Advertisement

Takeaways from New Hampshire: That race was not sublime

Inspect that car, NASCAR (Getty).
Inspect that car, NASCAR (Getty).

Throughout 2016 we may have way too many quick thoughts for our post-race posts. So consider our Takeaways feature to be the home of our random and sometimes intelligent musings. Sometimes the post may have a theme. Sometimes it may just be a mess of unrelated thoughts. Make sure you tweet us your thoughts after the race or email your post-race rants via the link in the signature line below.

• The craziness that wasn’t, well, crazy to expect Sunday never materialized. The New Hampshire race was pretty straightforward.

There wasn’t a crazy moment that hurt or benefited a Chase driver. Fourteen of the Chase’s 16 drivers finished in the top 20; 13 of 16 started there. There wasn’t much movement.

The biggest mover was Austin Dillon, who finished 16th after starting 19th. The lack of movement was evident throughout the top 20. 17 of the drivers who started in the top 20 finished there and Paul Menard (who started 14th) was the highest-qualifying driver to finish outside the top 20.

Maybe the most dramatic part of the race came after with the laser inspection station. NASCAR inspected all 16 Chase cars to make sure they were all legal and yes, they were. No penalties are looming from New Hampshire. Maybe teams will start to push the limits of NASCAR’s lines in the sand after eliminations in the Chase begin.

• On the straightforward note, the four drivers at the bottom of the Chase standings are also pretty straightforward. Jamie McMurray, Austin Dillon, Tony Stewart and Chris Buescher are the bottom four. They were probably the bottom four entering the Chase. Barring any craziness at Dover, it looks like natural Chase selection will be pretty predictable in the first round.

• You want to know how uncompetitive Buescher has been? He’s currently further out of 12th in the points standings than Kevin Harvick was at this point last year. Harvick had a flat tire and crashed at Chicago and ran out of gas late at New Hampshire and was 23 points outside of 12th entering Dover.

Buescher is 30 back despite making it to the finish in both races. This is why it was insane to expect him to advance in the Chase. In stick-and-ball sports, humans can play extremely well together and have some good luck to post improbable seasons. You can have improbable moments (Buescher at Pocono) in racing, but you can’t have improbable seasons. A machine is limited by its mechanical capabilities.

• Did you know that Danica Patrick led the most laps of any non-Toyota driver on Sunday? She led nine laps, one more than teammate and race-winner Harvick. Toyota drivers combined to lead 280 of the race’s 300 laps.

– – – – – – –

Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!