The year started off with a flourish as Denny Hamlin narrowly edged Toyota teammate Martin Truex Jr. to win the closest finish in Daytona 500 history, a margin of victory measured by a scant 0.010 seconds. Twelve races later NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series is set to begin its second half in a similar tone, with the Toyotas holding the top positions and those not in the Joe Gibbs Racing camp left scrambling to close the sizeable gap.
FIRST HALF SUMMARIZATION
It’s a Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota world and everyone else is just racing in it
Including Furniture Row Racing, which formed a tight alliance with JGR over the offseason making Truex quasi-teammates with Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth, Toyota’s flagship team has won eight of 13 races and led 62 percent of all laps. That’s overwhelming dominance, and based on Truex’s superiority Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway — he led a NASCAR-record 588 miles of 600 — Toyota is showing no signs of relinquishing its stranglehold.
Significantly improved on-track product
After a rather large number of bland races last season, NASCAR had little recourse but to convert full time to a low downforce aerodynamic rules package in an attempt to stimulate the action. The modifications have worked in spades. Drivers can pass, and side-by-side racing is no longer a figment of the imagination with the Atlanta, Fontana, Bristol, Richmond and Dover races some the best in recent memory at those particular venues. Although additional tweaks are needed, NASCAR’s willingness to be flexible is a very encouraging sign entering the second half.
Tony Stewart’s delayed start to his retirement tour
What was supposed to be a season-long goodbye to one of NASCAR’s all-time greats became a bit truncated when Stewart suffered a burst fracture of his L1 vertebra in a January all-terrain vehicle accident. The injury prevented the three-time Cup Series champion from making a final Daytona 500 start — a race he’s never won — and caused him to miss eight races overall. Stewart returned to competition April 24 but hasn’t yet looked capable of turning his last season into anything close to how Jeff Gordon retired a year ago.
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Lug nuts, lug nuts, lug nuts
NASCAR altered how it officiates pit road last season, but it took until 2016 before the procedural change began causing consternation. Specifically, the practice of teams not securing the maximum five lug nuts spurred a rash of loose wheels and prompted an outcry among drivers to revert back to the old rules. The sanctioning body eventually did just that on April 25, but only after Stewart went on an elongated rant about safety and NASCAR’s commitment to it. Stewart was fined $35,000, money he considers well spent. However, lug nuts remain a story with three high-profile crew chiefs having since been suspended for violating the updated policy.
BEST RACE
Great finishes have been commonplace with Daytona and Phoenix each requiring replay to confirm the winner. But from beginning to end Dover was the best Sprint Cup race of the first half. Thanks to the low downforce package and a softer compound tire, drivers slid around the high-banked track throughout the afternoon. As tires showed wear, some drivers were able to charge to the front while others fell back all culminating in a tremendous three-way battle for the win between Kenseth, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. Kenseth ultimately prevailed, but the intensity was unparalleled and highlighted a nice juxtaposition of the veteran Kenseth fending off a pair of rising stars.
STRANGEST MOMENT
When drivers, officials, spectators, the media and a national viewing audience are all collectively befuddled by what’s going on, you know something quite peculiar happened. That the confusion occurred in the middle of a marquee event only made it all the more surreal. And so NASCAR’s All-Star Race went, as an unforeseen hiccup with the format caused mass confusion and overshadowed what actually was some terrific racing.
DUMBFOUNDING MOMENT
NASCAR CEO and Chairman Brian France publicly endorsing probable Republican nominee Donald Trump at a campaign rally on the campus of Valdosta (Ga.) State University. Enough said.
SAY THAT AGAIN
“We’re putting the drivers in jeopardy to get track position at the end. It’s not bit anybody yet, but I guarantee you that envelope is going to keep getting pushed until somebody gets hurt.”
–Stewart imploring NASCAR to amend its lug policy.
“I didn’t hit the wrong dune, I just went over one and nose-planted into the bottom of it. It was about a 20-25 foot drop. I didn’t think it was a straight drop on the other side.”
— Stewart explaining the ATV accident that broke his back and sidelined him for eight races.
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“I’m disappointed. [The] team is mad. I’m mad. The fans are mad. We can’t sit here and b**** about it. We’re going to go to work.”
–Dale Earnhardt Jr. encapsulating his team’s first half performance.
“He went to get down to the bottom and parked it in (Turns) 3 and 4, and I had already decided to go down there. So I thought, ‘Man, I’m going to give him a little nudge,’ and we both have got wins and we’re racing for fun getting these trophies.”
–Edwards justifying shoving Busch, his teammate, out of the lead on the final lap at Richmond.
“It’s racing, I guess.”
–Busch’s response to Edwards’ forcefulness.
“Obviously, the relationship has changed. It’s not business as usual.”
–Hendrick Motorsports general manager Doug Duchardt on Stewart-Haas Racing’s defection to the Ford camp.
DRIVERS TO WATCH IN SECOND HALF
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
An up-and-down first 13 races impelled Earnhardt to vent his frustrations recently. Understandably so considering he’s led all of 49 laps — a surefire indication that No. 88 hasn’t had the speed to be competitive — while sloppiness in the pits has routinely cost him valuable track position. Although every team hits rough patches, what’s alarming is that the communication between Earnhardt and crew chief Greg Ives remains a work in progress despite this being their second year together.
Joey Logano
No one won more than Logano in 2015, but thus far he’s been shut out of Victory Lane (excluding the exhibition All-Star Race). Ranked 11th in points, he’s not in danger of missing the Chase for the Sprint Cup, but he has a ways to go before he looks anything like the title contender he was last season.
Kyle Larson
Following an underwhelming sophomore season and a slow start to 2016, questions were raised whether Larson was deserving of the adulation he’s received as a budding superstar. In recent weeks, though, the 23 year old has shown why many regard him as the next Gordon or Stewart. Still, Larson needs to win — something he’s yet to do in 88 career starts.
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KEY STORYLINES TO FOLLOW
The team that arises to challenge JGR is…?
NASCAR’s ebb-and-flow nature virtually assures another team will catch and eventually supplant JGR at some point. The organization best positioned is the only non-Toyota outfit to win over the past eight races: Team Penske. Brad Keselowski ran down and passed Busch to earn the victory at Las Vegas, had a car strong enough to win at Kansas and Dover (though he did not win those races), and enters the second half riding a four-race top 10 streak. As for Logano, had he not wrecked in three consecutive races — none of his own creation — he would be higher than 11th in points.
The disintegrating relationship between Hendrick, Stewart-Haas Racing
As the season moves along the stakes increase substantially, especially when the Chase begins in mid-September. With SHR jumping to Ford beginning next season, can the close-knit relationship between SHR and Hendrick, which provides Tony Stewart’s team with cars, engines and technical data, continue harmoniously, or will SHR find itself on a proverbial island when the playoffs start and not have the same access?
Young talent continues to emerge
Rookie Chase Elliott has proven to be a worthy successor to Jeff Gordon’s seat. He has more top-five and top-10 finishes than Gordon did at the same juncture last year and looks poised to win any week now. Although freshman counterpart Ryan Blaney isn’t as consistent, he’s shown flashes that he’s ready to break through. And don’t overlook Larson and Austin Dillon, each of whom has had his moments this season and appears set to continue that upswing into the second half.
