Uncle Max vs. Last Year’s Winners: Kansas

Well, it looked like I had a chance to win last weekend.  Heck, it looked like Last Year’s Winners and I were going to duke it out for a win.  But then the late caution came and ruined everything.  Good on ya, RCR, you finally got a win—at the expense of my pick!

I tell ya, you can’t rely on anything lately.  Like my “staycation” that I announced last time—postponed indefinitely.  One of the other assistant managers decided that Friday evening was a great time to up and quit on us, so I decided to cancel taking the week off (thankfully with the help of some bonus pay).  Sure, I wouldn’t have been able to go anywhere, but I really was looking forward to dozens of hours of staring at the wall in my townhouse.

Thursday Night CUP SERIES Super Start 400.  LAST YEAR’S WINNER (4 wins) Brad Keselowski.  FAVORITE: (2 win) Kevin Harvick—sticking with what works (when there aren’t unbeatable old tires)  NEXT FAVORITE: (1 win) Kyle Busch—he’s gotta get on a run SOMEtime.  DARK HORSE: (0 wins) Kurt Busch—if not Kyle, maybe Kurt.

Friday Evening TRUCK SERIES Kansas 200 (2 wins) Austin Hill—finally out of “win” and into “wins”!

Correction: Truck Race is today, Xfinity Race is this evening. 

Saturday Afternoon XFINITY SERIES Kansas Lottery 250 (2 wins) Noah Gragson—punting someone out for the win, of course.

Saturday Evening TRUCK SERIES Gander RV 200 (2 wins) Christian Eckes—KBM train keeps rollin’.

2020 Donruss Panini Nascar Cards Unboxing PACK 14

Continuing a tradition of limited esteem, Spade Racing bought, unboxed, and unpacked a sealed box of 2020 Donruss (Panini) Nascar trading cards.  Join us as we go through each eight-card pack to find the good, the bad, and the downright weird.

PACK 14—Petty, Ricky, and #2 on #3

In my opinion this is a near-perfect mix—a retired legend, an active champion, some well-known drivers, and two oddities.  No, Ryan Truex isn’t an oddity, but that mustache is—he looks like the kind of guy who pumps your gas at 2am.

FIRST THING’S FIRST: This is one of the few times where the Optic outline works out—as I always say, “you never go right with yellow on white”.  In fact my constant uttering of that is probably why my last girlfriend left me.

SECOND LOOK: Number 2 of 99 of this green Austin Dillon variant.  From what I’ve seen teams/drivers usually hold onto special numbers—#1, their car number, any anything else with any meaning (like the number of times Austin’s had to deal with weirdos leering at his wife).

TO THE BACK: We get a Cliff Notes version of Richard Petty’s accomplishments here.  Since card collecting is now really the provenance of hardcore fans, I don’t really know WHAT they could’ve put here that would’ve educated fans—maybe his favorite pizza topping?

FINAL SCORE: 7 in-car cameras out of 10

Spade Racing: THE ROOKIES—Mid-July Rakings

New for 2020, Spade Racing will take a monthly look at the heralded Cup Series rookie class to determine who’s hot and who’s not.  The PRETTY grade: Performance Relative to Equating Team’s Typical Year (its pretty much how well each driver is doing considering their equipment).  Here’s how things look going into Homestead:

GREEN--has moved up since last rankings.  RED--has moved down since last rankings.  BLACK--steady.

1. Cole Custer (Stewart Haas Racing). Best race finish: 1st (Kentucky).  PRETTY grade: A+.  Cole Custer had a breakthrough top-five at Indy, followed by a break-breakthrough win at Kentucky.  A pair of top-tens prior to his first win and a slew of top-20s means Cole’s win was far from a fluke, and earns his spot amongst the powerful foursome at SHR (Custer, Harvick, Almirola, and Briscoe).

2. Tyler Reddick (Richard Childress Racing).  Best race finish: 4th (Homestead).  PRETTY grade: A-.  Were it not for Cole Custer’s Kentucky win, Reddick would’ve held onto his grip on the #1 ranking here.  Five top tens (including a top-five) has him showing that RCR is more than just a racing museum with an odd focus on duck hunting.

3. Christopher Bell (Leavine Family Racing).  Best race finish: 4th (Pocono).  PRETTY grade: B-.  The rebound continues for C.Bell, with fourth, seventh, and twelfth-place finishes in three of his last four starts.  Of course the other one of those four was a 39th at Pocono, so it remains to be seen if he’s the next Denny Hamlin or the next JJ Yeley.  Please don’t be the next JJ Yeley, Christopher—I don’t want you sponsored by the Delaware Safety Commission.

4. John Hunter Nemechek (Front Row Motorsports).  Best race finish: 8th (Talladega).  PRETTY grade: B-.  The PRETTY grade for JHN is pretty hard to figure.  On the one hand, Front Row is typically a back-of-the-pack team with limited resources.  On the other hand, teammate Michael McDowell is having a career year.  On the third hand, he’s a rookie who is still outperforming his predecessor—and why do I have three hands?

5. Brennan Poole (Premium Motorsports).  Best race finish: 16th (Daytona).  PRETTY grade: C-.  Poole continues to be locked out of the top-twenty since the season opener.  But his sponsor’s charity got some tv time recently, so there’s that.

6. Quin Houff (StarCom Racing).  Best race finish: 23rd (Indianapolis).  PRETTY grade: D+.  Yeah, its arguably the most-underfunded team on the circuit.  Yeah, their main rivals are Rick Ware’s teams and MBM.  But when a 23rd is your best finish, you gotta question if the driver deserves the ride—no matter how cool the Mane n’ Tail paint scheme looks.