Johali's Rate the CUP race --- Gateway

7 I've never loved Gateway
 
6 for the cup race

I wish Xfinity raced at Gateway instead of Portland.
 
6. Last stage was pretty racey, just the rest was a bit of a chore to get through
 
You used to keep an average of these scores. Do you still do that?
He does
 
I'll take the contrarian viewpoint...

The cup race at Gateway was awesome. Relatively tight turns with long straights, so heavy braking every lap, followed by major off-throttle time. Handling matters here... Who can dive in deeper? Who can get back on the gas sooner? A stern test of race car driving skill!

It's hard to pass, but it's *supposed* to be hard. If it was easy, everyone could do it. And at Gateway, it *is* possible to pass a slower car, and that's all I ask of passing stats.

The weakness of the current rules package is that the car is under-powered for its high amount of aero drag, and this is very apparent on most full-size 1.5ers. But the tighter turns and lower straightline speeds at Gateway cover this flaw. The car didn't seem lethargic and under-powered compared to most races on 1.5ers. My rating... 9.
 
10 for the race (see @LewTheShoe) .....Best car won.....Hate that I have to say that.
 
9 - Side by side, close racing, a little bumping, but nothing severe. FS1 actually finally showed mid pack racing for position in 8 to 12 place and 18 to 27 place when the leaders checked out in single file, finally.

2 - for Hendrick giving Chastain crap engines two weeks in a row. Payback I am sure, but, remember, Hendrick is a convicted ex felon of retail and wholesale collusion for price fixing.
 
9 - Side by side, close racing, a little bumping, but nothing severe. FS1 actually finally showed mid pack racing for position in 8 to 12 place and 18 to 27 place when the leaders checked out in single file, finally.

2 - for Hendrick giving Chastain crap engines two weeks in a row. Payback I am sure, but, remember, Hendrick is a convicted ex felon of retail and wholesale collusion for price fixing.
It's getting to the time in the season where teams are re using engines that have already ran a race and they can work the valves, springs AND the pushrods to freshen the engine. They only get so many fresh engines, and I bet they are saving some for the end of the year. It could be what happened to Keselowski.
 
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