really funny and quick.
5. Which driver is most likely to drop an f-bomb in a live TV interview?
(Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)
Logano: Typically, I’d say Kyle Busch, but he seems like he’s cleaned it up a little lately. Kevin [Harvick] is not likely anymore either. Those are two likely candidates back in the day. Bubba [Wallace] maybe?
Suárez: Probably me! I did that a few times after I won.
Cindric: Kyle Busch.
Keselowski: Yeah, probably Kyle Busch.
Chastain: Darrell Wallace.
Elliott: [Kevin] Harvick.
Byron: Oh, for sure [Kyle Busch]. I think that’s already happened. He’s for sure halfway there, if not already there.
Burton: Kyle Busch, I’d say it’s a good guess.
Truex: Kyle Busch.
Larson: Probably Noah Gragson.
Wallace: Noah Gragson.
Bowman: Noah Gragson.
Blaney: Man, I think any of us are capable of it. It’s just a matter of how upset you are. But I feel like that’s a big one to drop. I could see dropping a number of other cuss words, so you really have to mean it to drop that one. I could see Kyle Busch dropping one, but he hasn’t yet, I don’t believe, in his whole career, so maybe he won’t.
6. Which driver has had the most surprising season?
(Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)
Truex: I would say Ross Chastain because they just consistently perform well, and they’re still a fairly new team.
Keselowski: Ross Chastain. He’s still in the final four, and I guess I probably didn’t see that coming.
Blaney: Chastain’s had a really good first year at Trackhouse. Not surprising, he’s doing well, but I think he’s, you know, run better than people have thought in his first year over there. Another one who I’m surprised hasn’t run better or won like they’re used to doing is [Martin] Truex.
Cindric: Daniel Suárez. He’s been in the sport for a while and, quite honestly, in very capable cars. And whether he’s grown or he’s in a great situation or he wasn’t in good situations before, I feel like it’s kind of his third attempt at being in a top team, and he’s done very well with it.
Wallace: Probably Briscoe. Obviously got that win at Phoenix [in the spring], and the Stewart-Haas [Racing] cars haven’t been that great all year. But the last 10 races, he’s gotten hot at the right time.
Byron: Definitely Ross Chastain. I assumed he would be a playoff contender, for sure, based on how he ran the 42. But I felt like it would just be a steady progression from last year and the 42 car. Those guys, as soon as the season started, have been contenders and been difficult and hard to beat basically a lot of tracks.
Suárez: My team as a whole — not just myself but my teammate as well. Trackhouse as a whole, more [successful] than most people expected. We are having some good success and that has been very, very good.
Bowman: Ross Chastain. I just didn’t see that much success coming this year. They’ve been really strong, and I know Ross is really good. I just didn’t expect them to do what they’ve done.
Logano: This whole year’s been a surprise. Kurt Busch is one who comes to my mind, not for good reasons. Obviously, the win early in the year was great, but his whole year is just a surprise probably to all of us.
Burton: Chase Briscoe is having a really good year. Not that it’s surprising, I guess, because he’s won a lot of races in Xfinity, but he’s done a really good job from last year to this year, making it as far as he has in the playoffs and getting good finishes when he hasn’t run well. I feel like there are days where he’ll run towards the back and then find a way to finish up front, which is really hard to do in this series.
Larson: Surprisingly good — great! — Ross Chastain. I knew he was going to be good. I wasn’t surprised to see them strong early in the year, but I thought that that team might tail off as the season got on. But they haven’t. Surprisingly not good — not that he hasn’t been great because he’s been in contention a lot — but Martin Truex. I’m just surprised that they haven’t won.
Chastain: Ross Chastain. I’ve never won races. I’d only finished in the top-5 three times in my career before this year, and now we’ve done it [15] times. Brand-new team, new ownership and two drivers that had never competed at the front consistently, and we’ve done that this year. I’m a [watermelon] farmer, so it’s surprising that I can drive a race car.
7. You’re leading the race and there are two laps left; which driver would you want behind you?
(Logan Riely/Getty Images)
Blaney: None of them. I don’t think you want any of them within a car length or two of you.
Logano: All of them.
Elliott: No one. I hope they’re far enough away or nobody’s close to you.
Wallace: I’ll go with Blaney.
Bowman: I don’t care.
Truex: Probably Kyle Busch, just because I know he’d race with respect. We have a good relationship, and we always race well together. Very, very hard racing, but clean and fair.
Byron: A teammate would be better than than others probably. So I’d say maybe Chase [Elliott] or Alex [Bowman] or Kyle [Larson]. Any of those three would be a good one to have.
Larson: I guess it depends on the race track, but I don’t I don’t really care. I guess any of them.
