NOTE: I forgot to mention that the No. 19 was eliminated from the OWNERS Playoffs today. The No. 9 team is IN. Quite the collapse from the regular season champions.
#20 is the only driver from The Championship 4 last year that is still in the playoffs. 👍Can't believe you said Christopher Bell wouldn't make to Elite 8 @Eric Estepp in picks for the playoffs. Lol 👍
Thank you for mentioning this! It just drove me crazy that it was not a story at all. Also, I feel like NBC is not taking advantage of the #9 car still in the owner playoffs to boost their ratings with the Chase fans.
If you would've told me that Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher, Shane van Gisbergen and A.J. Allmendinger all would've won in the same season this year, I would've said that you were crazy.
@@tatsupazuzu A caution came out because the 15 of Andy Lally was stopped at the end of pit road. However, he couldn't really turn his car properly due to the damage it took. So he kinda had to do the impractical approach.
@@tatsupazuzu plus, Lally is a veteran Road Racer, and the 15 was a charter number car built by Rick-Ware Racing (owners of the 51 Chevrolet and the 52 Ford) so they can have a road course expert drive in the race, they did it with Jenson Button of Formula 1 earlier this year at Indy Road Course and Circuit of The Americas with Mobil 1 as the sponsor instead of Camping World.
There must be some holdup with sponsorships and/or another driver (can't think of anyone) who brings more sponsorship money...or another driver who they see as more versatile. You know Matt loves AJ, but road wins won't bring the championship trophy.
Yep, would not be the case without the next gen car. It's fine. It's more driver skill, minimizing mistakes, and strategy now. I stopped watching when he started his next gen rant.
You can also say that Allmendinger has TECHNICALLY won at the Charlotte ROVAL 5 years in a row, winning the Xfinity Series races from 2019 to 2022 and now winning the Cup race in 2023. Even though the two series are completely different, that is still a monumental achievement.
People say chase Elliott is the king of the roval but AJ has won 1 race at the roval every year of the last 5 years 2019:Xfinity 2020:Xfinity 2021: Xfinity 2022: Xfinity 2023: cup He has 5 wins at the roval incredible
You have no idea how happy I was when Rick Allen started talking about how Elliot is the best road racer in Cup and Letart cut him off to say "Well... things have changed and I don't know if that's true anymore". He gets too much attention when people like AJ truly dominate road courses.
I feel like if you do a full 360 making you "miss" the chicane after getting punted because a driver 2 rows back forgot which pedal was the brake (saying this as a Suarez fan, that was pretty dumb)... you shouldn't have to serve the stop & go. getting wreaked is penalty enough
Agreed. I'm not a Bubba fan but I was pretty pissed at that call to make him stop because he already lost 10 positions from being spun. That's penalty enough.
First time Tyler made it past the RO16 and now he’s in the RO8! I’m telling you, Tyler is a sleeper for the championship! Considering Homestead and Vegas are in the next round so I mean...it could happen!
Honestly if Truex continues to run how he is, then it's anyone's race for that spot. I think it will be Reddick vs Bell vs Truex for that last spot, something I didn't expect to be saying for Truex at least, I thought I would be saying this for Denny or Larson.
I know that there is many people who hate the roval, but it’s on of the best in person races besides the 500. You can see so much from your seat, so many different battles and everything else around the track
Also considering the fact that the next four races coming up are all tracks in which he won at, he could be in good shape for his first championship appearance.
@@akg17If he were more consistent at Phoenix, he would be the obvious favorite for the title. Though with how they are running, I could see him winning Phoenix.
I predict William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, and Tyler reddick will be the championship 4. I don’t think truex will make . He’s had an awful playoffs finishing 17th or worse. He may prove me wrong and win Vegas next week but that team has not been the team we were accustomed to seeing in the regular season
William Byron had a 1.667 average finish this round. I dont think this is getting talked about enough, especially for the round of the Playoffs which is built as a luck-based obstacle for playoff contenders.
The worst part, cameras get put in cars who haven’t won a single race, instead of the 24. Im not a 24 fan but he’s been on fire all year and he rarely gets any coverage.
I’m happy for Bubba. He outdid everyone’s expectations. And after the race when I was expecting him to get on camera and talk about how disappointed he is and how terrible he is but he didn’t. He seemed completely at peace with the outcome. Said he was proud of the team, looking forward to racing for wins at Vegas and Homestead, and it is what it is.
@@tiny_philosopher_7848 Charlotte needs to light up the infield first. Which honestly, they really should do ; the IMSA races ran on the Roval weren't exactly enjoyable for me because of the lack of visibility.
Shane van Gisbergen won his third (and possibly final) Bathurst 1000 yesterday....and James Small probably stayed up too late watching it. 🤣 Like what on earth is going on with MTJ and that 19 team?????
It's unfortunate to see that team struggling. I have always had respect for Truex. It's very disheartening to see this team perform like a shell of themselves. Honestly, I was shocked to hear from Eric that MTJ hasn't had a top fifteen so far in this year's playoffs.
Even though Bubba didn’t make it to the next round, I’m proud of him. Most people didn’t have him making to the round of 12 or even making the playoffs at all. He will be back but hopefully stronger
Oh come on, are you proud of him for not crying like a baby and dissing himself??? He literally did NOTHING in the playoffs bar scrapping through the first round and getting knocked out the very next! If that makes you "proud", you either need to get out more or buy a dictionary!
He was impressive this year and same last year for the owners championship. If he can a get better start to his season then he could be in the round of 8 next year.
It's amazing that Bubba Wallace, barely a 16th seed, is in the fight for a top 10 points finish without any wins. Yes the Playoff system can be flawed but it also rewards for consistency when it comes at the right time.
Well, I doubt he would have made it without both Chase and Bowman missing races though. Which is why it is amazing because not sure that he was a top 16 driver or that team had the speed. Shows maybe they had the speed and needed a little bit more out of the driver.
