*Turn 2 Blog is a regular feature on InsideCircleTrack.com. Here, site operators Michael Moats and Richard Allen take turns offering their thoughts on the NASCAR and pavement short track racing topics of the day.
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Road America featured another first time winner. What’s going on here?
Richard: I think there are two factors at work here that have aided the fact that there have been so many new winners in 2022.
First, the Next Gen car has changed everything we thought we knew about the sport from the car’s handling characteristics to pit stops. As any parent knows, young people adapt to change quicker than us older folks. If you don’t believe that, go get a new cell phone and give it to a younger person and see how quickly they figure it out compared to you.
That sort of thing is happening in NASCAR. we are seeing veterans like Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Martin Truex Jr., and even Denny Hamlin with his two wins have been very hit and miss. At the same time, we are seeing fresh faces in victory lane quite often. I believe the Next Gen has played a role in this turnabout.
Second, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez, Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick are very capable drivers whether or not they had ever won a race before this season. It was simply their time as all of that talent met the right circumstances.
These are drivers who were due to win.
Tyler Reddick earned his first NASCAR Cup Series win on Sunday
Michael: Reddick has been due for a win for some time. He nearly got his first one at Bristol before being taken out by Briscoe coming to the checkered flag. I guess the surprising part is his first win came on a road course instead of one of the high-speed tracks he excels on.
I think we’re seeing a few drivers nearing the end of their careers. As the new drivers coming in are more and more talented, someone misses out. It looks like several of those drivers are on the wrong side as the sport gets younger.
No one is really dominating this season in the NASCAR Cup Series. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Richard: In 2021, we saw Kyle Larson seemingly win everything as he put together one of, if not, the greatest season any racing driver ever has when his ten NASCAR Cup Series wins and a championship were added to all of the prestigious dirt racing victories he achieved. This season, we are not really seeing anything like that as no Cup Series driver has earned more than two trophies.
This may not be the popular answer but I tend to favor the seasons in which someone is dominating as opposed to having the wins all spread out. I just think it makes for more interesting storylines to see who might emerge to challenge the front runner. But at the same time, an occasional season in which the wins are more spread out can be interesting as well.
We keep saying on here that someone is going to emerge as a dominant player and reel off several wins but we haven’t seen that yet. I’m beginning to think we aren’t going to.
Kyle Larson dominated the NASCAR Cup Series last season
Michael: As someone who is a fan of college football, seeing new people on the scene is entertaining. The problem with that sport is teams like Alabama and Ohio State win almost all their games and are in the playoffs. It gets boring after a while. The same thing goes for racing. If the same driver is winning all the time, it gets boring over time.
I will say if it’s different people that have a dominant season, as opposed to the same person or two like college football, those can make for interesting stories.
Sunday’s race at Road America was the third road course event of the season and there are still three more to go. Are there too many road courses?
Richard: With there already having been races at Circuit of the Americas, Sonoma Raceway and Road America, that is more road racing than NASCAR used to do in entire seasons a few years ago. Now, the tracks that feature left and right hand turns have become all the rage. There are still twisting tracks to be tamed on the road course layouts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway as well as the true road course at Watkins Glen International.
As mentioned above, the Next Gen car seems to be changing almost everything we thought we understood about NASCAR racing. And that may particularly be true for road courses. With its suspension design so completely different from the Gen 6 machine, some have suggested that it is almost as if the car was designed for road courses.
On the surface, that may sound like a good thing in that it would make sense to drive cars designed for road courses on road courses. But as has also been suggested, it is almost as if the pendulum has swung in favor of those with more road racing experience where the old car was an oval racer that was being made to fit on foreign ground which sort of evened the playing field between those who had more experience and those who did not.
But to get to the question posed, I think we are very close to being over-saturated with road courses. After all, there are only five races on the schedule for paved short tracks and those are supposed to be the sport’s bread and butter. That said, I believe this has been done to allow the sport to venture into new places, potentially even incorporating street circuits.
I for one, would say that no more road courses are needed. And for that matter, the Next Gen seems to be improving the racing on the 1.5-mile tracks so the fall race at Charlotte might be better suited on the traditional track rather than the oval.
are there too many road courses? (Getty Images)
Michael: I think we have too many road courses, especially in the age of stages in NASCAR. Road courses were some of the more entertaining races on the schedule prior to the implementation of stages. Since then, it seems like most of the strategy is out the window. My idea is to not throw a caution at the designated stage end. Just award the points and let the race play out. Because of that, there are too many road course races on the schedule.
There continues to be talk of adding a street course to the schedule. I am not big of that idea. Having big, heavy stock cars on downtown streets with walls on both sides of the course does not sound like it would produce good racing.
I will say the layout they used at Miami for the F1 race did not seem like a normal street course. If something like that could be done, I would be for that. But one of the current road course races on the schedule would have to be replaced.
Please consider also reading:
Here’s why I was hoping Road America would produce a great race
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