NASCAR at Kansas

The 2nd race of the Contender Round is at the tricky, twister-like 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway. Brad Keselowski will start on pole for Sunday's Cup race.

The Xfinity Series is on tap of racing later this afternoon. Chris Buescher continues to lead the standings with 4 races to go heading to two off weeks after Kansas is set and done.

THAT JUST HAPPENED!!!! O_O

THAT WAS AWESOME!

Logano can go to hell. He didn't even try to not wreck Kenseth there.

You block, you pay!

Karma for the 20!

Well, that happened. GW Logano.

Just be here waiting for the spedfight.

Logano killed that race. I hate it when such a great race is killed because one of the guys decides to just wreck the other car.

I should be mad that Kenseth got wrecked for the win, but this Chase format is so broken that it really doesn't matter to me anymore. Kenseth hasn't had a satisfying win since Bristol, and shit like what happened just then has happened before.

Um......welp.

I'm really having a hard time investing in these races as of late, pretty bleh race i felt.

Kenseth and Logano was pretty funny, especially on the fact i care little for either.

I woke up on the restart for the GWC, so I don't really care who did what.

Kenesth is doing what he has to do to win a race, I'll give him that.

But that being said, If Logano went to make a pass after the first block, Kenesth goes down, and wrecks himself in the process, ok, that's totally on Kenesth. While it wasn't Stenhouse on Speed at the ARCA race in Toledo bad, Logano pretty much rode Kenesth's rear into the turn for half a straight. Logano could have made a cleaner attempt at the pass.

I did see some of the race yesterday. That incident between Kenseth and Logano was just pure racing for the win and this sport was built for that, except when a garbage as hell Chase format is in the way of things. 'Dega should be fun as hell next weekend.

I have some things to get off my chest before I give my review on this race.

The race was actually posted on YouTube on Monday, but I decided to wait until today to watch it. Why?

Well, like Alta said, these races as of late have been really difficult to invest time into, especially when they've sucked or because a favorite driver isn't doing to well, or both. Of course, it also doesn't help when the higher-ups at NASCAR decide to make dumbass decisions, such as keeping the original 2015 package for the entirety of the Chase. As soon as I saw that, I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that this year's Chase was going to suck giant donkey balls, and from what I've seen so far, that's exactly what it's been. The Cup Series is really starting to resemble the Xfinity Series: a giant grease fire.

And it's obvious I'm not the only one who feels this way, based on the fact that the Nielsen rating have been absolute dog shit the past couple of races. This race managed to get up to 2.2 this week, but several races as of late have had trouble even getting above a two, and a few didn't get above a two. And considering the fact that this is supposed to be the so-called 'playoffs' that determine the champion, that's pretty bad. But I'm honestly not surprised, because NASCAR is facing the same problem that the WWE is. When the product is garbage like it is now, nobody is going to want to watch or invest their time into it, because let's be honest about one thing here. We live in a society that has a short attention span, and if the product is not worth investing four hours of your precious time into, then people aren't going to do it. And to me, it also seems like more than a coincidence when NASCAR's ratings have been going down, while IndyCar's ratings have been going up. Hmmm... makes me think that some NASCAR fans are making the transition over to IndyCar, and for good reasons, because the IndyCar product is blowing NASCAR's on-track product out of the water right now.

Now, there is hope for next season, as they will be switching to the low downforce package that's been tested at Kentucky and Darlington, and the results look promising. However, one major concern I have is also the one major reason I didn't call Darlington the best race of the year so far: TOO... MANY... CAUTION FLAGS. When you have a dozen cautions in a 400 mile race, and a mind-boggling 18 cautions in a 500 mile race, especially when it causes the race time to be longer than the Coke 600 was, that's not exactly something I want to see, because too many cautions just make the race drag on for WAY too long, and my attention begins to waver when that happens. Hopefully, there won't be as many cautions next year when the new package hits the track.

But while I'm glad that they making major changes for next year, why couldn't they have done that this year? They knew that this package sucked ass, and yet they decided to stick with it anyway instead of going with the better option. Maybe they have a good reason for doing so that I don't know about, but regardless, this was a dumb decision, and we have to suffer for it by watching boring ass racing that's been plaguing this Chase and most of the season, for that matter, which is a big reason why I want this season to be over.

(sigh)

Well, now that I've got that off my chest, let's get to this review, which I'll keep short and sweet.

It really wasn't that intriguing to me. Most of the race was boring as hell, and I kept skipping ahead in the video just to find some kind of interesting battles, which were not that many, at least until the last 20 laps, when Logano chased down Kenseth and began running him hard for the lead, which certainly peaked my interest because I wanted to see how this battle played out. Of course, the controversial moment of the race came when Logano spun Kenseth out in turn 1 with 5 laps to go.

Now, I'm not the biggest Kenseth fan in the world, but what Logano did was dirty, dirty, dirty driving. Logano had more than a fast enough car and he has enough talent to pass Kenseth for the win clean. Why did he have to spin the 20 out and possibly cost Kenseth a shot at the championship? Quite possibly the biggest douchebag move of the year, IMO. If Logano had passed him clean, so be it, and if Kenseth would've come down on Logano entering turn 1, that's on Kenseth. But Logano pretty much rode Kenseth's bumper all the way down the frontstretch and finally spun him out in turn 1, and he certainly didn't do himself any favors in his post race interview when he said, and I quote, "That's how I drive." Well, guess what, brain wizard. The way you drove at the finish of this race made you look like a f**king toolbag.

The finish was pretty much an afterthought because of that incident, and the finish wasn't even that good anyways, so whatever. But what Logano did was dirty, in my opinion. I had respect for Logano, because he has the talent to get the job done, but after watching what happened, I've lost some respect for Logano.

The Hollywood Casino 400 @ Kansas gets a 3.25/10. This race was pretty forgettable, save for the last twenty laps, which unfortunately got marred by controversy, with Logano getting the Douchebag of the Year award from yours truly. (golf clap) Way to go, Moldy Bread. You've officially re-earned your nickname.

And tomorrow is Talladega. Hopefully, it'll be exciting, because this Chase needs it badly.