The race ebbed and flowed. I would rate it a 6. It more then met my expectations, but they were low to begin with. I liked the hard aggressive racing, but the blocking was absolutely ridiculous. I don't mind blocking, but when guys are being forced into the grass or into the front stretch wall for 12 and 13th, it is getting a little absurd. Yesterday we watched the best drivers in the world lose there minds with 25 laps to go.
As a fan who is a die hard fan, I hated to see the carnage, but from a fringe perspective I'm sure it was wildly entertaining minus the sheer fact that there were so many delays and the track clean up was awful. If NASCAR is looking to attract new and younger fans this is not the way to do it. The drivers did their job, but the track clean up and the delay in the action will cause the sport to lose those very same viewers.
Imagine being someone who turns on the TV without any real intention to watch anything and the TV is on NBC. You tune in at the point of the start of stage 3 and start watching, IF and it is a big IF for most people, the action on track is enough to make you stop and pay attention long enough to the carnage, the nearly 45 minute delay between restarts would be enough for them to go channel surfing.
Also, if that race would have been shortened by darkness the sport would have never heard the end of it. The races need to be started by no later then 1pm local time at tracks where they do not have lights. It is already bad enough that NASCAR decided to not thro the yellow until after the OT line was reached on a clear yellow flag situation because they knew they did not have the daylight left to get the race restarted.
That race started roughly around 2:30 pm EST. Those drivers were in those cars for approximately 6 hours or more. That's is absolutely absurd. If I am at that race with my wife, who is a fan, but not a die hard like me, I can guarantee she would never return there. Those are the fans the sport needs to turn. They need those fringe people who are interested in the sport on a live level to be the ones sitting in front of the TV on Sunday and yesterday's debacle does not get the job done.
I liked KK getting the much needed win and hats off to him for doing all the post race stuff when the dude most likely needed to get an IV of fluids.