Parks Pit Report: Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart

NASCAR won’t admit it, but this season it has a problem.

Let’s look at the facts, as of Saturday night, when Kentucky came to a close, there have been 19 races run in the 36-race season.  Of those races, 14 of them have been won among three drivers.

Look at that math for a second, almost 75 percent of the events ran so far have been won by either Martin Truex Jr, Kevin Harvick, or Kyle Busch.

This, although exciting for those fans when they win, creates one less reason for people to watch or even buy tickets.

Why would someone buy a ticket when quite possibly one of these three will end up winning?

It makes for a tough situation for NASCAR because although each week some kind of drama takes place, but in the end the main story is who won, and when 14 races are split between three drivers, it’s tough to overcome, especially at this point in the year.

It’s now the run to the playoffs, and someone will need to make a charge and say, “I want in on this!”

Even a guy like Jimmie Johnson isn’t even in the conversation, because he too has yet to win.

So what is NASCAR to do, stop these guys and tell them to let others get a win now and then?  We all know that’s not going to happen, but other teams do need figure out a way to get past them, otherwise we could just see a 3-way playoff battle instead of one involving 16 drivers.

STAGE 1:  Martin Truex Jr.

STAGE 2:  Martin Truex Jr.

RESULTS:  1-Truex Jr.  2-Blaney  3-Keselowski  4-Kyle Busch  5-Harvick  6-Kurt Busch  7-Jones  8-Almirola  9-Larson  10-Logano

NOTABLE FINISHES:  12-Bowyer  20-Byron  22-Dillon

CAUTIONS:  4 for 22 laps.  Lap 82-87 (Stage 1 Conclusion); 111-114 (Car #88 Incident-T3); 162-166
(Stage 2 Conclusion); 208-214 (Fluid In Turn 4 From #23).

LEAD CHANGES:  14 among 7 drivers.  Truex Jr 1-37, Keselowski 38, Blaney 39, Ku. Busch 40-60, Logano 61-62, Bowman 63, Johnson 64-66, Truex Jr 67-84, Logano 85-87, Ku. Busch 88-97, Truex Jr 98-163, Keselowski 164-200, Truex Jr 201-209, Ku. Busch 210-223, Truex Jr 224-267.

TIME OF RACE:  2 Hrs, 43 Mins, 39 Secs.

AVERAGE SPEED:  150.454 MPH

MARGIN OF VICTORY:  1.901 Seconds

POINTS (Earned/Behind Leader [Playoff Points]):  1. Kyle Busch, 799 [30]; 2. Harvick, -59 [27]; 3. Truex Jr, -110 [25]; 4. Logano, -151 [7]; 5. Keselowski, -169 [4]; 6. Bowyer, -170 [10]; 7. Kurt Busch, -198 [2]; 8. Larson, -218; 9. Hamlin, -240 [2]; 10. Blaney, -253 [4]; 13. Jones, -319 [5]; 18. Dillon, -437 [5].