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The NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series heads to home base this week in Charlotte, North Carolina for the Bank of America 400. This will be the second running on the Road Course/oval combination here at this prestigious racetrack. Last year's inaugural race here included one of the greatest finishes in the history of the sport after Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr. spun in the final corner allowing Ryan Blaney to emerge from third to first and claim his second career victory so as you can tell, this race has a lot to live up to. This is the last race of the round of 16, so the intensity will definitely be at an all time high come Sunday. On this track, there are two chicanes that have really given lots of drivers trouble. The first one is in the middle of the back stretch, this has caused many issues considering the high rate of speed that is carried from turns one and two. Drivers like Bubba Wallace and Erik Jones ran into trouble with this last year when they both suffered vicious crashes into the tire barrier. The other chicane is at the exit of turn four next to the pit-road entrance, this was another trouble spot for many drivers considering the race came down to this corner last season. Of all the places on the race track, this will be the most exciting section to watch with it being as narrow as it is and the amount of action we see.
Last week, Martin Truex Jr was able to capture his sixth win of the year and the second in a row after passing his teammate Kyle Busch for the lead with 25 laps remaining. Miraculously, Truex was able to recover from a late race spin on lap 325 after contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr who was a lap down at the time. While Truex won the race, the feel-good story of the night was the phenomenal run by Ryan Newman. When the checkered flag flew, Newman took home a fifth place finish. This has been one of the best stories of the year as the veteran driver has taken this Roush racing team that struggled to even stay on the lead lap and not only put them in the playoffs, but contend for top fives. The result puts Newman fourteen points above the 13th place cutoff and in a very good spot to move on to the next round. Many people wrote this team off and said they would be bounced in the first round, including NASCAR's most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. After seeing how well he ran, Jr even said it himself that he has to apologize to Newman because he was going out there and proving him wrong. While what the 17-year veteran is doing is impressive, it isn't necessarily new considering back in 2014 he was able to gain enough points to make the championship race at Homestead and come within a second of winning the title. Going into the next round, if he can keep up this consistency, Newman might have a chance to do some major damage throughout the playoffs.
The bad luck continues for third year driver Erik Jones. After finishing the race in fourth place, it was later revealed that his car failed post-race inspection as his car failed to meet the right measurement and for the first time since the 40s, a driver in the Cup series was disqualified from the race. This nearly kills any chance of Jones to point his way into the next round as now he will have to almost win to move on. It is definitely a shame considering how well the team ran during the night and it's all washed away. Jones will have to go into the Charlotte with guns blazing to stay in the hunt for this championship.
During the week, Ryan Newman wasn't the only Roush racing driver in the headlines. On Wednesday, it was announced that Jack Roush had terminated Ricky Stenhouse Jr's contract and he will not return in 2020. The driver that will take his place, 2015 NASCAR Xfinity Champion and Prosper, Texas native Chris Buescher. During the time of his championship, he drove for Jack Roush and was called up to the #34 Loves Ford Fusion for Front Row racing the next season. This would be where he would claim an upset victory at Pocono. He then would move to Cavaliers legend Brad Daugherty's team in 2017 and he has been there ever since. The move comes as a massive surprise to all of the NASCAR world considering that Stenhouse had a contract until 2021. While I think Stenhouse is a good driver, this might have been a move that needed to be made as Buescher has been way more consistent. This season, Buescher's average finish is an impressive 17.6 and compared to Stenhouses 20.9 average finish, Buescher can give you a chance to make the playoffs. With the announcement that he will be leaving JTG, this leads many to speculate who will take his place in the #37 Krogers Camaro. My money's on the former Richard Childress driver Daniel Hemric. It will be interesting to see how he meshes with Ryan Newman and what is next for Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
As I stated earlier, this will be the final race of the round of 16. Right now the drivers on the bubble are Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola and Willam Byron. While Blaney has a fairly sizeable eight point cushion on thirteenth, Aric and William are living on the razor's edge as they are two and three points ahead of Alex Bowman. This is looking like it is going to be another dramatic finale considering Clint Bowyer and Kurt Busch aren't too far behind either. Overall, If I had to predict who I would say would advance, I think that Aric will stay where he is in 11th and Alex Bowman will advance eliminating his Hendrick teammate William Byron. The reason, I believe this is because of how well he ran at this track last year as he finished fourth. This should be a battle for the ages come Sunday.
