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Yahoo
29-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Larry McReynolds vs. Mark Martin? Nah, but let's talk NASCAR playoffs anyway
If Matt Kenseth killed the old championship system, did Joey Logano kill the current method? Are both true? Is neither true? Or is the answer somewhere between those two extremes? Answers: Doubtful. Probably not. Yeah, sounds about right. Such things are being hashed out publicly this week, and among those weighing in is one of the very best NASCAR racers who just so happened to never win a championship: Hall of Famer Mark Martin, who, by the way, was seemingly and inadvertently dragged into this argument by America's Crew Chief. We'll explain, but first, some history. Mild Matty K in 2003: One win, one championship The 'old way' of crowning a champion ended after Matt Kenseth won the 2003 championship. Mild Matt was a picture of consistency that year, but he wasn't consistently at the front of the field. In fact, he won just one race. Didn't matter, because the championship was determined by season-long points gathering, with the only bonuses being a one-time five-pointer for leading a lap, and another five if you led the most laps in the race — 10 extra points available in each race, where the winner received 175, which was actually 180 because by winning he obviously led at least one lap. Each race runner-up back then got 170 points, and if you're looking for you're looking for a big glitch in the old system, it's this: Take those 170 points, add five for leading a lap and five more leading the most laps, and yep, the second-place driver would earn just as many points as the winner. You could win the Daytona 500 and go to Week 2 without the points lead. Weird but true. Still with us? That long-ago formula was how Dale Earnhardt won seven championships. It's how Richard Petty won seven before that, though the method of collecting season-long points changed midway through King Richard's reign. NASCAR first went playoff racin' in 2004 NASCAR had been tinkering with ideas for a postseason when presented with the perfect time to strike: Right after Matt Kenseth's one-win 2003 championship season (that one victory came at Vegas, by the way). Kurt Busch was the first champ crowned after a postseason, which began as a 10-race mini-season, where the playoff driver who gathered the most points during that span was considered the champ. In the years following, the playoffs were tweaked, tweaked and tweaked again, and eventually they landed on the system in place for the past 11 years — 16 drivers whittled to 12 after three playoff races, to eight after three more, to a final four after three more, with the 10th and final playoff race being a winner-take-all among those four. Generally speaking, the eventual champ had put together a good all-around season, followed by a steady-to-great playoffs. Then came Joey Logano in 2024. Joey Logano's lucky (and timely) 2024 championship run Logano was 15th in points after the regular season, but was in no danger of missing the 16-driver playoffs because he'd earned automatic entry with a Week 19 win at Nashville. Though a two-time champ, he slid into the playoffs without much fanfare, but then he won the first playoff race, at Atlanta, to secure a Round of 12 berth. Logano barely missed transferring from the Round of 12 to the Round of 8, however … … He advanced from ninth place to the Round of 8 when Alex Bowman's car was DQ'd following post-race inspections at Charlotte. Joey not only survived, but wouldn't you know it, he opened the Round of 8 with a win at Las Vegas, and after finishes of 28th and 10th the next two weeks, he clutched up and won the final at Phoenix for championship number three. He got hot at the right time, lucky at the right time, then hot again at the right time. It doesn't often work out in that fashion, but it can, and some aren't crazy about it, which leads us to Mark Martin. Larry Mac vs. Mark Martin? Not really Martin keeps pretty active on social media, and he's not shy about preaching the virtues of the old season-long championship battle, even though the Cup title was often clinched prior to the final weekend. Hell, sometimes two weeks prior. Like Phil Mickelson at the U.S. Open, Martin famously finished second in the Cup standings five times. He raced for championships under the old system and under the original playoff method, but never under today's system. Martin joined the current discussion because some fans thought he was being called out — unfavorably, they felt — by longtime crew chief-turned-broadcaster Larry McReynolds, who co-hosts a NASCAR show on SiriusXM satellite radio. Danielle Trotta, his co-host, suggested a racer on the current playoff subcommittee (they're examining potential ways to tweak the modern system) badly wants to go back to the pre-2004 ways. 