WIN THE RACE. I promised my wife this year that I would record more races and watch them at night, so I could spend more time with her and the kids on race day. Those who have followed me for a while know I have said this almost every race day, but somehow manage to keep up live or close to it. Well, I’m finally going to record the races this year and watch them at night. For real this time. Not all of them, but more than the zero I used to.
It will hurt not being in Discord and sweating out the good and bad times with everyone. What I thought I could do, and perhaps it would be useful to us to look back at how some things played out in previous races, is write down my thoughts while I watch the race at night. I’ll record any thoughts I have, good or bad, like how we sweat things out in Discord. You can read it, leave it alone, do whatever you please. I must watch these races alone, so it will be therapeutic to be able to get thoughts off my chest as I watch it unfold.
I’m on espresso martini #2. Wearing my #1 Chastain TrackHouse hoodie, hoping he can be a hero for us today. I also have a couple chocolate/caramel cookies for this race.
Lap 1: Logano with a big block on Larson to maintain the lead. It’s dusty as hell!
Lap 3: Larson blows by Logano with ease. Not surprised. At this point, I am glad I only have 10/100 Logano.
Lap 4: Went overweight on Zane Smith, this will be a killer. UGH.
Lap 6: Is there anything weaker than toe links? You can’t breathe on these things without them breaking. This is me still furious I went overweight on Zane Smith. Just one time I would love to not be overweight on the first driver dead in a race.
Lap 8: Truex is FAST. Chastain had to start in the rear and almost caught Denny after only 8 laps (Denny starting 10 spots ahead of him).
Lap 9: Christopher Bell’s car looks DEAD. Dude went from 10th to 20th in 9 laps.
Lap 10: Right rear is down for Bell. Knew something had to be up he was falling fast.
Lap 12: Under caution, everyone pitting already! Adjustments are being made all over the place. A ton of 2 tire strategy and now the running order is all wonky for the restart.
Lap 15: Under caution still, wondering how long these drivers on 2 tires can maintain the lead. Bout to see!
Lap 16: Byron goes from 8th to 1st in two moves! Passes Larson on the outside then dives all the way down and passes everyone else! Insane. This is going to be a killer for DFS. Went under on Byron in MME and faded him in 3 max. Byron winning and Larson losing on pit road continues for 2024.
Lap 20: Zane is down 5 laps. Going to take a miracle as many cars will go laps down in this race.
Lap 21: Larson now slots in behind Byron, down 1.37 seconds.
Lap 23: Keselowski running 29th, total dud and as of now, glad I faded in cash.
Lap whatever during commercial: Buescher’s front right falls off and he slams the wall! Dang.
Lap 30: They’re still under caution. I am just amazed at how much faster Byron/Larson are compared to their teammates.
Lap 31: They pit under caution, more mixed 2 and 4 tire strategy. Running order wonky to start again!
RED FLAG. COOKIE TIME.
Lap 34: Going green…
Lap 39: Suarez has been leading here since the restart.
Lap 41: Keselowski running a legit 31st. Yikes. Kyle Busch stalking Suarez for the lead. Drivers are going to consider 2 or no tires later if you can lead for this long taking none.
Lap 43: Kyle Busch passes Suarez for the lead. Larson ran 2-3 lanes trying to get Kyle Busch for the lead. It’s Kyle and Kyle up front!
Lap 45: Christopher Bell is already up to 12th after his early blown tire. Zane only down 4 laps. Maybe there is hope if tires keep blowing out or falling off, lol.
Lap 47: Byron has picked up a huge trash bag, is overheating, and has dropped from top 5 to 20th. He needs to pit and get this bag off the grill. Terrible luck for Byron. Larson is still trying different lanes to see if he can get Kyle Busch for the lead. They’re now almost 2 seconds ahead of everyone. KFB blocking his ass off.
Lap 57: Larson still getting blocked by Kyle Busch for the lead. They’re now 3 seconds ahead. Reddick up to 3rd, Chastain up to 12th. They are FAST.
