It’s laborious to consider that Sunday’s historic Chicago avenue course race signaled the halfway level of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, however it did. With 18 races down and 18 extra to go — together with 10 playoff races — here’s the place issues stand.
The greatest takeaway from the factors standings is that no person has distanced himself from the pack. William Byron and Kyle Busch lead the sector with three race wins apiece, whereas Martin Truex, Jr. is the general factors chief, 9 forward of Byron. Five drivers are inside 31 factors of the lead.
Additionally, no person has scored greater than Kyle Larson’s eight top-five finishes, and no person has earned greater than Busch’s 11 top-10s. Byron has led essentially the most laps with 722, one among 13 completely different drivers to eclipse the century mark. Suffice to say, issues are evenly matched.
Truex should be thought of the 12 months’s greatest shock, coming off a season during which he did not win a race, missed the playoffs and strongly thought of retirement. The 2017 Cup champion appears re-ignited and is arguably the title favourite.
On the flip facet, nobody has disillusioned this season greater than Stewart-Haas Racing, with three of the staff’s 4 entries sitting twenty fifth or worse within the standings. Chase Briscoe trails all of them, as his nightmarish marketing campaign has been lowlighted by one of the largest penalties in NASCAR history.
It has been a tumultuous season for drivers named Chase throughout the board. 2020 champion Chase Elliott has missed seven races attributable to harm and suspension and sits outdoors the playoff discipline. Whether he — in addition to teammate Alex Bowman, who was additionally sidelined for 3 races — can race their method again into rivalry shall be an attention-grabbing storyline to comply with.
As far because the racing itself, we have seen a noticeable enchancment from final season. There have not been as many security issues with the Gen 7 automotive (each Elliott and Bowman’s accidents had been away from NASCAR), and the reliability of the tools is best, with fewer tire and engine failures.
Drama, principally involving a choose few drivers, has made the racing thrilling. Tensions are positive to escalate because the playoffs draw nearer, however hopefully we are able to steer clear of harmful on-track incidents and bodily post-race brawls.
The NASCAR Cup Series needs to be stuffed with intrigue and pleasure between now and November. It’s anybody’s guess who will hoist the championship trophy, however now’s the time for contenders to separate from pretenders.
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