Welcome Race Fans! There's been BIG NEWS dropping all this week in the Nascar world, but before we completely turn the page on week three of the Nascar Cup Series; This is the Debris In Turn 3 Post Race blog for the Auto Club 400, which occurred Sunday March 1, 2020 out west in Fontana, California. This is a few days late because after being very pumped up for a race on the oldest asphalt surface in the series, the abysmal television coverage sapped my interest quickly and by the last stage I was playing crew chief for my buddy's iRacing team. After all this hoopla over lug nuts, numbers, & clashes, it's almost like the California race is a distant memory. I'm going to take a glance back to Sunday & recount what is was like for DIT3 last weekend.
Going into the race day it seemed like we might get the battle that never happened in Vegas between Bowman and Blaney, after week 2 "Blind Boy" award winner, Ross Chastain, brought out the late yellow, leading to the two lap dash to the checkers that gave Joey Logano the layup win. Both Alex Bowman and Ryan Blaney were fast in practice and were expected to be strong in the race. Adding to my excitement for the Auto Club 400 was my Mythos Motorsports team on top of the early Debris In Turn 3 Championship standings and I was eager to catch some Nascar action while attempting to hold my spot on top of some competitive and charging teams. By the time the green was in the air on Sunday, I was hyped for the start. It had been a quiet week house-sitting because my girlfriend was away from home and I had a some low-keys days while waiting for the weekend races.
Bowman blasted to the front, displacing the no.14 car of pole-sitter, Clint Bowyer that sunk like a stone out of the Top 10, after only ten laps. Bowyer would eventually bring out the only yellow for "cause" in the whole race during stage two, just after the round of green flag stops. A blown tired and damaged splitter ruined the rest his day. Stage one ended with Alex Bowman in the first position and during one of the many commercial breaks during that stage (aren't there supposed to be less with segment racing implemented?) is where we find the winner of the Debris In Turn 3 "Blind Boy" award. This week it goes to Denny Hamlin who pushed his buddy Kyle Larson down the front stretch, but turned him into the retaining wall, hurting the chassis and forcing Larson to run the rest of the race off the pace and he would eventually finish P21. Adding insult to injury to his fans, Kyle Larson whisked away from the track in Denny's private plane on their way to play $500/hole golf in Arizona, without ever uttering a word about the on-track altercation with his pal. Also, imagine being on that pit crew or one of the hard working men and women at Chip Ganassi racing, who meticulously prepared that car for a 400 mile race to just watch their driver not even stand up for the team. Luckily for the 42 supporters, Mr. Ganassi himself responded to Denny & the now infamous twitter video of him "replaying" the accident while grocery shopping, eluding that his team members at the shop and himself though it was in "poor taste."
Blaney bounced back in stage 2, winning the segment and earning the very valuable playoff point. At this point, I was about fed up with the Nascar on Fox coverage. I felt like I was getting seasick, especially during the commercial cadence of the stage break. For two hours it was going back and forth every five minutes to a commercial break and I never felt like I was getting into the flow of the race or able to follow anything that was developing. This was frustrating because White Flag Lap shared a leaderboard with me that was showing the positions change back and forth and I felt like I was missing what seemed like a pretty good race. Aside from Bowman blowing them away in the final stage, Fontana's five groove track offers a host of options to the drivers every lap, but the coverage on Sunday seemed to be only restarts and pit stops. It was very disappointing and found myself in the iRacing game before too long with the broadcast on in the background.
Congrats to 57 Legend Motorsports on their first win of the season. Mojo found some of that which was missing during the Daytona 500 and Poor Richard1776 who also finished poorly in that race was in the Top 5 in Cali. FKC Racing took the final podium spot and took over the third place in points behind another "Wave-Arounder" (DIT3 Champions League), Six Seconds Faster. Mythos Motorsports retains the point lead going to Phoenix Raceway. Other notable finishes last weekend; newcomers, "Disdain For Chastain" (P11) & FatmanSports (P5), who settles in at fourth in the standings, and OuttaGas, 2019 Runner-up (P10). The Phoenix entry is open. JOIN by emailing DebrisInTurn3@gmail.com
