Yahoo Autos Takeaways from the NASCAR Cup Series at New Hampshire
It’s official: The NASCAR Cup Series once again has a 'Big 3.'
Brad Keselowski joined Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick amongst the elite of the division with a statement victory on Sunday afternoon in the Foxwoods Casino 301 at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
If there were any doubters that Keselowski deserved to be in that conversation, and he certainly thought so last week, he decisively quieted them in the Granite State.
In fact, the 'Big 3' has begun to accumulate so many playoff points that we likely already know three of the four championship race participants at Phoenix in November six races before the Playoffs even begin.
Denny Hamlin 29
Kevin Harvick 22
Brad Keselowski 21
The next closest is Joey Logano with 14. That’s bad news for everyone else hoping to make a late run in September and October.
Harvick, Keselowski and Hamlin also run 1-2-3 in the championship standings, which has the added benefit of crediting them even more playoff points than everyone else if they can maintain that order over the next six races through the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona on August 29.
And right now, the numbers say there is no reason to expect anything less.
It might have been easy to overlook Keselowski with Harvick and Hamlin trading wins over the past two months, but even then, you didn’t have to look too far to find the Team Penske No. 2.
The 2013 Cup Series champion finishes inside the top-10 virtually every week. He has 15 top-10s in 20 starts, eight of them top-5s, with an average finish of 8.6 this season. Two of those finishes outside the top-10 came in the ultra-combustible superspeedway races at Daytona and Talladega.
The only other drivers to have an average finish better than 10th?
You know the answer.
Kevin Harvick 6.4
Brad Keselowski 8.6
Denny Hamlin 9.9
The Big 3.
How about the most wins this season?
You know the answer.
Denny Hamlin 5
Kevin Harvick 4
Brad Keselowski 3
The Big 3.
They also rank 1-2-3 in top-5s, top-10s and laps led through 20 races this season.
Even though Keselowski felt like his team made a statement on Sunday, it wasn’t one they specifically set out to make, because they don’t want to get suckered into the 'Big 3' narrative.
"I try not to focus on who you beat," Keselowski said after the race. "You just make sure you beat everybody.
"I feel like if you worry or focus on one car ..."
Keselowski stopped himself.
"You focus on them all," he said. "I would rather finish second and lose to a car we really wanted to beat than finish third and not beat them. We want to beat them all. Certainly, they deserve a lot of respect, the (No.) 11. I try not to focus on any one team."
That’s an important sentiment because don’t forget what happened the last season (2018) dominated by the 'Big 3' of Kyle Busch, Martin Truex and Kevin Harvick. They got beat in the championship race by Logano.
And between Logano, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and Truex, there is no shortage of contenders to make up the 'Big 3 and Me.'
OF RACE QUALITY
For the most part, everyone seemed to enjoy Sunday’s race at New Hampshire.
That was certainly true of Denny Hamlin, who keyed-up his radio inside the closing laps and told his team, "This is (expletive) awesome racing," after exchanging the lead back and forth with Keselowski for several laps.
It really was.
With the low downforce, higher horsepower (750) rules package, drivers were sliding across the track and trading paint. There was constant action and passing throughout the field. Track officials perfectly applied the traction compound and provided two competitive lines for drivers to choose from.
And give a lot of credit to Goodyear, who produced literally the perfect short track tire combination, allowing for constant comers and goers.
"It was a better tire," Hamlin said. "It was a tire that had more falloff. The falloff was roughly double of what it was last year. It was only, like, 4/10ths and 50, 60, 70 laps last year. This one looks like it had quite a bit more. Yeah, 1.4 seconds or so.
"I mean, you're going to have good racing because you're going to have guys that are good on the short run and guys good on the long run. Had a good mix of both.
"Any time you have a tire that falls off this much, you're going to have comers and goers. That's going to create passing, and you're going to see some of the racing you saw."
Of course, you couldn’t have this kind of tire last year because of the high downforce abomination NASCAR ran at all the short tracks.
While New Hampshire produced a closer finish last July, Sunday was one of the best start-to-finish races of the season, and that wasn’t possible without removing the giant spoiler affixed to the cars in 2019.
"The low downforce on the cars was awesome because you could run behind somebody and not just be stupid slow," Keselowski said. "That was really cool.
"I thought we put on a great race. I was really proud of it. Proud of it for our sport and for our team. Proud for our sport because we got away from rules that didn't make for good races and we went to rules that I think made for good driver battles. Denny and I had a heck of a driver battle."
Proud for our sport because we got away from rules that didn't make for good races.
If only Steve and Steve in Daytona could be convinced to implement it for the rest of forever.
Part of NASCAR’s ongoing competition identity crisis is determining what makes an entertaining race, and which fan council answers to cater to when making a rules package and designing race formats.
There were some fans no doubt disappointed that there wasn’t a late caution and restart. Somewhere, Brian France surely wanted to see more drafting at New Hampshire because that was always his answer to everything as it pertained to the competition department.
Sunday largely felt like an entertaining old-school authentic NASCAR race.
Authenticity, of course, being something largely missing from NASCAR these days with drivers rarely lifting off the throttle in half the events, segmented events designed to artificially bunch up the field and a playoff format designed to artificially produce a chaotic championship finale.
That’s not to say all of it was bad, but it was refreshing to see Brad Keselowski outduel Denny Hamlin, and not have it stripped away due to a questionable caution.
Sunday felt more like a race and less like a show but entertaining all the same.
PLAYOFF UPDATE
After a month of constant shake-ups, the Race to Make the Chase remained largely unchanged after the Foxwoods Casino 301.
11. Aric Almirola +145
12. Kurt Busch +112
13. Kyle Busch +94
14. Clint Bowyer +43
15. Matt DiBenedetto +40
16. William Byron +15
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17. Tyler Reddick -15
18. Jimmie Johnson -25
19. Erik Jones -31
20. Bubba Wallace -118
Erik Jones was the lowest finisher (24th) of the bubble drivers, but Matt DiBenedetto (6th), Tyler Reddick (10th), William Byron (11th) and Jimmie Johnson (12th) all enjoyed competitive afternoons to remain in the mix.
Jones is almost in must-win territory because not only does he need to make up 31 points, he will also need to leapfrog three other drivers and maybe four, if another surprise winner from outside of the top-16 wins his way in.
It’s not impossible to point his way in, but it’s becoming increasingly unlikely.
That’s almost as true for Jimmie Johnson, but 25 points and leaping over two drivers to make the Chase. Having two races at his best track, Dover, near the end of the regular season has to be circled on his and Cliff Daniels figurative calendar.
Kyle Busch finished dead last on Sunday, the victim of more misfortune, or as he put it: "It's still 2020."
Busch is still 13th on the provisional playoff grid and 94 points to the good. He should be able to cruise his way into the playoffs, but he still has just one playoff point, which is going to place him in a must-win scenario once the 10-race elimination format begins in September.
But once again, there are two wild card races that could completely shake-up the playoff grid and both take place at Daytona.
The inaugural Daytona Grand Prix on the infield road course and the season ending restrictor plate race means much can still change by the end of the month.
