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Rain showers in the evening with scattered thunderstorms arriving overnight. Low near 70F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.

A mishmash of thoughts, opinions and observations as NASCAR continues its 10-race Playoff Series with a 400-miler on Sunday afternoon at Kansas Speedway:

If you think a Cup Series race through the streets of Chicago next year will be big, just wait until NASCAR unleashes its hype and hoopla machine for the 2023 All-Star race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Yes, that North Wilkesboro Speedway, the .625-mile bullring near Winston-Salem that’s been mostly shut down since Jeff Gordon won the last race there in 1996.

In one of NASCAR’s biggest surprises since the 1994 Brickyard 400, officials confirmed the next All-Star race will be at NWS next May 21. The announcement came Thursday at the North Carolina State Museum of History in Raleigh, where former driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the star attraction.

Junior was an active, on-site participant last fall when people in Wilkes County began a campaign to “unretire” the speedway. The dozens of volunteers got it good enough to host a series of well-attended Late Model races in recent months. Those races, along with $18 million from the state budget for infrastructure improvements, led directly to the All-Star announcement.

Additionally, the county recently awarded contracts for improvements and the General Assembly has agreed to provide an additional $4 million economic grant toward even more facility improvements. It’s a virtual certainty the 2023 race will be a high-interest sellout, unlike recent All-Star races at Charlotte and Fort Worth.

Just as college football fans often forecast doom and gloom after an early-season loss — Virginia Tech, we’re talking about you — some Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick fans seem ready to throw in the towel.

Four-time winner Elliott and two-time winner Harvick finished poorly in last weekend’s Playoff opener at Darlington. As a result, Elliott is 9th in points, 24 behind leader Joey Logano. Harvick is 16th-ranked, 49 behind Logano. Elliott is safely above the cut line to advance to the Round of 12, but Harvick is among four drivers — along with Chase Briscoe, Austin Dillon and Austin Cindric — below the line.

But it’s far too early to give up since fortunes can change in a hurry. Harvick has three victories, 12 top-5 finishes and 19 top-10s in 33 career starts at Kansas Speedway, this weekend’s tour stop. Elliott has a victory, six top-5 finishes and eight top-10s in 13 starts there. There’s no reason either or both can’t rally this weekend and quickly get back in the championship hunt.

The same can’t be said of Cindric, Briscoe and Dillon. Each won only once this year and their individual performances weren’t very good. Combined, they had only three victories, 12 top-5 finishes and 20 top-10s in 81 starts. It’s probably a safe bet at least two or three of them will be eliminated after Bristol next weekend.

Fans who complain that second-running Tyler Reddick didn’t challenge leader Austin Dillon toward the end of the Coke Zero 400 two weeks ago at Daytona Beach just don’t get it. There was absolutely no chance Reddick was going to try to win the final regular-season race.

Here’s why: based on two victories, Reddick was already safely in the 16-driver Championship Playoff field. Dillon, his teammate at Richard Childress Racing, needed to win Daytona Beach to also make the field. A Reddick victory would have kept Dillon from advancing; a Dillon victory would have put a second RCR car in the Playoffs and ensured a huge team payday.

Team owner Richard Childress explained:

“It was really big to get this (No. 3) car in the Playoffs,” he said. “There’s bonus points and other things that go along with winning. Today (two Sundays ago) can be a $1 million payday. Just getting in (the Playoffs), our drivers have bonuses. I don’t know how much I’ll end up with after I get done paying all the bonuses, but it was worth it.”

Reddick-Dillon was like the July 2001 race at Daytona Beach. That night, second-running Michael Waltrip didn’t try to pass leader Earnhardt Jr. in the final laps. After that year’s Daytona 500, Waltrip wasn’t about to spoil a special night.

One more RCR note: the team reportedly wants to sign Kyle Busch after he leaves Joe Gibbs Racing following this season. JGR can’t find a new sponsor for Busch, leaving him an attractive free agent. Childress wants to cut Reddick after this season and bring on Busch. Many reliable sources — Earnhardt Jr. among them — says it’ll happen soon, maybe this weekend or next week.

By the way, whatever happened to Jimmie Johnson? You know, the guy who won 83 Cup races and seven championships for Hendrick Motorsports, then left after 2020 to run IndyCar for owner Chip Ganassi?

JJ’s still out there, slogging around without any success: 28 starts, 0 poles, 0 victories, one top-5 and two top-10s. Sadly, he’s become a racing afterthought who generally starts out back, stays there and struggles to finish inside the top-20.

But, as usual, there’s more to him than that.

“Jimmie has shown impeccable etiquette on track, always moving over for leaders,” says a long-time IndyCar observer. “He’s a popular dude in the paddock and has been a big asset for the series, both with his enthusiasm to learn more and improve on track and as a class act in the paddock.”

Rocky Mount native Al “Buddy” Pearce has spent 53 years covering motorsports, from go-karts to Formula One and everything in between. He worked briefly as a young Evening Telegram intern before becoming a full-time racing writer in 1969. He’s the stock car editor for www.autoweek.com. He’ll be here on Saturdays with insight, history, opinions, news, questions and critiques about motorsports. He’s in Newport News, Va., at omanoran123@gmail.com.

www.RockyMountTelegram.com 1151 Falls Road Suite 2008 Rocky Mount, NC 27804 Main Phone: 252-446-5161 Customer Care Phone: 252-329-9505

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