20 to go Stage 1: Larson finally passes Kyle Busch for the lead.
Lap 72: Logano down to 11th, reporting a vibration. In this long run, the drivers who did not take tires are completely dead meat.
Lap 74, 7 to go in Stage 1: I think the fastest cars are Larson, Reddick, Chastain. Probably Reddick being the fastest of all. Keselowski rebounded to 23rd. I picked Bubba in 1AD. Beyond the cautions and differing strategies mixing up the running order, he looks completely lost out there. Running 19th.
Lap 78, 3 to go in Stage 1: Reddick is catching Larson. Reddick is fastest on the track.
Wow Reddick right behind Larson at the line to end Stage 1! Reddick’s car is an absolute rocket. Completely regret taking Bubba 20/1 when Reddick 12/1 was available. AHHH!
Lap 87: Denny Hamlin’s team absolutely dominated that pit stop and put him out front. Denny leading laps here would absolutely kill cash games. Chastain’s pit stop was awful, lost 4-5 spots. Reddick had to back up in the pits and that killed his track position as well.
Lap 93: Larson trying to catch Denny. Desperately need that to happen ASAP. He’s .79 seconds back. Chastain and Reddick are coming up again. 8th and 13th.
Lap 96: Larson down .55 seconds. PLEASE CATCH HAMLIN!
Lap 98: Denny gaining on Larson. Hocevar outpacing Elliott. Chastain and Reddick have stalled out. Ut-oh.
Commercial break, of course Larson passes Denny for the lead! There is hope after all!
Lap 108: Larson is separating from Hamlin, but Kyle Busch is FAST today. He is catching Denny now for 2nd. Hocevar is running a legit 12th. His DFS price must come up. LaJoie is running a legit 4th, Hocevar legit 12th. Spire came to play. It sucks Zane broke a toe link.
Lap 111: Crazy Chastain still 8 and Reddick still 11. Everything has seemed to level off. It’s all going to come down to the long runs here. Blaney’s no falloff in practice seems to be true. His long run is great, up to 5th.
Lap 118: Green flag pit stops have started! If anyone watched Allgaier yesterday, they should know they need to pit ASAP!
Lap 121: Seemed to be an incredibly slow pit stop for Truex there. Wonder what they were doing?
Lap 122: Cindric too fast entering penalty. Happy to have had 0% in DFS. Hemric too fast exiting the pits. Ross Chastain too fast entering! CASH IS DEAD AGAIN. WHY MY PEOPLE EVERY SINGLE TIME?!?!?!? Denny Hamlin’s pit stop unreal fast again, just to troll me even more with Chastain’s penalty. He jumped up a few spots and is now only .38 seconds behind leader Larson. TOTAL TROLL JOB.
Lap 132: Bubba Wallace is now 3 laps down lol. What happened to him today? Chastain is still the first car 1 lap down. Larson is now 2:40 ahead of 2nd place.
9 to go in Stage 2: Christopher Bell spins from 14th place! All the tires are up, appears to have just lost control.
Lap 159 under caution: Ty Gibbs trouble on pit road. While trouble happening, loose tire. Keselowski had to back up and took forever. Bowman took 2 tires to try and gain some track position, he’ll lead when we get back to green. 7 to go now, not sure when we’ll be coming back to green. Slow stop for Kyle Busch too he lost a ton of track position. Chastain back on lead lap.
GOING GREEN WITH 4 TO GO IN STAGE 2!
Larson wins Stage 2! Reddick is breathing down his neck! It’ll come down to pit stops here for the right to lead most of Stage 3 and win.
Lap 172, about to go green for Stage 3! Larson and Reddick on the front row.
Lap 176: Still checking the top 20 waiting for Chastain to make it back to his original starting position. It’s going to be a fight to cash in DFS. Bowman in 17th, need some gains there too!
Lap 179: Chastain has cracked the top 20. Hoping this begins the countdown to a top 10 finish. Larson up 2 seconds on Reddick now.
Lap 183: Hocevar is the real deal. Was last year in his first couple NextGen races. Is now. Dude is legit running 13th.