As someone there in person, I love it. I went to my first Roval in 2021. I've been there every year since. The racing was fantastic this year. There was a battle to watch everywhere on the track.
I have idea, no stages, increasing the distance of the ovals, 1 or 2 roadrace tracks, the champion declared at the end of the when he/she has the most points.
Show up early enough to get free stuff from vendors and also check Vegas’s policy on coolers and food to bring in. Concession stands take too long! Have fun!
Two awful runs killed him. You just can't do that in the playoffs unless you have a win already in that round. Shame, but at least he had a shot today and made it interesting.
I had so much fun being there in person! First Charlotte race ive been too (as well as first time in Charlotte in general). Def plan to post some vids of the race once I get back lol
My biggest problem with stage cautions is that they shoehorned the strategy and even forced unnecessary cautions. That caution with #7 & #78 doesn't happen if we aren't trying to beat the stage cautions. The majority of cautions in the last part of the race are a skill issue. If NASCAR wants to run shorter road courses (Mid-Ohio, WGI, Roval, etc.) then they need to find a way to make the stages less static. 25-25-59 is not a difficult strategy. On the other hand, CotA and Road America should avoid stage cautions at all costs due to time wasting.
I think one of the craziest things this year has shown that should carry over into next season is that there's about 20-22 drivers that are all worthy of making the playoffs. Before the next gen car it felt like 12 or 13 drivers actually deserved to be in the playoffs but now it's just like wow, everyone is good now
I think today proved why stage cautions do belong. No messes at the restarts (that was a restart zone issue) Bell in stage 1 and reddick throughout the day proved that there is good strategy for position AND points to be had. They showed racecraft, speed and good strategy throughout and they got points and position. Without stage cautions, qualifying detemines a ton of your race success and not your actual race pace or racecraft. Given that road courses are far from 400, 500, or 600 miles there is not enough time for strategy to come into effect, pace to show and mistakes to be corrected. One good qualy lap and youre set for the race. One spin turn one and your day is over.
The restart zone move was brilliant. It made it a better race and more fair for the back half too actually. But it also made it so the leader had to be near perfect on restarts.
@hollygolden9673 In this specific situation...yes. Elliott is a past playoff and regular season champion in his prime and with arguably the best team in NASCAR. Very shocking to hear that Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Michael McDowell, Shane van Gisbergen, A. J. Allmendinger, and Chris Buescher all have wins before Chase Elliott could. Same could be said for Kevin Harvick...but I am not going to do that since Stewart-Haas Racing is no longer a top tier team and Harvick is no longer in his prime.
@@Sinister_Grin You're not wrong. Comparing Elliott would be rather too quick of judgement considering he already did A LOT in a short time. Every champ will have those seasons of slump with seasons of triumph.
WOW even tho I’m not a Busch fan it was a tough break for Kyle Busch he needed to win that to advance and came up short I did not have Almendinger winning on my bingo card today tho solid race nonetheless
I really like this track, especially where it is in the playoffs, it’s only one time a year and that configuration and drivers can easily make mistakes. It’s probably one of the best road courses in terms of lots of passing and racing we have. A way better race than Watkins glen and Indy road coarse. That’s a good track and I’m glad they kept it for the playoffs next year.
I had Brad, Byron, Hamlin, and Larson in my final four. Still have a chance to get three of them in there. I picked Byron to win it all and still feel good about that pick.
William Bryon and his team has been on a tear, past 4 races got a top ten at Bristol and last 3 races has been a top 5. I would be shocked he don't make it to the championship four.
Stage breaks are just a different type of strategy. It's OK to have aspects of a sport where you can't have your cake and eat it too. They limit new sets of tires. That "artificially" forces the teams to ration and changes the flow of the race. The rules are the same for everyone. Pick your strategy.
I would rate the roval race at a 75%. I'm glad Chase Elliott won stage 2 cause he was going for the Hendrick Ownership Championship and that's what counts for him besides winning a race. Way to go Chase!!
It's always a feel-good moment when Allmendinger wins. He FINALLY got a good car for a road course this year and got the win. I hope he comes back to Cup next year and runs more competitively on the ovals. For the Championship my pick is now Byron. Hamlin, Truex, and Larson have all been making too many mistakes during the playoffs. Any of the drivers ranked 5th through 8th could break through to the Final Four.
Round of 8 is shaping up to be great. Blaney, Buescher, Reddick, and Bell are on the outside looking in right now, but have been very consistent in the Playoffs and I could easily see them jumping Larson and or Truex to get into the Championship. If I’d have to pick today, I’d have Byron, Hamlin, Reddick, and Blaney getting in the Championship 4.
Larson is probably gonna make it, the next 3 races plus Phoenix lineup really good for him and he’s been good most of the playoffs. Truex has been fumbling all playoffs and has barely made both rounds. He’s probably the most likely to be eliminated out of the 2
I enjoy all type of road courses, especially COTA and the Roval. If NASCAR went back to the Oval for Charlotte I would be disappointed as it's one of my favorite races of the year. I like both layouts for Charlotte, but I prefer the Roval slightly.
Trackhouse is gonna be interesting next year. They seemed to slightly drop off on speed this year, and they have a lot of moving parts. If I had to guess, they maintain from this year and maybe Suarez struggles a little more.
I just hate change the stage rules breaks after racing at 3 Road Courses. Because Bubba had hell of qualifying effort and if stage breaks didn’t happen in cycle in back. I think he would stayed in top 5/10 all day barring no crazy accidents
Easy fix is to change the tire compound one way or the other. Make them super hard so the drivers loud pedal must be dainty or super sticky so they can run really hard but only for ten laps or so. Or you can give the teams on set of each and decide when they want to run them!
