Good day gentle readers. Today I bring a new face to the table for your reading pleasure. His name is Bernth Nordin, aka “Berra.” He is a friend of mine from Sweden and I’ve been assisting him with writing in English rather than Swedish. I admire him for even trying, as I know where my meager knowledge of any other language would take me. There is a malware problem on the site he writes for in Sweden, so at least until season’s end, I’ll be hosting his writings here on Race Fans Forever. Please, read his work and give him some solid applause. I think he’s doing just great!
~PattyKay
~PattyKay
Recap of the Roval
Only two races this week but Mother Nature and Charlotte Roval made sure we will remember this weekend! The Xfinity race started out with the track dry and the rain almost at the track. Brett Moffitt had an issue in the rear of his racecar and spun a few laps into the race, bringing out the caution. Fortunately for both us and the teams, the rain came down before they got back to racing again and the field went to the pits for rain-tires. This could very easily have turned into a nasty situation if they had gone back to green before rain hit the track!
Before long, heavy rain just soaked the track and cars started spinning all over the track. The Jet-dryers fought an uneven battle with the rain, trying to blow away standing water building up on the track. Eventually the rain won NASCAR had to red flag the race due to the heavy rain and too much water building up on the track!
Back to racing after Air-titans and Jet dryers doing what they could to make the track drivable again, but it didn't take too long before more spins and yellow slowed the race down!
After a while, the rain let up a bit and a racing-line started to develop, and we finally got to see a few laps of good racing between AJ Allmendinger and Chase Briscoe. But on the restart with 6 laps to go, the rain started to pick up again, ruining the little racing-line we had, and for the final restart the rain was pouring down again making track conditions very threatening when everything is on the line.! Unfortunately, Chase Briscoe overcooked it a little bit fighting for the lead with AJ Allmendinger going into the infield section and saw almost everyone in the field go by before he could continue for a P 17 finish. Noah Gragson came in second and Daniel Hemric third, first top five for Alex Labbe coming in fourth, and Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric P 5 and 6. Shout out to Cody Ware and Jade Buford P 7 and 8.
Going into the Cup race NASCAR had declared the race a wet race due to the track not dried up, meaning the field had to start on rain tires. Green flag flew and the field "tip toed " into the first corner and almost everyone took it very easy the first couple of laps. At the competition caution after 10 laps, the question was how long would the rain tires last in the drying conditions and would the rain pick up again? Well it didn't rain any more for the rest of the race and with the track drying fast Ty Dillon and Ryan Newman who had put on slicks at the pit stops were several seconds faster than the field so the rest of the field, except a few, had to come down to pit for slicks under green.
The wet spots on the track became fewer and fewer and, in the end, it was only in a few places. A small mix of leaders mostly due to different pitting sequences. Chase Elliott had to pit twice after the stage two break because of a loose front wheel. But at the end of the day Chase Elliott had the best car and no one had anything for him. He was in a class of his own and had been at the latest road races. Joey Logano came in second and Erik Jones third. Because of some mixed strategies we got to see some of the drivers that normally race outside the top 10 up in the mix at some point of the race, but at the end it was more or less about the same as usual except maybe Kyle Busch, who had a must win to advance into the next round of the "Play Offs.” Busch the younger had to pit at the end of the race for fuel due to an "aggressive" strategy.
There were some drivers who had a tough day and Ryan Newman was one of them. Newman had three pit road speeding penalties of the ten issued on the day. Quin Houff took over the lead with ten penalties just before Ryan Newman and JJ Yeley with nine.
So, what can we take away about this weekend? Well first off, the rain tire does not last too long in the drying condition and slipping around on slicks was much faster. On the other hand, when it rains as much as it did in the NXS race, maybe they shouldn't race, and they really need to look over the draining system. It is Stock cars we're watching not Swamp buggies
Well that's that and for next weekend we can look forward to seeing a veteran returning and also a new name to the trucks, Timothy Peters, and Hailie Deegan!!
That's all for now!!
Stay Safe
//B
Before long, heavy rain just soaked the track and cars started spinning all over the track. The Jet-dryers fought an uneven battle with the rain, trying to blow away standing water building up on the track. Eventually the rain won NASCAR had to red flag the race due to the heavy rain and too much water building up on the track!
Back to racing after Air-titans and Jet dryers doing what they could to make the track drivable again, but it didn't take too long before more spins and yellow slowed the race down!
After a while, the rain let up a bit and a racing-line started to develop, and we finally got to see a few laps of good racing between AJ Allmendinger and Chase Briscoe. But on the restart with 6 laps to go, the rain started to pick up again, ruining the little racing-line we had, and for the final restart the rain was pouring down again making track conditions very threatening when everything is on the line.! Unfortunately, Chase Briscoe overcooked it a little bit fighting for the lead with AJ Allmendinger going into the infield section and saw almost everyone in the field go by before he could continue for a P 17 finish. Noah Gragson came in second and Daniel Hemric third, first top five for Alex Labbe coming in fourth, and Ross Chastain and Austin Cindric P 5 and 6. Shout out to Cody Ware and Jade Buford P 7 and 8.
Going into the Cup race NASCAR had declared the race a wet race due to the track not dried up, meaning the field had to start on rain tires. Green flag flew and the field "tip toed " into the first corner and almost everyone took it very easy the first couple of laps. At the competition caution after 10 laps, the question was how long would the rain tires last in the drying conditions and would the rain pick up again? Well it didn't rain any more for the rest of the race and with the track drying fast Ty Dillon and Ryan Newman who had put on slicks at the pit stops were several seconds faster than the field so the rest of the field, except a few, had to come down to pit for slicks under green.
The wet spots on the track became fewer and fewer and, in the end, it was only in a few places. A small mix of leaders mostly due to different pitting sequences. Chase Elliott had to pit twice after the stage two break because of a loose front wheel. But at the end of the day Chase Elliott had the best car and no one had anything for him. He was in a class of his own and had been at the latest road races. Joey Logano came in second and Erik Jones third. Because of some mixed strategies we got to see some of the drivers that normally race outside the top 10 up in the mix at some point of the race, but at the end it was more or less about the same as usual except maybe Kyle Busch, who had a must win to advance into the next round of the "Play Offs.” Busch the younger had to pit at the end of the race for fuel due to an "aggressive" strategy.
There were some drivers who had a tough day and Ryan Newman was one of them. Newman had three pit road speeding penalties of the ten issued on the day. Quin Houff took over the lead with ten penalties just before Ryan Newman and JJ Yeley with nine.
So, what can we take away about this weekend? Well first off, the rain tire does not last too long in the drying condition and slipping around on slicks was much faster. On the other hand, when it rains as much as it did in the NXS race, maybe they shouldn't race, and they really need to look over the draining system. It is Stock cars we're watching not Swamp buggies
Well that's that and for next weekend we can look forward to seeing a veteran returning and also a new name to the trucks, Timothy Peters, and Hailie Deegan!!
That's all for now!!
Stay Safe
//B