THE LEFT TURN
NASCAR playoffs at Bristol: Bass Pro Shops Night Race preview, picks
Sep 16, 2022, 10:32 am
Start your engines! Photo via: Wiki Commons.
It’s an elimination race this Saturday at Bristol for the round of 16. There are some heavy hitters below the cut line and this race is their last chance to move on to the round of 12 and keep their championship hopes alive. Bristol is one of the most famous tracks on the schedule, as its massive banking and short length make it difficult to pass on. With this being such a high-pressure race, we are sure to see a lot of angry drivers when it’s all said and done. On Thursday, the track officials added a layer of grip around the bottom groove, indeed, we will see many drivers fight for the inside line.
Last week we saw another non-playoff driver in Bubba Wallace take the checkered flag at Kansas. This had been a long time coming for Wallace as his performance has continued to improve as he has scored a career-high in both Top fives and Top tens. The mission for Bubba in these last ten races is to keep the #45 car in contention for the owner's championship as he switched numbers with teammate Ty Gibbs. He has put himself in a great position with this victory.
For some of the drivers currently in the playoffs, Kansas was a tough go as there were multiple drivers that fell out of the race. Drivers like Tyler Reddick and Kevin Harvick both were involved in crashes that would relegate them to 37th and 38th place. For Reddick, he has obtained a fair amount of stage points that give him a little bit of a cushion, but by no means is he safe. He’s only 2 points to the good over the 12th place cutoff line. As for Kevin Harvick, he is currently 16th in points and is almost in a must-win scenario to move on to the next round. Another driver that had trouble was Kyle Busch. He would spin early in the race and wasn’t able to salvage much as he finished a disappointing 26th place. This puts Busch one point below the cut line.
The biggest news article of the week and maybe of the year was the announcement of where Kyle would be racing next season. On Tuesday, as we all expected Kyle Busch was named the driver of the #8 for Richard Childress Racing. This had been a move that the two-time champion needed to make, as it was clear that Joe Gibbs Racing was ready to move in a different direction for next season. When asked about it in his press conference, Busch said he knew he wanted to go to the team after Reddick outran him in the clash at the coliseum. This gave him the confidence to make the move and sign his multi-year deal to drive for RCR. It was a bit ironic that Kyle would choose to come here considering Childress once had Kyle Busch in a headlock 12 years ago. But the two were able to laugh it off as Childress gifted his new driver one of his watches. This should be a fun partnership as they begin to fill out their sponsorship inventory for next season.
As we know, a lot of these moves usually have a domino effect. This one is no different, as there are now many questions about the future of Tyler Reddick. Both parties have stated that they intend to work together next season, as Childress plans on preparing a third team for his driver, who still has a year left on his contract. 2023 is going to be an awkward season.
As for who will drive the #18, it is becoming more and more clear that Ty Gibbs will get the call-up to replace Kyle Busch in 2023. This doesn’t come as a surprise, not just because his grandfather owns the team but because of how great he has been in the Xfinity Series as he’s the odds-on favorite to win the title. He’s also shown a lot of promise filling in for Kurt Busch.
Shifting the focus to this week’s race at Bristol, the driver I have winning this weekend is Kevin Harvick. The past two races have been a complete disaster for the 2014 champion. It started at Darlington when the car caught on fire out of nowhere, and then the next weekend crashed at Kansas. His back is against the wall, but this is where Harvick thrives. We saw back in his championship-winning season that he needed a win to move on to the championship race, and that’s exactly what he did. Bristol hasn’t been the best track for Harvick, but with the circumstances, there is no one I believe in more than him. Look for the #4 to take the victory come Saturday.
