This past weekend had Indycar at COTA and Nascar at Martinsville. Colton Herta took his first career Indycar win and Brad Keselowski got a dominant Martinsville victory Sunday.
The Indycar race looked like a straight-forward caution-free event until the last round of pit stops with about 15 laps to go. Will Power and Alex Rossi had yet to make their final stop, despite dominating the event. It begs the question: knowing of the closed pit lane rule, why wouldn't the front runners pit earlier? It's simple: the amount of fuel that you'd have to save if you pit earlier and the longer run at the end were factors. The truth is they should've pitted earlier, it could have only benefitted them. This has been something that has hindered Indycar teams for many years, and it puzzles me why so many front-runners still make the same error.
Nascar had its annual spring race at Martinsville. As it turns out, we have learned this will be the final spring day event, as the race will move to Mother's Day and it will be a Saturday night race. Brad Keselowski dominated the race, and there wasn't a whole lot of change up and down the field. It's frustrating because the last few seasons have had some of the best races at this track. There have been more dominant short-run and long-run cars. This race felt like a "if you're good you're good" event. Guys like Truex and Harvick were in the top 10 all day yet never threatened to get anywhere near a podium place. It was a straight-forward event that showed there is much room for improvement with this package. The speed in the corners is high, I don't think this package is doing what Nascar expected. It was worth a shot at trying, but perhaps we need to look at further revisions.
Next: the 2020 schedule and the qualifying changes for Nascar. Let's start with the qualifying changes. Nascar wants the drivers to keep going on pit road and not to come to a complete stop. Qualifying is going to be a challenge on these larger tracks, I don't think the solution will ever work. Nascar doesn't want single car qualifying but there is no point in having three 5 or minute sessions if everyone is just going to draft off each other. These are the consequences of the package, this was expected. Nascar needs to get rid of this package and return more to what they had before. It wasn't that bad! Especially that we are disappearing with some of those 1.5 mile events.
The 2020 Nascar schedule brings a lot of changes. Phoenix is now the championship race, replacing Homestead. This is perhaps the biggest change, and I don't like having the race at Phoenix every year. I would love to have a different race track as the finale every season. It would definitely help overall publicity and keep everyone on their toes as to what each season may bring. Daytona in July will now be the cut-off race before the playoffs at the end of August. Daytona is perfect for this spot because it means any of the drivers outside the playoffs can make it. The field is going to be wide-open and may cause many teams to be vigilant if they're not in yet. Win and you're in is certainly a great way to have Daytona involved, and now we start the regular season and end it in Daytona. It's unfortunate the tradition of July 4th has to end for this to occur, but Indianapolis is perfect as a replacement. Indy has history and could definitely be the only track to replace Daytona. The Pocono doubleheader is another smart decision, Nascar should have more of these doubleheaders. It's a great way for more traditional tracks to keep two dates on the schedule. I definitely would like some mid-week events added and I really like the way Nascar is thinking. It's forward progress, not everything people wanted but it's a start. This schedule has become stagnant and needs revitalization.
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