5 days ago
NASCAR Through the Gears: Kyle Larson sinks, Ross Chastain rises, Tom Cruise kicks the tires
Think we can slow the roll on all that talk about Kyle Larson being the planet's best race-car driver?
While a lot of guys make it look easy sometimes, some of the guys make it look easy all the time. Kyle had always been one of those "all the time" guys. Is he still?
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Let's just say, there won't likely be a lot of talk about teeing up another attempt at the Indy-Charlotte double next year. Is all that fair? Probably not. Everyone in every sport has a bad day. And/or a bad night.
Sunday, Kyle had both, when he lost the wheel and tested SAFER Barriers at both Indianapolis and Charlotte.
It was that kind of day, and night, for Kyle Larson.
Sounds like Kyle needs a good cleansing of the palate. Barring changes in his schedule, he'll get one Friday when he returns to Indiana for some short-track sprint-car action on the dirt at Lawrenceburg.
From there, it's south toward Nashville for the next NASCAR stop and, thankfully, a flip of the calendar to put May behind him.
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On the other hand, there's Ross Chastain. He'd been putting together a solid season free of too many clankers, but hadn't been leading many laps and therefore was kinda/sorta off the radar.
Guess what. Sunday night at Charlotte, he put together a solid night, free of issues, but remained in the shadows without leading laps … until everything changed.
INDY'S WILD WEEK Kyle Larson isn't big story as Indy 500 nears. Roger Penske, others driving news cycle
First Gear: William Byron dominates Charlotte, Ross Chastain wins
In eight of 12 starts before Sunday night, Ross the Boss had finished between second and 12th, but had only led laps in two races and was 11th in points, with no stage wins and therefore no playoff points to carry into the postseason.
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Everything changed late Sunday when Chastain's fresher tires helped him pass William Byron and hang on for his sixth career Cup victory.
Billy the Kid was in no mood for consolation, but he won the first three stages to collect a few more bonus points, and 65 total points (to Chastain's 50) to increase his overall points lead. That could pay off in a regular-season points championship and the 15 playoff bonus points that come with it.
And we say all that because we all know how such things can pay off in September and October.
Chastain has now won races in each of the past four seasons, so Sunday was no big surprise or upset. But if they offered bonus points for 'degree of difficulty,' he and his No. 1 Chevy team would be rolling in 'em after this past weekend.
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A crash in pre-qualifying practice was bad enough to force Chastain into a backup car, which would start dead-last in the 40-car field. The 'Boys in the Shop' put aside any need for sleep to put their driver in a good race car. It doesn't usually pay off, much less in such a big way. But it's good to know it can. Some team wins are more teamy than others.
Second Gear: Amazon Prime Video reviews and non-reviews
Well, NASCAR's first Cup race on Amazon's Prime Video has come and gone, and the reviews couldn't produce a bigger gulf.
For better and worse, the best way to check the pulse on such things is to peruse 'social' media. And man, what a weirdly mixed bag.
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On one side, you have the Prime lovers. They loved having Junior Earnhardt back in the broadcast booth and loved seeing Carl Edwards back in their lives.
And frankly, if you didn't enjoy Prime's NASCAR theme, courtesy of John Fogerty and Eric Church, I can't help you.
Maybe even better, they loved the near-disappearance of full-blown commercial breaks (they only arrived at stage breaks). And were overjoyed at watching those last 55 laps without even those mildly irritating side-by-side ads that let you continue watching the race on half the screen.
Makes you wonder how we survived all those years on our 19-inch Zenith.
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You want numbers to back things up? Here you go, courtesy of the CawsNjaws website: Sunday night featured just nine minutes of traditional commercial breaks (again, during stage breaks) and 42 minutes of the side-by-side stuff with the commercial and race on the screen together.
The most recent regular-season Cup race, at Kansas, had 39 minutes of old-school commercial breaks and just six minutes of side-by-side. So it probably depends on what you hate more (or less) — total breakaways or that side-by-side spoonin' action.
On the other side of the reviews, there basically are no reviews. Those folks don't have Prime, will not be forced to get Prime, and frankly, might quit Amazon altogether and start going back to Winn-Dixie to buy their Folgers and Quaker Oats.
Third Gear: Tom Cruise is kicking the NASCAR tires
Man oh man, those were a couple of tall gears, so let's make shorter work of the next two.
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Tom Cruise, whose long-awaited 'Top Gun' sequel was a huge hit a few years ago, is ready to give the same treatment to his 1990 stock-car effort, 'Days of Thunder.'
OK, maybe Tom isn't all-in on a NASCAR-themed reboot. But it appears to be on the table, considering what he told the 'Today' show last week.
'All of these things we're working on … we're discussing 'Days of Thunder' and 'Top Gun: Maverick.' There are numerous other films that we're actively working on right now.'
In Hollywood, everyone is always 'talking' about future projects. So there's that. But also in Hollywood, not everyone is Tom Cruise.
Fourth Gear: Brad Keselowski doesn't fall apart!
Yes! Maybe the racing gods were focusing their negative mojo on Kyle Larson this past weekend, but they certainly, and finally, took their boots off Brad Keselowski's HANS Device.
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Kez did something Sunday night he'd done 155 previous times in his long Cup Series career. He finished fifth for his 156th career top-five.
Should be no big deal, except this top-five came after the worst run of racing (and luck) Kez has dealt with in a career dating back to 2008. And it appears he used a different strategy, though obviously not intentionally.
In recent weeks, Kez had been running fair-to-excellent, only to get derailed by a broken this-or-that or a dreaded wrong place/wrong time situation. Sunday at Charlotte, he kept quiet throughout, didn't even post a top-10 in the first three stages.
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But he worked his way from 13th after Stage 3 toward the front, and even led five laps during some pit cycling. Afterward, he said, 'I feel like if we could have gotten to the lead, we could have won the race.'
Well, yeah, that's generally the way it works when it does work. But take the top-five and hold tight to that sliver of momentum.
The much-needed fifth saw Kez leapfrog from 33rd in the standings all the way to … um … 32nd. But still, progress.
— Email Ken Willis at
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR: Kyle Larson hates May, Prime hates ads, Tom Cruise drops hint
