Johali's Rate the Cup race --- Darlington

7, but a bunch of "simpletons" will say something stupid.
 
5 disgustingly boring until the last 15 laps, then a great natural finish was ruined by an irrelevant car like is the case SO many times.
 
697 gadzillion. Chicken dinner. HELL YES!!!!!!! LET'S GO!!!!!!!!!!!
 
4.

Boring ass race. That was almost salvaged by an authentic green flag run to the checkers where a faster car ran down the leader and out drove them for the win.

Then we returned to form. 35th place car crashes for a GWC. 5th place car wins the race by getting off pit road first. Quintessential Next Gen NASCAR.
 
There were a couple of things that might have a bearing on my rating. The fact that whom I was rooting for did not win, well neither of those I wanted to win at the beginning of the race won. But one of them was close, so, so close. Then there was what I perceive as an intentional punt. That is my take, and no one will change it. Wallace had two lanes on the outside to miss him, he chose not to.
Did not care for the lack of passing, except one car... Blaney was the only one that seemed to be able to overcome traffic. Too bad he did not win, but that is part of the story.
So... based on that, it still was a very good race over the last fifty laps. The rest of it.... meh! My rating is an 8
 
1. It was pretty much unwatchable even when one of "my" cars was stinking up the race. The finish did little to improve it.
 
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I don’t normally rate races with overtime as it renders the race useless to me. I’m really looking forward to Bristol!
 
OldTimer said:
There were a couple of things that might have a bearing on my rating. The fact that whom I was rooting for did not win, well neither of those I wanted to win at the beginning of the race won. But one of them was close, so, so close. Then there was what I perceive as an intentional punt. That is my take, and no one will change it. Wallace had two lanes on the outside to miss him, he chose not to.
Did not care for the lack of passing, except one car... Blaney was the only one that seemed to be able to overcome traffic. Too bad he did not win, but that is part of the story.
So... based on that, it still was a very good race over the last fifty laps. The rest of it.... meh! My rating is an 8
Click to expand...
On social media some people are saying the punt was unavoidable while others say it was race manipulation.
 
I'll give it a 6. It was obvious folks weren't going for broke like they would in the Southern 500
 
My overall rating is an 8.0

It was a story of two races. Byron was absolutely dominant until the last long, green run. If that had been the story for the entire race, I would have rated it about a 7.0 simply for being uneventful.

I think I am close to neutral on the drivers, etc., and watching Blaney run down Reddick was great, the kind of racing I want to see from Darlington. I would have rated it a 9.0 or better if those "coming and going" moments had happened more often during the race.

Darlington itself did its job. It punished Larson and an innocent Bubba Wallace for Larson's mistakes. Reddick will get some typical internet snark, but he performed well and was only going to lose due to the great late run by Blaney. I would have called it more of a Blaney winning story than a Reddick losing story (internet crowds are tough).

Blaney would have been rewarded without the GWC. Darlington itself was just fine and only messed up by the late cautions. Calling the late-race cautions unfortunate is putting it in the kindest terms.
 
This one is hard to rate. I grade Darlington on its on scale because it's such a unique track. There was some passing, just not for the lead. The last few laps were the only interesting ones. I'll give it a 4.
 
5 - surprisingly mundane and hated Hambone winning but they earned it with the pit stop and cheating the restart (he he…just kidding..)
 
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I had to wait, was too PO'd to rate on Sunday. Hopefully Blaney is saving all his luck for the playoffs.
Last year I stopped rating races that had BS cautions at the end causing OT GWC. I am not calling this a BS caution.
It was entertaining and even with Byron dominating there good pit strategy and adjustments to follow.
In honor of Blaney I'll go with...
8.12
 
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