Lap 184; Looking at the leaderboard, I hope Briscoe (6th), Berry (19th), drop on the long runs here. I don’t want either of them to be optimal today.
81 to go: Bowman/Byron/Chastain running 16/17/18. Curious to see how they move here in the long run.
78 to go: Somehow, Wallace (laps down) is out there boosting Reddick with pushes to try and catch Larson, lol. Am I seeing this right?!?
71 to go: Chastain 16 and Bowman 18. Broken record – hope as laps go by, they are good on the long run! Reddick is only .71 seconds down on Larson now!
68 to go: Confirmed. Bubba is 13 laps down and helping Reddick catch Larson by pushing him around the track. What is going on, HAHA. Bowman is dead. Slower than death. Cash was always Hamlin/Berry and I’m sick about it. The stupid Chastain penalty! UGHHHH!
62 to go: Bowman pits. He had to. Absolutely TERRIBLE in Stage 3. They need to take a huge swing, or they won’t finish top 20.
57 to go: Reddick pits from 2nd place. Larson is still on track.
56 to go: Larson pits from the lead.
55 to go: Kyle Busch penalty. The sun will come out tomorrow. Reddick’s stop was slow so he’s now 3 seconds behind Larson for the lead again.
52 to go: Kraus is pitting after everyone. I don’t think that bodes well to win his +130 sh*t box matchup of the century vs Haley. What an insane way to lose this matchup when he was winning the entire day. Allgaier bonehead play of the day award. So weird teams do this and ruin the kid’s first run.
46 laps to go: Kraus leads his 1st ever lap in his 1st ever Cup race, and they said, “that’s cool”. I wonder if he’ll think the same as this has destroyed his entire day.
38 to go: I can’t tell if DFS is good or not today. I guess it’ll depend on how far Bowman drops and Chastain gains on this final run. I am way overweight on both. I have 75% Larson and 60% Reddick, so that’s nice. Have 30% Gragson (running 11th). There’s some good here. Need Berry to piss off (running 14th) because the Hamlin/Berry cash team is destroying the Bowman/Chastain cash team I played. Must be.
33 to go: OHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOO…. WAY OVERWEIGHT ON LAJOIE AND HE HITS THE WALL!!! “WHAT A BUMMER, CLINT” IS RIGHT!
30 to go: Chastain takes 2 tires and comes out in 2nd place behind Larson! Holy hell I wonder if that’s going to be enough to hold on to a top 10 finish. WOW.
28 TO GO LET’S GO RACIN’ BOYS!!!
20 to go: BOWMAN IS SO SLOW IT’S INCREDIBLE. HOLY HELL. Dropping like a log.
19 to go: Keselowski is CRUSHING on this last run. Up to 13th and still coming fast. Blows by Byron for 12th. Dang, they waited until the very end to get it right.
16 to go: WHAT IS ALEX BOWMAN DOING, REALLY? THIS IS CRAZY! DOWN TO 17TH! Chastain is still fighting for 3rd. A top 10 is probably going to be hard on these old tires. 14 to go.
13 to go: Reddick is only down .55 now!
10 to go: Sweating the Truex over Logano bet. Running 8th and 9th. AHHHH!!!
7 to go: So far, a masterclass in taking the air from off the car behind you by Kyle Larson. Bowman getting passed by Stenhouse, LOL.
3 to go: THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LARSON VS REDDICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
KYLE LARSON SPANKS EVERYONE AND WINS! What a show he just put on. WOW.
Time to turn my phone on and check the damage.
Wow. Doubled my money. Saw a lot of great scores out there in the WON THE RACE channel in Discord. Great job today everyone! Nice little momo after a great Xfinity and Cup race for DFS. Let’s keep the good times rolling!
Thanks for checking out my psychotic behavior during a race. I really thought we weren’t going to cash. Meanwhile, those lineups were winning tournaments, lol. Maybe we can look back at some of these comments and learn a thing or two, but probably not. It’s mostly just psychotic.
See ya in Discord!
