Larry Woody, a man we called “sneaky funny,” wrote about NASCAR for many years on the pages — remember pages? — of the Tennessean in Nashville.
During one stage of his tenure, sometime in the 1990s, there was much talk on how to solve an issue that was leading to too much of this and not enough of that — whatever it was, the result was a less-than-thrilling product that was becoming too predictable and, for some, a tad boring.
Everyone had an answer, from changing the width of the tires to raising (or was it lowering?) horsepower to unbolting the spoilers.
Larry’s answer: “Put a rabid badger in every cockpit with the driver.”
This past weekend in Larry’s home state (barely, since Virginia also lays claim to Bristol), race officials were fresh out of badgers. Thankfully, the Boys at Goodyear had something that’d prove just as unpredictable and only a little less dangerous: Treadless timebombs.
Nothing enhances the strategies and gives hope to the hopeless quite like fresh sets of tires that go from rubber to cords faster than you can yell “Fire in the hole!”
In the end, we got ourselves a modern record amount of caution laps (137 of the 500), another unfortunate record for Josh Berry, who didn’t just lower the bar but buried it, and a winner who once won three straight races this season, but so long ago the leaves that are about to fall hadn’t yet returned to the trees to begin with.
Amazingly, through it all, the playoff roster didn’t change. The four outsiders entering Bristol were the four exiting the playoffs after the checkers. That was about the only thing that didn’t rip to shreds or burn to the ground.
First Gear: Christopher Bell remembers how to win
Christopher Bell is a factor again. It’s been a while. Remember when we thought he was gonna win every damn race?
Bell, driving the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, won three straight Sundays from late February to early March. It was still winter. We’re within a few car lengths of fall, so Bell basically went through all of spring and summer before returning the Victory Lane, which is no crime, of course, but he was looking unstoppable back then. And who knows, maybe he’ll return to that form for a while.
Then again, it’ll take all he has just to stay in front of Gibbs teammates Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin, who won the first two playoff races, at Darlington and St. Louis.
Meanwhile, JGR’s Ringo, Ty Gibbs, isn’t exactly dragging down the organization, as he’s posted his eighth and ninth top-10s of the year these past two weeks. Among the non-playoff racers, he’s third in points behind Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece, and no, there’s not a banquet trophy for that one.
We’ll return to Preece shortly. He just had a recent record of his tied and he’s fine with it.
Second Gear: Joe Gibbs super again, Rick Hendrick not so much
As mentioned, JGR swept the three races in the Round of 16. Some solid research shows the team’s namesake is no stranger to playoff dominance.
It’s growing more and more distant in the mirror, but Joe Gibbs once won three Super Bowls as head coach of the then-Washington Redskins, after the 1982, ’87 and ’91 seasons. During those three postseasons, his team played a total of 10 games and the average winning margin was 17 points.
What’s it mean today? Nothing, but we don’t waste research around here.
On the flip side is the longtime gold standard of NASCAR ownership, Hendrick Motorsports. My goodness, what is going on over at Rick’s place? On the surface, you’re likely to think all is well. They lost Alex Bowman after the Round of 16, but in the updated playoff standings, William Byron, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott currently sit second, third and seventh.
Doesn’t feel that way, though, does it? In nine combined playoff starts, those three have compiled one top-10 (Chase at St. Louis), five finishes of 17th or worse and an average finish of 18th. Yes, that’s leaving out Bowman’s finishes of 31st and 26th before his eighth at Bristol.
Third Gear: Josh Berry has the last word, again
Joshing just became a whole new verb.
Honestly, these things can happen on any given week. Something breaks, someone hits you, you hit someone — whatever, just like that you’re on the hook and off to the garage with a last-place finish while echoes of the anthem are still in the air.
But to happen again? Then again? Man, Josh Berry better avoid lightning storms and busy intersections until further notice.
His car broke at Darlington to open the playoffs, and not just to open the playoffs, but the first lap of the playoffs! At St. Louis, he got dumped by Chase Elliott and was the first car out. He saved the biggest drama for Bristol, where his right-front tire apparently picked up a ton of the shredded rubber going around and, after absorbing all that heat around the wheel, it went up in flames.
That’s right, three straight last-place finishes, the first time that’s happened since midway through the 2020 season, when Ryan Preece was the first car out at Indy, Kentucky and Texas.
Berry is out of the playoffs obviously but will plow forward.
“We’ll try and win some races here coming up in this stretch,” he said post-Bristol.
First things first, Josh.
Fourth Gear: NASCAR Round of 12 starts flat at New Hampshire
Each of the next two rounds of the playoffs — the Rounds of 12 and 8 — features dramatic differences in styles of track.
The Round of 12 opens at New Hampshire, a mostly flat 1-miler where Bell has won twice in the past three events. At 1.058 miles, the self-proclaimed “Magic Mile” is actually 102 yards longer than a mile.
Next comes the 1½-mile Kansas Speedway, which is banked well at 17-to-20 degrees, and then the converted road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the 2.3-mile “Roval” with its mix of 24-degree speedway banking and 17 turns.
There’s a chance Shane van Gisbergen will resume his road-course dominance at the Roval, but let’s say he’s running second or third behind one or two existing playoff racers. It’ll be interesting to see how aggressive he gets — or doesn’t.
— Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
