Kyle Larson won a thrilling finish to Sunday's YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, going from 11th to first in the final half-circuit to extend his championship points lead to 73 and effectively seal his third title barring a disaster in the final two races. But we still shouldn't forget about what happened earlier in the going.
This race may as well have only started when the second stage began, because before that, it was an unwatchable fuel-saving fest in which not a single driver was even trying to compete. Finally, the three RFK Racing entries had enough and created their own pack, leading at one point by as much as 40 seconds.
What we saw during Sunday's opening stage was a disgrace to the sport of auto racing. And NASCAR must do whatever it takes to put an end to it, for once and for all.
NASCAR needs to start penalizing drivers for ridiculous half-effort at superspeedways
Hey, NASCAR, remember that "100 percent" rule you created after the Michael Waltrip Racing scandal at Richmond Raceway in 2013? That might come in handy right about now, if you ever decided you want to actually enforce it.
The adjusted stage lengths this year have done nothing to solve the superspeedway fuel-saving problem. And they're never going to, unless we add a fourth stage or an automatic competition caution so that drivers never have to pit under green.
But it shouldn't need to come to that. Any time the optimal strategy (though as RFK proved, maybe the teams don't need to take it that far) directly involves disrespecting the competitive nature of the sport, there needs to be a strict line in the sand drawn to prevent it from happening. Full stop.
The fuel-saving strategy is NASCAR's version of tanking in the NBA. It may ultimately help the teams in the end, but not without first having to intentionally waste time and put on an utterly unwatchable product for fans who pay to see racing, not a Sunday drive at quarter-throttle.
The best solution here is simple. NASCAR needs to substantially raise the minimum speed at Talladega and Daytona International Speedway to one at which a car can be expected to reasonably run at full throttle. And if they don't, black flag them.
This is what it has come to. It is the only way. When teams see a way to gain an edge, they'll do it, no matter what it comes at the cost of. They won't stop unless it's against the rules.
NASCAR banned tandem drafting on superspeedways years ago after fans complained loudly enough. They can ban this too.
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