—Welcome to Michigan weekend! Or, as most fans consider it now, “Darlington Throwback Weekend-Eve.”
—Remember that we have a busy day of racing on Saturday, with Trucks from Michigan, Xfinity from Road America, then IndyCar from Texas. It goes to show you how the “racing gods” view the two major American racing series that Nascar can have one of the worst weather weekends in Bristol history and still get all 500 laps in, while IndyCar can have Texas get rained-out and wind up postponing it…due to drivers’ previous commitments to another race NOT in their own series.
—Aspen Dental is back on the 10 car again this weekend, which is kind of an odd relationship when you consider that Danica Patrick doesn’t usually have the “girl smiley” look, usually its more of a “simmering rage” appearance, similar to my own “powerlessly stressed” palor.
—In a rare positive sign for Nascar’s business-aspect OneMain Financial did a 180 and will return (albeit for less races) to JRM in 2017 with Elliott Sadler. That means that JRM should be running THREE full-time drivers (Sadler, Justin Allgaier, William Byron) for the Xfinity championship, with a possible fourth car for Cup driver ego-boosting.
—Speaking of William Byron, anyone else surprised at what happened with him? No, not that he’s going to Hendrick next year, but that Kyle Busch DIDN’T immediately fire him from his Truck Series ride?