Good Sam 500
Phoenix International Raceway
By Richard Tix
Weekly Opinion:
Was the fight on Sunday good or bad for NASCAR? That has been the big question all week on social media -- well other then NASCAR on Fox who ran out of story idea's and had to run one on "Did Kyle's punch actually hit Logano?" No, seriously, that was a major media members article.... Between Danica Yoga and Logano's punch evasion, Fox is a 10 of 10 on click bait ideas.
Anyways, was it good for NASCAR? I myself haven't come to a conclusion on this one yet but my initial reaction was yes, yes, and yes. I mean Jeff Gluck's video of the fight reached millions of viewers. Seriously, the guy from JeffGluck.com (just kidding Jeff if you ever read this, which I'm sure you won't be). If you don't know Jeff is actually a well respected media member who this year went out on his own as a family decision, but still covers the sport very, very well.
Brawls in NASCAR date way back and are threaded into racing's roots and history. A headline is a headline and when something racing related shows up on my Facebook timeline -- which never has racing stuff -- I know it hit the big time.
On the other hand, yesterday M&M's -- Mars, Inc -- released a statement on how disappointed they were with Kyle Busch's action's at Vegas -- apparently they haven't heard "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." Mars, Inc. is a HUGE sponsor in NASCAR and has a long history of supporting the sport. In 2011 they actually pulled out for the final two races after Kyle Busch purposefully took out Ron Hornaday Jr in the Truck Series. So, this is a line Mars has already walked down with Kyle Busch.
Anytime I see sponsors start to worry, I worry about the loss of funding. Sure, JGR is one of the most stable teams, but in 2017 EVERYONE is looking for sponsorship money to keep up and a loss at JGR will trickle down to the smaller teams.
Part of me hope's that even though Mars wasn't happy, that a new sponsor from the outside said "hey, look at all the airtime M&M's got this weekend. Maybe we should look into sponsor ship?" From my seat, it is tough to see or know just how this fight effects the sports as a whole, but when it comes to talking points, I love it because I can talk to any old Joe about the sport I love on Monday after the race.
Race Preview:
Yes, we still have a race this weekend. Its hard to forget with all the opinions flying around about fighting in NASCAR. Hey, at least it took the talking heads away from the harmless Monster Girl controversy... #LeaveTheMonsterGirlsAlone
The West Coast swing started by Toyota finally breaking up the Ford domination -- or, Ford losing power and giving it away -- either way you look at it Toyota was back in Victory Lane. Will the same be said this weekend? Some of the best drivers here are now in Fords -- Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney. The biggest key is that first guy, Harvick, who switch from Chevy to Ford this year. We all know his dominance here and we also can stop thinking about "how will SHR transition early from Chevy to Ford," because we already know the results have been smooth.
So, will Ford take back it's early season dominance at PIR? This year will be the last two look's at the current start/finish line at PIR and we will wait and see if it changes any of the racing in 2018. PIR is also a track where the Most Popular Driver -- Dale Earnhardt Jr -- could get back on track or a young gun -- Chase Elliott or Ryan Blaney -- have a legit shot at winning. So, this weekend and it's hot weather should bring plenty of storylines to the table and that's not even including the 2017 Behind the Wall March Madness NASCAR Style bracket.
Was the fight on Sunday good or bad for NASCAR? That has been the big question all week on social media -- well other then NASCAR on Fox who ran out of story idea's and had to run one on "Did Kyle's punch actually hit Logano?" No, seriously, that was a major media members article.... Between Danica Yoga and Logano's punch evasion, Fox is a 10 of 10 on click bait ideas.
Anyways, was it good for NASCAR? I myself haven't come to a conclusion on this one yet but my initial reaction was yes, yes, and yes. I mean Jeff Gluck's video of the fight reached millions of viewers. Seriously, the guy from JeffGluck.com (just kidding Jeff if you ever read this, which I'm sure you won't be). If you don't know Jeff is actually a well respected media member who this year went out on his own as a family decision, but still covers the sport very, very well.
Brawls in NASCAR date way back and are threaded into racing's roots and history. A headline is a headline and when something racing related shows up on my Facebook timeline -- which never has racing stuff -- I know it hit the big time.
