From a NASCAR Fan’s View
There is no doubt in this fan’s mind that Loudon, New Hampshire, lives up to the hype, and it also lives up to the nickname. There’s a reason why they call it the Magic Mile, and that’s because the racing there is generally ‘Magic.’ A quick look at the qualifying times tells part of the story about how the Magic is made.
The top ten or so qualifiers have times that are very close together, and that usually adds up to very tight racing throughout the race. Of course, it all depends on how things go after the green flag drops. That’s when the real speeds show up. Qualifying is the fastest one-lap speed, but where the action will really begin is in the long run speed for the ones that want to run up front.
Speaking of running up front, three fast Fords are starting in the top three positions, and any one of them could dominate he race from beginning to end. Of the three, this fan suspects either Joey Logano or Ryan Blaney could make it a very boring race if their speeds hold up and they keep their track position. It could be a Ford kind of day if things hold together for them.
Honestly, with the way the Toyotas have taken the top spots in the first three races of the round or sixteen. I mean, I really never expected to see the Toyotas take all three of the opening races. I knew they were fast and were showing a lot of speed as the regular season was winding down, but there are usually things that crop up for them late in the season.
The three Toyota drivers who walked away with the wins in the first three playoff races didn’t qualify all that well for this race. Denny Hamlin was the best of the three by qualifying ninth. Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell qualified eighteenth and nineteenth. I don’t expect that to deter them much, but they will have to make a lot of good decisions as they try to move forward in this one. Denny qualifying ninth isn’t that much of a surprise, but what will be a surprise is if he doesn’t contend for the win by race’s end. He has been running his qualifying differently so far, and it will not surprise this fan if he quickly moves to the front.
Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell, on the other hand, don’t usually have problems moving on up by the time the laps are winding down to completion. The Toyotas have really shown good speed, especially in the playoffs so far. I’m not saying they will repeat their performance in the round of twelve, but I am saying the rest of the field better be taking notice. They should probably do the same for Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, too. Maybe even Ty Gibbs.
At least two of the Hendrick teams showed something in qualifying, and one of them really kind of surprised me. William Byron wasn’t the surprising one. After practice, he did sort of qualify where I expected him to, and that was in the top five. The one that surprised me, although he probably shouldn’t have, was Alex Bowman. Alex had a couple of bad races to start the round of sixteen, but last weekend, he and his number forty-eight team did everything they could to gain a spot in the round of twelve, but fell just short at the end. I’m not saying he will, but he could win this one even though he is a long shot.
That brings me to the other two Hendrick drivers. Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson. Chase has been reasonably consistent, but he hasn’t been up front at the right times. He needs to do better if he wants to contend for the Championship. Lately, Chase and the number nine team have left the weekend races disappointed.
I won’t surprise anyone when I bring up the fact that Kyle Larson hasn’t been running all that well since attempting the double back in May. I’m not sure where the problems are in Kyle’s situation or with the rest of the Hendrick teams. What I do know is that they are not performing at all as they or their fans expect. They need to begin showing some significant improvement starting here at the Magic Mile, or from this fan’s view, their chances of making it to the championship four, or even to the next round, are looking pretty slim…
Hey, this is Russ and that’s my view… See ya next time…
All views expressed are strictly the opinion of the writer
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Rusty Norman, Nascarfansview.com and Justafansview.com
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