Last weekend was the first chance to see the three main motorsport series in America all back-to-back-to-back, in NASCAR, F1, and Indycar. The differences between each race, in Martinsville, Australia, and Long Beach, respectively were on full display...
Images: Team Penske, Scuderia Ferrari, Hendrick Motorsports
NASCAR
Martinsville
The first of the trifecta was the NASCAR Cup Series in Martinsville; one of NASCAR's most storied and action-packed tracks. Saturday night short track racing, all the ingredients were there for a classic beatin' and bangin' showdown. What followed was, judging by all accounts, one of the worst NASCAR races in recent memory. Now; full disclosure; the race was on FOX Sports 1, not standard network FOX (yet another sign of NASCAR's decline), so I was unable to watch the race directly (except the first 30 laps or so), and instead only followed along on timings and social media, but even I could tell that what was happening was NOT good.
Before the race even began, Mother Nature did her best to stop the proceedings, and there was a rain delay. So when the race did begin, there was no rubber on the race track, which meant that we could probably not expect multi-groove racing, at least to start. Chase Elliott led from pole for the first 185 laps of the race, which had only cautions for the stage breaks throughout the first half. The only cautions in the second half of the race were down to a slowing Denny Hamlin (as Joe Gibbs Racing suffered a shocker), and a mild incident for Todd Gilliland. That's it. Not one spin. Not one on-track lead change. Even a late race caution and overtime restart couldn't save it.
Now, I was once one of NASCAR's biggest fans, and my interest has slowly declined over the last six years or so, to the point where I don't even watch the races. It would be very easy to just rip NASCAR apart, and all you have to do is go on social media for a few minutes and search 'NASCAR' and find that. I will say this: I had genuine hope for NASCAR after the announcement of the Next-Gen car, and even after the first few races, I was pretty optimistic. The race at Fontana and Las Vegas were pretty good, even Richmond had an interesting strategy element. That's what makes this the most puzzling thing; Martinsville is usually a good race, even if it boils down to a demolition derby by the end. If you had told someone that the Cup race at Martinsville would be the least entertaining race of the weekend, people would have laughed you out of the room. But that's exactly what happened.
Formula 1
Australian Grand Prix
Following right after the race at Martinsville, race fans that managed to stay awake in spite of NASCAR's best effort's could tune into the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. and what a difference. Before the race even started, the difference in atmosphere between the NASCAR race and the Grand Prix was insane. As NASCAR couldn't even fill the stands at one of it's most beloved tracks, F1 turned out a record weekend attendance of nearly 420,000, flush with fans, as the circus returned to Australia since the ill-fated effort at the start of 2020. And once the race got underway, it wasn't an all-time classic, but was still decent, and especially good compared to some of the previous races Down Under.
Charles Leclerc led from pole at the start, and barring a slightly tricky restart, was never really under threat from behind, as his dream start to the season continued. While Leclerc's dream continued, his closest rivals experienced something more akin to a nightmare. Jeopardized in Q3 by Fernando Alonso's untimely hydraulic issue and ensuing crash, Sainz started down in ninth place, but quickly fell behind after a poor getaway off the line. Eager to make up for lost time, he lost control on lap 2 and spun into the gravel and was beached. Verstappen, meanwhile had no match for Leclerc's pace and looked set to settle for second, before yet another reliability problem took him out of the race in its second half. By the end, Leclerc won from Sergio Perez and Mercedes' George Russell.
Throughout the rest off the field, there was some good racing and some strategic gambling that led to about seven drivers tripping over each other for about 30 laps. In the end, Alex Albon pulled off an exceptional last-lap pitstop to steal 10th and the final point in what was the first real good news for Williams in 2022. This was made possible by Lance Stroll and Aston Martin trying desperately to hold onto any points, which ultimately failed and ended with Stroll getting a penalty for his questionable defensive driving. Special recognition for Aston Martin having possibly the worst weekend by a single team in the last few years. Throughout the weekend, we had Sebastian Vettel breaking down in first practice, to the point where he missed second practice completely, and then both drivers crashed in final practice, Stroll crashed in qualifying, and Vettel crashed again in the race after already running off track, while Stroll scored no points. What a cluster.
In the end, the race was decent, and probably left people who saw both NASCAR and the F1 race in a better state of mind as they went to bed (in the US, at least).
Indycar
Grand Prix of Long Beach
With NASCAR having a rare Saturday race, and F1 being down under, Indycar had its own spotlight on Sunday afternoon. And despite a relatively mundane first half, the second half of the race really did deliver. Local favorite Colton Herta looked set to dominate in the first part, setting the stage for a repeat of last year's victory. However, a strategic masterclass from reigning champion Alex Palou and Chip Ganassi jumped Herta, and Team Penske's Josef Newgarden also managed to thanks to a slick pit stop compared to Herta's Andretti team. Herta seemed to still have superior pace to the front two, and was looking to flip the script on the second round of stops, when instead he put himself in the wall as he tried desperately to make up for lost time. With the local favorite eliminated, it looked set to be a shootout between Newgarden and Palou.
In a mirror of the first pit stops, Newgarden managed to jump Palou, before Simon Pagenaud amusingly got beached on the famous fountain's flowerbed and forced a late restart. At the restart, Newgarden got away, while third-placed Marcus Ericsson lost it on cold tires and crashed out of a promising third place while having the most push-to-pass left of any of the frontrunners, and had a real shot to capitalize on the field bunching up. The elevated Romain Grosjean into third place, and using the softer, faster tires was able to actually pass Palou to get into second before yet another Jimmie Johnson crash (his third of the weekend) set up a late race restart. Grosjean tried his best, but some excellent defensive driving from Newgarden on the ensuing restart meant that Team Penske stays undefeated in 2022 so far, with Grosjean and Palou rounding out the podium.
Of the three races, Indycar probably delivered the best race, especially in its second half, although the F1 race offered up a decent amount of action as well. In the end, the American race fan's weekend greatly improved from beginning to end, and did offer a few positives (unless you're a diehard NASCAR fan). Enthusiasm for F1 is alive and well, with Ferrari passing every test as Red Bull stumble with a fast but fragile car and Mercedes struggle with a slow but reliable car. Indycar proved that you can have a good street race in the modern era, and that the competition is as tight as ever. NASCAR? Well, we have the Bristol Dirt Race next week! Not a chance anything will go wrong there!
Comments