Suárez: For a comfortable situation, I’d say my teammate, Ross [Chastain].
Keselowski: Probably Chris Buescher. He’s a good teammate.
Burton: Another rookie, probably Todd Gilliland or Austin Cindric, I’d say, because I feel like we’re all in the same boat. So we’ll be in good shape there.
Chastain: Line ’em up however they want, doesn’t matter.
8. You’re leading the race and there are two laps left; which driver do you absolutely not want behind you?
(John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports)
Logano: I really don’t care. You’ve got to beat them all, so it doesn’t matter. Whoever, I don’t think it makes a difference, honestly. Everybody’s gonna be willing to do something to win a race, and what they’re willing to do is sometimes pretty fluid. I think you treat them all the same because you just don’t know.
Suárez: A driver that is in a must-win situation, that has a lot of pressure. Any of the drivers that are in the playoffs that are below the cutline, those guys, they have to do whatever they have to do. If I was in their position, I would do the same thing. Those guys, it’s not good to have them behind me because they will have to do dumb moves to do whatever they have to do to get the job done.
Keselowski: Probably Chase Briscoe. the last few times he’s been running second with like two or three laps to go, he’s wrecked the leader — in case you were wondering the rationale.
Byron: Man, I don’t want any of them behind me. But I don’t think really any of them intimidate me, per se. I think some are more strategic than others. It just depends on the situation. I can’t pick one there.
Blaney: It doesn’t really matter. To me, you kind of understand and you race around guys enough to where you know who will be more aggressive than others. But this year, everyone’s been really aggressive, so you never know.
Burton: I think I don’t want Ross Chastain behind me because I feel like he’s gonna probably put me in a spot where I’m gonna either have to crash us both, or crash him to try and win. So it’s gonna be crazy at the end if he’s right behind you.
Larson: Seems like Ross Chastain — and I’m not saying this on the on the part that he would crash you for the win — I just feel like he’s really good right now, and he’s really fast. He understands traffic really well. I feel like he does the best job of passing.
Cindric: Ross Chastain. Probably a popular answer.
Chastain: I don’t discriminate. Pick anybody you want, put them right behind me. That’s fine by me.
9. Which driver is most likely to believe in wild conspiracy theories?
(Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)
Blaney: Oh, gosh, Chase [Elliott]. This was when we were living in the same apartment complex together in North Carolina years ago, like 2015. He’d go down rabbit holes of conspiracy theories all the time. And I’d be over at his apartment sitting there, and he’d just go into a deep dive. I don’t know if he’s still that way or not. But back in 2015, ’16, Chase was a big conspiracy theorist on the aliens, government schemes, all this kind of stuff. And I wasn’t really interested in them. But yeah, he was pretty big into it a handful of years ago.
Wallace: Brad Keselowski.
Logano: Brad [Keselowski] will read the conspiracy theories, for sure, and get fairly deep into stuff before he realizes what the heck’s going on.
Byron: Oh man, I’d say Brad Keselowski. He comes across that way on social media, I think. He definitely reads into things for sure. So I would say him. I’ve seen him do some things with his methods, [like] when he goes out to qualify, he’ll do something different than everybody else.
Bowman: Brad Keselowski.
Keselowski: Me. I’m assuming everybody else has answered me.
Larson: Kyle Busch, for sure. Kyle or Kurt — either of the Buschs.
Burton: I don’t really know why, but the first guy that came to my mind is Denny Hamlin.
Elliott: Tyler Reddick. He just strikes me as a conspiracy theorist maybe, I don’t know.
Cindric: Oh, Michael McDowell. I’ve got a hunch, I’ll leave it at that.
Chastain: Michael McDowell. I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves. I know him well, and so I can say this: He doesn’t get the credit he deserves for being a little different, little out there in some ways. I love him. I love everything about him and what he stands for and being his friend. But you give him a few crumbs of maybe truth, and he’s gonna run with it.
10. Which driver is having the largest impact on the sport this season?
(Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports)
Logano: Kurt Busch. Kurt, right now, has a very loud voice, and he has more time than anybody to focus on the health of our sport and health of our drivers and health and the safety of our cars. And he has taken the ball and run with it. And we all should be appreciative for what Kurt’s been doing for us lately. Kurt takes the cake by a mile.
Truex: Kevin Harvick has had a big impact, especially in talks with NASCAR about the Next Gen car and just bringing things out in the open. And I feel like things are starting to get changed and looked at a lot harder because of him being outspoken.