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When you hit rock bottom the only direction to go is up. Actually that's not true, you can continue to be a bottom feeder. Things are not nearly so dire for the Astros, despite them enduring one of the more pathetic weeks in franchise history. The Astros nearly had a perfect game pitched against them by a guy who had zero big league wins and a 6.70 earned run average. After managing to eke out a win the following game, they were shutout three games in a row. In the game after that Framber Valdez gave up six runs in the first inning, essentially ending the game right then and there. But hey, the Astros scored two runs in Wednesday's 7-2 loss, snapping an embarrassing run of 31 consecutive scoreless times at bat. Yet somehow over that stretch of gross, the Astros increased their American League West lead! The somehow being the Seattle Mariners saying "hold my beer" and losing five days in a row.
Reminder to those wanting to have the fat lady start warming in the bullpen thinking the Astros are done: the 162-game regular season lends itself to sometimes extreme peaks and valleys. The Astros limped out of Detroit with a record of 14-23 in their last 37 games. Over that time span only the Tampa Bay Rays and San Francisco Giants have worse records. Immediately before this lengthy garbage stretch of performance, the Astros went a blistering 29-10. Bi-polarity is part of the baseball season. The Tigers flat destroyed the Astros three days in a row to run the Motowners' recent spurt to 16 wins in 23 games. Immediately before going 16-7, the Tigers lost 12 out of 13! The longest winning streak in the American League this season is the 13-gamer put up by the Minnesota Twins. The rest of their season was so bad the Twins dealt away nearly half their roster before the trade deadline. The Red Sox had a 10-game losing streak earlier this season. The Yankees endured a miserable stretch of 6-16. Of most direct import to the Astros, the Mariners big dumped seven out of eight games directly after their eight-game winning streak had wiped out what remained of the Astros' one-time seven game American League West division lead. It's the full 162 games that tell the tale. The Astros absolutely could collapse out of the playoffs entirely. But that such is inevitable is ridiculous. In part because….
Yordan Alvarez should actually play in a game that counts this coming Tuesday. Why wait that long? He had two hits and a walk (and a stolen base...why Yordan, why!) in his first game in the minors Tuesday. If the long-injured and recovering hand is okay, having him play in the minors through the weekend is a waste of time. If Alvarez's timing isn't up to speed, so what? The mere threat Yordan represents is better than the dreck populating much of Joe Espada's batting order these days. The back-to-back games he's playing in the minors Thursday and Friday should have been in Baltimore in an Astros' uniform.
Any game Alvarez is the designated hitter removes deployment in the DH role of José Altuve. That's okay, Altuve is needed in left field because the ludicrously lousy offense from the other Astros' outfielders might not be good enough to win this week's Little League World Series. Hyperbole, but you get the point. Cam Smith has been brutally inept at the plate for almost a month and a half, arriving in Baltimore with a .137 batting average over his last 102 at bats and not a single homer in his last 149 ABs. While Smith's future can still be very bright, his present is pitch dark. Jacob Melton has been almost completely overmatched at the plate, batting .170 with an absurd 23 strikeouts in his first 54 at bats. Jesus Sanchez has stunk since coming in trade from the Marlins. Chas McCormick is a better comic reliever than he has been a hitter for more than a year and a half. Taylor Trammell's career big league batting average is .177. No one confuses Mauricio Dubon or Ramon Urias with Craig Biggio, but either guy in the lineup at second base with Altuve in left is better than Altuve at second and any of those outfielders playing.
While the Astros strive to garner at least a split of their four-game set with the Orioles this weekend, the Mariners are home for three vs. the Athletics. Since the All-Star break, the A's have the best record among the five AL West clubs. The Astros have the worst. As this column has covered, wild swings of results can happen at any time, but the Tigers crushing the Astros basically ends plausible Astros' hopes of winding up with the best record in the AL. The Tigers shoved the Astros six games behind them, and clinched the season series tiebreaker. The Astros still could run down Toronto for the second-best AL mark and bye past the best-of-three Wild Card round that comes with it. Along with playing vastly better ball period, the Astros quite likely would have to win their series over the Blue Jays in Canada next month.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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