Speeding penalty decides NASCAR round two

Weekend Racing Wrap

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The second race under NASCAR’s new stage format was swung when the long-time leader picked up a penalty for speeding in the pits.

NASCAR Cup

Race 2: Atlanta

Kevin Harvick dominated proceedings at the Atlanta Motor Speedway and seemed on course to claim maximum points for leading at every stage of the race. But a pit lane speeding penalty cost him the lead 14 laps from home, putting Kyle Larson ahead.

Larson’s lead didn’t last, however, as Brad Keselowski surged back to the front after a late caution period. He went on to take his first win since last July. Having led 292 of the race’s 325 laps, Harvick took the chequered flag in ninth place.

Over to you

What racing action did you watch last weekend? Let us know in the comments.

Next weekend’s racing

The following series are in action next weekend:

  • IndyCar race 1: St. Petersburg
  • NASCAR Cup race 3: Las Vegas
  • World Rally Championship round 3: Mexico

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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11 comments on “Speeding penalty decides NASCAR round two”

  1. this new race format nascar are using is quite frankly awful imo.

    1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      6th March 2017, 18:28

      Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse than the chase

  2. I was in the States during the Daytona 500, sadly I was at the wrong speedway in Vegas across the country. I did watch it live in a sportspub though. Was genuinely surprised at how basically all cheering only came as a result of a crash, no wonder the free don’t like F1.

  3. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
    6th March 2017, 18:23

    Will you be doing indycar comms again this year @keithcollantine ?

    Can’t wait for St. Pete, though with no JPM I’m not sure who to shout for. I like Newgarden, but tired of Penske’s domination. Hinch maybe if he finds some luck

  4. V8 supercars?

    1. @cavman99 Don’t you mean ‘Virgin Australian Supercars’.

    2. Was wondering if it’s going to be mentioned. Truly great race in Adelaide. Was watching it the whole weekend and it was so refreshing to finally see some good racing instead of very depressing F1 news. Even though I live in AU I paid for the streaming service to watch anywhere I want which is something F1 really lacks. Great quali sessions with cars separated by literally hundreds or even thousands of a second, close racing and despite races running for 2-3 hours, pretty much the whole time there is some real action going on and the winner is uknown till the last laps.
      F1 could learn a lot from this series.

    3. Definitely deserve a place in the wrap – well worth a watch and because they only have to worry about one language the commentary team have great access to the drivers/pits/etc.

  5. I’m a big fan of NASCAR but man alive, that was one of the dullest races I’ve ever sat through. It’s a prime example of why F1 should avoid gimmicks. The stupid new format didn’t make the race anymore exciting – it didn’t stop Harvick from dominating. And what did stop the dominance was down to driver error, which would have happened either way.

    It’s no wonder viewing figures are in free fall. If a race like that happened without any gimmicks, I’d have said “fair enough”, dull races happen, but at least we’d seen a masterclass in driving a stock car. With all the artificial attempts to spice up the show and no excitement to speak of, I just feel cheated.

    A pure race can’t guarantee excitement, but it can guarantee a fair sporting contest. A gimmicky race guarantees neither of those things.

    It’s often said on here that F1 is not what it used to be. NASCAR is in a different league on that front. It’s thoroughly depressing.

    1. I was at this race yesterday and it was a boring race from the stands. However, I felt I got my money’s worth because I got to see Harvick, along with his closest competition (Elliot & Brad K.), drive a masterful race. A shame he lost it the way he did, even though I’m a Brad K. fan.

      What I did take away was that this race disproves the theory behind the reason for the format change (to stop drivers from just hanging out, not pushing until the end). The top 12 drivers were pushing hard from the drop of the green to checkers. Each restart was frantic and hard fought…one driver just had the field covered and people can’t accept that.

    2. I’m not a NASCAR fan, but when I checked the new rules for this system I thought: what the hell? It’s impossible to follow or to predict how many points one will make without having a logarithm to factor all the possibilities. They forgot one of the simpler rules of success: keep it simple. I’m glad Ross Brawn thinks the same. NASCAR is going to opposite direction, which is ruining the series, but now F1 has a chance to steer away for all this lottery that is NASCAR.

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