by Patrick Zier | Sep 2, 2026 |
It’s kind of funny, really. In 2022, Atlanta Motor Speedway repaved its track so it would be more like Daytona, becoming a mini-superspeedway, if you will. It couldn’t be a true superspeedway because at a mile-and-a-half, it’s not as big as Daytona and Talladega.
Mostly, it added banking to produce the long lines of cars that went round and round until somebody got out of shape and caused a big wreck, just like Daytona and Talladega. Actual racing? Again, just like Daytona and Talladega, there wasn’t much of that.
Until the summer race this July. In a totally unexpected development, drivers and race teams found the track had changed its character. I was nothing like what had been going on the past few years, including the spring race this February.
The track surface was worn, and the cars lost grip. Some teams’ set-ups were better able to take advantage of the change in downforce than others, but the long lines didn’t form because at a certain point, everybody was unstable. They couldn’t reach the high speeds produced by drafting one another usually seen on superspeedways where slower cars were pulled along at the same speed as the faster ones. Now, there were small groups of cars, and if a faster car got a good run it could pull out of line and pass a slower car in front of it and then get back in line. There was real racing for a change.
NASCAR saw that and, to its credit, put together a committee to see if it couldn’t come up with some changes that would create better racing at Daytona. In effect, whereas Atlanta had wanted to become Daytona, now Daytona wanted to become Atlanta.
The curing of the track had produced improved competition at Atlanta naturally, but Daytona was a different animal. So NASCAR came up with some rule changes. It lowered the rear spoiler from seven to four inches and cut horsepower from roughly 550 to 450.
The high spoiler trapped air flowing over and around the car, pushing it into the track and creating downforce. By lowering the spoiler, the cars wouldn’t stick as well and by lowering horsepower, it was harder to close on the car in front and take advantage of the draft, keeping the cars farther apart. The changes were supposed to keep the pack pace steady while adding 3 m.p.h. to cars pulling out to make a single car run.
It was a good idea except for one thing: it didn’t work. Like so many things that look good on paper in NASCAR, when theories were put into practice the results were not what was expected. The long lines quickly formed up again and anybody that pulled out to pass without another line of cars forming behind him was quickly shuffled to the back of the pack.
The one positive, at least early in the race, was that because they weren’t running nose-to-tail, if something happened the cars had enough maneuverability to prevent the big wreck. But in the end, it was a typical superspeedway mess. With Zane Smith leading on the last lap coming to the finish, he was bumped by Tyler Reddick, hit the wall, the big wreck was on and Ryan Preece, who had never won a NASCAR race in 249 starts and may never win another one, snuck home with the win.
“I think it was a great job by NASCAR and the whole team, you know, coming up with something different here,” Denny Hamlin, a member of the committee that came up with the rule changes, said on USA Sports. “There definitely was a change,” Hamlin continued. “The cars felt a little different. I didn’t think it was quite as logjammed as it was in the past. If you wanted to get to the front I felt like you could.”
However, the general consensus seemed to be that not much was different, and some thought the new rules made things worse. Speaking to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Hamlin’s teammate, Christopher Bell, was highly critical of the racing on the track.
“Even with the lower downforce, there were no holes (to get into), there was no bubble (the air compressed by a trailing car closing on the car in front) to separate the cars, which meant there were no places to slide into,” Bell said.
“I don’t know. I expected it to be a lot different,” Bell continued. “There wasn’t a difference at all and it was worse with the fuel mileage and stage lengths we had tonight (Saturday).”
“Honestly, I could not tell a difference,” Brad Keselowski told NASCAR.com. “I couldn’t tell they changed the rules at all. My car drove almost identical to what it did (last year). I was shocked by that,” Keselowski continued. “I thought it would drive poorly (have less downforce), particularly here in the summer.
“I was caught off guard by that,” Keselowski said. “I don’t expect it to be much different at Talladega,” he added. “The car was pretty forgiving, maybe a little bit harder to build a run to push (get to the bumper of the car ahead of you) but it was not dramatic. The handling, I think we all thought handling would be a bigger factor than it was,” he said. “It really didn’t come into play.”
Oh well. Nice try NASCAR.
NASCAR NOTESp
Three most likely winners at Darlington Sunday: 1-Denny Hamlin, 2-Tyler Reddick, 3-Christopher Bell. Last year’s winner of the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington: Chase Briscoe. Top five in Cook Out Southern 500 last year: 1-Briscoe, 2-Reddick, 3-Erik Jones, 4-John Hunter Nemechek, 5-Justin Allgaier.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport picks: The OGS competition index does not score races at NASCAR’s three superspeedways, Atlanta, Daytona and Talladega. Last week’s race was at Daytona.
Top 10 in OGS competition index after 21 races: 1-Hamlin 565, 2-Bell 391, 3-Reddick 344, 4-Briscoe 312, 5-Ty Gibbs 295, 6-Kyle Larson 283, 7-Ryan Blaney 280, 8-Shane van Gisbergen 226, 9-Joey Logano 208, 10-Chase Elliott 192.
