“The white zone is for immediate loading and unloading…” and I need to unload my next pick for the most disappointing race.
Welcome back to this special edition of The White Zone. Today, I’ll be unveiling my number three pick for the most disappointing race of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
As a reminder, this is not a collaborative effort among the Speedway Media staff. This is entirely my opinion. Also, this is not – I repeat, not – a list of the worst races of the season. It’s a list of the “most disappointing.” The definition of disappointing is “failing to meet expectations.” In other words, there may or may not be a race on here that you might have thought was good overall, but still left a bad taste in your mouth.
Yesterday, I gave the number four spot to the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race.
Without further ado, let’s get this countdown back under green.
#3 Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway
Leading us back to green at number three is the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
On one hand, it was nice to see a race at Richmond on a Sunday afternoon. As you guys know, I think we have too many night races on the Sprint Cup schedule. I’m also glad that the first Richmond race this season will be on Sunday afternoon. I think that having one day race and one night race will be much better for the Atlantic Rural Exposition Fairgrounds (that one is for those of you who know your Richmond history).
On the other hand, while it was certainly a better race than the previous September trek to the capital of Virginia, the racing didn’t improve much, if at all. There were a mere 12 lead changes among five different drivers. While that’s not usual for a short track race, one driver (Kurt Busch) led a triple digit number of the 400 laps (294). The next driver, Joey Logano, led 94 circuits. The other three drivers led just single digit laps. Passing was also at a premium. When it comes to short tracks, it’s perfectly fine if passing is hard. However, it’s rendered into a negative if the drivers won’t use the chrome bumper to nudge someone out of the groove.
It’s certainly nothing new. For the last few years, the racing at Richmond has gotten significantly worse. Every once in a while, there’s one great race here. When NASCAR made its first of two trips to Richmond in 2014, the racing was amazing. It was book-ended by an incredible nine lap dash to the finish among four drivers. When we returned in September, there was none of that. Honestly, the only thing I remember from that event was the drunk guy who scaled to the top of the catch fence.
The lackluster racing at Richmond concerns me because this track used to be high on my list of favorite tracks. I remember so many great moments at this three-quarter-mile short track like in 1999 when Tony Stewart scored his first career victory in his rookie season, Kevin Harvick’s near scuffle with Ricky Rudd in 2003, Jeremy Mayfield returning to victory lane in 2004, Dale Earnhardt Jr. getting dumped by Kyle Busch in 2008 and many more run-ins.
I truly hope that the low-downforce package NASCAR is rolling out in 2016 will bring back the exciting racing to Richmond. While it’s not been on the NASCAR rotation since the very beginning, it’s been there for all but four seasons of the sports’ existence and I don’t want to see Richmond become a track where great short track racing is no longer the norm.
So in the end, it wasn’t a horrible race at Richmond in April. There were a few of those “vintage” Richmond moments one would expect to see at Richmond. Maybe it was my fault for setting a high expectation because I thought the race we saw in September was an aberration, but this event did leave a bad taste in my mouth. Because of that, I’m giving the first podium spot on my list to the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway.
Do you agree with my list so far? If not, what races should be on this list and in what order? We’re now on the downhill slide with this countdown. I’ll be back tomorrow to reveal the runner-up on my countdown.