Roval did not disappoint. The Roval has been one of the most fun races to watch since its inception. With the current car being so boring on most tracks, I'm glad Roval is on the schedule, and I hope it'll stay on the schedule for the foreseeable future.
Happy that AJ redeemed himself for his lackluster Cup performance this year, but I’m not happy that Kyle missed it. Good news is he finished 3rd, but the bad news is that didn’t advance him. It’s still a good season, but now I have no one left to cheer for. With Kyle and Ross done, all of my favorite drivers are out of the championship hunt.
It stinks that Rowdy didn't make the next round but with thee wins and making the playoffs in the first season with a new team I would consider it a success. It was great to see the Dinger get a win he is such a cool lil fella! Also great to see less road course next season 💯
As my second most favorite driver (Rowdy first), I sure hope so! It's going to be especially fun to watch Cindric, Hocevar, Zane Smith and Ty race against each other next year. Ah, the next generation drivers are starting to take their place among the veterans...
Eric, I'm sorry, you were right about Kyle! All I can say is that I'm happy he put up a fight right until the end and I think they'll be back to make another run again next year.
Bubba with one of the fastest cars in the field was stuck in 25th or below for most of the race because he chose stage points and got screwed because of it. That sucks
I think that Nascar should give teams 2 options for tires at road courses. It would add strategy to the pit choices especially in the 2nd and 3rd stages you may short pit to get on a softer compound tire that could let you pass your way through the field faster.
MTJ, you're my favorite driver. Please. PLEASE! Stop making everything so close! You're going to give me a heart attack, at this rate! I know you can do this! Go get 'em, in the Round of 8!
At this point there’s no denying bubbas ability. Almost won Texas, ran laps up front at dega (could’ve had a shot at a great finish if he didn’t have to drop back to reserve fuel), and came through half the pack quick at a type of track he’s not great at. Not to mention all the other stuff like the fact he probably would’ve won Kansas if Goodyear brought tires that didn’t blow out randomly.
For everyone who complains that the regular season championship doesn’t mean anything just look at Truex this playoffs. That team has essentially failed to show up at all and thanks to the regular season championship he’s somehow made it through.
Why aren’t they putting a camera in the 24 car? He has a 1.667 average finish in the last round, someone said. And he’s been on fire all year long but he never gets any coverage
@EricEstepp Hot take here but the diversity of Nascar tracks and track types the past few season has actually been a strength of the sport. To your point about trying to push the limit on the car, it sounds like you’d be in favor of a dirt race with left and right turns
As someone who took his girlfriend to her first NASCAR race yesterday, I am actually glad the stage cautions came back. First stage was losing her. Then when the fast cars had to go to the rear after staying out at the end of the stage, it really reshuffled everything.
It was a good race at Charlotte Roval, we’ve saw couple wreckage, chaos on the wild race and I’ll give a 75.3% ratings. Right now it’s my birthday today! I’m having lot of fun for my birthday bash!
I always loved Charlotte oval night race in October! It goes well with other sports during fall season. Bars and restaurants have serval sports playing this time of year
I’ll be honest here. I thought the first 2 stages were great! That being said, I love strategic racing, and loads of cautions ruin that for me. That being said, no cautions can be just as bad as it throws no spanners in the works
12:42 - I think MTJ was eliminated from the owners point chase by the #9 team so the #19 team isn’t racing for the big money moving forward. HMS has 3 teams still racing for the big $$ while JGR only has 2 teams.
I actually went to the Roval this past weekend. It was fun to see in person and even went to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, pretty fun weekend. I will say though from your comment of the Next Gen racing TOO good at road courses. I like that NASCAR takes radical and bold changes to the schedule to get more track variety than it was a decade ago, but I really wish NASCAR would take bold and radical changes to the Next Gen for the short track and road course package. It’d be interesting to see what they do in the offseason, but I highly doubt it’ll be enough. They’ll probably just remove the rear diffuser to take more downforce away and call it a day and then realize it still didn’t do much. We all know these cars need more power weather it’d be upping the engines back to 750hp or a hybrid unit to give boosts of power which it’s questionable on how it’s gonna work and even then the talks of adding a hybrid unit have stalled. At this point NASCAR for short tracks and road courses would be better off running Trans Am TA or TA2 cars if they want a stock car that looks more like it’s production car counterpart.
@ethanweeter2732 it def hurts that they are down to only two teams, but it was very close to being only one left. I think it is unfortunate that Kyle exited before the round of 8, but he ran into some bad luck last round. A badly blown tire and getting wrecked out. Those are the things you can't game plan for. They just happen on race day. He had the speed, as you saw yesterday, and they cleaned up the team errors from the R-16, it just wasn't to be for him this year.
If there truly were a "level playing field" in the Cup Series, then Toyota with only SIX cars, would not have won nine of the thirty-two races so far and put four into the Round of Eight.
Chase got screwed by that caution. Could have been a good race with him and Reddick. Still in the owners and he eliminated Truex. Hes top 3 in average finish this year only behind hamlin and byron
while you’re right about truex struggling and the odds stacked against him to make it to the final four, you gotta look at the tracks that lay ahead, Martinsville he finished P3 at earlier this year, He was the second fastest car at homestead last year and the only one who may have been able to challenge Larson that day, and Vegas, a track where he was in the running at the end earlier this year
Eric, great work on the channel. Your videos are top notch. Would you give your thoughts on this playoff adjustment? I think it leaves the structure basically unchanged while also resolving the rhetoric of it being "illegitimate or Mickey mouse" champion. All NASCAR would have to do is allow the drivers to carry the playoff points earned in the round of 8 ONLY, into the championship 4. This both incentivizes drivers to put their focus on each track of the round of 8 instead of potentially winning the first race and then prepping for Phoenix, and eliminates the possibility that some bad luck during the Champ race ends someone's playoff chances through no fault of their own. Additionally, I think it would promote better racing because non-playoff drivers could still race champ 4 drivers tough without fear of accidentally ruining their title hopes. If a driver can go win races and stages throughout the round of 8 and build an advantage, they should earn the right to not have their championship hopes end by having an otherwise good day running in the top 10 but not winning, or by having someone bump them out of the way on the final lap in Phoneix.
