David vs. Goliath: An Unkind Homecoming at Charlotte
Charlotte Motor Speedway has seen its share of unexpected, if not underdog, winners in recent seasons. This weekend’s 500-miler was not one of those times.
Charlotte Motor Speedway has seen its share of unexpected, if not underdog, winners in recent seasons. This weekend’s 500-miler was not one of those times.
The 1-mile oval in Loudon, N.H. is often referred to as the Magic Mile. Problem for the underdogs is, that magic typically only applies when rain falls.
Chicago marked the first weekend of a 10-race battle between David and Goliath. Who came out on top in this week’s edition of how the cookie cutter crumbled?
Was Richmond a weekend for the underdogs or the latest bump in the road for the rest of the Cup field?
The Bristol night race served as an equalizer, allowing numerous operations at the back of the Cup field to make some noise and log some laps.
When all was said and done at Michigan, the gap between 35th and 36th grew larger and the locked-in segment of the Sprint Cup field stayed stationary.
_It was a tough weekend for the bubble crowd at Pocono, where even strategy calls didn’t seem to keep the underdogs in contention for long. Without a top-25 result from anyone, the race became more a matter of survival than success, a day at the office with little if anything to hang their hat on. Pocono has a history of tearing up equipment, and more than one driver found himself babying it to the finish in the name of keeping their status intact in owner points._
_So after a weak weekend overall, which teams continue to stand out above the rest? And could rookie Andy Lally keep quietly impressing, just one week after Robby Gordon’s blown engine handed his team, TRG Motorsports a spot inside the top 35? Check out the Bubble Breakdown this week to see how the battle to keep a “locked in” spot is shaking out amongst NASCAR’s little teams that could…_
Landon Cassill learned a hard rookie lesson at Indy: no matter how wide the straightaways are, it’s impossible to go into the corner four-wide.
With positions 31-34 in the owner points all but stagnant, the three-way battle for the last locked-in spot in the Cup field took a number of turns at Loudon.
With Hendrick horsepower under the hood, Landon Cassill was the frontrunner of the bubble drivers for the entire 400 miles at Kentucky.
Though 26th place is not what the No. 51 team had in mind for the return to Daytona, their longtime expertise at plate racing shone through again.
David Ragan scoring a first-time victory at Daytona and going from also-ran to Chase contender is about as big a holiday weekend as they come.
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