Five thoughts after NASCAR’s throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway … 1. Big TakeawayThis is Ross Chastain’s world right now, and everyone seems to have an opinion about what he’s doing. Just take Rick Hendrick, who is often measured with his comments but had strong words about Chastain after the No. 1 car took out Hendrick’s Kyle Larson while racing for the win at Darlington.“You just don’t run people up in the fence,” Hendrick said. “He’s going to make a lot of enemies. It’s hard to win a championship when you’ve got a lot of paybacks out there.”That’s true, to a point. But many of us thought Chastain would get retaliated against in the playoffs last season after ruffling feathers along the way, and he still made it to the championship race (and finished second in points).Still, it sure seems like drivers are more willing this year to show Chastain he’s crossed a line in addition to simply blasting him in the media. It started with Denny Hamlin at Phoenix and continued with Noah Gragson at Kansas, although Chastain came out on the better end of both incidents.He seems to be in everyone’s heads. Martin Truex Jr. appeared to wreck himself while racing Chastain for the Stage 2 win on Sunday. Kyle Busch had to be warned by his team not to let Chastain drag him into anything foolish when they lined up next to each other on a restart. And on the restart prior to their highlight-reel crash, Larson paid Chastain back for an earlier restart in which he felt wronged.Chastain acknowledged his error in crashing both cars on the third time they lined up together, but such comments have begun to ring hollow for those involved.“He’s got so much talent,” Hendrick said of Chastain. “If he just calmed down … Dale Earnhardt Sr. told me one time (of an unnamed driver who raced for Hendrick), ‘He’s got all the talent, he just doesn’t know how to race.’ (It’s about) when to race, when to push it.”Of course, you can’t fault Chastain for racing hard on a race-deciding restart — especially when he hasn’t won in over a year. But Hendrick also spoke of the earlier restarts, which he indicated wasn’t necessary for Chastain to be driving so hard at that point.Is Hendrick right? Every time Chastain oversteps the limit and initiates contact, it adds to his rap sheet and continues to encourage the field to race him hard. But he’s also the Cup Series points leader halfway through the regular season.How will Chastain’s frequent run-ins impact him going forward? Will it, as Hendrick suggested, cost Chastain the chance at a championship?Here are four scenarios to consider, ranked from most likely to least likely:
Chastain continues his aggressive ways, which increasingly irks other drivers. Some of them, already pushed to their limit of patience with the No. 1 car, lose their heads and seek in-race retaliation — some of which is successful. But ultimately, Chastain’s cars (and excellent pit crew) continue to show so much speed that he wins the regular-season championship and makes another deep playoff run. Simply put: In this scenario, Chastain has enough speed to outrun his enemies.
Chastain’s aggressiveness and feuds cost him valuable points. He has already lost the potential for some playoff points through a lack of wins and could lose more if days like Sunday end up costing him the regular-season title (which comes with 15 playoff points, or the equivalent of three wins). With a target on his back, Chastain enters the playoffs playing defense instead of being able to just go race. That results in an early playoff exit and disappointing season compared to what his team’s speed should have produced.
Chastain, weary of the drama, decides to temporarily dial back his style and avoid as much controversy as possible. Unfortunately for him, that lowers some of his on-track performance and detracts from what makes him so good in the first place — a development which endears him to more drivers but also hurts his results. Without multiple wins and more playoff points, he’s unable to advance far in the playoffs.
Darlington was the last we hear of Chastain this season after his performance drops off, he stays out of the spotlight and becomes a non-factor in races.
GO DEEPERRoss Chastain, piling up enemies and points, is the center of NASCAR’s universe2. Main Character (Non-Chastain Division): William ByronWe picked Chastain here last week and already covered him above, so we need to choose someone else here. Let’s see … who won the race? (Checks notes) Ah! It was Byron, for the third time this season.Considering he’s only 25, it feels like we’ve been waiting forever for Byron to have a true “breakout year.” This very well might be it. Without his team’s 60-point penalty, Byron would be the points leader halfway through the regular season. He is atop the series in victories, laps led and top-fives — and is on pace to smash career marks in all of those categories (Byron’s next win will match his entire previous career total heading into 2023).Even though he’s made the playoffs for five straight years, it feels like Byron still hasn’t come close to reaching his potential. Far from it. A five-win season and a final four run could certainly set him up nicely for the future, but this is a multi-time champion in the making.Of course, we also thought last year was going to be Byron’s breakout season. He won two of the first eight races, almost won this same Darlington race (until getting punted by Joey Logano) and then never won again for the rest of 2022.“We’ve been probably overexerting ourselves a little bit just to make sure we don’t repeat (last year),” Byron said. “Now we’re safely in a groove here where we’ve got to continue our processes, continue what got us here. But it definitely feels different than what we had last year, where after we won those couple races we had a false confidence.