NASCAR was in Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend for all three of it’s national touring series. To say that all three races were an embarrassment would be an understatement. To say NASCAR sh#t the bed would be an understatement.
If NASCAR announced today that they had planned to do whatever it takes to make Kyle Larson appear to be the most dominant driver in the sport today, it would not surprise me in the least. The problem is that (a) the result of the attempted trifecta at Homestead failed miserably, and (b) produced some of the most horrendous racing I’ve seen in sometime.
Let’s just forget the Cup race. Yes, Larson won the Straight Talk Wireless 400 but he was hardly the most dominant driver. Sure, he led 19 laps and eventually cruised to victory 1.2 seconds over teammate and pole sitter Alex Bowman. Bowman, Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace both led double digit number of laps, along with Carson Hocevar, Zane Smith, Josh Berry and William Byron all of whom lead a handful of laps.
However, in terms of laps led, it was Ryan Blaney who led 124 of the 267 laps before his engine expired. Now, there is something to be said about only having to led one lap – the last one. And if NASCAR was trying to write the story about Larson sweeping the weekend, they bookended the weekend’s races with Larson in Victory Lane.
As for the racing itself, I suppose one could argue that it got better as the race went on. However, when the driver in 9th (Bubba Wallace) was 20 seconds back at lap 50, pardon me if I don’t get as excited about Homestead as the drivers seem to be.
What was I saying about forgetting about the Cup race? Okay, moving on.
Almost from the moment the Truck race coverage went on the air, they tried to make it the Kyle Larson Show, with a side helping of Ross Chastain. They tossed Corey Heim a bone after a few minutes, just to – you know – let people remember that there were some series regulars trying to win a championship. As it turned out, it was a good thing they reminded us about Heim, because his was the dominant truck of the night.
Sure, Larson was among the leaders for much of the night, and Chastain’s truck seemed to fire off on restarts but faded on the long run. However, there were other series regulars (Stewart Friesen, Grant Enfinger, Kaden Honeycutt and especially Layne Riggs) who seemed like they might have a shot for the win.
For a while, I was fooled. I thought “this is the way it should be!” I will never be a fan of Cup regulars competing in the lower series! EVER! However, if NASCAR’s thought process is that there needs to be Cup drivers in the field to draw more fans or to teach the young drivers how to compete against Cup drivers, then at the very least ensure that the equipment that the Cup drivers are running is at least in the same postal code as the series regulars.
And throughout much of the race (maybe 90% of it) that’s what was happening. Yes, Larson and Chastain led laps, but it appeared that Corey Heim was going to walk away from the race with a lot of momentum because he had taken the best of two Cup guys – to say nothing of, you know, the actual Truck series regulars!
However, it was not to be. Heim started having power issues late in the race and while he held on as best he could, he would eventually lose the lead to Layne Riggs. It’s not NASCAR’s fault, not Hendrick Motorsports’ fault, not Kyle Larson’s fault. Just an unfortunate turns of events.
Meanwhile, Larson had spun out with 45 laps to go. It sure seemed like the star of the show was going to have to step aside for a series regular. But then a funny thing happened. With about a dozen laps to go, Larson went from the back to the pack to the front, seemingly like he had a rocket tied to his *ss. It would have been obvious to everyone, even a NASCAR newbie, that something had been done to Larson’s truck. Yes, fresh tires can be an asset but not to that degree.
And so, what could have been a great race that propelled a driver, whether it was Heim, Riggs, or someone else, forward in their career, ended with just another installment of the “Cup Driver Spotlight.”
If the truck race was an example of the decades-long systemic failure to properly promote the next generation of drivers, the Xfinity race was even worse. At least, up until Larson hit whatever switch he needed to, the truck race allowed the series regulars to be competitive on Friday night. On Saturday afternoon, the Xfinity regulars were put in their place. The message to the drivers, teams, the fans and, of course, the sponsors was that Kyle Larson was going to win, and by a good margin. At one point, Larson was almost seven seconds over second-place Sam Mayer who, in turn, was at least that far ahead of the rest of the field, a field that had only about a dozen cars on the lead lap.
Now, I’m a guy who will watch just about anything NASCAR-related. I’ll watch all three national series, practice, qualifying, stuff from back in the 80s. I’ll watch the ARCA series, for crying out loud. (Actually, if ARCA would stop being yet another attempt at Joe Gibbs getting his name on a trophy without actually getting behind the wheel of a car, ARCA has enough great characters and stories to be a compelling series…if the actual racing wasn’t pathetic!) On Saturday afternoon, I seriously considered turning the race off. It wasn’t even worth watching.
As it turns out, Kyle Larson’s attempt at a weekend sweep ended with a few laps to go. On the last restart, Larson lost the lead and Justin Allgaier won. Unfortunately, it was almost immediately seen as less of a win for the reigning Xfinity Series champion and more of a loss for Larson. On the Cup broadcast a day later, Allgaier was barely mentioned. Instead, it was all about Mayer hitting Larson on the final restart and causing him to lose momentum to the eventual winner.
To quote Jim Morrison, “The program for this evening is not new. You’ve seen this entertainment through and through.” To quote the Who, “Meet the new boss; same as the old boss!”
In years past, it was Kyle Busch. This past weekend, it’s Kyle Larson. The stands are empty for these races. When a Cup guy is in the field, everyone knows who will win. When they’re not, nobody cares to watch the also rans. And so it goes!
On to Martinsville.
johnmilner.ca 