I am quite torn on the issue of stage break yellows. I'll admit it did add excitement to this Roval race, but the stage-flipping strategy that it comes with takes away some legitimacy from the race. I think stage yellows are probably back for good now, but maybe there is still room for improvement. Perhaps NASCAR could alter stage yellows such that pit road stays closed; it just becomes a quick re-rack and fire off. I'd imagine most all drivers would pit just before stage end to utilize their track position, but they also have the options to stay on track too, if they think they can run deep into the next stage before needing to pit. A yellow for cause would open pit road like normal; only a yellow for a stage end with no other cause would keep pit road closed. Might be a decent compromise, though the TV broadcast probably like having the two guaranteed yellow-flag pit cycles to show the race off pit road, so I'd be surprised if any more changes are tried.
If Bubba's crew chief was going after points this entire round like yesterday. He would have advanced. He ran well this entire round but because of ill advised pit stops. He left each race without any stage points
Something nobody was really talking about was the restart zone. I think the restart needs to revert back to what it was before. It’s so unfair for the inside lane and it just makes restarts look really bad.
NOTE: I forgot to mention that the No. 19 was eliminated from the OWNERS Playoffs today. The No. 9 team is IN. Quite the collapse from the regular season champions.
Finally someone mentions it!
Finally...Chase hasn,t laid down. Big big $$$$$$
Chase was probably going to win the race without the extreme lack of luck with that caution... he was really fast. This was an unhappy season!
#20 is the only driver from The Championship 4 last year that is still in the playoffs. 👍Can't believe you said Christopher Bell wouldn't make to Elite 8 @Eric Estepp in picks for the playoffs. Lol 👍
Thank you for mentioning this! It just drove me crazy that it was not a story at all. Also, I feel like NBC is not taking advantage of the #9 car still in the owner playoffs to boost their ratings with the Chase fans.
If you would've told me that Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher, Shane van Gisbergen and A.J. Allmendinger all would've won in the same season this year, I would've said that you were crazy.
now imagine 1 or two years from now kimi wins a nascar race
And all of them before Chase Elliott!
@@OldsmobileCutlass1969Va and Harvick!
Hell, I would've called you crazy if you told me Stenhouse would win a race this year.
Now imagine a Buescher championship
shoutout to andy lally who casually drove the wrong way on the track while the race stayed green
He couldn't turn his car due to the damage.
Who??
@@tatsupazuzu A caution came out because the 15 of Andy Lally was stopped at the end of pit road. However, he couldn't really turn his car properly due to the damage it took. So he kinda had to do the impractical approach.
He got off the racing surface. Nascar just threw a caution to try and help bubba get caught back up to the front
@@tatsupazuzu plus, Lally is a veteran Road Racer, and the 15 was a charter number car built by Rick-Ware Racing (owners of the 51 Chevrolet and the 52 Ford) so they can have a road course expert drive in the race, they did it with Jenson Button of Formula 1 earlier this year at Indy Road Course and Circuit of The Americas with Mobil 1 as the sponsor instead of Camping World.
Byron’s numbers this round
1st,2nd,2nd. That’s impressive
Words cannot begin to describe how big this was for Kaulig and their future
Aj got lucky. Wake me up when he wins at oval. He won’t win a championship with just road corse wins
@@nickphillips4398 you good bro? 😭
@@nickphillips4398 Who hurt you???
@@Vert344hes a busch fan, and so am i, hes my favorite, but this guy is just salty, dont mind him.
@@nickphillips4398many times in xfinity
I really hope Kaulig brings AJ back. I'm a Larson fan, and I'm with KL when he said "I'm a AJ Allmendinger fan today."
Because he kept Larson alive in the championship.
There must be some holdup with sponsorships and/or another driver (can't think of anyone) who brings more sponsorship money...or another driver who they see as more versatile. You know Matt loves AJ, but road wins won't bring the championship trophy.
25 different winners in 68 Next Gen races.
is there a website showing drivers' average finish during the Next Gen vs Last Gen?
@@miccrhaafetl5101 not that I know of, but you could look at racing reference and compare yourself.
I made a post on Instagram where I tallied up how many wins each team has since 2021...
Yep, would not be the case without the next gen car. It's fine. It's more driver skill, minimizing mistakes, and strategy now. I stopped watching when he started his next gen rant.
I love it when AJ wins, anywhere, anytime, any place, any series. So happy for him! Good to see a nice man win with such enthusiasm.
Me, too.
You can also say that Allmendinger has TECHNICALLY won at the Charlotte ROVAL 5 years in a row, winning the Xfinity Series races from 2019 to 2022 and now winning the Cup race in 2023. Even though the two series are completely different, that is still a monumental achievement.
People say chase Elliott is the king of the roval but AJ has won 1 race at the roval every year of the last 5 years
2019:Xfinity
2020:Xfinity
2021: Xfinity
2022: Xfinity
2023: cup
He has 5 wins at the roval incredible
I don't think anyone says that about Elliott for the last couple of years.
Didn't McDowell already prove that wrong on the CUP level anyways
You have no idea how happy I was when Rick Allen started talking about how Elliot is the best road racer in Cup and Letart cut him off to say "Well... things have changed and I don't know if that's true anymore". He gets too much attention when people like AJ truly dominate road courses.
