Honeycomb Headlines

The NASCAR season has gotten well under way as we enter the second week of May and Nascar fans have definitely not been shorted of excitement for some fans and disappointment for others. We are just under halfway through the regular season in Nascar and through the 13 different points races we have only 7 different winners, with a couple of them being repeat winners. 

This season started out with a bang and frankly it is one of the best season starts I have witnessed in a while. The #45 Car of 23XI Racing piloted by Tyler Reddick started the season like an absolute rocket ship not only winning the prestigious Daytona 500 but also the 2 races afterwards at the AutoTrader 400 at Atlanta 1 week after Daytona, and the Texas Grand Prix and the Circuit of The Americas 2 weeks after Daytona. He then began to fizzle out slightly in week 4 and 5 where he finished 8th at Phoenix where Ryan Blaney took home his first win of the season and 13th at Las Vegas where partial owner of 23XI Racing Denny Hamlin took home his first of the season. In race #6 Reddick’s reign returned as he conquered the Goodyear 400 at Darlington, there was then another 2 week hiatus where he didn’t win before returning to victory lane in race #9 for the AdventHealth 400 at the return of Kansas Motor Speedway rounding out his total wins for the season at 5 with a stunting 41.66% win rate on the season. 

Chase Elliott is also another driver with multiple wins on the season with 2, although it is not as impressive as Reddick’s 5 wins it is still impressive. His 2 wins came at one of the most prestigious short tracks in Martinsville Speedway, and a returning track in Texas Motor Speedway. In Martinsville he took the win by only half a second over fellow double winner Denny Hamlin, but Texas was a different story as in Martinsville he did not lead most of the race, in fact Denny led over 200 laps at Martinsville before Chase took the win out from under him. At Texas Chase Elliott was ahead the entire time and again took the win over Denny Hamlin by .400 seconds. 

The drivers that are 1-time winners this season include Ryan Blaney @ Phoenix, Denny Hamlin @ Las Vegas, Ty Gibbs @ Bristol, Carson Hocevar @ Talladega, Shane Van Gisbergen @ Watkins Glen, and the most recent winner in Daniel Suarez in a rained out tribute win to the late Kyle Busch @ Charlotte Motor Speedway. Every single one of these race finishes were decided by under 1 second aside from SVG’s dominant win at Watkin’s Glen where he took home the victory by over 7 seconds. 

In the ending weeks of the regular season there is an array of different types of tracks to be seen. Most notably the new addition of Naval Base Coronado Road Course in San Diego, California which for most is a very anticipated track on this year’s schedule. Coronado is then immediately followed by its western road course brother of Sonoma on June 21st and June 28th for each track respectively. There are 6 remaining Speedways/Super Speedways remaining on the schedule including Nashville, Michigan & Pocono in the end of May & June, Chicagoland and Indianapolis in July for the Speedways and Atlanta and Daytona in July and August for the Superspeedways. The short tracks will also be in full force as North Wilkesboro, Iowa, New Hampshire and Richmond all happen within a month of each other starting in the months of late July and ending in late August. 

All of that then brings us all the way into the chase where the first 4 races are Darlington, World Wide Tech Raceway, Bristol and Kansas all in September. October then brings us 4 bangers of races in Las Vegas, Charlotte, Phoenix and Talladega. This then brings us to the final 2 races of the season, one of them being at Martinsville and then the Championship race being brought back to Homestead-Miami Florida for the first time since 2019 when the late great Kyle Busch won his 2nd championship. Who will be the newest champion of the Nascar Cup Series? The standings point towards Tyler Reddick but I wouldn’t count out either Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, or Ryan Blaney to make a comeback victory.