NASCAR: Best and Worst of the Weekend from Kentucky

All three major NASCAR series were at Kentucky this past weekend. There were some good things that came out of the weekend as well as some bad.

Weather of this past weekend’s races wasn’t up to par with other racing this season. However, Kentucky did provide plenty of story lines to last the rest of the season. Here are the best and worst from Kentucky.

Best of the Truck race

The Truck race had good racing all night. Tight racing in the field, passes for the lead and the restarts were good as they come. Whether that was because the race got delayed due to the rain or because it was just one of those nights when everyone wanted the same thing but only one could get it, it was still a great race

This type of race just showed how much the stages work for these type of race tracks that have a reputation for putting on boring races.

Worst of the Truck race

The worst part of the Truck race had to be when the stage winners were caught up in wreaks. Ben Rhodes won the first stage of the race. Unfortunately, was caught up in a wreak on lap 42.

Noah Gragson won the second stage. On a restart, however, he went low on the apron of the race track and turned his truck sideways on the track. Unlike Rhodes, Gragson was able to save it and got no damage, and he finished in 5th place.

Best of the Xfinity race

This weekend the Xfinity race had strategies in play. The last pit stop was able to help Kyle Busch to victory. Ryan Blaney started at the rear of the field and was able to finish in 2nd.

Blaney told the media after the race “We were good all day. I thought we were the best car all day, personally.”

Worst of the Xfinity race

This was out of NASCAR’s control, but there were two races on Saturday. In the day was the Xfinity race and at night was the Cup race. It was due the rain that pushed that the Xfinity race got pushed back a day.

The day seems packed and the Xfinity race seemed rushed. As said above, nobody can control the weather, but NASCAR should put a plan in to place if something like that happens again so that the Xfinity race doesn’t seem rushed.

Best of the Cup race

Kyle Larson missed qualifying due to his car not going through inspection. That made him start in the back of field, the same as Ryan Blaney in the Xfinity race.

Larson was able make pass after pass until a pit stop when he was busted for speeding. He was then the last car on the lead lap again. But again, he was able to pass cars before he ended up finishing in 2nd place.

Worst of the Cup race

Kentucky is a 1.5-mile race track. Those types of tracks make up most of the NASCAR schedule. They are also crazy-fast. However, other than few a races, they do not provide the close racing that everyone wants.

These tracks can sometimes produce fuel mileage races that can cause some excitement, but not at Kentucky. That race needed overtime to become somewhat interesting. NASCAR either has to find a way to make these races more lively or they need to reduce the number of these tracks on the schedule.

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NASCAR: Best and Worst of the Weekend at Kentucky

By Kayla Gipson | Jul 10, 2017