@@hollygolden9673well they have💀
@@GlitchunlockedI doubt winning one race this year is dominating. We’re talking cup not xfinity. Reddick seems like the better choice
I feel like if you do a full 360 making you "miss" the chicane after getting punted because a driver 2 rows back forgot which pedal was the brake (saying this as a Suarez fan, that was pretty dumb)... you shouldn't have to serve the stop & go. getting wreaked is penalty enough
Agreed. I'm not a Bubba fan but I was pretty pissed at that call to make him stop because he already lost 10 positions from being spun. That's penalty enough.
I agree. Never understood why a guy who gets wrecked has to serve the penalty.
I agree!
True. But now you have to call it on the fly as officials. The roval does have multiple stop areas to do it. It is an area that could use refinement.
First time Tyler made it past the RO16 and now he’s in the RO8! I’m telling you, Tyler is a sleeper for the championship! Considering Homestead and Vegas are in the next round so I mean...it could happen!
He finished 3rd at Phoenix earlier this year so I think he has a real chance. Especially with Truex fumbling in the playoffs
@@need4speed5353 yup!
Honestly if Truex continues to run how he is, then it's anyone's race for that spot. I think it will be Reddick vs Bell vs Truex for that last spot, something I didn't expect to be saying for Truex at least, I thought I would be saying this for Denny or Larson.
Both Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher
He is going to have to step up on short tracks though.
I know that there is many people who hate the roval, but it’s on of the best in person races besides the 500. You can see so much from your seat, so many different battles and everything else around the track
Byron is smoking hot right now in the 6 playoff races he has 5 top 10s, and 4 top 5s. Half of the races he’s finished in the top 2🔥
Also considering the fact that the next four races coming up are all tracks in which he won at, he could be in good shape for his first championship appearance.
His round of 12 was 1,2,2
@@akg17If he were more consistent at Phoenix, he would be the obvious favorite for the title. Though with how they are running, I could see him winning Phoenix.
I predict William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, and Tyler reddick will be the championship 4. I don’t think truex will make . He’s had an awful playoffs finishing 17th or worse. He may prove me wrong and win Vegas next week but that team has not been the team we were accustomed to seeing in the regular season
Truex sucks amd needs to retire. Total garbage can
@@AngeloRametta2017 champion
@@Dupontman627 Fluke
@@AngeloRamettanope.
I got buescher Byron blaney (as a blaney fan) and truex jr in the championship 4
William Byron had a 1.667 average finish this round. I dont think this is getting talked about enough, especially for the round of the Playoffs which is built as a luck-based obstacle for playoff contenders.
Well that stage is over... those stats don't matter anymore.
The worst part, cameras get put in cars who haven’t won a single race, instead of the 24. Im not a 24 fan but he’s been on fire all year and he rarely gets any coverage.
@@OldsmobileCutlass1969VaHe still has second most points.
@@pandaman1869Especially when has been the best closer this year.
I’m happy for Bubba. He outdid everyone’s expectations. And after the race when I was expecting him to get on camera and talk about how disappointed he is and how terrible he is but he didn’t. He seemed completely at peace with the outcome. Said he was proud of the team, looking forward to racing for wins at Vegas and Homestead, and it is what it is.
Bubba got a good talking to, that’s all I’m saying you know what I mean ?
The Charlotte oval fall race used to be a pure night race, would like to see that return.
Night roval 👀
@@randyjones7320ooooohhhh... Saturday night Roval? Add some rain and it's like a dirt race.
@@tiny_philosopher_7848 Charlotte needs to light up the infield first.
Which honestly, they really should do ; the IMSA races ran on the Roval weren't exactly enjoyable for me because of the lack of visibility.
Do a Roval night race.
@@K9RacingAndStuffI watched them there at night and even they were complaining about not being able to see good even with head lights.
Best road course race of the season in my opinion sucks that Kyle got eliminated but it is what it is but overall solid race
Shane van Gisbergen won his third (and possibly final) Bathurst 1000 yesterday....and James Small probably stayed up too late watching it. 🤣 Like what on earth is going on with MTJ and that 19 team?????
It's unfortunate to see that team struggling. I have always had respect for Truex. It's very disheartening to see this team perform like a shell of themselves. Honestly, I was shocked to hear from Eric that MTJ hasn't had a top fifteen so far in this year's playoffs.
I think they need to desert themselves or they will be out after Martinsville.
Even though Bubba didn’t make it to the next round, I’m proud of him. Most people didn’t have him making to the round of 12 or even making the playoffs at all. He will be back but hopefully stronger
i'm not a fan or never will be but his driving is better but still needs to learn to STFU
So true
I was rooting for Bubba During the Playoffs. I hope Mr Rent Free makes it next year
Oh come on, are you proud of him for not crying like a baby and dissing himself??? He literally did NOTHING in the playoffs bar scrapping through the first round and getting knocked out the very next! If that makes you "proud", you either need to get out more or buy a dictionary!
He was impressive this year and same last year for the owners championship. If he can a get better start to his season then he could be in the round of 8 next year.
I thought Tyler Reddick would definitely win but AJ winning is great.
I'm happy for Reddick. I'm an rcr guy, but it's clear that he has talent and I want him to do well with his career. Even if it's on another team.
It's amazing that Bubba Wallace, barely a 16th seed, is in the fight for a top 10 points finish without any wins. Yes the Playoff system can be flawed but it also rewards for consistency when it comes at the right time.
Yeah. Amazing. 😂😂😂
Well, I doubt he would have made it without both Chase and Bowman missing races though. Which is why it is amazing because not sure that he was a top 16 driver or that team had the speed. Shows maybe they had the speed and needed a little bit more out of the driver.
Not that amazing as the only reason was others had a lot of bad luck. He backed into the playoffs and only hung on because of luck.
Here’s to hoping the 24 makes the championship 4 again
As someone there in person, I love it. I went to my first Roval in 2021. I've been there every year since. The racing was fantastic this year. There was a battle to watch everywhere on the track.
I have idea, no stages, increasing the distance of the ovals, 1 or 2 roadrace tracks, the champion declared at the end of the when he/she has the most points.
