Q: I’m in my 60s and do not follow stick and ball sports. I was familiar with Pat McAfee when his name was brought up in Mailbag as far as being involved with the 500. So I finally watched his show. This is a no-brainer! Roger Penske, listen up: make this happen. Can you imagine him interacting with fans and teams, bustin’ balls and having fun? Penske Entertainment, are you listening?
Dave
MP: Pat’s definitely a lot of fun. If Penske Entertainment and IMS wanted to do something big, they’d try and engage McAfee to create a ticket package for his many followers. We’ve already covered how his ESPN affiliation isn’t a fit for a FOX event, but his social channels would seem like a great non-ESPN avenue to engage and pay him to promote attendance to his largely younger and bro-based audience.
Q: What nonsense those Martinsville penalties were: meaningless in the scheme of things, since those penalized weren’t in the hunt anyway. Let’s call a spade a spade: NASCAR needed a Chevrolet in the final four and even more, they needed a Hendrick Chevrolet. Penalizing 23XI is nonsense since Bubba had no bearing on the outcome, unlike Dillon and Chastain. The rulebook was written years ago to require drivers to “race” after the last similar situation, so one must draw the conclusion that NASCAR’s reading skills have atrophied!
One more thought. NASCAR says it wants to have integrity in racing. In that case, why did the No. 24 advance after Chevrolet so clearly manipulated the outcome? One has to agree with Christopher Bell. Note – this is not the first time this year that the No. 3 has changed an outcome.
CH
KELLY CRANDALL: William Byron and the No. 24 team benefited from their teammates’ manipulation, but there was no outright scheming on the radio. The same couldn’t be said for all of the other radio communications. It is the same situation as the 2022 penalties to Stewart-Haas Racing. Chase Briscoe advanced but was found to have not directly done anything wrong, while Cole Custer’s team was penalized because of what was said on their radio communications and Custer pulling over for Briscoe.
Q: Can you explain what exactly is “riding the wall?” I have seen the phrase and don’t understand how this gives anyone a competitive advantage. With respect to Christopher Bell, it looked like he was pushed into the wall from the car behind him. I never can understand NASCAR’s erratic decision-making regarding “riding the wall.” Does it really help the drivers?
Jerry, Houston
KC: The term, and rule came, from what Ross Chastain did in 2022 at Martinsville Speedway. In that case, Chastain used the wall to be able to run wide open and make passes. There is an argument that Christopher Bell didn’t intentionally do that, but he did drive across the wall after getting loose in front of Bubba Wallace and going up there. It’s not so much a competitive advantage as NASCAR viewing it as a safety issue with things flying off the car while on the wall, and in Bell’s case, whether it was intentional or not, NASCAR is going to make that call because they don’t want any gray area around drivers trying to do that.
Q: With all of the RACER Mailbag emails and social media complaining about NASCAR’s Cup format, several thoughts come to my ancient brain at season’s end:
Did the Indy 500 rain delay causing Kyle Larson to miss the Coca-Cola 600 cost him the Cup championship? He wasn’t even in the Championship Four to compete for it despite his six wins, so something tells me NASCAR’s system needs some tweaking.
Team Penske has won three straight Cup championships, along with the last two Indy 500s — and Logano appears to have not cheated because NASCAR doesn’t allow Push-to-Pass. Whatever else you say about RP, you have to admit that’s quite an achievement over the last three seasons.
Disappointed to see Kyle Larson abandon his X account, as he’s missing out his fans trolling Max Verstappen sycophants as to who is the better driver. (My argument is that until Max drives into the Turn 1 grandstand at 16th & Georgetown at 240mph then yanks the wheel to the left at the last instant without lifting, he hasn’t proven his manhood).
Finally, who was driving the pace car Sunday? All I know is that I didn’t teach him like I did Bernd Maylander in August before Monza, and although the internet said Michael Phelps was the honorary driver, it didn’t cough up who was behind the wheel when he crashed into the blunt end of the pit wall. This goes to show why NASCAR will always be a second-rate sanctioning body: They can’t even do a spectacular job wrecking the pace car!
Eldon Palmer, Indianapolis, IN
KC: Kyle Larson didn’t earn points for the Coca-Cola 600, and certainly, having those points would have helped in trying to advance in the postseason. If he had run Charlotte, maybe he would have won the regular season championship, and that comes with 15 playoff points. It wouldn’t have hurt to have those in his back pocket. So, on the one hand, you could say that those points made the difference, but on the other hand, for arguments’ sake, who knows how his postseason would have shaken out even with however many points he would have earned in Charlotte, and if he would have advanced?