Completely unacceptable that those in charge have let things get to this point. I remember it like it was yesterday @dennyhamlin in the presentation of the new car to the drivers pleading that the car was to stiff. Data didn’t agree. TIME TO LISTEN TO THE DRIVERS CRASHING THEM! https://t.co/Q9urnlbaWa
Cindric: I’d say it’s a toss up between Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin. I wouldn’t say it’s positive or negative, just impact on the larger scale. They’ve been very outspoken about the car and the series and some things are productive. Some things probably aren’t aimed at being productive. So, from that standpoint, they’ve definitely been been the leaders in that category.
Keselowski: Probably either Kevin Harvick or Denny Hamlin because they’re so outspoken across the board.
Larson: Probably if I had to pick one over everybody, Harvick just on the safety side. Him and Denny together, them two. They’re moving the needle.
(Logan Riely/Getty Images)
Wallace: Ross Chastain. He’s obviously made a lot of headlines this year for the way he races, and obviously, Martinsville was no shortage of that.
Blaney: Honestly, I think like last two years, we’ve seen Bubba [Wallace] have a huge impact on the sport, reaching new audiences, and that’s grown the sport tremendously. I think he’s had a great influence on it. He’s grown different fan bases and grown the sport in a good way. So he’s had a massive impact on it, and I think it’s really cool what he’s done.
Chastain: I’ll say Darrell [Wallace]. He won a race. The following he has and the reach that he has, [it’s] far beyond what I have, in good and bad. What he does travels farther, and what he says carries a heavier weight than something I say. So I think in his winning moments and his not great moments, his car makes it to front pages and headlines farther than mine. He has this opportunity to carry the sport through his career and through his accomplishments on track that I hope to get to. He’s got the potential to just really elevate this sport. I’m glad to be his friend and a competitor. I want to beat him, right? But yeah, I think he’s got the most potential.
Suárez: Honestly, I will say myself because of the win that we had in Sonoma and everything that came with that. I felt like we gained a lot of traction with the Hispanic community, and that was great and I feel like that was amazing, not just for myself but for the entire sport and the history of the sport. So I think that that was pretty remarkable, and it just happened that I was driving.
Byron: I’d say Denny Hamlin because of just the 23XI being a new team and the national presence that the Jordan brand has and stuff like that. So I would say they’ve had the biggest impact on on the way the seasons gone with how vocal they are.
Blaney: Hard to argue against Ross [Chastain] after [Martinsville].
Burton: I’d say probably Kevin Harvick. Actually, I take that back — I’d say Kurt Busch is. Even though he was out for the year, he has been a really good advocate for the drivers and comes to meetings with NASCAR and the drivers and is really involved still. So a guy like that who kind of has just recently announced his retirement, I think he’s been really influencing the sport a lot. So either those two guys have been really influential though.
Chase Elliott: Ross Chastain has certainly been a storyline a lot throughout the year, both good and bad. But he’s been talked about quite a bit, so seems like a pretty good story between him and and Trackhouse and the things they’ve had going on.
Welcome to FTW’s NASCAR Feud of the Week, where we provide a detailed breakdown of the latest absurd, funny and sometimes legitimate controversies and issues within the racing world.
As far as specifics go, it’s still largely unclear exactly what sparked some wild and aggressive on-track jabs between Brad Keselowski and Austin Dillon. But they were obviously not pleased with each other Sunday during the NASCAR Cup Series’ Ambetter 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
And after the race, they both were mostly tight-lipped about what went on between them before they began sideswiping each other. So, based on what we know, here’s a breakdown of what happened Sunday at New Hampshire.
Analyzing Sunday’s Quaker State 400 in Hampton, Ga., with NASCAR odds, picks and predictions.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga., Sunday for the 2022 Quaker State 400. The green flag is set to drop a little after 3 p.m. ET (USA). Below we analyze the 2022 Quaker State 400 odds and lines, with NASCAR picks and predictions.
Sunday’s race is scheduled for 260 laps on the 1.54-mile long quad-oval at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
This is the second stop of the season at the venerable track outside of Greater Atlanta. Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron won the 501-mile run in late March, averaging 126.584 mph in a race that featured a record 46 lead changes, besting the 45 lead changes in the 1982 Fall Race when Bobby Allison raced to checkers in his Buick.
2022 Quaker State 400: What you need to know
After 5 consecutive victories by Ford from February 2017 to March 2021, Chevrolet has raced to Victory Lane in the last 2 installments.
Chevrolet and Ford both have 5 Atlanta wins since the Fall Race in 2013. That’s the last time Toyota has been able to pick up checkers at this track.
B’s are wild – as Byron, Kurt Busch and Ryan Blaney have won the past 3 races in Atlanta.
