I love this. Someone finally showed that saving gas wasn't the only way to race a super speedway.

TRM said:

---

Bell's championship chase is over a barring a sweep of wins.

---

Not necessarily. If a big one catches Larson, Hamlin and Briscoe he won't lose that many net points. Heck. The right wreck and he could actually finish ahead of them.

It was always going to be interesting stage races expecially since the Top 7 would be racing for stage points, so I figured they'd be alittle bit more racey rather than hanging in the back like Denny does. RFK's move scrambled that up a bit more.

Chastain

Ross is about to be an idiot. He and his crew chief literally don't understand Where they are.

Chastain getting in front of the Toyotas

Pretty sure Chevy told them to get out of the way

TRM said:

---

Pretty sure Chevy told them to get out of the way

---

I actually suspect Chevy would tell Ross to stay right in front of that Toyota.

I meant out of the way of Larson

Best possible stage for Larson. Bell and Hamlin get nothing and everyone else loses some ground.

TRM said:

---

I meant out of the way of Larson

---

Ah. Yes.

This was great strategy. Not often you see a race team pull everyone's pants down like RFK just did.

And there goes half the chasers.

So Joey wrecked his own teammate and dominoed the rest of it.

That will cost him some Christmas cards.

Blaney is being a very gracious teammate.

So of the top 7 guys it got Blaney, Reddick, Hamlin. And that's on top of Bell.

As bad as Larson's week was last week this is a complete opposite.

Larson just went 20th to 1st in like 1/2 a lap

Down goes Joey. Man. Upside down. Hope he's ok. That's bad.

The safety engineering of these cars is just insane.

It was a Dale hit + Kyle breaking his legs hit all in one

Mathguy64 said:

---

The 35 with the worst hit I've seen in a long time. Outside wall then he became an unguided missile to the inside wall.

---

Remind me of Eric McClure having his throttle hang and going into the inside wall on the backstretch. That's a concussion for sure.

WOW

I thought for sure Kyle went below the line passing somebody, that was some video game stuff

He looked like he had an extra 50 HP that last 1/4 lap. That was a rocket ship.

73 point lead with a 76 point max/race. Larson will need an epic collapse to lose the championship

That finish was wild.

Larson owes Chastain big time. Ross had a run in the lane below Larson, but Ross chose to get behind Kyle.

NASCAR says they checked data and all the Chevys (other than Hill who lost power/ran out of fuel) were full throttle in Turn 3 to the finish.

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) October 25, 2026

“It’s a sports car not meant to be running 200mph,” @dennyhamlin says about the fuel saving at Dega.

Full quotes: #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/HaLPTvfM8A

— Noah Lewis (@Noah_Lewis1) October 25, 2026

Logano talks about his experience upside down here at Dega. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/zouaPVN2Pu

— Noah Lewis (@Noah_Lewis1) October 25, 2026

Mathguy64 said:

---

I love this. Someone finally showed that saving gas wasn't the only way to race a super speedway.

---

That is an interesting comment from Denny about "not designed to run 200 MPH'

Best I can tell nothing NASCAR runs is designed for 200 MPH and never has been. These cars roughly follow the shape of a street car and always have. If you want to see a car designed to run 200 MPH go to Bonneville or Indianapolis

Right after DE died there were all sorts of brainstorming about ways to slow cars at Daytona and Talladega including detuning the cars (which everyone hated) and reducing the banking (too expensive). My ideas were to reduce the width of the tires by a few inches and enforce the use of the chicane on the backstretch. The problem as I saw it (and still see it) isn't so much the speed but the aerodynamics of the car and the available horsepower that resulted in the fastest way around the track being as one pack. There is no separation between the cars, and if one car gets out of shape there is assured damage to many cars (ie. The Big One). If you can force the drivers to use their brakes and otherwise eliminate the need to run flat out as a pack, then you would reduce a big component of the risk at these tracks. But Bill France Jr never returned my calls

The speed cut and pack racing started was earlier when Bill Elliot hit 212 mph in qualifying and the car started becoming an airfoil and they couldn't keep them on the racetrack. Guys in wrecks either flying into the catch fences or flying off the back edge of the track all together. That qualifying run scared nascar so much they immediately put in the carb spacer to limit HP.

I think RFK yesterday proved you can run flat out and make it work.

Everyone was stuck in a prisoners dilemma strategy. Everyone said "we can win by minimizing gas time on our road". So they all chose the strategy. But it's dumb. Once one team chose a different strategy of run fast it ruins the prisoners dilemma.

Everyone else was very lucky a yellow didn't catch them all a lap down.