The Wide World of Dirt

Will we ever get it right?

That must be the question running through NASCAR executives’ minds after yesterday’s race.

The racing product was better than last fall, but it still wasn’t very good with cars crawling around the half-mile track nose-to-tail for three hours.

The aerial shot hypnotized my zany, hyper eight-month-old puppies into a deep slumber and nearly did the same to me.

What appeared to be a sticking point was the lack of tire wear, which was the issue that plagued the spring race last year before NASCAR attempted to dial the gear ratios back and brought a better tire with Goodyear.

One would think that reducing the downforce by 30% would finally produce a quality short-track product.

The most common issues center around the increased grip of the NextGen car. The new low-profile tires are taller and wider than their predecessors, leading to the tire having a larger contact patch.

The larger contact patch makes it so that the life of the tire is better throughout a run, meaning not only do they have more grip initially but throughout the run as well.

Not only that, the aforementioned gear ratio change going into last fall’s event didn’t seem to move the needle much as drivers missed corners and still managed to have a great corner exit due to downshifting.

Guess that’s what happens when we put a fifth gear in the car for no real reason.

While the NextGen car boasts exceptional racing on intermediates (even that’s up for debate now), a big part of that is the increased horsepower and lower downforce at those tracks from the NA18D 550hp package used from 2019-2021.

The race is being put into the drivers’ hands more at those tracks as car control and balance are at more of a premium with increased speeds.

This isn’t being reflected at short tracks where the cars gained downforce from the end of the Gen 6 era as well as dropping horsepower from 750 to 670.

Let’s see if we have this all sorted out: NASCAR gave the drivers more grip and more downforce and took away horsepower.

Suddenly, it’s a mystery as to how this could’ve been prevented.

None of my previous calls to bump the horsepower back up were heard, and it looks like we won’t be seeing anything of the sort until NASCAR adds the hybrid components in the next few years.

If the 670hp number is inflexible, then we need to get more creative.

My suggestion: just take the spoiler off entirely and have the sanctioning body pay for underbodies with no diffusers.

Why do we even need a diffuser on a NASCAR Cup car at a short track?

This car is wonderful for road courses in its current state as COTA was one of the best road course races I’ve watched in some time (save for the chicanery at the end.)

I would love to see this package they’ve been running for short tracks and road courses just be the default package because, in NASCAR, less downforce will typically lead to better racing.

If we know anything from the past couple of years though, NASCAR’s upper brass watch cars go around and turn left before walking up to the podium to say, “We like what we’re seeing.”

So, let’s not get our hopes up that the fall race or any other short track race will be any different.

Kyle Larson got the last laugh this weekend. After Ryan Preece won the pole and dominated Stage 1, the SHR driver was afraid to lose two spots on pit road during Stage 2, resulting in a back-breaking speeding penalty he never recovered from.

Larson wasn’t a factor for most of the day, slowly inching his way into the top-10 in the final stage before a caution with 57 to go setup a strategy call.

Hendrick Motorsports got the call from Chad Knaus to take two tires, putting Larson at the front of the drivers with any fresh rubber.

Meanwhile, leaders Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin took four, and Harvick’s day was again derailed by another pit road mistake. (It is getting very, very old.)

Hamlin’s slow stop plopped the #11 car deep in the pack, and like Preece, he would never regain the lead and settle for a 4th-place run.

The late caution came during green flag stops, the timing of which saved the races of Bubba Wallace (9th), Martin Truex Jr. (3rd), Joey Logano (2nd), and Ricky Stenhouse Jr (8th).

Wallace and Truex got busted for speeding on the same stop as Preece, getting mired in the field where you couldn’t pass no matter how quick you were.

Logano started the race in the back after an unapproved adjustment, and his day looked like it couldn’t get any worse before JJ Yeley’s car stopped in turn 3.

Stenhouse was just not competitive and not a factor, but great strategy helped them maximize their points day.

Much like his Team Penske teammate, Ryan Blaney started towards the back in his Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang.

Unlike everyone else, the #12 marched with a purpose towards the front, passing cars left and right in Stage 1 until he got to about 12th.

Then, YRB kinda just…stayed there, for the rest of the day. I figured Blaney had a chance to continue forward, but poor pit stops hindered his efforts.

Chase Elliott, back from his snowboarding excursion, put in a gutsy performance at the Paperclip that allowed him to come back to racing with a top-10 finish.

Before I hop into the Friday 5 recap, I’d like to spotlight Todd Gilliland.

The second-year driver for Front Row Motorsports impresses me every single week. Todd came into Martinsville with four consecutive top-15s with two top-10s in that stretch coming at COTA and Dirt Bristol of all places.

The kid is really, really good at racing cars; since his job is being threatened by emerging talent Zane Smith at FRM, other teams should take notice now.

Had it not been for dropping a cylinder yesterday, Gilliland had top-10 performance, even snatching 7th in Stage 2 to secure some more points.

With all of that out of the way, let’s talk about the Friday 5. (Pain.)

1. Martin Truex Jr.

MTJ was fine for most of the first stage before slipping out of stage points right as it ended, so in an attempt to get better track position, he sped on pit road in Stage 2.

The 2017 champion went a lap down later in the race after not making any moves from the end of the longest line.

James Small decided to stay out with a handful of other cars on the final stop of the day, and it paid dividends as they ended the day with a 3rd-place finish.