Hendrick’s Chase Elliott is on the pole after Saturday’s qualifying round was wiped out by rain.
Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain will start on the outside of Row 1, with Road America winner Tyler Reddick going off from the third spot.
ELLIOTT (+1000) is listed as the co-favorite with Chastain and Blaney. The Georgia native is a much better play than those 2 drivers. In 8 career starts at his home track, Elliott has yet to win, but he has a top-5 finish and 6 top-10 runs with 68 laps led. He also leads all active drivers with a 12.6 Average-Finish Position (AFP).
KURT BUSCH (+2000) is worth a roll of the dice, as he leads all active drivers with 4 career wins in Atlanta with 9 top-5 runs, 17 top-10 finishes and 952 laps led with a 14.6 AFP.
Quaker State 400 picks – Long shot
BRAD KESELOWSKI (+3000) has struggled with his new team in 2022, but he could be dangerous at AMS. Keselowski has 2 wins, 4 top-5 finishes and 9 top-10 runs in 15 career Atlanta starts while posting a 15.0 AFP. As such, he is worth a small-unit play.
In addition, KESELOWSKI TOP-10 FINISH (+155) at plus-money is still a pretty solid value, and likely a lot more realistic.
Quaker State 400 prop picks
CHRIS BUESCHER TOP-10 FINISH (+140)
Buescher is worth a look for a top-10 run. He has made 8 starts in Atlanta during his Cup Series career, posting 3 top-10 finishes with a 17.3 AFP, improving from an Average Start Position of 21.9.
MARTIN TRUEX JR. – GROUP 4 WINNER (+240)
Truex Jr. is the favorite to finish better than Alex Bowman (+240), Austin Cindric (+260) and Chase Briscoe (+260).
MTJ has 25 career Atlanta Cup starts under his belt, posting 6 top-5 finishes and 13 top-10 runs while leading 356 laps. He has 4 DNFs, tied for the most among all active drivers, so there is some risk. But he has the highest AFP of the 4 drivers in Group 4.
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This is not good for Brad Keselowski and his No. 6 RFK Racing team.
The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season just got a whole lot more challenging for Brad Keselowski and his No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford team. And, although it’s early in the season, their playoff hopes suffered a monster blow.
Going into this season, NASCAR made it clear penalties would be stiffer as deterrents with potentially serious and long-term implications if teams played with the Next Gen car and modified the parts supplied by the universal vendors. And that’s what happened to RFK Racing’s No. 6 team following Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
For the “[m]odification of a single source supplied part” on the No. 6 car at Atlanta, NASCAR announced Thursday crew chief Matt McCall is being fined $100,000 and suspended for the next four races, and the team is losing 100 owner points, 100 driver points and 10 playoff points.
Although NASCAR noted which sections of the rulebook the team violated — Sections 14.1 C&D Overall Assembled Vehicle Rules and 14.5 A&D Body, which both relate to modification — it’s unclear exactly what part of the car was modified and how. But the rule violations were identified Thursday during the teardown inspection at NASCAR’s R&D center.
[lawrence-related id=1846517]
(John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports)
So beyond the specific unknowns about what was modified, what does all this mean?
Obviously, Keselowski and co. will be without McCall for the next four races, which are at Circuit of The Americas, Richmond Raceway, Martinsville Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway for the dirt race.
And while that’s obviously an immediate disadvantage to the team, the more serious implication here is the team losing 100 driver points, along with 10 playoff points.
The No. 6 team has yet to earn any playoff points through the first five races of 2022, so it’s now at -10, which will be more of a problem down the road in September when the 10-race playoffs begin — should Keselowski’s team make it in.
However, more importantly, after a 12th-place finish at Atlanta, Keselowski was 16th in the driver standings with 122 points. Now with the penalty, he dropped to 35th in the standings, making him the lowest ranked full-time driver in the field.
Falling that far in the standings significantly decreases Keselowski and his team’s chance of earning a playoff spot based on points — finishing the 26-race regular season among the top-16 drivers. It might actually be nearly impossible for them to “points” their way in, meaning Keselowski has to win a race to lock himself into the playoffs.
But even that might not be enough.
To be eligible as a title contender in the postseason, a driver technically needs more than a checkered flag. They also need to be among the top-30 drivers in points at the end of the regular season in August.
So Keselowski has 21 races to earn his first win of the season while also climbing into the top 30 in the standings. He’s now 34 points away from 30th.
In 12 completed full-time seasons, Keselowski has won at least one race every year with the exception of his rookie season in 2010. He’s also made the playoffs every year since 2014 when the current postseason structure was initially adopted.
Now, thanks to this monster early-season penalty, those streaks could be in serious trouble.
