NASCAR Summer stretch kicks off

Fans capture the action as the field of 40 cars take off into turn 1 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Well, it’s the end of the line for this year. Where did this school year go? Seriously, it feels like yesterday we were all moving in and then *poof* it’s May and we’re all stressing over finals.

Anyways, just as soon as we’re all getting ready to enjoy summer, NASCAR is heating up. We’ve got 27 straight weeks of NASCAR racing from here to November! The summer stretch for NASCAR is amazing, it includes:

– The NASCAR All Star Race (May 18)

– The first road course race of the year at Sonoma (June 23)

– The July Daytona night race (Jul. 6)

– The Bristol night race (Aug. 17)

– And NASCAR’s return to New England at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Jul. 21)

All of those races are highlight moments on the schedule. And honestly, even if you’re not a race fan, I’d still encourage you to watch those races, and go to the race in New Hampshire!

Although, in the NASCAR world, there is some concern for the Daytona July race. Two weeks ago NASCAR raced at Talladega, as I spoke about in the prior issue.

Due to high speeds, NASCAR had concerns after the first practice, enough for them to slow the cars down, even more than we already had.

The fans didn’t like this. I didn’t like it. But NASCAR felt that they needed do this for the driver safety.

Which to their pleasure, they got a prime reason backing their concerns when Kyle Larson in the #42 Chevy flipped and barrel rolled down the back straight on the final lap.

Larson walked away from the accident unharmed. He was even okay enough that he played golf the next day in Charlotte.

The wreck however showed NASCAR something they hadn’t seen before.

As Larson’s car slid sideways across the runoff area, the roof deployed like they were supposed to, except his car didn’t stay on the ground. It lifted off the ground enough that he was on his driver side door when he hit the inside wall.

We’ve seen numerous accidents like this in the past, the only difference is that either the car stayed on the ground thanks to the roof flaps or there was another car involved in the accident, basically pushing the car into the air.

Neither of these things happened.

At the end of the race, NASCAR was left scratching their head thinking “What the heck just happened?” They wasted no time to say “See! This is why we wanted to slow the cars down”.

Anyways, NASCAR still walked away wondering what happened.

The drivers also took notice, questioning NASCAR’s decision to take away the restrictor plate in the first place, and replace it with tapered spacers.

(The restrictor plate limited the amount of air to the engine, slowing the cars down. The tapered spacer is supposed to do the same.)

So, NASCAR has some work to do before July in order to make sure no drivers take flight like the pilots who take off from the airport behind Daytona International Speedway.

Besides that concern, the summer is going to be great for NASCAR.

Also, if you would like to see the NASCAR weekend in New Hampshire from a different point of view (a fans point of view), go like/follow my production company’s social media accounts, DP Production Group as well as our racing pages, Racing Hotspot Fueled by DPPG (can’t kill a guy for a shameless plug).

Have a great summer everyone!

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