Super excited for next week since IT WILL BE MY FIRST IN PERSON EXPERIENCE!!! Gonna be great! Hope my man Tyler Reddick will win!
Show up early enough to get free stuff from vendors and also check Vegas’s policy on coolers and food to bring in. Concession stands take too long! Have fun!
Great race also man Kyle Busch had a chance
Two awful runs killed him. You just can't do that in the playoffs unless you have a win already in that round. Shame, but at least he had a shot today and made it interesting.
Not sure why Willie B gets no hype. 5 wins, round of 12, 1st,2nd, 2nd. Has a win at all of the remaining tracks. Leads points.
William Byron is underrated. Wouldn’t consider him some hype show.
And they put tv cameras in cars that have never won a race but never put one in his car
He's making it look to easy.
6 wins.
I had so much fun being there in person! First Charlotte race ive been too (as well as first time in Charlotte in general). Def plan to post some vids of the race once I get back lol
My biggest problem with stage cautions is that they shoehorned the strategy and even forced unnecessary cautions. That caution with #7 & #78 doesn't happen if we aren't trying to beat the stage cautions. The majority of cautions in the last part of the race are a skill issue. If NASCAR wants to run shorter road courses (Mid-Ohio, WGI, Roval, etc.) then they need to find a way to make the stages less static. 25-25-59 is not a difficult strategy. On the other hand, CotA and Road America should avoid stage cautions at all costs due to time wasting.
I think one of the craziest things this year has shown that should carry over into next season is that there's about 20-22 drivers that are all worthy of making the playoffs. Before the next gen car it felt like 12 or 13 drivers actually deserved to be in the playoffs but now it's just like wow, everyone is good now
Cars are more equal. Both a good and bad thing.
I think today proved why stage cautions do belong.
No messes at the restarts (that was a restart zone issue)
Bell in stage 1 and reddick throughout the day proved that there is good strategy for position AND points to be had. They showed racecraft, speed and good strategy throughout and they got points and position.
Without stage cautions, qualifying detemines a ton of your race success and not your actual race pace or racecraft.
Given that road courses are far from 400, 500, or 600 miles there is not enough time for strategy to come into effect, pace to show and mistakes to be corrected. One good qualy lap and youre set for the race. One spin turn one and your day is over.
The restart zone move was brilliant. It made it a better race and more fair for the back half too actually. But it also made it so the leader had to be near perfect on restarts.
Just remember that in 2023 Aj Allmendinger for Kaulig Racing won a race before Chase Elliott for Hendrick Motorsports.
Michael McDowell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr also won before Chase Elliott
And wow, no Elliott wins this year. Whoop de do. Does it always have to measure against Elliott?
@hollygolden9673 In this specific situation...yes. Elliott is a past playoff and regular season champion in his prime and with arguably the best team in NASCAR. Very shocking to hear that Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Michael McDowell, Shane van Gisbergen, A. J. Allmendinger, and Chris Buescher all have wins before Chase Elliott could. Same could be said for Kevin Harvick...but I am not going to do that since Stewart-Haas Racing is no longer a top tier team and Harvick is no longer in his prime.
@@hollygolden9673People like to give Chase shit, but he's accomplished a hell of a lot more than Dale Jr ever did in Cup.
@@Sinister_Grin You're not wrong. Comparing Elliott would be rather too quick of judgement considering he already did A LOT in a short time. Every champ will have those seasons of slump with seasons of triumph.
WOW even tho I’m not a Busch fan it was a tough break for Kyle Busch he needed to win that to advance and came up short I did not have Almendinger winning on my bingo card today tho solid race nonetheless
Never underestimate the dinger on a road course. Him and Ambrose were the OG road course assassins because they were very good on those courses.
This was Elliot’s best chance to snag a win and not put up a goose egg but this disaster of a season continues
Chase has been letting his teammates live rent free in his head this year. Jealousy is ugly AF!
And he told you he was jealous?
The racing gods have really rained bad luck on him especially since the Coke 600.
Chase may have had the fastest car on track today. When he had the lead he just ran away from the pack. Bad luck season...
I know they are running for Owner’s Title, but no doubt I would be building cars purely thinking of 2024.
Bubba had a great season regardless. Has had speed at multiple tracks and even though he hasn’t won I felt like he has improved this year.
I really like this track, especially where it is in the playoffs, it’s only one time a year and that configuration and drivers can easily make mistakes. It’s probably one of the best road courses in terms of lots of passing and racing we have. A way better race than Watkins glen and Indy road coarse. That’s a good track and I’m glad they kept it for the playoffs next year.
I had Brad, Byron, Hamlin, and Larson in my final four. Still have a chance to get three of them in there. I picked Byron to win it all and still feel good about that pick.
William Bryon and his team has been on a tear, past 4 races got a top ten at Bristol and last 3 races has been a top 5. I would be shocked he don't make it to the championship four.
Stage breaks are just a different type of strategy. It's OK to have aspects of a sport where you can't have your cake and eat it too. They limit new sets of tires. That "artificially" forces the teams to ration and changes the flow of the race. The rules are the same for everyone. Pick your strategy.
I would rate the roval race at a 75%. I'm glad Chase Elliott won stage 2 cause he was going for the Hendrick Ownership Championship and that's what counts for him besides winning a race. Way to go Chase!!
Wish they didn’t bring back the stage cautions
The 9 advanced in the owners points and the 19 didn’t
It's always a feel-good moment when Allmendinger wins. He FINALLY got a good car for a road course this year and got the win. I hope he comes back to Cup next year and runs more competitively on the ovals.
For the Championship my pick is now Byron. Hamlin, Truex, and Larson have all been making too many mistakes during the playoffs. Any of the drivers ranked 5th through 8th could break through to the Final Four.