The driver that I have winning this week is Brad Keselowski. As we all know, last season Brad almost pulled off an upset victory after taking his beat-up Ford all the way back to the lead. It looked like he was on his way to victory until driving head-on into the wall in turn one after a late race restart. This year, I think that Brad will learn from the mistakes he made last year as he should be the car to beat. Look for him to take his mustang to victory lane for his fourth win of the season.
(All stats and information used in this article is brought to you by the good folks at driveraverages.com and Racing-Reference.com the best website for all NASCAR stats).
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For the first time since 2016, the Houston Astros failed to win a playoff game. And that’s not OK with general manager Dana Brown.
A day after the Astros were swept by the Detroit Tigers in their AL Wild Card Series, stopping a streak of seven straight trips to the AL Championship Series, Brown detailed his top priority for the offseason.
“First of all, one of the things we want to make sure we do is get back deep into the postseason,” he said Thursday. “That’s going to be our vision, that’s going to be our focus.”
When it comes to fulfilling that goal, "we’re not taking anything off the table,” he said.
The Astros, who won the World Series in 2017 and 2022, looked as if they might fall short of the playoffs altogether at the beginning of the season. They got off to a 7-19 start, falling 10 games behind Seattle in the AL West. But they finished with an 88-73 record and won their seventh division title in eight years, with the only exception coming in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
Manager Joe Espada, who was hired after Dusty Baker retired, was impressed with Houston’s resiliency this season.
“A team gets tested and you see the character of your team,” he said. “Through adversity and the way we were tested early, I knew that this team was strong enough to make a push and get us into the postseason.”
Now they’ll look to return to the playoffs and make another long run next year. The first step could be re-signing star third baseman Alex Bregman. Represented by Scott Boras, the two-time All-Star is eligible for free agency and assuredly will command a hefty new paycheck.
Bregman has spent his entire nine-year career with Houston. He said after Wednesday’s loss to Detroit that he hopes to remain with the team. Second baseman Jose Altuve said he would be “heartbroken” if Bregman were to sign elsewhere.
“We will have some discussions with Boras and also with Bregman,” Brown said. “We’ve had some small talk, but ultimately, we will have some discussions. We know what he means to this organization.”
Houston also could look for an upgrade at first base. José Abreu was released with $20.8 million remaining on his contract after he hit .124 through June 13, and the Astros never found a consistent replacement at the position.
Though Brown repeated his “nothing is off the table” comment when asked if he’d try to add to the rotation, he believes the Astros will be a good spot in that area because of the improvement of their young pitchers this season.
Multiple injuries to Houston’s starters forced the Astros to insert Ronel Blanco and rookie Spencer Arrighetti into the rotation. Blanco threw a no-hitter in his season debut and was second on the team with 13 wins and a 2.80 ERA. Arrighetti made 28 starts and was selected AL Rookie of the Month for August after going 3-2 with a 1.95 ERA.
Hunter Brown, in his second MLB season, went 11-9 with a 3.49 ERA to help steady the rotation during a year when three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander made just 17 starts due to injuries.
Dana Brown said Thursday that right-hander Cristian Javier, who had Tommy John surgery in June, is recovering well and they expect him to be ready to pitch by the end of July. Brown called Javier a “pillar” of the rotation after the 27-year-old started 56 games combined in the previous two seasons before this year’s injury limited him to just seven starts.
The development of Houston’s young pitchers combined with the expected return of Javier, José Urquidy and Luis Garcia next season makes it unlikely that the Astros will re-sign Verlander or veteran left-hander Yusei Kikuchi.
The 41-year-old Verlander appears to be headed to free agency after failing to pitch the 140 innings he needed to trigger a $35 million player option on his contract. He didn't make the playoff roster after struggling in his return following a two-month stint on the injured list with a neck injury.
“Justin Verlander has been outstanding in this organization and is a big part of the winning culture in this organization and ultimately it sounds like he wants to come back,” Brown said. “But we’re going to have some discussions with our front office and coach Joe and his staff as to what’s the best thing for the team and how should we go forward.”
He had a similar answer when asked about Kikuchi’s future with the team. He also is eligible for free agency after pitching well for the Astros down the stretch after a July trade from Toronto.