THE LEFT TURN
NASCAR heads to the Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend
Jul 9, 2021, 12:49 pm
Keep an eye on Denny Hamlin this Sunday. Photo via: Wiki Commons.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads for Atlanta Motor Speedway this week for the Quaker State 400. This will be the final race that NASCAR will run on this configuration before a massive repave and reconfiguration takes place after the race. This race will feature four-hundred miles of slipping and sliding and tire management. The surface for this racetrack is one of the roughest on the schedule, as it hasn't been repaved since 1997. More than likely, the driver who does the best at saving his tires will win the race. Much like we saw earlier here in the season, Lap traffic will also come into play as well. When Kyle Larson had a massive lead on Ryan Blaney, he approached the lapped car of Joey Logano who promptly held him up, allowing his teammate of Blaney to catch up and take the win. Look for that to be a point of contingency come Sunday.
Last week at Road America, Chase Elliott did what he does best and took his seventh career victory on a road course. This is his second victory of 2021. This was another excellent run as he continues to put down solid runs as we get closer to the playoffs. He will be one to watch to tack on more wins as there are four more road courses left this season.
The big story off the track this week have been the rumors about next year's new car and its safety record. The reaction to the crash testing has been mixed, as there have been some reports that the crash test dummies used in the simulations were fatally impacted. This is a very troubling sign for the sport as safety has been NASCAR's strongest attribute since 2001 when Dale Earnhardt was killed. It is important to note that these are rumors and have not been confirmed, but there has been a lot of smoke around these claims. Former Crew-Chief Steve Hmeil claimed on Twitter that the car was "too stiff" and there weren't enough crush zones around the car. And even though he hasn't been in the sport for a while he is certainly a reputable source. I have talked to a few people around the garage and the reaction that I have heard has been mixed. Some have been positive, some have been negative but overall on the bright side, the sectioning body has some time to figure out all the kinks. This will be quite the storyline to follow in the coming months.
A driver who continues to impress this season has been sophomore driver Tyler Reddick. He has been continuing to impress each and every week and continued this by winning stage two at Road America. The Richard Childress Racing team is going through a lot of turmoil right now and there are a lot of questions surrounding this team. If there is one thing this team has really perfected, it's been their ability to stay around the top fifteen for the whole race, as his average running position is 15.8. This team is getting closer and closer to that elusive first career win and is knocking on the door of a playoff berth. Look for Tyler Reddick to continue to improve each week as the season continues.
The driver that I have winning this week is Denny Hamlin. What a year it has been for this team. Overall, Hamlin's 8.4 average finish is the highest of anyone. He has done everything but win this season but that is going to change this week. Atlanta is a track that has treated him well, he has a victory here along with six top fives and four hundred and nineteen laps led, (second only to Kyle Larson among active drivers). He will greatly benefit from a third place starting spot as well, with how much this high downforce package makes it difficult to pass at these types of racetracks. If Hamlin can minimize his mistakes and put a whole race together, this will be the week he gets that elusive first win of 2021. Look for the #11 FedEx Toyota to go to victory lane on Sunday.
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If you are a believer in the third time is a charm, go ahead and book the Texans for their first ever appearance in the AFC Championship game! Saturday is the Texans’ third crack at the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs. Of course, the Texans had a third time is the charm opportunity at advancing beyond the division round back in 2016 and came nowhere close. Charm will have nothing to do with the outcome at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Chiefs have administered the Texans’ two most humiliating postseason defeats in franchise history. They came as the bookend postseason appearances of Bill O’Brien’s tenure as head coach. In 2015, the Texans won the worst division in the AFC (that sounds familiar) but as a division champ got to play host to the Wild Card 11-5 Chiefs. The visitors were three-point favorites. They won by 30. 30-0 to be more precise. Knile Davis returned the opening kickoff 106 yards for a touchdown. It would have been in the Texans’ best interest to have forfeited right then and there. In what was not exactly a shocking development, Texans’ quarterback Brian Hoyer wasn’t up to the task, throwing for just 112 yards and four interceptions. On the Chiefs’ side third-year tight end Travis Kelce had eight receptions for 128 yards. Taylor Swift was not in attendance.
The second Texans-Chiefs playoff get together is the most incredible game in Texans’ history. The Texans showed up in Missouri fresh off the greatest comeback win in their history, having come from down 16-0 in the third quarter to best the Buffalo Bills in overtime. In what could safely be characterized as stunning, the Texans put up three first quarter touchdowns for a 21-0 lead. *Massive bonus points if you can name the three Texans who scored those TDs, answer below. A field goal made it 24-0 Texans with 10:54 left in the second quarter. In a collapse tough to pull off, the Texans would trail before halftime. The Chiefs scored four touchdowns in nine minutes and eleven seconds of game time, with that Kelce fellow scoring the last three of them. Some will recall O’Brien calling a fake punt from his own 31-yard line with the Texans up 24-7. Too soon? Justin Reid (now pursuing his third Super Bowl ring in three seasons as a Chief) was stopped short. An even more damning O’Brien moment came later in that game when he actually had to use a timeout to change his mind and go for it with 11:49 left in the fourth quarter, the Texans down 48-31, and facing fourth and four at the K.C. 42. That was a fire-able on the spot offense! Instead it took an 0-4 start to the 2020 season for O’Brien to be ousted. 51-31 Chiefs was the final score, and they went on to win the first of their three Super Bowl titles in the ongoing Andy Reid/Patrick Mahomes era.
Back to the present
Those routs were then, this is now. For a 15-2 team the Chiefs seem vulnerable. Maximum credit to them for having won an NFL record 16 consecutive games decided by eight or fewer points, 11 of them this season including their 27-19 victory over the Texans December 21. Perhaps the two-time defending champions were often bored with the regular season and often did just enough to win. The Texans would have been tied with them late in the third quarter had Ka’imi Fairbairn not botched an extra point. On the other hand, it was the play that got them within 17-16 which resulted in Tank Dell’s catastrophic season-ending knee injury. Who besides Nico Collins will do something in the passing game Saturday? Last Saturday the Texans’ pass rush harassed and flustered Chargers’ quarterback Justin Herbert. Mahomes is a different breed. Four weeks ago the Texans sacked Mahomes just once and did not intercept him. That seemingly must change for the Texans to pull off what be a shocker for most people. Saturday’s high temperature forecast for Kansas City is 25 degrees. Not ideal for the Texans but better than if the game had been scheduled for Sunday when the high is supposed to be 16.
Still standing
Four Texans who dressed for the debacle five years ago will suit up against the Chiefs Saturday: Laremy Tunsil and Tytus Howard who were in their first season with the team, Fairbairn, and long snapper Jon Weeks. Granted he’s just a long snapper (important role but not physically taxing), but Weeks is in his 15th season with the Texans and has yet to miss a game-244 regular season games (with Saturday his 14th playoff game, also without a miss). Presuming he is back next season, Weeks (who turns 39 next month) can crack the top five list of most consecutive games played in NFL history by answering the bell in the first 12 regular season games.
*The Texans’ three early TDS in the 51-31 loss at KC: 1. Kenny Stills with a 54-yard reception 2. Lonnie Johnson with a 10-yard return of a blocked punt 3. Darren Fells with a four-yard grab
For Texans’ conversation, catch Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me on our Texans On Tap podcasts. Thursdays feature a preview of the upcoming game, and then we go live (then available on demand) after the final gun of the game: Texans on Tap - YouTube
The Astros are always in season for discussion. Our Stone Cold ‘Stros podcasts drop Mondays: Click here to watch!