Round of 8 is shaping up to be great. Blaney, Buescher, Reddick, and Bell are on the outside looking in right now, but have been very consistent in the Playoffs and I could easily see them jumping Larson and or Truex to get into the Championship. If I’d have to pick today, I’d have Byron, Hamlin, Reddick, and Blaney getting in the Championship 4.
Larson is probably gonna make it, the next 3 races plus Phoenix lineup really good for him and he’s been good most of the playoffs. Truex has been fumbling all playoffs and has barely made both rounds. He’s probably the most likely to be eliminated out of the 2
I enjoy all type of road courses, especially COTA and the Roval. If NASCAR went back to the Oval for Charlotte I would be disappointed as it's one of my favorite races of the year. I like both layouts for Charlotte, but I prefer the Roval slightly.
So damn proud of Bubba for putting up a fight til the very end. What a season for him.
AJ absolutely nailed the restarts and that goes to show how well the car was set up that it could launch that good.
The next gen car is a big hit or miss, but somehow I feel like its proved it does a lot of both over the last two years
Trackhouse is gonna be interesting next year. They seemed to slightly drop off on speed this year, and they have a lot of moving parts. If I had to guess, they maintain from this year and maybe Suarez struggles a little more.
I just hate change the stage rules breaks after racing at 3 Road Courses. Because Bubba had hell of qualifying effort and if stage breaks didn’t happen in cycle in back. I think he would stayed in top 5/10 all day barring no crazy accidents
I’d like to point out that in the round of 12, William Byron had an average finish of 1.66.
Easy fix is to change the tire compound one way or the other. Make them super hard so the drivers loud pedal must be dainty or super sticky so they can run really hard but only for ten laps or so. Or you can give the teams on set of each and decide when they want to run them!
Once again, the best race analysis that I've seen. By the way, Dale Jarrett is looking more like Santa Claus each week.
Roval did not disappoint. The Roval has been one of the most fun races to watch since its inception. With the current car being so boring on most tracks, I'm glad Roval is on the schedule, and I hope it'll stay on the schedule for the foreseeable future.
The tv ratings are worth keeping the ROVAL.
We all know the regular season matter. NEWMAN !!!! Made it the to Phoenix without a win then finished 2nd to Harvick
This race was so fun to go to
Happy that AJ redeemed himself for his lackluster Cup performance this year, but I’m not happy that Kyle missed it. Good news is he finished 3rd, but the bad news is that didn’t advance him. It’s still a good season, but now I have no one left to cheer for. With Kyle and Ross done, all of my favorite drivers are out of the championship hunt.
Kyle was just too far back in points to catch up
Time to root for Christopher Buescher and the 30,000 residents of Prosper, Texas
Cheer for Chevy. I mean Trackhouse gets help from Childress and HMS.
@@hw919_Though I think Larson, Byron, Hamlin, and Blaney are the Final 4.
It stinks that Rowdy didn't make the next round but with thee wins and making the playoffs in the first season with a new team I would consider it a success. It was great to see the Dinger get a win he is such a cool lil fella! Also great to see less road course next season 💯
Pending a possible sophomore slump, Ty Gibbs is gonna do something special in the near future
As my second most favorite driver (Rowdy first), I sure hope so! It's going to be especially fun to watch Cindric, Hocevar, Zane Smith and Ty race against each other next year. Ah, the next generation drivers are starting to take their place among the veterans...
Eric, I'm sorry, you were right about Kyle! All I can say is that I'm happy he put up a fight right until the end and I think they'll be back to make another run again next year.
Stenhouse left his pizza rolls in the oven too long
I think Ty Gibbs is having a better overall season this year than Austin Cindric had last season.
not even a question. cindric just fluked the daytona 500 and was invisible the rest of the year
@@theseanie9958Cindric actually finished the second half of the season strong, I mean, he almost made it to the round of 8 🤷♂️.
Truex Jr has been awful in the playoffs. Regular season help him hopes he turns it around
I imagine Martin has had a rough couple of months on and off track.
Bubba with one of the fastest cars in the field was stuck in 25th or below for most of the race because he chose stage points and got screwed because of it. That sucks
I think that Nascar should give teams 2 options for tires at road courses. It would add strategy to the pit choices especially in the 2nd and 3rd stages you may short pit to get on a softer compound tire that could let you pass your way through the field faster.
MTJ, you're my favorite driver. Please. PLEASE! Stop making everything so close! You're going to give me a heart attack, at this rate! I know you can do this! Go get 'em, in the Round of 8!
At this point there’s no denying bubbas ability. Almost won Texas, ran laps up front at dega (could’ve had a shot at a great finish if he didn’t have to drop back to reserve fuel), and came through half the pack quick at a type of track he’s not great at. Not to mention all the other stuff like the fact he probably would’ve won Kansas if Goodyear brought tires that didn’t blow out randomly.
For everyone who complains that the regular season championship doesn’t mean anything just look at Truex this playoffs. That team has essentially failed to show up at all and thanks to the regular season championship he’s somehow made it through.
“Revenge Tour Ends Early”
*DAMN*
Jeez, I almost died when you said AJs first win was a decade ago..
Why aren’t they putting a camera in the 24 car? He has a 1.667 average finish in the last round, someone said. And he’s been on fire all year long but he never gets any coverage
This year has shown that Kyle in fact was carrying the 18 car at JGR.
Good job Larson
The owners championship is now weird and different than the drivers championship 19 team - owners regular season champions -has been eliminated
I missed watching the race today so I really appreciate your race recap!
@EricEstepp Hot take here but the diversity of Nascar tracks and track types the past few season has actually been a strength of the sport. To your point about trying to push the limit on the car, it sounds like you’d be in favor of a dirt race with left and right turns
As someone who took his girlfriend to her first NASCAR race yesterday, I am actually glad the stage cautions came back. First stage was losing her. Then when the fast cars had to go to the rear after staying out at the end of the stage, it really reshuffled everything.
