NASCAR eliminated four drivers from the playoffs in both Cup and Xfinity at the Charlotte Roval last Sunday, and the wet Formula 1 race in Turkey flipped the points lead in the drivers’ championship. This week NASCAR is in Texas with Formula 1 to visit the state next weekend.
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Kyle Larson owes his over-the-wall guys a big thank you for his win at the Roval on Sunday. They changed both the battery and the alternator belt during cautions, and he repaid them with a victory. It was his seventh win of the season and vaulted him into the Round of Eight as the top seed, 42 points above the cut line. Drivers who didn’t transfer were Kevin Harvick, William Byron, Alex Bowman, and Christopher Bell. The Harvick/Chase Elliott feud that erupted at Bristol resurfaced in Charlotte when Harvick ran Elliott into the wall. Elliott was closing in to retaliate when Harvick crashed on his own. Rick Hendrick asked NASCAR to intervene in the feud, and officials confirmed they had a chat with both teams last week.
Four of the eight drivers still in contention for the championship have wins at Texas. Larson won the All-Star race there in June, Kyle Busch won his most recent of four Texas victories last fall, Denny Hamlin won in 2019 and swept both Texas outings in 2010, and Joey Logano’s sole win there was in 2014. Larson starts on pole Sunday and is favored to win at 11-4 odds. Hamlin is at 6-1, Busch and Elliott 7-1, Martin Truex Jr. at 15-2, and Ryan Blaney 9-1. Penske teammates Logano and Brad Keselowski are at 14-1 as is non-contender Harvick. The race airs Sunday at 11 a.m. with the Xfinity race Saturday at noon. Both are on NBC.
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Last Sunday’s Formula 1 race in Istanbul ran in wet conditions from start to finish. Valtteri Bottas took his Mercedes to the lead from pole and lost it only during pit stops. Teammate Lewis Hamilton tried to make one set of tires last the entire race but was called in for a change late in the going. He blamed the call for his fifth-place finish, but the team calculated he would have finished eighth on the old rubber. Red Bull drivers completed the podium with Max Verstappen second and Sergio Perez third. This put Max in a 6-point lead for the drivers’ title. Mercedes still leads in the constructors’ championship by 36 points over Red Bull. Bottas’ win was extra sweet for him, considering that he’s leaving the team for Alfa Romeo at the end of the season. The next race is the USGP at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 24.
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NASCAR conducted a two-day test of the Next-Gen car on the Charlotte Roval after last Sunday’s Cup race. There were 18 teams and 21 cars involved, and there’s still a big learning curve. A couple of issues were excessive cockpit heat and steering problems, and fixes are in the works. The cars sound different than the current car, with a significantly deeper exhaust note. And the Next Gen car was faster on the Roval, due in part to its independent rear suspension. Fastest times were set on Tuesday, with the No. 19 Toyota lapping at 1:18.6, or 106.296 mph. That was significantly faster than the No. 8 Chevy in second place at 1:21.7 or 102.175 mph. However, the fastest time set by winner Kyle Larson in Sunday’s race was 1:23.399 or 100.1 mph, which would have put him 17th fastest in the test field. NASCAR has scheduled the next multi-car test for the Charlotte oval on Nov.17-18.
