The Unpredictability of NASCAR in October

( NOTE: the season is already over by the time this article gets posted, but this article was done before the end of the season.)

For those who do not know us, we are the Racing Sports Correspondents who did race recaps for NASCAR Cup races every weekend. From now on, we will do monthly recaps instead of weekly ones. So, this week, we will discuss the major actions that took place in the Truck, Xfinity, and Cup Series.

So, as October winds to an end, the NASCAR season is winding to an end also. The three main NASCAR series: Cup, Xfinity, and Trucks, have two races left in their respective season. After this upcoming weekend, the Round of 8 for each series will be over, and the Championship four will be set to fight for a championship in Phoenix two weeks from now. It has been an unpredictable year for NASCAR and October did not fail to deliver on unpredictability.

First off, the Truck Series. Trucks were the least exciting series this month since Truck races are normally uneventful. The first race for Trucks this round was Talladega. Talladega is always known for chaos and great racing, but because Trucks does not have as great of a superspeedway package as Xfinity, the Truck Talladega race was not too exciting to watch. The other Truck race that took place this month was at Homestead. Homestead was more exciting because Grant Enfinger, the winner of the Talladega race, won this race by saving over 50 laps on fuel and having a fast enough truck. Other than that, there was not much else of interest to discuss with the Truck Series. Now we move on to the series that produces the best racing consistently, the Xfinity Series.

Aside from the exciting racing in all Xfinity races this October, Xfinity has had some big and notable things happen this month. The most noteworthy thing was in the Round of 12 cutoff race at the Charlotte Roval where Parker Kligerman held off a hard-charging Sam Mayer and looked to have the win on lock. That is UNTIL NASCAR threw a caution for a guy getting stuck in the tire barriers. On the final restart, Kligerman lost the lead to Mayer, and Mayer went on to win the race and lock himself in the Round of 8, while Kligerman would get eliminated due to not getting the win. It was quite the unexpected turn of events, and we will see if this win is what saves the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series title hunt for Mayer. Lastly, the Cup Series.

The Cup series, the most unpredictable NASCAR series this year, was more unpredictable than the other series this month. At the Charlotte Roval (Ironically), the first guy who missed out on advancing to the Round of 8 was Joey Logano, who has made the Championship Four every even-numbered year since 2014. Hours after the race ended, a SHOCKING update came out that Alex Bowman had failed to meet the minimum weight requirement, which meant that Bowman would not make the Round of 8 and Logano would move on instead! The Unpredictability does NOT stop there though! The following week at Vegas, the race came down to fuel strategy with Logano trying to make it to the end on fuel and hold off a hard-charging Christopher Bell, the dominant car. With a little help from his teammate, Blaney, and having saved enough fuel, Logano would get to the line first to win the race and lock himself into the Championship Four after initially being eliminated from the Playoffs after the Roval. It has been a tradition that Logano makes the Championship Four every even-numbered year, but no one expected him to make the Final Four this year by getting saved from someone else getting disqualified.

As anyone can see, October provided some all-time unpredictable and memorable moments. When we do the monthly recap for November, we will discuss all three final Championship races, which we are sure will be just as unpredictable.

Scott Korowotny – Technical Advisor