Michigan Review, Richmond Preview, and More | Chasing The Cup S1:E24

In this episode of Chasing the Cup, the host reviews the races at Michigan. Kevin Harvick breaks a winless streak and wins, followed by Bubba Wallace in second. The race was exciting with good battles for the lead. Ty Gibbs finishes in the top ten in only his third start. The Xfinity race was boring due to the cars' dirty air problems. The host discusses the Cup playoffs and the tight battle for the cut line. In the news, tickets for the 2023 Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum are on sale. Noah Grexen will drive for Petty GMS in 2023. NASCAR charters have reached high prices. Other news includes sponsorships, driver changes, and upcoming concerts. The host previews the upcoming races at Richmond and makes predictions. Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cup. I am your host Will Anglin and in this episode I am going to be reviewing the races from Michigan. I'll also go over the news. I'm going to preview this weekend's races at Richmond 2, but first let's get to the results from Michigan. Kevin Harvick breaks a 65 race winless streak and wins at Michigan, followed by Bubba Wallace the post sitter finishing second with his first pole, Denny Hamlin in third, Jay Logano in fourth, Ryan Blaney in fifth, Martin Turek Jr. in sixth, Kyle Larson in seventh, Eric Jones in eighth, Alex Buman in ninth, and Ty Gibbs in only his third start rounds out the top ten. This race was probably the best Michigan race in a long long time. Although it looked a little tighter last year, you couldn't pass because you had that stupid 550 package where you couldn't pass at all. Meanwhile this race was slightly more spread out, but you could definitely pass and it was definitely pretty fun to watch. You had some great battles throughout the pack, you got great battles for the lead and all that, and it looked really good. Of course Bubba Wallace finished second, he got his first career pole, and afterward he was down on himself for finishing second because he should have battled with Joe Logano hard during that final restart. And then Ty Gibbs on only his third start finishes tenth. So if I am Kyle Busch I'm scared because Ty Gibbs is now running top ten in 23-11 equipment. I wonder what's going to happen if he gets into Joe Gibbs' cup of stuff. And to be honest Kyle Busch from what I've heard he may not return to Joe Gibbs. But I would not be worried about Ty Gibbs if he moves up because although he's still learning he's learning very well. He got his first top ten. And also Noah Grexen was running top five before he got wrecked in stage two. He was running really well, and I'll come back to that in the news. And there was also a big wreck in stage one that took out a bunch of cars. And so overall this race was probably the best Michigan race in a while. I'd say this race saved Michigan. And finally for the Xfinity race, Ty Gibbs picks up another win followed by Justin Allgaier in second, Noah Grexen in third, Brandon Jones in fourth, Austin Hill in fifth, Josh Ferry in sixth, AJ Allmendinger in seventh, Daniel Hamrick in eighth, Riley Herbst in ninth, and Landon Castle rounds out the top ten. And so I'll make this brief. That race was pretty boring because the Xfinity cars are just basically COTs and they just have some dirty air problems. And it just made the race kind of boring. It's better than the 550 package that Cup had when they had the Gen 6s. But these Xfinity cars need to be revamped because they're basically the Gen 6 cars. I've heard talkings about maybe turning into an SUV series or the new electric series, but we'll have to see about that. And so overall a good weekend for Michigan. Great Cup race, a below average Xfinity race, but as long as you got a good Cup show, I'm fine with it. And so before we get to the news, I'm going to go back and take a look at the Cup playoffs because with Kevin Harvick winning, he is really shaking things up. With 15 winners all full time, you now have a conundrum. Last guy in on points is Ryan Blaney, who's only 19 points above the cut line. 19 points below it is Martin Truex Jr. And it's going to be a tight cut line battle unless someone wins that is outside of the top 16, like maybe Eric Jones or Bubba Wallace, which they have chances to. So it'll be quite interesting coming into Richmond because Martin Truex Jr. has been very good at Richmond and he's one of the best short track drivers. And Ryan Blaney recently had a good run, although this was one of his worst tracks previously. So we'll have to see because if there's 17 winners, let's say Blaney and Truex, unless they don't win, they'll be in. If they both win, then Kurt Busch would be out because he's still out because of his concussion. And so with that out of the way, let's get to the news. First off, tickets are now on sale for the 2023 Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum. So if you're interested, you can go ahead and buy them. I'd snatch them early before they sell out. If they sell out, Chase Rice will be performing an infield concert during the Talladega race weekend. And Kenny Greenwood will perform God Bless the USA at Kansas on September the 11th for that Kansas race. Of course, this is not the only time that Lee has performed the song at a NASCAR race. He did it at the Bristol Night Race once. Of course, the