Roger Diez
Richard Petty once said of the Daytona 500, “It’s better to be lucky than good.” And that proved to be true again last Sunday.
William Byron weaved through the last-lap carnage to take his second 500 in a row on lap 202 in overtime, ahead of Tyler Reddick and Jimmie Johnson in his best Gen 7 car finish. And there were some who were not so lucky. Helio Castroneves and his Trackhouse teammate Ross Chastain were out in an early crash as was Martin Truex Jr.
Fords were strong early on with Team Penske the dominating Ford team, leading a collective 125 laps and taking both stage wins. But Joey Logano precipitated the “big one” 17 laps from the end, going for a hole that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had just closed. Penske teammate Ryan Blaney was the first Ford finisher in seventh just ahead of teammate Austin Cindric in eighth. Two Chevys and four Toyotas beat them to the checker.
Bubba Wallace took the checker in Thursday’s Duel 1 in his 23XI Toyota and Duel 2 went to Cindric’s Penske Ford.
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On Friday Corey Haim finished the Craftsman Truck series’ Fresh From Florida 250 race behind Parker Kligerman but was declared the winner when Kligerman’s Chevy failed post-race inspection. Jesse Love won the wreck-strewn United Rentals 300 Xfinity series race on Saturday in a Chevy ahead of the Fords of Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed.
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A year ago, Daniel Suarez won the closest three-car finish in NASCAR Cup history and this weekend they’re back at the mile and a half oval that races like a superspeedway. Fortunately, Atlanta is not prone to the huge wrecks that are common at Daytona and Talladega.
Eight drivers in the field have won at Atlanta. In addition to Suarez, the other one-time winners are Chase Elliott, Blaney and Denny Hamlin. Logano, Byron, Denny Hamlin, and Kyle Busch have each won twice there.
Perhaps based on their Daytona performance, opening odds favor Team Penske with Blaney 8-1, Logano 9-1, and Cindric 11-0. Kyle Busch is also 11-1, Byron and Chase Elliott 13-2, and Brad Keselowski 18-1. Suarez is at 17-1, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell tied at 18-1, with Bubba Wallace and Chris Buescher both 20-1.
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The weekend schedule shows the FR8 208 for the Craftsman Truck series airing Saturday on FS1 at 10:30 a.m. followed by Xfinity series’ Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 at 2 p.m. on the CW. Sunday, Fox will broadcast the Ambetter Health 400 for the Cup series starting at noon.
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And finally, if anyone was still in doubt as to whether racing was more a sport or more an entertainment endeavor, that question was answered last Tuesday evening at London’s O2 arena.
In the past, Formula 1 teams have revealed their new car designs and liveries for the upcoming season individually, at a time and place of their own choosing. But this year the sanctioning body staged a huge extravaganza to reveal the entire field at once. When the giant curtain went up, 10 cars and 20 drivers stood on the big stage, a panoply of glittering machinery and smiling, waving drivers.
To further emphasize the entertainment aspect, the whole thing was hosted by a British comedian and featured musical acts featuring Machine Gun Kelly and others.
Next up is the sports aspect of F1 at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain, where season testing will take place from Wednesday to Friday next week. The teams will then have two weeks to absorb what they learned and make any necessary tweaks before the season opener in Australia on March 16.