I really miss the fall Charlotte race on the oval. Charlotte is such a temperature sensitive track and it would be a great day race for sure
It was a good race at Charlotte Roval, we’ve saw couple wreckage, chaos on the wild race and I’ll give a 75.3% ratings. Right now it’s my birthday today! I’m having lot of fun for my birthday bash!
I always loved Charlotte oval night race in October! It goes well with other sports during fall season. Bars and restaurants have serval sports playing this time of year
MTJ is very lucky that Busch wasn’t able to win today, cuz if he does MTJ gets kicked out.
And they deserve to be out. Martin should not be happy about their performance. They are out of the Owner’s Title battle.
I’ll be honest here. I thought the first 2 stages were great! That being said, I love strategic racing, and loads of cautions ruin that for me.
That being said, no cautions can be just as bad as it throws no spanners in the works
12:42 - I think MTJ was eliminated from the owners point chase by the #9 team so the #19 team isn’t racing for the big money moving forward. HMS has 3 teams still racing for the big $$ while JGR only has 2 teams.
You would be correct.
And I do think top to bottom, HMS is outrunning JGR this Playoffs.
Elliott would have won the race ,he had strongest car on the track! You give credit is due, Eric.
Amazing win for the dinger! 🔔
The only way to fix stage yellows for road courses is to require all lead lap cars to pit for 4 tires under yellow...
I actually went to the Roval this past weekend. It was fun to see in person and even went to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, pretty fun weekend.
I will say though from your comment of the Next Gen racing TOO good at road courses. I like that NASCAR takes radical and bold changes to the schedule to get more track variety than it was a decade ago, but I really wish NASCAR would take bold and radical changes to the Next Gen for the short track and road course package. It’d be interesting to see what they do in the offseason, but I highly doubt it’ll be enough. They’ll probably just remove the rear diffuser to take more downforce away and call it a day and then realize it still didn’t do much. We all know these cars need more power weather it’d be upping the engines back to 750hp or a hybrid unit to give boosts of power which it’s questionable on how it’s gonna work and even then the talks of adding a hybrid unit have stalled. At this point NASCAR for short tracks and road courses would be better off running Trans Am TA or TA2 cars if they want a stock car that looks more like it’s production car counterpart.
Ricky stenhouse Burnt the Tostito’s 💀💀💀
I called it, it was either the dinger or Tyler Reddick was going to going to it
You can’t have two picks and say you “called it”
@@pandaman1869 hey I had both on fantasy picks so 👅
Larson finally beat his kryptonite!! Boutta get 3 straight top 5s!
I'm glad Larson survived! Early on, it was looking like a bloodbath for Chevy today!
@@RogerBates7It sort of is with Busch going out.
@ethanweeter2732 it def hurts that they are down to only two teams, but it was very close to being only one left. I think it is unfortunate that Kyle exited before the round of 8, but he ran into some bad luck last round. A badly blown tire and getting wrecked out. Those are the things you can't game plan for. They just happen on race day. He had the speed, as you saw yesterday, and they cleaned up the team errors from the R-16, it just wasn't to be for him this year.
I enjoy the Roval race and having the yellow flag at the stage breaks. The race strategies made it interesting.
If there truly were a "level playing field" in the Cup Series, then Toyota with only SIX cars, would not have won nine of the thirty-two races so far and put four into the Round of Eight.
Chase got screwed by that caution. Could have been a good race with him and Reddick. Still in the owners and he eliminated Truex. Hes top 3 in average finish this year only behind hamlin and byron
while you’re right about truex struggling and the odds stacked against him to make it to the final four, you gotta look at the tracks that lay ahead, Martinsville he finished P3 at earlier this year, He was the second fastest car at homestead last year and the only one who may have been able to challenge Larson that day, and Vegas, a track where he was in the running at the end earlier this year
Eric, great work on the channel. Your videos are top notch. Would you give your thoughts on this playoff adjustment? I think it leaves the structure basically unchanged while also resolving the rhetoric of it being "illegitimate or Mickey mouse" champion. All NASCAR would have to do is allow the drivers to carry the playoff points earned in the round of 8 ONLY, into the championship 4. This both incentivizes drivers to put their focus on each track of the round of 8 instead of potentially winning the first race and then prepping for Phoenix, and eliminates the possibility that some bad luck during the Champ race ends someone's playoff chances through no fault of their own. Additionally, I think it would promote better racing because non-playoff drivers could still race champ 4 drivers tough without fear of accidentally ruining their title hopes. If a driver can go win races and stages throughout the round of 8 and build an advantage, they should earn the right to not have their championship hopes end by having an otherwise good day running in the top 10 but not winning, or by having someone bump them out of the way on the final lap in Phoneix.
More horsepower, no stage breaks.
I am quite torn on the issue of stage break yellows. I'll admit it did add excitement to this Roval race, but the stage-flipping strategy that it comes with takes away some legitimacy from the race. I think stage yellows are probably back for good now, but maybe there is still room for improvement. Perhaps NASCAR could alter stage yellows such that pit road stays closed; it just becomes a quick re-rack and fire off.
I'd imagine most all drivers would pit just before stage end to utilize their track position, but they also have the options to stay on track too, if they think they can run deep into the next stage before needing to pit. A yellow for cause would open pit road like normal; only a yellow for a stage end with no other cause would keep pit road closed. Might be a decent compromise, though the TV broadcast probably like having the two guaranteed yellow-flag pit cycles to show the race off pit road, so I'd be surprised if any more changes are tried.
If Bubba's crew chief was going after points this entire round like yesterday. He would have advanced. He ran well this entire round but because of ill advised pit stops. He left each race without any stage points
Something nobody was really talking about was the restart zone. I think the restart needs to revert back to what it was before. It’s so unfair for the inside lane and it just makes restarts look really bad.