CBS announcer Ken Squier reported the moment when the NASCAR Cup Series was elevated to a national spotlight: “And there’s a fight.”
Donnie Allison duking it out with Cale Yarborough following an intense, last-lap crash during the dramatic 1979 Daytona 500. Yarborough utilized his helmet to throw the initial blow.
“It was great racing, great fighting and great time,” Allison said, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Kyle Larson appeared in a similar situation Sunday at Kansas Speedway. Moments after being wrecked by winner Denny Hamlin during the final lap, the runner-up looked up from a post-race interview with Fox Sports and grinned: “What do we have here?”
And there’s a fight.
Ross Chastain vs. Noah Gragson.
Another chance for the premier series to gain a needed slice of mainstream recognition.
NASCAR Cup Series Ratings Need A Boost
NASCAR’s television interest continues to wane. In 2022, Cup races averaged 3.03 million viewers, a modest 2 percent increase from the previous season. Through the opening eight weeks of ‘23, however, ratings hit a wall with each event losing year-to-year viewership:
- Clash at the Coliseum, down 14.8 percent
- Daytona 500, 7.7
- Auto Club Speedway, 5.6
- Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 12.2
- Phoenix Raceway, 15.1
- Atlanta Motor Speedway, 14.5
- Circuit of The Americas, 16.1
- Richmond Raceway, 41.8
NASCAR needed a lift. Enter the “Melon Man.” Chastain, like Kurt Busch six years ago and Yarborough in 1979, initiated an altercation that provided a boost to the series’ marketing department.
Chastain appears to be doing whatever he can to fill the role of the Cup villain.
When Gragson confronted Chastain and asked, “What the #^&% is your problem?” The current Cup points leader responded with a right cross, immediately garnering more headlines and online hits than Hamlin’s desperate, last-lap walling of Larson.
Heading into Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, Chastain continues to generate media attention and compile on-track enemies.
Earlier in last Sunday’s race at Kansas, Busch unleashed a bevy of F-bombs directed at Chastain on his team radio.
“He’s pissed because I’m f****** pissed because he races like a f****** a******, and so I doored him twice down the backstretch like, ‘This is your f****** warning boy.’ ”
Busch certainly knows both sides of the story.
Kyle Busch takes a moment to discuss his thoughts on Ross Chastain's style of racing. https://t.co/GuVrxxFFof pic.twitter.com/RPgfKUBcFd
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) May 7, 2023
Kyle Busch: ‘I Was Better Than Joey’
As Martin Truex Jr. prepared to cross the start/finish line during a 2017 race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the real last-lap action played out during the duel for third place. Joey Logano crossed a line with Busch, which ignited some deep-rooted issues between the former Joe Gibbs Racing teammates.
Moments after exiting his machine, Busch walked with purpose, weaving his way through different teams along pit row. Upon spotting Logano, Busch didn’t take time to talk. BOOM! The two-time Cup Series champion levied a right cross to Logano’s chin.
While personal matters played a role, Busch rehashed the scenario with The Sporting News in 2020.
“I was better than Joey,” Busch said. “So I turned down on him a little bit and just barely touched him to make a hole, got the hole and turned into (Turn) 3, and then he just flat-out drives off in there. And I knew he wrecked me. Like I knew — I knew — he drove into me and flat-out wiped me out. On purpose.
“So all of that (past) stuff and then that right there? It was like, ‘OK, you’re done. That’s it.’ ”
Allison-Yarborough proved to be a main event in 1979.
Chastain-Gragson likely was an undercard.
If Chastain continues to plow through opponents, a new post-race challenger certainly will appear along pit road.
Perhaps Busch.
Now, that would be an attention-grabbing heavyweight bout.
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