On the other hand, yesterday M&M's -- Mars, Inc -- released a statement on how disappointed they were with Kyle Busch's action's at Vegas -- apparently they haven't heard "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." Mars, Inc. is a HUGE sponsor in NASCAR and has a long history of supporting the sport. In 2011 they actually pulled out for the final two races after Kyle Busch purposefully took out Ron Hornaday Jr in the Truck Series. So, this is a line Mars has already walked down with Kyle Busch.
Anytime I see sponsors start to worry, I worry about the loss of funding. Sure, JGR is one of the most stable teams, but in 2017 EVERYONE is looking for sponsorship money to keep up and a loss at JGR will trickle down to the smaller teams.
Part of me hope's that even though Mars wasn't happy, that a new sponsor from the outside said "hey, look at all the airtime M&M's got this weekend. Maybe we should look into sponsor ship?" From my seat, it is tough to see or know just how this fight effects the sports as a whole, but when it comes to talking points, I love it because I can talk to any old Joe about the sport I love on Monday after the race.
Race Preview:
Yes, we still have a race this weekend. Its hard to forget with all the opinions flying around about fighting in NASCAR. Hey, at least it took the talking heads away from the harmless Monster Girl controversy... #LeaveTheMonsterGirlsAlone
The West Coast swing started by Toyota finally breaking up the Ford domination -- or, Ford losing power and giving it away -- either way you look at it Toyota was back in Victory Lane. Will the same be said this weekend? Some of the best drivers here are now in Fords -- Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney. The biggest key is that first guy, Harvick, who switch from Chevy to Ford this year. We all know his dominance here and we also can stop thinking about "how will SHR transition early from Chevy to Ford," because we already know the results have been smooth.
So, will Ford take back it's early season dominance at PIR? This year will be the last two look's at the current start/finish line at PIR and we will wait and see if it changes any of the racing in 2018. PIR is also a track where the Most Popular Driver -- Dale Earnhardt Jr -- could get back on track or a young gun -- Chase Elliott or Ryan Blaney -- have a legit shot at winning. So, this weekend and it's hot weather should bring plenty of storylines to the table and that's not even including the 2017 Behind the Wall March Madness NASCAR Style bracket.
**This section is just a quick look at some of Cup drivers latest finishes. This is not a tool for fantasy purposes and NBTW only is looking at end results. No deep statistic's are involved, but rather it is just a quick way to get ready for the race and get caught up on who has finished well at each track**
The Good
- Kevin Harvick- I've said it before and I'll say it again, the PIR list starts and end with Kevin Harvick. He's been so dominate that NASCAR forced SHR to switch to Ford just to see how they adapt. Ok, I made that up...
- Joey Logano- The last person to win at PIR was in fact JoLo and not Harvick, I know, crazy. He also has six top ten's in his last seven starts here.
- Dale Earnhardt Jr- Guess who the last winner at PIR is not named Joey or Kevin? Junior won the Fall race in 2015 and then finished 5th at the Spring stop in 2016 before sitting out the latest race here.
The Middle
- Ryan Blaney- In only two career PIR starts Blaney has been a quick learner by finishing 10th and 8th last season. It will be interesting to see if he takes the next step this year.
The Bad
- Austin Dillon- AD has actually done a better job qualifying each time here lately, but the results still have been lacking by race finish. Only finishing top 20 50% of the time just isn't good enough for AD.
- Clint Bowyer- 23 starts and only six top ten's is rough. Whats worse is its been eight races without a top ten and five of those were 23rd or worse.
- David Ragan- Three top 20's in 20 races and only ten top 25's in those 20 races.
About the Track: Phoenix
Track Stats- Chevy won 10 straight races from 2005-10
- Kevin Harvick has won 6 of the last 9 races
- Alan Kulwicki only started 5 races at PIR, but has 1 win, 3 top 5's, 4 top 10's, and an average finish of 5.2
- Jeff Gordon Retired with the most career top 10's of any driver at PIR (24 total)
- Kevin Harvick has the most led laps in PIR Cup history with 1,484 total.
- Ryan Newman still has the most career poles at PIR with 4 total
- Surface - Asphalt
- Length - 1 mile
- Banking
- Turns 1/2- 10-11 degrees
- Turn 3- 8 degrees
- Turn 4- 8-9 degrees
- Frontstretch- 3 degrees
- Backstretch- 10 degrees
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