Austin Dillon’s actions defined Richmond

The second biggest news story on Sunday was the use of the optional tyres. Several different strategies were put into practice. Most of the leading teams saved both sets for the final stage. Daniel Suarez used one at the start of the second stage and then stayed on top once he switched back to normal tyres. That’s more telling than anything else.

NASCAR Loop data indicates that there were 167 more passes on green tires on Sunday than in last year’s race, an increase of just over 4%. However, many of those passes were teams that moved up in the standings on the optional tires, or that moved down in the standings when all drivers were on them and some drivers weren’t. As a result, it’s pretty hard to know whether having the optional tires available made the Cook Out 400 a better race. A more interesting one from a strategy standpoint, for sure. I think if the entire race had been run on the regular tires, there would have been fewer passes than last year by a considerable amount.

Fortunately, this race was run in the proper channel for a strategy race. The different compounds were indicated on the pylon by a yellow or red chiclet. There was a lot of analysis about when would be the best time to fit which tyres and how long the optional tyres would last. Given the situation, this was necessary and it worked well.

The optional tire setup worked much better at Richmond than it did at North Wilkesboro Speedway. With the new pavement, it was never going to work at the All-Star Race. However, the dark red of the tire lettering is not the easiest to see on a tire at night. If NASCAR wants to continue with this, I would recommend switching to Dayglo orange or pink.

As for the races, USA Network did a good job of showing the races for position, but those races really seemed to happen mostly early in the race. Later on, a lot of the position changes seen on USA Network were mostly due to tire compounds.

The compounds led to some moves that didn’t really make sense. Suarez pitted for what looked like his final stop with 50 laps to go. He then stopped again 20 laps later to put on the optional tyres. With that, he got up to sixth before the final caution came out. Not having any optional tyres at the time, he finished 10th. I feel like he ended up right where he would have finished had he not made the stop for optional tyres, but you can’t predict Stenhouse running into Preece.

I wish the broadcast included more of all the teams in the race. It seemed like a lot of the drivers were completely invisible for much of the night. For the most part, that included drivers like Kyle Larson. You never heard from him unless he was trying an alternate pit strategy.

Yes, NBC Sports has Through the Field, but what I would like to see is more stories covered in general, especially if the action up front isn’t all that exciting. Sunday night’s race set an all-time record for lead changes at Richmond with 26, many of which were due to green flag stops. Fewer than 10 of those lead changes were competitive changes on the track.

Had Dillon not done what he did on Sunday, the Cook Out 400 would be remembered as something of an experiment. It may not have been the most exciting race, but it seemed like the optional tire setup worked to some degree to mask the Next Gen car’s short-track habits. Now, it will be remembered for its poor behavior.

Sure, that kind of thing will make… Sports centerBut is that how you want people to think about this sport? I don’t think so.

Dillon’s actions overshadowed the entire night. NBC Sports quickly realized that and then went overboard by trying to get everyone involved after the race, including those not directly involved. It was unnecessary.

That’s all for this week. Next weekend, NASCAR will make its only visit of the season to Michigan International Speedway. It will be a tripleheader weekend with the NASCAR Cup Series as the main event with the NASCAR Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series supporting. The ARCA teams will then travel to Illinois for a 100-mile race at The Springfield Mile on Sunday (Aug. 18). INDYCAR returns to action at World Wide Technology Raceway, while SRO America will be at Road America. TV schedules can be found here.

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