Bubba Wallace Accused Of Race Manipulation, NASCAR Fans Embarrassed By What They Saw & Dale Jr. Bends The Knee
I don't know what was more painful – the first 267 laps of that automobile race yesterday for us fans, or the last 30 for William Byron?
Sheesh. I don't even know where to begin with that NASCAR snoozer. I know they all ain't gonna be home runs, but goodness, that was brutal. Besides Ryan Blaney passing Tyler Reddick there at the end, did we ever get an actual pass for the lead? I'm serious. I don't think we did, did we?
Maybe that one restart in the middle of the race where Byron and Christopher Bell were jockeying for first briefly. But other than that? I don't think we got a green flag pass for the lead.
At Darlington! This is a crown jewel track, mind you. Thank God for Terry Labonte crashing 14 times. Without those three cautions, we would've got NO action at all. What a dud. Sad.
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But great for Denny Hamlin! That's two in a row for Den, whose race team seems to have come to life ever since Progressive came on board as a main sponsor. Weird how that works.
We'll get to Denny today. We'll mainly, however, talk about how boring Darlington was. I'd also like to hit on the Dale Jr.-Lamar Jackson dispute (silly), get everyone's thoughts on Throwback weekend (drivers hate it!), Casey Mears stops by (who?) and we'll end the day with Ryan Blaney's sister, Erin (not ugly!).
Sound good? Good.
Four tires, enough fuel to keep us all awake during that race, and maybe a better calculator next time for William Byron's crew chief, Rudy Fugle … Monday Morning Pit-Stop – the ‘Maybe Darlington Should Just Stick To The Southern 500?’ edition – is LIVE!
Shockingly, NASCAR fans ain't thrilled with the product
Now, to be fair, we do this 4 or 5 times a season, so what you're about to read ain't gonna shock you …
NASCAR fans weren't happy yesterday. I get it. Frankly, neither was I, but I just changed the channel to the Red Sox game and went about my day.
Like I said, the racing wasn't great. For much of the race, it was nonexistent. William Byron had a perfect game going for about two hours, and it was literally the only exciting thing going. After he finally lost the lead, it just sort of became a boring ass-kicking.
We always look for someone, or something, to blame after these races. The car? The track? The package? A lot of times, it's just the racer.
Martin Truex Jr. used to do this a bunch. Kyle Larson ruined a ton of races during his championship season. Lord knows it happened most weeks back in the 70s and 80s. Maybe the 24 team just brought an absolute monster to Darlington, and nobody else was even close?
Or, you know, maybe this new woke NASCAR car STINKS and you can't pass anyone and the racing is GARBAGE?
Either-or!
Thanks, Bubba!
I could go on and on. It's a war zone over on Elon's Twitter right now. Shocking, I know. NASCAR fans are usually so forgiving. Not like them to piss on the sport after a rough 300 laps.
I get it, though. I think it hurts more because it's Darlington. We love Darlington. NASCAR fans have a soft spot in ‘em for Darlington. It's our comfort food.
But, again, maybe it needs to be just the Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend, and nothing else? We did that for years, you know, and I think it worked out pretty well.
And, at least if that race sucks ass, nobody will know it because we'll all be watching whatever the Sunday night college football game is that night! Win-win!
What do y'all think? Zach.Dean@OutKick.com!
OK, let's address the conspiracy elephant in the room! Did Bubba wreck Terry (Kyle!) on purpose there at the end to give Tyler Reddick a chance to regain the lead? Did he give him the old Earnhardt treatment?
No. Come on.
Throwback shmowback, Casey, Dale & Erin!
Yeah, I think the video is pretty clear, right? Hate Bubba all you want – and I hear a lot of you do! – but it's hard to argue with that. Labonte passed him pretty easily, and executed a great slide job … except he then brake-checked the shit out of Bubba and crashed for the third time.
Three wrecks for Kyle yesterday! Not great. Like I said, without him, William Byron probably leads every lap. Bad teammate!
Now, I'm sure you've noticed – and are undoubtedly annoyed by it at this point – that I keep calling Larson Terry Labonte. That's because he ran a great throwback scheme yesterday of Terry's old car. One of the more iconic ones in NASCAR history, in my opinion.
Anyway, this is now Year No. 10 of Darlington's Throwback Weekend, and, I'm gonna be honest with you … I'm thinking it's gonna end sometime soon:
Look, I love the throwback weekend, but it ain't what it used to be.
No. 1, it used to be during Darlington's Southern 500 weekend, which is Labor Day. That's the race where it started, and it's where it should remain. Not the spring.
No. 2, Chase is right. William Byron raced a Jeff Gordon paint scheme from 2015 yesterday. I mean, come on. You're throwing it back to 10 years ago?
Alex Bowman ran a Jimmie Johnson paint scheme from 2011! Jimmie still races occasionally! I don't know. I love seeing the old schemes and uniforms, I do, but running a scheme from 10 years ago at Darlington in the spring just doesn't do it for me.
Or, clearly, Chase – who had a disgusting-looking throwback, so maybe take what he says with a grain of salt?
OK, couple quickies (hey now!) on the way out. First up? Speaking of throwing it back, let's all welcome Casey Mears to class in 2025!
So, Casey and Dale are talking about the 2005 season, where Mears says he was in line to win three races, but a late yellow from NASCAR messed everything up.
In the longer clip, Junior talks about the rise in cautions in NASCAR coincided perfectly with new TV deals, and he's 100% right. They also mysteriously started going away right around the time stage-racing was introduced in 2017.
Weird!
Again, NASCAR will never admit to any of it, but fans – and drivers, obviously – all saw it. Carl Edwards came forward last month and basically said that NASCAR's late caution in the 2016 championship race at Homestead drove him to an early retirement. Now poor Casey says he was screwed out of a potential Hall of Fame career. Crooks!
Speaking of Dale … he bent the knee to Lamar Jackson over the No. 8. Just like that. Can you believe it? Lamar vs. Dale lasted 24 hours, and then Junior gave him the number and wiped his hands clean of everything.
Lamar Jackson thinking that he is more popular than Dale Earnhardt Jr. is batshit crazy, but whatever. Lamar was in diapers when Dale was winning Daytona 500s. Piss off, Lamar.
Maybe focus more on not sucking ass in the playoffs, and less on your stupid ERA 8 clothing line. Just a thought.
OK, that's it for today – and this week! Big meeting. Glad we aired our grievances together.
Let's wind down with Ryan Blaney's sister – and Willy Byron's ex! – Erin Blaney.
See you at Bristol.