Racers have been indignant. Racers have been complaining. Racers have been questioning every little thing, dwell in HD on our tv units.

Superior. Welcome to the postseason.

On Sunday evening within the 73rd version of the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, NASCAR’s oldest speedway and its still-new race automotive joined forces to ship the game by means of a time machine and a rubbish disposal suddenly. When the checkered flag flew and the smoke fairly actually cleared, Erik Jones drove a automotive into Victory Lane that hadn’t received this race in precisely 55 years, Richard Petty’s all the time well-known however usually feeble No. 43. In the meantime, Chase Elliott, the driving force who led the 2022 Cup Sequence standings all season, ended the evening and began the NASCAR playoffs ending lifeless final.

As famous NASCAR fan (most likely) Maximus Decimus Meridius as soon as requested, “Are you not entertained?!”

Truthfully, Max? Sure. Sure, we have been. We’ve been all season lengthy. And we are going to take 9 extra weeks of it, from right here till the ultimate lap at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 6, thanks very a lot.

Granted, none of us is Elliott (except he’s studying this, and if he’s, hey, man, thanks), who now sits ninth within the standings whereas staring cautiously on the two tracks that might be raced upon earlier than the postseason discipline is whittled from 16 to 12. He completed twenty ninth at Kansas Speedway earlier this yr and twenty fifth at Bristol Motor Speedway in its final non-dirt occasion one yr in the past. None of us is Kyle Busch, who led 155 laps at Darlington, seemingly en path to getting his title run again so as … earlier than popping an engine and ending thirtieth.

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And none of us is Kevin Harvick, who slogged by means of many of the common season, then received two in a row to grab momentum heading into the playoffs, seeking his second collection title. However his evening led to South Carolina with him escaping a fire-engulfed Ford, reigniting his bemoaning of NASCAR’s new one-size-fits-all Subsequent Gen automotive as being unsafe.

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“What a catastrophe for no cause,” the 46-year previous paradoxically generally known as “Comfortable” mentioned on NBC Sunday evening. “We did not contact the wall. We did not contact a automotive and right here we’re within the pits with a burned-up automotive, and we won’t end the race in the course of the playoffs due to crappy-ass elements.”

His irritation is comprehensible. Harvick is now ranked final among the many 16 playoff drivers. Busch sits in eleventh. The earlier eight years of NASCAR’s so-called Elimination Period say that they’re in actual bother of not making the bracket when it cuts 4 groups two weeks from now. They must win a kind of two races to advance.

Subsequent Gen automobiles are offering parity. That is good, proper?

Nevertheless, these are the identical elements and similar race automotive, basically a spec machine, which have additionally produced a season that may rank among the many best in NASCAR’s almost 75-year historical past, it doesn’t matter what occurs over the remaining 9 weeks. Jones was the season’s seventeenth completely different winner, and various non-playoff contributors are nonetheless able to hoisting a trophy earlier than the yr ends, led by one other who had his coronary heart damaged by the Woman in Black, Martin Truex Jr.

The 2022 parity celebration of victors has opened doorways lengthy guarded by inventory automotive racing’s powerhouses, welcoming groups like Petty GMS Motorsports and drivers who’ve discovered Victory Lane as tough to succeed in as a Himalayan mountain peak.

Nobody disagrees that the Subsequent Gen automotive deserves an extended, onerous look over the winter with regards to incidents like Harvick’s fireplace. Security ought to all the time be first.

However most are additionally in settlement that the equality-generating raciness of the machines does not want to vary in any respect. Those who stay resistant appear to be those that used to have the winners’ lounge to themselves, superteams that now share that room with guys like this yr’s 5 first-time Cup Sequence race winners, and would-be second-tier outfits equivalent to Petty GMS, Workforce 23XI and even the once-mighty Richard Childress Racing. Those that have had that membership to themselves aren’t tremendous massive followers of stage taking part in fields.

Why would they be? So many future NASCAR Corridor of Famers, those that used to have the ability to elbow out the children from the bar, are actually having to face in line for the subsequent drink like everybody else, ready for service from a bartender who seems to be like an terrible lot like Father Time. It occurs. It simply does not often occur suddenly prefer it has this season.

However needless to say it wasn’t so way back that the loudest complaints weren’t from the drivers; they got here from the followers. When NASCAR’s TV rankings have been within the tank and there was nary a spotlight to be discovered or a dialog to be heard on any sports activities discuss present. Like, lower than 5 years in the past. The grousers mentioned it was all too predictable. They hated that the identical guys received on a regular basis. They howled that one man (see: Johnson, Jimmie) received all of the championships. They mentioned the schedule was stuffed with racetracks that every one appeared the identical, and so did the automobiles, separated visually by nothing greater than a special set of stickers on the nostril.

Now NASCAR has 17 winners. It has a schedule filled with highway programs. Nobody has been in a position to repeat as Cup champ since Johnson’s run of 5 straight ended … in 2010!

What we have now now, Subsequent Gen automotive and in any other case, may not be excellent, but it surely’s actually not boring. Nobody can accuse the game of being predictable. Not the game we have watched this season, notably over the previous few weeks, and particularly what we witnessed Sunday evening at Darlington. Heck, we do not even know what the schedule goes to appear to be yr to yr, after a long time of having the ability to set your watches to the identical kinds of tracks on the similar locations on the identical dates.

Oh, and a heads-up, it is solely about to get wackier. Take a look on the racetracks which might be slated for the cutoff races on the finish of every spherical of those playoffs.

Bristol. Charlotte Roval. Martinsville. Yeesh.

That is most likely not going to be lots of enjoyable for the racers. They may wreck automobiles and lose sleep and favorites will fall out of rivalry and surprises will win extra races. They may all stress out due to all of the above. They may complain loudly about all of it on TV. However the subsequent weekend, one other inexperienced flag might be waved, and they’ll do it over again.

Will we be entertained? Based mostly on the Southern 500, you’ll be able to guess your maximus we are going to.