song is a staple of Bristol Motor Speedway, but he performed it live one time for one of the night races that I was at. I don't remember which one, but I remember him singing and then there was someone with an eagle on their arm. That was cool. But I don't think he's done this in a while. So it's great to see him doing it again. Safeway on board will be sponsoring John Hunter Niemicek at Richmond. As I said earlier, Kurt Busch is still not clear and Ty Gibbs will run again at Richmond. Noah Grexen will be heading to Petty GMS to drive the 42 in 2023. And based off of what he's done so far in that college 16, I think he's ready. After his top 5 run, although he didn't finish top 5 because he's wrecked out, I think he is the raw talent to go out there and run well with Petty GMS next year. Nelly will headline the pre-race concert and driver intros for the Bank of America Roll Roll 400. According to Adam Stern, NASCAR charters have reached $20 million in asking prices, so the inflation has gone really high for charters. Of course, 2311 was the last team to buy a charter and they got it for $13 million. Josh Williams and B.J. McLeod Motorsports have parted ways. Larry Fleet will be performing the pre-race concert for the Cookout Southern 500 at Darlington. And here's a good one, Sargento Foods has teamed up with Josh Belicki for Watkins Glen after Josh Belicki crashed into one of those Sargento signs at Road America. It looks like Sargento and Josh Belicki made a deal after that. So that's cool to see, that was great. Chris Wright and Nis Sport of Sports have parted ways. And Chad Chastang will be running this weekend at Richmond. I know Chris Wright was basically the caution clock for the truck series this year, and I think this was a smart choice by Nis to get rid of him, because he's been tearing up equipment a lot. And also Nis needs to make some changes to their team because if three of their four drivers are below Haley Began in points, then you seriously have problems. Next for the Michigan TV ratings, USA got a 1.54 rating and 2.621 million viewers for the race at Michigan, which is up from both last year's event and the comparable weekend at Watkins Glen, and was the second highest rated sports event of the weekend after the NFL Hall of Fame game. Sam Mayer will be returning to junior motorsports next year. Mike Rockenfeller will be driving the Spire Motorsports 77 at Watkins Glen. Of course, Mike Rocky Rockenfeller is known for being a two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans race winner as well as being one of the best German racers of all time. BGR has swapped the crew chiefs of Tanner Gray and Haley Degan. Mike Helman Jr. will be moving to the 15th. Meanwhile, Haley Degan will be getting Jerry Baxter. Now, Jerry's been running pretty well this year with Tanner Gray getting a couple top fives and top tens. Meanwhile, Haley Degan only has one top ten, so we'll see what happens with the swap beginning this weekend. Justin Haley is back in the Xfinity series for one race at Daytona and a number 14 for Colleg Racing. I'd say he'd be my pick because he's just been dominant on those plate races in the Xfinity series. Washington Commanders player Chase Young has been named the honorary pace car driver for Richmond. Marco Andretti will be making his Xfinity series debut at the Charlotte Roval for Big Machine Racing. And finally, Hy-Vee has extended its partnership with Bailey Curry and JD Motorsports. And so that's it for this week's news, now let's preview this weekend's races at Richmond. Starting us with trucks, we have the Worldwide Express 250 for Carrier Appreciation. The race will be 250 laps and 187.5 miles and the race will be on August 13th at 8pm Eastern Time. And so for my pick, I'm going to go with Tyler Ankrum. Tyler finished third last year at Richmond, just behind John Hunter Niemicek and Kyle Bush. Of course, Kyle Bush will not be in the race and John Hunter Niemicek has been pretty sucky at the short tracks, so I think this time, Tyler Ankrum will get his first truck series win at Richmond. The Xfinity series has taken a week off, so for the Cup Race, we have the Federated Auto Parts 400. The race will be 400 laps and 300 miles and the race will be on August 14th at 3pm Eastern Time. And the interesting thing is that it's a day race, so it looks like they've abolished the Richmond night race. So let's take a look at the weather for Richmond. On Sunday, it will be pleasant with tides of sun and clouds with a high of 81 degrees with winds south to southwest at 6 miles per hour and a 25% chance of rain. So it will be kind of like partly cloudy with a smaller chance of rain, but there is a slight chance of pop-ups because it is the summer, but we'll have to see. They got the Michigan race in. There could be a little bit of a delay at Richmond as well, but we'll have to see how much rain we're going to get in Richmond. And so for my Cup Pick, I'm going to go with Martin Truex Jr. This track has been historically good for Truex. He won this race last year, and so I think this time he'll come in clutch and he'll get the victory at Richmond. And so that's it for this week's episode. If you enjoyed it, please like and subscribe for more. And if you're going out to Richmond this weekend, I hope you have a good time. And if you're not, have a good time wherever you are, and I'll see you next week.