AJ Allmendinger gives 130 mph tour of Daytona International Speedway
Before The NASCAR Foundationβs License to Drive Track Laps event July 23, AJ Allmendinger took us around Daytona twice in a Chevy Blazer pace car.
- Bubba Wallace secured his playoff spot by winning the Brickyard 400, ending a 100-race winless streak.
- An on-track incident between Austin Hill and Aric Almirola in the Xfinity Series resulted in a penalty for Hill and a hard crash for Almirola.
- Ty Gibbs won NASCAR’s inaugural in-season challenge and pledged to donate $10,000 to a charity of Ty Dillon’s choice.
Bubble Wallace is going behind the wall.
Bubba Wallace is going to the playoffs, and going there without sweating the point standings at regular seasonβs end.
Bubba has been quite accustomed to living life on the playoff bubble β you know, right there in the vicinity of 16th place, the minimum spot necessary to gain playoff entry without a win.
Bubba elbowed the bubble aside at Indianapolis to win the Brickyard 400, while also putting to bed a winless streak that hit 100 races β yikes, time flies.Β
Bubba was going to coast to the checkers until a spritz of a rain shower brought out the red flag and opened the sweat glands on every member of his No. 23 Toyota team.Β
The only drama, as happens too many times for some folksβ tastes, was Sunoco. Would Bubba have enough fuel to finish 160 laps? Turned out, he had enough to finish 168, eight above the prescribed limit due to a pair of overtime restarts.Β
Some wouldβve written it off as a fuel-mileage win, but it turned out to be more of a βrestartβ victory, combined with some aero issues for the chasers.
Weβll get to that, as well as Denny Hamlinβs whiplash of a weekend (almost literally), olβ Money Bags Ty Gibbs (a 1% donation?), and some X-rated action (settle down, itβs X for Xfinity).
First Gear: ‘Green, green, green’ isn’t always clean, clean, clean
The city of Speedway, the municipality carved into a western section of Indianapolis, might otherwise be ashamed of itself. You call that rain?Β
This is a town, and racetrack, that can flat-out bring the gushers. But what it lacked in gully-washing tradition, it was flush with great timing. And though he couldβve done without the stress, Bubba Wallaceβs win was enhanced by the red flag and the two subsequent overtime restarts.Β
Nailing restarts with the lead, the more you hear drivers talk about it, seems to be an underrated facet of the auto-racing trade. As the leader with the flag stand in sight, you determine the specific pace of the field, within reason, and you get to fire the first shot through your throttle foot.
Weβve seen it botched often enough to know itβs not the stuff of auto-pilot. Now, put Kyle Larson off your right-side door, and the pressure ratchets northward. Bubba pulled it off twice without a glitch, got out in front of Larson both times and, well β¦
Indy has become another one of those tracks where the Next Gen cars canβt pull out in βdirty airβ and make a pass.Β
βThereβs nothing you can do here to pass, so no, I donβt really think there was anything I could do differently,β Larson said afterward.
Second Gear: Denny Hamlin slamming walls and kissing bricks
Denny Hamlin would be the worst candidate ever for witness-protection. Headlines and highlight reels are his steady passengers these days.Β
Denny the Racer finished third Sunday in a backup car because Denny the Qualifier extended his comfort zone Saturday and folded the No. 11 Toyota into an inside retaining wall. It wasnβt a glancing blow.Β
Denny the Team Owner proceeded to do something Denny the Driver has never done β he sealed it with a kiss to the Indy bricks after Bubba wheeled one of Dennyβs 23XI Racing cars to victory lane.Β Β
A week earlier, Denny and his ownership partners β Michael Jordan and Curtis Polk β learned their three-car team will no longer enjoy the comforts of a NASCAR charter, which brings automatic entry each week as well as a bigger chunk of the prize money.Β
Barring a settlement of some sort, itβll all be fought out in court, starting in December. And you gotta wonder if Bubbaβs win will be used as favorable courtroom evidence β by NASCAR, not the plaintiffs.Β
Itβs obvious that non-chartered (βopenβ) teams arenβt normally competitive, but there have yet to be non-chartered teams with the resources of 23XI and fellow plaintiff Front Row Motorsports. Running without a charter wouldnβt be a great business model for the long haul, but still, a lawyer can (and probably will) point to that Brickyard win and say, βIt can be done!β
The rebuttal would be rather easy, but allβs fair in love and litigation.
Third Gear: Austin Hill’s blown save delivers beanball to Aric Almirola
Those βOld Genβ cars of the Xfinity Series didnβt have any trouble racing each other this past Saturday at the Brickyard.Β
To a point.Β
With 10 to go in the 100-lap Pennzoil 250, Aric Almirola was in a small pack and running behind Austin Hill. He nosed Hillβs Chevy enough to get him very loose before a miracle save (as Buddy Baker would’ve said, βHe just wrecked, he just didnβt hit anything!β).
As Hill was making the save, he was now alongside Almirola, and once the save seemed complete, there was a leftward jerk of Hillβs car into Almirolaβs Toyota, which crashed head-on and violently into the outside SAFER Barrier.
Hill will tell you the leftward veer was what the NBA crowd would call βcontinuation,β an ongoing part of the original save. NASCAR β and Almirola, obviously β thought otherwise and penalized Hill five laps.
More to come on this one, and probably soon.
Meanwhile, Connor Zilisch got his third straight win, his fifth of the season, and the 100th win for Junior Earnhardtβs JR Motorsports, which he co-owns with his sister, Kelly Earnhardt Miller. Zilisch appears ticketed to replace Daniel Suarez next year in the No. 99 Cup car of Trackhouse Racing. It also appears heβll arrive with a head of steam.
Fourth Gear: Did Ty Gibbs just tithe a tithe?
It only took a 21st-place finish for Ty Gibbs to beat Ty Dillon and win NASCARβs inaugural In-Season Challenge and the $1 million that comes with it.
Or, more precisely, $999,990. In a post-race TV interview, Gibbs said he was gonna give Dillon 10 grand and said so in the following way. Roll tape!
βIβm gonna give $10,000 to wherever Ty Dillon wants to choose to tithe to … or give to … a charity.β
Not to go all theologian on you, but by definition, βtitheβ means 10%. If you listen to the quick interview, Gibbs quickly went from saying tithe to saying βgive to,β indicating one of two things, Iβm thinking.
Maybe he meant to say he was giving Dillon 10% and not 10K β which would be a generously whopping $100,000. Ten thousand, by contrast, is just 1%, which by my math is a tithe of a tithing, but either way, some of us arenβt here to tell others how to spend their earnings.
Along with whatever donation he receives, hereβs hoping Dillon at least gets to keep his mostly intact bracket as a souvenir.
β Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
