Kyle Larson had the fastest vehicle in the NASCAR Cup Series at Iowa Speedway, but his day ended early in the final stage when he crashed while racing three-wide with Brad Keselowski and Daniel Suarez.
Larson was held up by Keselowski on the backstretch during a restart, so he dove into the middle in turn three. Suarez ran on the inside, then washed up the track and into the No. 5 car.
After the race, Larson admitted that he probably could have handled the situation better than he did.
“I guess I could’ve not gone to the middle and been more patient, knowing how fast my car was and knowing who I was [racing] around,” he said. “But I wanted to get as many cars as I could at the beginning of the run, and it probably ended up biting me.”
Don’t get me wrong, the event wasn’t Larson’s fault at all; Suarez lost control of his car and got into him. But drivers make their own fate, and I feel that Iowa was another case of Larson biting off more than he could chew. Accidents are unpredictable, yet some drivers put themselves in greater danger than others.
Larson put his car in jeopardy by racing three-wide in the middle in an attempt to pass both. That move usually works without any problems. However, Larson put himself at greater risk if Suarez had a problem, which he did.
Larson, along with Ryan Blaney, was the class of the field at Iowa. And as Larson said himself post-race, he was fast enough that he could’ve picked off Keselowski and Suarez one by one in a couple laps had he exercised more patience. But Larson is the driver to take those risks, and while those aggressive moves make him the dominant and flashy driver he is, they also cost him more than his peers.
For another example, Larson was running second behind Blaney at Homestead-Miami Speedway last October. The No. 5 was once again the class of the field, and as the two made their way toward pit road under green for their final service of the day, Larson tried to make up all the time he could on pit entry. So much time that he lost control, crashed into the sand barriers and ended his day on the spot.
Those are just a few moments in a long list of races have backfired for Larson. Could he benefit from toning it down just a little?
There may be races like Homestead last year and Iowa last weekend where Larson could’ve won or scored a top-five finish at minimum if he had exercised more patience, but for all we know, a less-aggressive Larson could be nowhere close to the dominant driver we see taking those risks week in and week out.
And if there was ever a time to be aggressive and take more risks, it’s NASCAR’s current era. Larson has three wins and leads the series with 754 laps led, and he’s scored enough stage points and stage wins that he’s only eight points out of the regular-season lead despite missing a race and sporting an average finish four spots worse than leader Chase Elliott.
That’s not even mentioning all the stage wins that he’s racked up. He’ll easily enter the playoffs with the most playoff points, even if he doesn’t win the regular season championship. And for a driver of his caliber, taking more of those risks, even if they backfire from time to time like at Iowa, will keep putting himself in position to win more races and score more playoff points — the two things that matter the most in NASCAR’s current format.
2. Iowa is back, and it more than delivered. What other tracks are ready for a NASCAR return?
After a five-year hiatus from NASCAR’s national touring series, Iowa succeeded with an excellent weekend of racing in its return, even when there were concerns surrounding tires and its partial repave.
Iowa became the third oval to make its Cup debut since 2021, joining Nashville Superspeedway and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. North Wilkesboro Speedway has also found a home as the All-Star Race after a 20-plus-year abandonment, and the Circuit of the Americas road course has also become a popular mainstay on the schedule after making its debut in ’21. NASCAR has only continued to expand its horizons since, and the first-ever street race in Chicago will be returning for a second consecutive year in just a few weeks’ time.
Variety is the spice of life, and it would only be beneficial for NASCAR to expand to new markets or return to former markets that are lacking a race. Of all the tracks that have the infrastructure, facilities and market to host a Cup race, which ones are currently off the schedule?
Kentucky Speedway & Chicagoland Speedway
The two Midwest tracks were taken off the schedule in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, but both places are still in great shape to host another race. And given how well the Next Gen car has raced on 1.5-mile ovals, there should be great racing in store as well.
Road America
Road America held two Cup races in 2021 and 2022, and it still got the short end of the stick with its removal from the Cup schedule, even though fans packed the place solid. Now absent from the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule as well, it would be a boon for NASCAR if it could return to one of the most famous road courses in the country.
Rockingham Speedway
North Wilkesboro made its triumphant return to Cup, and Rockingham has undergone a facelift with a new repave and upgrades to its facilities. If one historic fan favorite was able to make a return, I wouldn’t count out lightning striking twice.
Auto Club Speedway
The future of the facility and its proposed short track are still in question, but Auto Club would be perfect for a return if the short track is ultimately built. Southern California is the second-largest media market in the United States, and NASCAR won’t want to be away from SoCal for long.
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez & Circuit Gilles Villenueve
With NASCAR starting to focus on international expansion, Mexico and Canada are the perfect places to start. Both tracks have been on the Xfinity schedule in the past, and with all the rumors surrounding both Mexico and Canada, it seems to be not a matter of if but when these two are added to the Cup schedule for the first time.
3. Would Sheldon Creed benefit from more starts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series?
After an ugly, ugly exit from Richard Childress Racing at the end of 2023, a full-time Xfinity ride with Joe Gibbs Racing marked the perfect opportunity for Sheldon Creed to reset after two years of falling just short of a win.
JGR has won five of the 15 Xfinity races this season between four different drivers (Chandler Smith twice, John Hunter Nemechek, Aric Almirola and Ryan Truex), but Creed is still looking to break through with more than half the season complete. He did score runner-up finishes at Daytona International Speedway and Sonoma Raceway, but he is now up to nine runner-up finishes and 85 starts in Xfinity without a win.
4. How will the Haas Factory Team impact charter negotiations for teams looking to expand?
When it was announced that Stewart-Haas Racing would close its doors at the end of the season, many assumed that all four of its charters would be up for grabs.
Well, make it three.
In a surprising twist, it was announced June 20 that SHR co-owner Gene Haas will stay in NASCAR, run a two-car Xfinity team and retain one of SHR’s Cup charters.
Front Row Motorsports had purchased one of SHR’s charters earlier this month, which means that only two charters are left on the market. And with teams like Trackhouse Racing, 23XI Racing, RCR and RFK Racing in the mix for expansion, the dwindling number of charters will be far more expensive than they were before today’s news.
Case in point, Spire Motorsports purchased a charter from Live Fast Motorsports for $40 million last season. Meanwhile, FRM reportedly paid just $20-25 million to purchase one from SHR. The market price had gone down when there were four up for grabs, but now that there are only two, some of the teams that looked to be in a good spot to purchase one will now be on the outside looking in.
It’s unknown what the new market price for a charter will be, but there’s still a Pandora’s box of questions that have yet to be answered. The charter system has yet to be renewed long term, and that will keep asking prices down in the interim. Furthermore, SHR may not be the only avenue to acquire a charter this season. If a team like Kaulig Racing were to sell a charter or merge with Trackhouse (both have been in the rumor mill for quite some time), that would open up more options and shrink the market price for the remaining teams that are looking to expand.
And while it’s wishful thinking, there may be enough demand for NASCAR to expand the charter system beyond the current 36 entries. But if such a scenario were to happen, it probably wouldn’t occur for several years.
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