Roger Diez
Early in the season it was beginning to look like there would only be a couple of race winners this season, but now five drivers have qualified for the playoffs.
The latest is Martinsville winner Denny Hamlin, who led 274 of the 400 laps in the Cookout 400. It was Hamlin’s fifth Martinsville win and his first since 2015. His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell made it a 1-2 finish for the team and Bubba Wallace made it a top three for Toyota. Rounding out the top five were the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets of Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson.
The Hendrick team has all four cars in the top five in point standings with Willam Byron at the top, Larson second, Elliott third, and Alex Bowman fifth. Bell is fourth and Hamlin sixth.
Although Sunday’s Cup race was relatively calm, Saturday’s Xfinity contest was a high-speed demolition derby with 15 cautions. It culminated with a massive last-lap pileup when Sammy Smith deliberately drove through leader Taylor Gray. Smith was fined $25,000 and lost 50 driver points, while Gray, along with Jeb Burton, was fined $5,000 in behavioral penalties for “interrupting a medical situation” in the Infield Care Center.
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This weekend the Cup and Xfinity series race at another longstanding venue, Darlington Raceway. Known as “The Lady in Black” and “The Track Too Tough to Tame,” the first NASCAR Superspeedway is famous for the Darlington Stripe, a badge of honor for stock car racers.
Only six active drivers have won there, Hamlin leading with four victories. Brad Keselowski and Eric Jones have two wins apiece, and one-time Darlington victors are Larson, Byron, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, and defending winner Chase Briscoe.
Cup qualifying airs on Prime on Saturday at 9:35 a.m. with the Xfinity race on the CW at 12:30 p.m. Sunday’s Goodyear 400 airs at noon on FS1.
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Formula 1 is back in action this weekend with a significant change in the driver lineup. As I alluded to last week, there was some question as to who would team with Max Verstappen for the Japanese Grand Prix.
After two races with disappointing results, Liam Lawson has been demoted to the junior team, Racing Bull, and Yuki Tsunoda will be in the second Red Bull for the foreseeable future. Tsunoda was understandably disappointed when the seat went to Lawson at the start of the season, but now he must prove he is worthy of the promotion. Red Bull has shown in the past that the position of teammate for the four-time champion is not necessarily a long-term proposition.
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The Japanese Grand Prix has a 38-year history, with four races at Fuji Speedway and 34 at Suzuka, an 18-turn, 3.608-mile course that features an overpass, unique in Formula 1.
Verstappen has won the last three Japanese Grands Prix since the 2020-21 COVID shutdown. Lewis Hamilton has five wins, most of all active drivers, and Fernando Alonso has won there twice.
McLaren leads manufacturers with nine victories, Ferrari and Red Bull have seven each, Mercedes six, and Williams three.
Suzuka is one of the most challenging circuits on the F1 calendar. Because the track is across the International Date Line, practice and qualifying is Friday. The race itself will air at 10 p.m. Saturday on ESPN.
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And in off-track news, NASCAR has joined the stick and ball sports by appointing its first commissioner, Steve Phelps.
Phelps has a 20-year history in NASCAR management, most recently as NASCAR president. In his new role he will be responsible for oversight of all NASCAR, IMSA and International Speedway Corp., operations.