'I bet it's a driver that's not won a championship,' Larry Mac said to Trotta. Uh-oh. Chances are, he was speaking of Denny Hamlin, but some knee-jerk reactors thought he was taking a shot at Mark Martin, which would've been an extremely weird thing to do in this case, but knee-jerk reactions, by definition, don't come with a lot of thought. So the knee-jerkers did what they often do, they went on X to rat out Larry Mac — and rat him out directly to Mark Martin, who didn't really take the bait but did reiterate his love of the old ways. What does the 2023 NASCAR champ have to say about all this? Next up: Ryan Blaney, the 2023 champ who seems to fall somewhere in the middle of this argument. Also speaking on SiriusXM this week, Blaney said he favors the original playoff format, back when just 10 drivers made the postseason and, once there, reset the standings and raced for points over the entire 10-race playoff. That's back when it was called the 'Chase for the Championship' by most but officially known as the Chase for the Nextel Cup. 'Do I have my ideal championship format? Yeah,' Blaney said. 'I was a huge fan of the initial Chase. Last 10 weeks of the year, you kind of have somewhat of a reset in points and then you go 10 races and whoever had the best 10 races was going to win the championship.' Solid idea, but two problems. First, don't bet on NASCAR shrinking the playoff field from 16, and certainly not all the way back to 10. More playoff cars, more playoff exposure for the sponsors who largely fund horsepower. And they won't likely return to a 10-race points chase that could see the leader go into the final weekend needing nothing more, say, than a 25th-place finish to clinch the Cup. Right now, it's all theory, but when the smoke clears, here's a certainty: Whether things stay the same, return to yesteryear or fall somewhere in between, some people won't like it. — Email Ken Willis at This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR feud? Larry Mac vs. Mark Martin vs. Matt Kenseth vs. Joey Logano
NBC Sports
17-04-2025
- Automotive
- NBC Sports
Rockingham Speedway weekend schedule, TV info for NASCAR Xfinity, Trucks and ARCA East
NASCAR will return to Rockingham Speedway with its national series for the first time in over a decade. For the first time since 2013, the Truck Series will practice, qualify and race Friday at the track popularly known as 'The Rock.' The track, which is located about 70 miles southeast of Charlotte in Rockingham, North Carolina, will play host to the ARCA Menards East and Xfinity series in a Saturday afternoon doubleheader that has been announced as a sellout. On Feb. 22, 2004, Matt Kenseth won the most recent Cup race at The Rock, which played host to NASCAR's premier series from 1965-2004. Jamie McMurray won the most recent Xfinity race at Rockingham on Feb. 21, 2004. Cup Series veterans Kasey Kahne (2012) and Kyle Larson ('13) won the most recent truck races at Rockingham. There are no Cup drivers entered in the Truck or Xfinity series this weekend. Once barely classified as a speedway (1 mile and above), Rockingham now barely meets the requirements of a short track. The oval is measured at 0.94 miles, slightly shorter than its former 1.017-mile length. Rockingham Speedway schedule (All Times Eastern) Friday, April 18 Garage open 7:30 a.m. - 10 p.m. — Truck Series 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. — ARCA East Series 12 - 6 p.m. — Xfinity Series Track activity 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. — ARCA East practice 12:30 - 1:20 p.m. — Truck Series practice, FS2 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. — Truck Series qualifying, FS2 3:05 - 3:55 p.m. — Xfinity Series practice (CW App) 5 p.m. — Truck race (200 laps, 188 miles, Stage 1 at Lap 45, Stage 2 at Lap 90; FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) Saturday, April 19 6:30 a.m. - 9:30 p.m. — Xfinity Series 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. — ARCA East Series 9:30 a.m. - 10:20 a.m. — ARCA East practice 10:35 - 10:55 a.m. — ARCA East qualifying 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. — Xfinity qualifying (CW App) 1 p.m. — ARCA East race (125 laps, 117.5 miles, Flo Racing, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) 4 p.m. — Xfinity race (250 laps, 235 miles, Stage 1 at Lap 60, Stage 2 at Lap 120; CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) Weekend weather Friday: Mostly sunny skies with a high of 83 degrees and winds south to southwest at 10-15 mph. It's expected to be 81 degrees with no chance of rain at the green flag of the truck race. Saturday: Overcast with a stray shower or possible thunderstorm and a high of 83 degrees with winds west to southwest at 5-10 mph. It's expected to be 82 degrees with a 15% chance of rain at the green flag of the Xfinity race.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
