It took three decades, but North Wilkesboro came back to life this weekend for actual points-paying NASCAR races.
You wanna see what the Cup field look like the last time they raced there?
beat Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jarrett, Jeff Burton and Terry Labonte on Sept. 29, 1996. Lordy. What a top-five!
With all due respect to today’s NASCAR, these fellas ain’t touching those guys.
DALE EARNHARDT JR. BROUGHT NASCAR BACK TO LIFE 25 YEARS AGO THIS WEEKEND, BUT THE PAIN IS BACK
Not now, not tomorrow, not ever. A better time. A simpler time.
That being said, Joey Logano came close Sunday night, leading 323 of the 450 laps and holding off Denny Hamlin to win for the first time in well over a year.
That’s right. Joey Logano â a three-time NASCAR champ â had somehow gone over a year between Cup wins. In fact, he’d barely led a lap before Sunday night at North Wilkesboro.
Did it make the race boring? Eh. A little. But that’s less on Joey, and more on NASCAR for this terrible short-track product. Thanks, Next Gen car!
What else y’all wanna talk about today? How about the faith in and around the track all weekend long? Seriously. I know NASCAR is the only sport left that really acknowledges God (Lord knows it ain’t the WNBA!), but it was kicked up a notch at North Wilkesboro.
What an invocation! And what a Truck Series sponsor! You’ll see.
I’ve also got Brexton Busch winning on Friday for the first time since his dad died in May, and buddy, it was a surreal site. He even did the signature bow. Incredible.
OK, four tires, enough Sunoco racing fuel to get us to Indy, and maybe some communion for anyone who missed this weekend’s service at at North Wilkesboro … Monday Morning Pit-Stop â the ‘NASCAR Goes Back In Time’ edition â is LIVE!
Look, Joey Logano absolutely dominated this race. At one point, there were, like, four cars on the lead lap. Chase Elliott, William Byron and Kyle Larson all got caught a lap down early thanks to just a horribly-timed caution, and they never recovered.
I believe we finished this one with a total of six cars on the lead lap. Six! That’s almost unheard of in today’s NASCAR.
But this was a typical North Wilkesboro race. They used to average about 13 cars on the lead lap back in the day, and that’s pretty much what we got last night.
To me, though, this was a successful weekend for NASCAR â for a couple different reasons.
We’ve seen some rough-looking crowds this season (looking at you, Bristol), but not this weekend. Not at North Wilkesboro. They waited 30 years for a real race, and they weren’t going to miss it.
Go where you belong. Go where you are wanted. Go where you are appreciated. Quit trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
Lordy. The Libs must’ve been just fuming after that. Angel Reese spent all weekend accusing some liberal Australian coach of being racist, while NASCAR was running the FaithFest Jesus is Lord 250.
Choose your fighter(s), America.
“I want to proclaim Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.”
Again, you ain’t getting that sort of content out of the WNBA! I dump on NASCAR a lot, mainly because I like to keep them honest and someone has to hold their you-know-what to the fire.
But, credit where it’s due … this felt like a throwback weekend in more ways than one. Remember how miserable this series was six years right now? In that absolutely insufferable summer of 2020.
“The Summer of George!”
We’ve come
