Rate The Cup Race: Kansas I

8.5 Good racing at the end. Wondering what kind of penalties will be accessed at the weekly Wenesday awards day.
 
Great racing and some physicality at the end. I’ll give it a 9. That’s what NASCAR is about, bumping, some hard wrecks and some good driving
 
My rating = 9.0. Great race with big speed, multiple grooves, long green flag runs, comers and goers. Hard balls-out racing everywhere I looked. All three manufacturers putting on a show (although the #42 Chevy may get cucumbered Wednesday afternoon). My heart sank when Blaney got into Larson near the end, as I was hoping one of those two would win. Still, despite that, a great race.

Silver lining department: all four Penske cars were fast. So far this year, their speed on intermediate tracks has been uncompetitive versus the 4, 18, and 42. They have racked up a lot of points, partly because the Chevrolet clan is mostly lost in the jungle, but haven't looked like race winners. At Kansas, they looked like potential winners or very close to it.

I was disappointed by lack of full effort from Matt Kenseth before practice started. Seriously, a seat fitting and that's all? No real work on the set up. No time in that multi-million dollar simulator, side-by-side with crew chief and race engineer. Matt should have been doing all that, plus driving the car for pit stop practice. Just my opinion on how a skilled, experienced guy should go about uplifting the performance of the organization.
 
Found a video showing the second half of the race, so my rating is based on the second half.

From what I saw: 9.5. A lot of hard racing, a wide racing groove, several noteworthy incidents, and a battle for the win.
 
Back
Top Bottom