“We’ve learned from that. I don’t intend on doing that again.”3. Question of the WeekWhat is North Wilkesboro going to be like? I’m not among those who ever got to see a race at the track before, nor did I make a visit when it was a crumbling collection of ruins guarded by a friendly caretaker. So I really don’t know what to expect for the All-Star Race this weekend.The racing figures to be great, especially since the asphalt is so worn out; that should be enough to offset the lackluster short-track racing created by the Next Gen car. And the atmosphere will surely be electric and memorable. For those who didn’t attend last year’s revival events, it will be cool to see all the retro, back-in-the-day signage and other elements that survived decades of abandonment.On the other hand, there seem to be some logistical concerns over how this is all going to go. Speedway Motorsports has sounded the alarm about parking, encouraging people to carpool in large numbers and use off-site shuttle lots (including one 8.5 miles from the track). Officials have strongly urged fans to arrive as early as possible, which recalls the infamous Kentucky Speedway inaugural race in 2011.It sounds as if there won’t be much space to move around once on site, either. People are going to be crammed into every inch of the place. Even in the media center, there will be some unusual wrinkles: The Athletic has been given one seat for two writers.Will anyone have cell service in rural Wilkes County? Will fans’ enthusiasm and energy override any traffic headaches? Will the re-opening of the track deliver on the hype, or remind people why it closed in the first place?We’ll find out soon enough.GO DEEPERDale Earnhardt Jr. and ‘forgotten’ North Wilkesboro put on a night to remember4. Trash and TreasureTrash: Cars in a wreck being able to keep their spots.In-car cameras clearly showed the degree to which Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott were involved in the big multi-car crash triggered by Martin Truex Jr. on a late restart. But NASCAR allowed them to retain their spots after the crash because officials ruled Harvick, Elliott and Brad Keselowski maintained caution speed — while essentially penalizing the drivers who missed the wreck.That makes so little sense, it might have been better for NASCAR to say officials simply missed the call.There’s an interesting graph which shows the difference in Elliott and Justin Haley’s outcomes. Elliott initially lost six spots during the crash, but NASCAR placed him back where he would have been running had the No. 9 car escaped contact-free. Meanwhile, Haley gained a ton of positions by avoiding the crash in front of him — until officials moved him back behind the cars that were part of the caution.Haley’s situation was similar to that of Bubba Wallace, who was incredulous after the race. How, Wallace wondered, could drivers who avoided a crash then be placed behind those who were directly involved in it?NASCAR’s explanation was reverting back to the previous scoring loop, but there needs to be some common sense applied in these situations. If a driver is part of a crash and has to slow down as a result, they can’t just magically get their spots back. The scoring tower has to fix future scenarios like these, because it ended up having a direct outcome on the race.Treasure: John Hunter Nemechek’s composure.It would have been very easy for Nemechek to pout and complain after contact with Larson — a Cup star who was dipping down to the Xfinity Series — ended up wrecking the No. 20 car at the finish of Saturday’s race.Instead, Nemechek viewed it for what it was: Hard racing and a great battle that showed talent and skill on both sides. Nemechek even said he was “grinning ear to ear internally” despite finishing fifth (with a crashed car) instead of first.In all honestly, Nemechek came out looking very good in this situation. He went wheel-to-wheel with Larson, one of the best American racers of this generation, and gave the 2021 Cup Series champ everything he could handle.For a driver whose career of late has gone from Cup down to Trucks and back up to Xfinity in an attempt to build a bridge to a solid Cup ride, days like Saturday should serve Nemechek quite well.5. Five at No. 5Last week, Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass made a list of five throwback ideas he’d like to see return (including the Brickyard 400, which we heartily endorse here). In that spirit — but without copying any of his answers — here are five more throwback concepts we’d like to see:• No stage breaks at some ovals. It doesn’t have to be every week, but retaining the stages while losing stage breaks (like the new road-course rule) would be helpful for places like superspeedways. Maybe even the Darlington “throwback” race could run without stage breaks to give it a true old-school feel, as could tracks with multiple dates (like Richmond) to differentiate their two races.• Earlier start times. I know, I know. Those 1 p.m. Eastern start times mean lower ratings. But there’s something about those traditional NASCAR broadcast windows that just feel right. People often like to claim a 10 a.m. start for Pacific time zone fans is too early, but I used to live on the West Coast and loved those early starts on weeks when I wasn’t traveling. You’d get up, watch the race and have the whole rest of your Sunday. Ahh.• More horsepower. This seems cliché at this point, but certainly deserves a mention as perhaps the most obvious retro wish.• Return of The Rock. I’m biased because Rockingham was the first NASCAR race I ever covered (or even saw in person), so I’d love to see another race there again for nostalgia reasons. If North Wilkesboro can be revived enough to make the cut for the NASCAR schedule, Rockingham surely can.• A stronger media corps. The NASCAR beat media has been decimated over the last 15 years as national outlets cut their racing coverage. There are no more newspapers that cover the majority of the NASCAR schedule anymore. In reality, there are perhaps only a half-dozen professional outlets that send writers to even half of the races. Why does it matter? Because back in the day when there were dozens of daily newspapers in attendance, all of those reporters were looking for unique stories and angles. The competition drove richer, better coverage of the sport for all fans.(Photo of William Byron: Logan Riely / Getty Images)

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