2. William Byron

A day that started with much promise ended with an engine gone sour. Byron secured a stage point in Stage 1, and he was MIA the rest of the day.

His car got away from him. The team wasn’t able to keep up with the track.

According to the broadcast, Byron encountered engine trouble after the 300-lap mark and fell down the running order to 23rd when the checkers fell.

3. Austin Dillon

A race that began in the doldrums for Dillon rapidly improved when he stayed out during the last green flag pit sequence.

The strategy call put Dillon near the front, allowing him to score a nice 12th-place run with minimal drama and damage.

4. Ryan Blaney

I was a bit annoyed that the broadcast spent much of the first stage ignoring Ryan Blaney’s ascent because it seemed like Blaney’s Ford was the only car in Martinsville capable of making passes in traffic.

That is until he reached the top-12 where his car just hit a wall (probably more of a massive bubble of air if I had to guess.)

Lucky for him, crew chief Johnathan Hassler put him in a good position with a two-tire call on the final pit stop that allowed Blaney to advance to a 7th-place result.

5. Bubba Wallace

Wallace had a nearly opposite first run to his Toyota counterpart, Martin Truex Jr. After starting in the back half of the top-10, Wallace slowly slithered past his competitors on the long run and grabbed four stage points for his efforts.

His day came almost completely undone when he sped on pit road in Stage 2, and during the final stage, car owner Denny Hamlin charged past Bubba to lap him.

Bubba didn’t go down without a fight, peppering Hamlin’s bumper until he pitted under green while the #23 and others stayed out. The gamble worked for the 23XI driver, bringing it home 9th after a trying day.

(Editor’s note: I will no longer be covering Dirt’s Favorite, Risky Business, and Dark Horse for the Friday 5. Defeats the purpose of the Friday 5 to have three more slots.)

IMSA won’t stop giving us bangers.

The Acura GP of Long Beach was not a race I intended to cover, but that’s what the implementation of this weekly article was for: a catch-all for my thoughts on racing.

And, IMSA gave me a bunch of thoughts about racing.

The race started with defending LBC GTP winner Sebastien Bourdais losing it going into the very first turn of the race, and turn 1 became calamity corner the whole day.

Though there was plenty of good racing throughout the GTD fields, particularly between Bryan Sellers and Roman De Angelis in standard GTD.

However, the final half-hour of the event saw a thrilling battle from the GTP cars.

Penske Porsche driver Mathieu Jaminet held the lead for much of the closing stages and held a comfortable gap over the rest of the field with fresher tires behind him.

This didn’t dissuade Acura driver Ricky Taylor from making an effort. A thrilling three-car skirmish between Taylor, Porsche’s Matt Campbell, and BMW’s Connor de Phillippi ended with Taylor squeezing by Campbell with a shade under 9min left.

Taylor obliterated the gap to Jaminet over the next five minutes, hanging on the bumper of the Team Penske Porsche coming to two laps to go.

Sensing the urgency of the situation, Taylor swung to the inside going into the first corner, diving under Jaminet to take the lead briefly before ending his day with his Acura stuffed into the turn 1 Acura tire barriers.

The ensuing caution effectively ended the race prematurely, allowing Jaminet to hold onto the win with de Phillippi’s Bimmer in hot pursuit.

I’m not going to promise that I’ll talk about IMSA after every race weekend held, but what I’ve seen so far in 2023 will definitely make me keep up with it this season.

IndyCar has also been rather good.

I have not watched the entire race, but the (other) Acura GP of Long Beach kept up the strong, positive momentum of the first two IndyCar races.

I kept up via social media and made sure to watch the extended highlights, and oh boy, did Pato O’Ward have himself a day.

The points leader found himself involved in two notable incidents throughout the day, the first on lap 20 with CGR driver Scott Dixon and again six laps later at the same exact turn with Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood.

The dive on Dixon was clean from Pato’s end even if it was a bold move. Dixon can be mad about it, but when you fail to race with respect, that will always come back to you in droves later on.

Dixon’s aggression at St. Pete in the season opener led to the demise of Felix Rosenqvist’s race on lap 1 of the season, collecting many other drivers as well.

I don’t believe Pato intended to make contact with Dixon or see the PNC Bank Honda in the tire barriers, but I also don’t think he expected the six-time IndyCar champion to turn in on him when his Arrow McLaren was fully alongside.

The second incident was completely on the young driver as he attempted to repeat the Dixon move on Kirkwood, and Kirkwood held a better wheel.

The contact failed to phase the 24-year-old driver out of Jupiter, Florida while O’Ward’s day was pretty much over after that.

Kirkwood’s Andretti Autosport team delivered a quick pit stop with just over 30 laps left, and he held off a hard-charging Romain Grosjean to capture his maiden IndyCar victory on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

In just his second season of IndyCar competition, Kyle Kirkwood is asserting himself as a very capable young driver with a lot of potential and plenty of time left to grow.

Hopefully, Michael Andretti can keep an eye on the prize in IndyCar while he eyes a move over to the F1 grid in the near future for another young driver, Colton Herta.

Next week, NASCAR takes on Talladega, which I’m not looking forward to, but hey, these pieces aren’t going to post themselves. I’ll let Google Number Randomizer handle my Friday 5 again this week, so see you then!