OGS competition index top 10 on intermediate tracks (tracks most like Darlington: 1-Hamlin 419, 2-Reddick 232, 3-Bell 212, 4-Briscoe 147, 5-Larson 129, 6-Elliott 120, 7-William Byron 99, 8-Corey Heim 78, 9-Brad Keselowski 63, 10-Carson Hocevar, Daniel Suarez 51.
by Patrick Zier | Aug 29, 2026 |
Kyle Petty has long been a close observer of NASCAR; after all, he was born into the sport and been around it all his life. And he has opinions, which he is not afraid to express even if they make some people uncomfortable.
Recently, Petty made some waves when he took a shot at Josh Berry, a nose-to-the-grindstone kind of guy who was just fired by the Wood brothers.
Berry, Petty said, deserved to be fired because he wasn’t producing on the track and up-and-coming youngster Jesse Love, the 2025 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Champ who drove Chevys for Richard Childress, was a better long term option.
Possibly. But there are many in the garage who feel Berry is being blamed for something that is not his fault. They see Berry as a talented driver who is being aged out of Cup (he will be 36 in Oct) because he couldn’t get good results in a bad car.
Commenting on X, former crew chief Rodney Childers, who won the 2014 Cup championship with driver Kevin Harvick, defended Berry by repeating a truism that is originally attributed to Harvick. “You can’t drive a slow car fast,” Harvick remarked.
And Berry has been in nothing but slow, uncompetitive cars his entire career. His best – and probably only – shot at getting something better came when Stewart-Haas collapsed and he and Chase Briscoe were the mainstays of the team.
There was an opening at Joe Gibbs Racing, one of Cup’s few elite organizations, and Briscoe, with three more years of Cup experience than Berry plus a pair of Southern 500 wins at Darlington, got it.
Berry cycled over to the Wood brothers, a much better team on paper than they are on the track because their cars are built by Penske. Despite that, the Wood brothers have never been able to seal the deal. They aren’t competitive, except on superspeedways where anybody can win, and their results prove it.
Berry is, by far, the best driver the Wood brothers have had in their car since 2017, when Ryan Blaney drove it. In 2025, Berry put the Wood brothers in victory lane when he won at Las Vegas.
That’s the first time the Wood brothers have won on a track other than a superspeedway since Blaney did it at Pocono in 2017. Berry recently ran off a string of three top 10 finishes in a row, and nobody has done that in a Wood brothers car since Morgan Shepherd had four in 1994.
And nobody, except Blaney, has led more laps for the Wood brothers over the past 10 years then Berry. In his two years with the Wood brothers, 2016-17, Blaney led 312 laps, 39 of which were on superspeedways, giving him a total of 273 on regular tracks.
Including 2025 and with 11 races still left in the 2026 season, Berry has led 298 laps. Ninety-five of those were on superspeedways, giving him a total of 203 and counting on regular tracks.
So clearly, Berry has gotten a lot out of the Wood brothers car, more than almost all of his predecessors. Beyond that, he has proven himself in first class equipment when given the chance.
Out of a Cup ride, Berry was driving in the Infinity Series for JR Motorsports in 2023 when Hendrick Motorsports signed him to replace Chase Elliott, who had been injured in a snowboarding accident.
It is extremely difficult to move into another driver’s seat with an unfamiliar crew chief and team, let alone do it at a place like Hendrick, but Berry proved up to it.
He ran five races for Elliott and had two top 10s including a second at Richmond. Later, Hendrick brought him back to replace Alex Bowman, who had a bad back, and Berry ran three races for him with a top 10 at Dover. He also won the Open qualifier which got him into the All-Star race. So he has produced under pressure.
In his last time out for the Wood brothers, Berry led 73 laps at New Hampshire, finished third, and might have won except for a slow pit stop. He won’t have many more opportunities like that, though.
The clock is ticking for Berry. When this year ends, his Cup career may end as well because there is no place for him to go. No good rides, no bad rides, no rides anywhere.
There was some thought he might end up at Richard Childress Racing, which is in worse shape than the Wood brothers, but Childress is bringing back Austin Hill so that’s out.
“Everybody knows the situation I’m in right now,” Berry said after New Hampshire according to NASCAR’s website. “All these guys I’m racing with right now have a lot of respect for me. I think they understand the situation I’m in.”
It’s frustrating, because Berry deserves better. But like Harvick said, you can’t drive a slow car fast. And unfortunately, no one gave Berry a chance in a fast car.
NASCAR NOTES
No race this week. Old Guy Sport does not count superspeedways (Atlanta, Daytona, Talladega) in its standings because anybody can win on those tracks. NASCAR has made some rule changes which might make the racing there competitive again so that will be something to watch.
by Patrick Zier | Aug 21, 2026 |
Joey Logano has been on a tear lately, Ford’s version of Denny Hamlin, if you will. Heading into this weekend’s race at New Hampshire, Logano has won two of the last four races, both on short tracks, and finished third in another, this at Indianapolis.
In fact, all the Penske Fords have come to life over the last five races. Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric and Josh Berry, who drives the Wood Brothers Ford prepared by Penske, have all added top five finishes, the best showing by Penske this year.
