So many times over the modern era of NASCAR, we’ve seen someone catch fire at a 1.5-mile track and run away with the race.
Drivers like Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and others have been seen in the past couple of seasons, “stinking up the show,” as some will call it, at different times.
I think more people would agree rather than disagree that races seem better when there isn’t a run-away winner.
Now, obviously that isn’t something that’s easy to stop. They’re run-away winners for a reason. However, anytime you can have a reminder that a race isn’t over until the checkered flag flies is a good one.
It’s what we saw Sunday.
Kyle Larson had lead 269 laps at Atlanta, well on his way to being the first repeat winner in the NASCAR Cup Series this season. He had built up a 3.0 second lead with just over 40 laps remaining when it looked like it was all but over for Ryan Blaney, who sat in second.
It was fitting, though, how Blaney charged back in the waning moments of the race. It was reflective of historical comebacks that sports fans have watched during the NCAA’s March Madness basketball tournament over the years.
The fact that happened during the meat of the March Madness weekend a year after the event was cancelled only made it better.
Sports rock, and we’ve been reminded of that more than ever this weekend.
But to more of a specific point, NASCAR needed a finish like that.
Now spare me with the takes that include a race like this happening with a bigger TV audience. I’ll never complain with a finish like that and it’s just a slight that it happened during a weekend like this.
The TV ratings will be the lowest they’ve been this season, but it shouldn’t matter.
Blaney’s win should be remembered like a first round of March Madness buzzer beater. It should be that reminder that a race isn’t over until that checkered flag flies.
It should be a moment that we remember for the remainder of the year, even if it wasn’t an upset to the degree of a 16 seed beating a 1.
I hope we remember Blaney’s win as a highlight to that magnitude, though. If you’re going to have commercials referring to it as, “The best season ever,” you’re going to need stuff like that.
Sunday afternoon was just a blissful reminder that it can happen, and it was cool to see.
Through six races, the results haven’t been very predictable, and the action has been at a favorable level.
We’ve got three days of asphalt cars on dirt after this, too, so I see no reason why that won’t continue.
And who knows, maybe it will be Larson being the first repeat winner and dominating the Bristol Dirt Race…
But on Sunday, NASCAR saw a race at an intermediate track that wasn’t meant to be good turn into an instant classic, and that’s something that should be celebrated by its fans and everyone inside the industry.
