Can NASCAR improve racing in the Brickyard 400?
We had a pretty strange Brickyard 400 Sunday that only saw three cautions in the first 130 laps. Then in the last 40 laps, because we did go into "Overtime", we had five cautions. We had a red flag and two overtimes. When the checkered flag finally did wave, we had Kyle Busch and his No. 18 Toyota team kissing the bricks.
That No. 18 was as close to flawless as you can be on Sunday. That was Joe Gibbs Racing's ninth win of the season out of our 20 races to date. If you add in their alliance partner, the No. 78, into the mix, they have won 10 of our 20 races this year.
Three of the top five finishers Sunday came from Joe Gibbs Racing. I'm here to tell you that Kyle is head and shoulders above his teammates Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards. They had the same things to work with he does, yet Kyle seemed like he was in a class by himself.
Don't forget that Kyle also won the XFINITY race on Saturday, which was also run at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Obviously Toyota is ecstatic. How can they not be with what they did Saturday and Sunday on the hallowed ground at Indianapolis? They won the pole and the race on Saturday. They won the pole and the race on Sunday.
Kyle Busch and his entire team are hitting on all eight cylinders right now better than anyone else out there. The confidence level they are all at right now is extremely hard to beat. That was Kyle's fourth win of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season plus gave him another three bonus point to carry into the Chase in mid-September.
Overall though, it wasn't a very good race. I know that sounds horrible to say, but it's the truth. We've been going there since 1994 and we've really never had a great race from start to finish there.
Yes we've had some surprise winners and some interesting finishes along the way, but it just wasn't a very good race. I can't sit here and give you just one reason as to why.
We've tried every different combination of cars and aero packages under the stars, but sadly the truth is the end result is always the same. Unfortunately it simply doesn't change.
I can't climb up here on my pulpit and blame NASCAR or the rules package because I like the rules package per se. That doesn't mean I don't want to see tweaks made.
I wish they would give the horsepower back to the teams. Get rid of the gear rule and if somebody wants to turn the engine to 11,000 damn RPM's well, let them have at it.
I think NASCAR needs to open the box a little bit and give the teams some options with their spoilers and the angles they can run at. I'm not saying it's going to be a miracle cure, but I do think it would create some different scenarios where things would be happening that currently aren't.
I've always been a believer you can't complain about something simply to be complaining. If you have a legitimate complaint, then also supply a legitimate solution. The racing wasn't very good Sunday but again, it never really has been there.
We have a good aero package right now. I just think if we gave these teams back their horsepower, let them have options with the spoilers and the gears, I think it would give these teams some options and we might be pleasantly surprised at what we get in return.