All told and not counting superspeedways, Penske has only 11 top fives this season, so getting six in a five-race stretch is pretty impressive, What that means, though, in terms of the rapidly approaching playoffs, is anybody’s guess because Toyota is still the elephant in the room.
Even Logano, famous – or infamous – for his late season surges which have led to championships in 2022 and 2024, admits Toyota, and particularly the Joe Gibbs Racing fearsome foursome of Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs, have an advantage.
After edging Briscoe at Richmond last Saturday, Logano was bluntly honest. “He (Briscoe) was faster,” Logano said after the race according to essentiallysports.com.
In fact Briscoe thought his competition would come from Bell, not Briscoe. “I was like ‘Okay, I’m gonna be okay, I just got to pass the 20 (Bell)’, he said. “Then he (Briscoe) kind of took off there.”
“It’s just typical late summer Joey Logano, just coming up out of nowhere on you,” runner-up Briscoe said according to NASCAR’s website. “So yeah, just go on to the next one and see what we can do.”
Still, as shown by the Old Guy Sport competition index, Penske, and especially Logano, have started to flex their muscles in the last five races.
Over that span, Logano has scored 166 points, more than anybody, with Blaney adding 56, Cindric 33 and Berry 20 for a team total of 275.
For JGR, Bell has 138, Hamlin 117, Briscoe 110 and Gibbs 90. That makes their team total an impressive 455. Trailing, and trailing badly, are the four Hendrick Chevys. William Byron, with just 35 points, is the leader. Alex Bowman has 10, Kyle Larson four and Chase Elliott one, giving Hendrick a team total of just 50.
Hendrick has spent the entire season trying to figure out the brand new Chevy and it hasn’t been able to do it. And if it hasn’t got it figured out by now, it’s hard to see how anything will change the rest of the way.
Larson, the defending Cup champion, has all but given up. “None of us might seem confident as far as winning a championship, but there is still that confidence that, because you’re racing for Hendrick Motorsports, you know at any point we can turn it around,” Larson told journalist Tim Moore as reported by essentiallysports.com.
Still, Logano seems to be the only outsider who has any chance of disrupting what looks to be an unstoppable Toyota run to the title. “It’s nice to see we’ve made quite a recovery, and, like I said, change our goals at this point in the season,” Logano commented according to NASCAR’s website.
“We’ve got a legit shot at winning the championship now,” Logano continued. “We’re getting hot at the right time. It will be a fun chase till the end. I’m proud of everyone sticking together. These are the times it’s hard to do that, the times you see teams break. It wouldn’t take much longer running the way we were running until something was going to break (on our team),” he added.
“Is anybody surprised?” teammate Blaney, who won a championship himself in 2023 to give Penske three of the last four, asked. “I’ve had to see it all year,” He continued according to NASCAR’s website.
“It’s like ‘Oh, the 22 team (Logano) isn’t running where they should.’ “I’m just like, in my mind, ‘just wait, they’re going to be someone you have to race with for sure,'” Blaney commented. “It’s no surprise to me they’ve gotten back to form in the last month or so.”
Still, it’s hard to see Logano getting there. He, and the Penske team in general, have had their best runs on short tracks, and there are only three short tracks on the 10-race chase schedule. Six are on intermediate tracks and one is on a superspeedway.
And Penske hasn’t figured out how to make its cars competitive on intermediate ovals. According to the Old Guy Sport competition index, in the 10 intermediate races so far, Penske has just 82 points including 31 for Logano. That compares with 799 for JGR which includes 419 for Hamlin.
And if you want to throw in Hendrick, which is running much better on the intermediate ovals than Penske, Hamlin’s 419 still tops Hendrick’s entire team total of 399.
So for Logano – and anybody else looking to topple Toyota and Hamlin – winning a championship seems to be the impossible dream, even though NASCAR’s point system, which is designed to keep as many cars competitive for as long as possible, will do everything it can to bring him back to the pack.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at New Hampshire: 1-Christopher Bell, 2-Ryan Blaney, 3-Denny Hamlin. Last year’s winner at New Hampshire: Blaney. Top five at New Hampshire last year: 1-Blaney, 2-Josh Berry, 3-William Byron, 4-Joey Logano, 5-Chase Elliott.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport Richmond picks: 1-Bell, 2-Hamlin, 3-Blaney. Richmond winner: Logano. OGS season record: 10-10.(superspeedways are not included in OGS picks).
OGS competition index top 10 after Richmond: 1-Hamlin 565, 2-Bell 371, 3-Tyler Reddick 344, 4-Chase Briscoe 312, 5-Ty Gibbs 295, 6-Kyle Larson 270, 7-Shane van Gisbergen 223, 8-Blaney 213, 9-Logano 208, 10-Elliott 182.
OGS competition index top 10 on short tracks (tracks most like New Hampshire): 1-Logano 177, 2-Gibbs 169, 3-Blaney 168, 4-Hamlin 146, 5-Bell 119, 6-Briscoe 101, 7-Larson 83, 8-Elliott 72, 9-Austin Cindric 30, 10-Reddick 21.
