THE LEFT TURN
NASCAR playoffs at Charlotte: Bank of America Roval 400 preview, picks
Oct 7, 2022, 12:56 pm
Watch out for AJ Allmendinger this weekend. Photo via: Wiki Commons
The NASCAR Cup Series closes out the Round of 12 this week at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Bank of America Roval 400. The Round of 12 has been just as wild and unpredictable as the rest of the playoffs and now they go to a track known for crazy finishes. One part of this track to look out for is turn one. Appropriately called “the Tums Heartburn Turn” many drivers have a lot of trouble getting into this corner but with these cars being much better at road courses, we might not see as much calamity in this corner as we have in the past. We are expecting low temps in the 40s this weekend in Charlotte, so it might be difficult to find grip in these new tires.
It was announced Thursday that William Byron had won his appeal from the Texas incident with Denny Hamlin. His points have now been rescinded and are now back above the 8th-place cutoff in the playoffs. This is a HUGE win for Hendrick Motorsports as they now get three of their cars back into the playoff picture with Chase Elliott punching his ticket last weekend. Byron is not out of the woods yet, and he’s still only 14 points ahead of 9th. The same can’t be said about his teammate Alex Bowman. As we all know, the Arizona native was sidelined last week at Talladega with concussion-like symptoms, his injuries will keep him out of this week's race at the Roval.
Bowman won’t be the only driver out this week, as Cody Ware and Kurt Busch will also miss this week's race as well. This is the first time since 2001 that three or more drivers would miss time due to injuries. We have beat the drum over and over about this car and how safety is a major concern, and it seems as if NASCAR is working towards a fix, but it won’t be till next season. One solution that has been offered is a fix to the headrest that keeps the drivers in place. Dale Earnarhdt Jr had a great idea of adding more foam to cushion the impacts. These next four races will feature two mile-and-a-half tracks, a road course, and a short track, so there is a lot of concern for the tracks like Las Vegas and Homestead as the cars are carrying a high amount of speed all around the racetrack. Let's hope to get a safe race like we did last week at Talladega.
As I mentioned earlier, Chase Elliott went on to win at Talladega to clinch his spot in the semi-final round. The race was a fairly clean race as there was only one multi-car wreck, we didn’t see a lot of the crazy blocks that we see on these types of superspeedways because a lot of these drivers were being extra cautious. The fans were treated to a pretty fantastic finish as Chase Elliott passed Ryan Blaney on the final lap to win his fifth race of 2022.
After a disappointing 29th place finish, things only got worse for Kevin Harvick and his crew chief Rodney Childers. His Ford Mustang was taken to the Research and Development Center, where they would find illegal body modifications to the rear decklid. A massive 100-point penalty would be levied on the team and Childers would be suspended for four weeks. Many people including Kevin Harvick himself would talk about how ironic it was that such a heavy penalty would come after his comments regarding the parts, but it’s important to note that Martin Truex Jr has also said similar things and his car did not fail inspection. With this penalty and Harvick’s feelings about the car, his future beyond 2023 is becoming increasingly unclear.
There was some big news regarding Kaulig racing this weekend as it was announced that AJ Allmendinger will be promoted to the Cup Series full-time in 2023. While the move seemed to be a backup plan as Kaulig missed out on Kyle Busch, this is still awesome to see considering how fast AJ has been not just in the Xfinity Series but in his limited Cup Series starts as well. With an average finish of 17.4, he is a certain contender for the playoffs, especially with the hefty amount of road courses on the schedule next year.
With all that being said, AJ is the driver that I am predicting will win this weekend at the Charlotte Roval. Aside from his incredible road course ability, he has a knack for getting around this place. In the Xfinity Series that he runs full-time, no one has a better average finish than him and three victories. Anytime the Cup Series goes to a road course you know that AJ is the driver to watch, he’s scored six top tens and 3 top fives in his road course start since 2019. Look for him to become the record-breaking 20th different winner in 2022
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Jets interview Houston Texans coordinator for their head coach vacancy
Jan 17, 2025, 3:11 pm
When DeMeco Ryans became coach of the Houston Texans before last season, the two-time Pro Bowl linebacker brought his swarm defense with him.
It’s an identity the Texans have embraced as they prepare for their second straight trip to the divisional round of the playoffs Saturday where they’ll face the Kansas City Chiefs.
“You really can’t go out there if you’re not about it,” Ryans said.
And while every member of the defense has bought into Ryans’ aggressive style, there is one player who epitomizes it like no one else.
“Will every time,” cornerback Derek Stingley said of defensive end Will Anderson Jr.
Anderson, last year’s AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, has taken his game to another level this season and had 1½ sacks last week after piling up 11 in the regular season.
He described what playing swarm defense means to him.
“Do whatever it takes to get the ball, attacking the ball,” Anderson said. “We’ve got this saying in our D-line room; ‘who gonna pop it off?’ Whoever pops it off first, that’s swarming. Like who’s gonna make the big play? And I feel like there’s a lot of guys on defense that pop it off, who swarm.”
The Texans intercepted Justin Herbert a career-high four times, including one which was returned for a score, in last week’s win over the Chargers after he had been picked off just three times all season. Houston’s four takeaways in the first week of the playoffs are tied with Philadelphia for most in the NFL.
That performance came after Houston ranked fifth in the league in the regular season by forcing 29 turnovers.
Stingley, who had two of the interceptions last week a day after earning AP All-Pro honors, shared his mindset on the team’s defensive mentality.
“It really just comes down to if I was to tell you this is the last time you’re gonna do something, how you gonna do it,” Stingley said. “It’s simple as that. Just do that every single play.”
Ryans said there’s really no secret to why his team has such a knack for forcing turnovers. He believes it’s because he has good players, and they emphasize it in practice which translates to games.
“That’s our main thing that we go into every week is talking about attacking the football, taking the football,” Ryans said. “Because we know, when you take the football away, it just raises your percentages of winning the football games… it’s the defense helping the team win the game.”
While all of Houston’s takeaways last week came on interceptions, Stingley was quick to point out that those picks wouldn’t have happened if not for the pressure the defensive line put on Herbert. The Texans sacked him four times and hit him another nine in the 32-12 victory.
“The defense starts with them up front,” Stingley said. “They’re doing their job and it just makes it easier for us on the back end.”
Anderson said with each turnover, the defense got more and more amped up and was pushing each other to see who the next player would be to force one.
“That’s just that swarm mentality and we just feeding off each other,” Anderson said. “This person can’t do it by themselves so who is gonna be next and that just generates that contagious energy.”
The Texans were the fifth team since 1963 to have at least four sacks, four interceptions and an interception return for a touchdown in a playoff game last week. The past three teams to do it all went on to win the Super Bowl, with Tampa Bay doing so in the 2002 season, Baltimore in 2000 and San Francisco in 1989.
This Texans team would love to keep that going. But first they’ll need a win Saturday to put them in the AFC championship game for the first time after losing their previous five divisional matchups.
“That’s what you come here for,” Anderson said. “That’s what they’ve been rebuilding for is moments like this… we’ve got all the right pieces, we’ve just got to go out there and make it happen.”