NASCAR Bristol race embraces tradition of over 60 years of history at storied racetrack
NASCAR is coming back to its "Last Great Colosseum," Bristol Motor Speedway. Bristol Motor Speedway is a fan-favorite track on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit known for high banks and close racing. That close racing usually produces one or several exciting crashes that can end with drivers fighting or throwing stuff at each other (see Tony Stewart vs. Matt Kenseth in the 2012 night race or Rusty Wallace vs. Dale Earnhardt in 1995). The short track is a staple of the NASCAR season, so let's take a brief look at some of the history the track has — starting from the beginning. Shop Bristol NASCAR tickets Carl Moore, Larry Carrier and R.G. Pope opened what was called Bristol International Raceway in 1961, the location sat on a 100-acre dairy farm. The racetrack was initially asphalt and had 22 degrees of banking in the turns. The track was repaved multiple times by 1969 and the banking was raised up to 36 degrees. Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway don't even have that much banking in those high-speed tracks. Stadium lights went up around the speedway in 1978, providing the opportunity for the exciting and infamous night race. Cale Yarborough won that race. Finally, 1992 brought the biggest change to the speedway when it went from asphalt to the concrete racing surface that we see now. Bristol Motor Speedway now sits at 28 degrees maximum banking with 4-8 degrees in the back stretch and 5-9 in the front stretch. NASCAR ran races on the concrete surface until the 2021 season when the spring race was put on dirt. The makeup of the "NextGen" cars allowed for races to be run on dirt. Three races were run on the dirt surface, with Joey Logano winning the first. Kyle Busch won the second year's race with a last-corner pass of Chris Buescher in 2022 and Christopher Bell won the final dirt race in 2023. NASCAR elected to move the race back to concrete after fans around the sport clamored for it to be taken off dirt, starting with the 2024 race. Bristol has hosted all kinds of events, with multiple sports making their way to the speedway. Shop Bristol NASCAR tickets There have been three football games at Bristol Motor Speedway. The first was in 1961, when Washington battled Philadelphia in an NFL preseason game. The Eagles won, 17-10. The Tennessee Volunteers battled the Virginia Tech Hokies in 2016 with the Volunteers winning, 45-24. There was a lesser-known college football game the week after the Tennessee-Virginia Tech game in 2016. East Tennessee State earned a 34-31 upset over Western Carolina on the Bristol Motor Speedway infield. The Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds will be playing in the first Major League Baseball game at Bristol Motor Speedway on August 2, 2025. The "MLB Speedway Classic" will be the first MLB game in Tennessee. The Food City 500 is set for 2 p.m. CT on Sunday, April 13 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. This is the first of two races at Bristol and three races in Tennessee for the 2025 season. Friday, April 11: Weather Guard Truck Race NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, 6:30 p.m. CT on FS1 Saturday, April 12: SciAlps 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race, 4 p.m. CT on The CW Sunday, April 13: Food City 500 NASCAR Cup Series race, 2 p.m. CT on FS1. More: NASCAR Martinsville race winners and losers: Denny Hamlin dominates, Austin Cindric runs out of power Denny Hamlin managed his tires well in a difficult race as the tire compound Goodyear used in the race chewed up tires on the concrete surface. However, Hamlin was able to lead 163 laps and earn the victory in last year's Bristol spring race. Here is the top 10 from last year's Food City 500 Denny Hamlin Martin Truex Jr. Brad Keselowski Alex Bowman Kyle Larson John Hunter Nemechek Chris Buescher Chase Elliott Ty Gibbs Christopher Bell Shop Bristol NASCAR tickets Follow sports writer Austin Chastain on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @ChastainAJ or reach him via email at achastain@ We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn't influence our coverage. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR Bristol race embraces tradition of over 60 years of history at storied racetrack
