NASCAR Monday Mash-Up: RFK steps up, Hendrick takes a step back
This weekend, NASCAR fans were treated to another extra long weekend. Action in the Irish Hills of Michigan. Both the Xfinity and Cup Series took to the track this weekend along with the ARCA Menards Series. There were some issues that drivers had with the 2-mile track.
The ARCA race kicked the weekend off. The same story as most weeks in the series, Jess Love came out on top. Frankie Muniz picked up his first career top-5 finish. Perhaps he is building momentum as the season gets into the nitty gritty part of the year.
When it came to NASCAR action, the Xfinity Series got things started. We saw a little bit of chaos as all three Joe Gibbs Racing cars ended up wrecking.
John Hunter Nemechek got Ty Gibbs loose and then Sammy Smith drove into traffic. Carson Hocevar was included in the wreck and it did number on a few cars. Lots of debris in this incident between teammates.
The big takeaway from the race had to be JHN winning his fifth race of the season. It was also the 200th win for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series. This is a big deal for Nemechek and JGR as they move on this season.
The No. 20 team looks like the one to beat this season.
So, with the Xfinity Series offering a little drama and some fun racing, enter the Cup Series. When the green flag dropped, you just knew there were going to be issues.
NASCAR Cup Series drivers wipe out on Sunday
To start the festivities on Sunday, we had a nice little weather delay. It was a rainy Sunday in Michigan and it was hard to find a window to race. However, NASCAR eventually got things going. Christopher Bell led the field to green and the Toyotas had a strong showing as a whole.
Ford also had a strong showing, but more on that later.
Kyle Busch found himself in the wall and out of the race early on Sunday. He wasn’t exactly happy with Ryan Blaney after the race.
It wasn’t long before we saw the second victim of this race. Inexplicably a few drivers found their tires going down at random times. For Chase Elliott, it was unfortunate that he was the first one to experience it.
No one touched him, he didn’t do anything wild, just lost the car and hit the wall. This puts Elliott firmly in must-win territory for the playoffs.
Shortly after Elliott wrecked, the weather moved back into the area. The pace car came onto the track and escorted the field to pit road. 74 laps completed, the red flag came out and the race was eventually put off until Monday afternoon.
Monday afternoon racing
As we got ready to go today, the rain put things off for another half hour or so, but NASCAR saw the window and took it. Once the track was ready, the race was back on.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for Hendrick Motorsports, Alex Bowman found the wall. Three of the four Hendrick cars were DNF on the day. Good news, Kyle Larson finished fifth overall.
With that little accident out of the way, this race was ready to go to the end. Outside of a really bad pit road mistake by Tyler Reddick’s crew, it was a great section of green flag racing to end things.
With the speed that Martin Truex Jr. had, it was hard to see Chris Buescher holding him off. However, he got off of pit road quickly and then defended his position. Truex threw a few moves at Buescher and wasn’t able to make it happen.
So, RFK and Buescher have two wins in a row and look like a strong playoff contender as the regular season winds down. Bossman Brad Keselowski finished fourth when the checkered flag waved. Strong day overall for the organization as a whole.