Wayward wheels, flaming Fords, suspect steering, concussive crashes – compounding complaints plague NASCAR’s Next Gen car as the season winds down. Kurt Busch has been out since Pocono with a concussion problems and Alex Bowman will miss his second race this weekend for the same reason.
The situation is like the early days of the Indy Racing League, when the new Dallara racecar hospitalized 18 drivers and ended the Indy car career of Davy Jones following rear-end impacts with the wall. NASCAR Cup drivers are weighing in with concerns about the safety of the new car with Kevin Harvick calling out “crappy parts,” Denny Hamlin citing “bad leadership,” and suggesting a wholesale NASCAR management change, and Chase Elliot pleading with the organization not to go backward in terms of safety.
NASCAR historically dragged its heels on safety issues until the death of Dale Earnhardt in the 2001 Daytona 500. That event prompted wholesale safety initiatives including SAFER barriers, full-face helmets and head/neck restraints, among others. But there is now concern that NASCAR is so invested in the Next Gen concept that safety issues are being ignored. With five races to go this season I hope that NASCAR takes immediate steps to address the issues and prevent any more driver injuries.
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Perhaps coincidentally, Harvick’s car was selected for teardown inspection after Talladega, and an illegally modified part, not specified, was found. Harvick and Stewart-Haas Racing received a 100-point penalty and crew chief Rodney Childers was fined $100,000. Stewart-Haas can appeal the penalties.
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Fortunately, last week’s Talladega race was relatively clean, with only one accident involving eight cars and no “big one.”
Chase Elliott locked himself into the Round of Eight, nipping his buddy Ryan Blaney at the line by 0.046 second. Blaney had a good points day and should advance barring disaster on the Charlotte Roval on Sunday. This will be the fifth race on the combination oval/road course, and Elliott has won two of the previous four races there with Blaney victorious in last year’s race.
Opening odds put Elliott as a 4-1 favorite and Tyler Reddick (with two road courses this year) at 6-1. A.J. Allmendinger, who will run the full 2023 season in Cup for Kaulig Racing is 10-1.
Cup qualifying airs on USA on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. while NBC will broadcast Saturday’s Xfinity race at 12:30 p.m. and the Bank of America Roval 400 at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
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Formula 1 returned to Singapore last weekend after a two-year absence due to COVID restrictions. Rain marred practice and qualifying and caused an hour’s delay in the race start time. Two safety car incidents caused further delay and made it a timed race, ending two laps short of the scheduled 61.
Winner Sergio Perez of Red Bull received a five-second penalty after the race but opened enough of a gap over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to make the final margin of victory 2.595 seconds. Max Verstappen qualified eighth after being told to pit on his last flying lap and finished seventh after falling to 12th at the start. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton qualified third but contact with a tire wall late in the race dropped him to ninth at the checker.
The Japanese Grand Prix takes place this weekend for the first time since 2019 on the very tough Suzuka track. Mercedes has won the last six races there but are so far winless on the 2022 season. Hamilton leads among active drivers with five Suzuka victories, Sebastian Vettel has four (all with Red Bull), while Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas have each won once.
Qualifying is Friday night at 11 p.m. The race airs at 10 p.m. on Saturday on ESPN2.
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