Bubba Wallace was one of thirteen drivers busted in post-qualifying tech and thus had to start in the bottom ten - he was listed 39th but after about six cars went the back before the green he actually started 33rd - of the Gander 400. In a season of struggle and poor finishes he clawed toward the top-20 before his brakes exploded and this mess erupted.
There was chatter about so many cars flunking post-qualifying tech and the effectiveness of punishments, but it may not be so simple to deal with.
The Wallace wreck also led to some chatter about altering the hairpin-esque Turn One, though realistically catastrophic brake failure is something no configuration of corner can deal with.
Pocono's Summer 400 illustrated the mixed bag of NASCAR's transition period of late - while the TV ratings for the sport remain subpar, attendances overall have been solid, and fan enthusiasm isn't gone. A recent Forbes piece indicates the much-sought "millenial" audience in fact is taking to NASCAR, which seems to illustrate sociological assumptions about millenials aren't always accurate.
It also illustrated the strength of Kyle Busch (the winner), Kevin Harvick (fourth), and Martin Truex (a disappointing 15th). Busch and Harvick started in the bottom dozen while Truex started eighth. Harvick led 30 laps and Busch 52, while default polesitter Daniel Suarez led an impressive 29 laps - compared to just six led all season - and finished a spirited second.
The big story outside of the post-qualifying controversy and Bubba Wallace's ugly melee was the continued improvement of the Hendrick Motorsports fleet, as Alex Bowman, William Byron, and Chase Elliott all finished in the top seven, this as JGR put three Toyotas in the top five. The recent surge by Hendrick comes amid Andy Petree's radio interview where he noted the Chevrolets have not worked together, and this lack of cooperation will now just get worse because now Hendrick Motorsports can believe it doesn't need to work with any other Chevy team - and one wonders if, a la the old Childress-Petree-Earnhardt engineering alliance of 1998 onward or the Pontiac inter-team alliance of 1994 onward, there will be even closer interaction between RCR, Petty, and the JTG-Daugherty team that put AJ Allmendinger to a decent 14th.
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There is the old debate - is domination as seen from Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, and Martin Truex good for the sport? It's a debate that can never truly be decided, for while one does see surges of attention when someone starts dominating, attention surges more when someone else takes down the dominator(s). One certainly can admire three superstars at the top of their game, yet other teams surging and toppling the dominators and growing competitive depth is something always good for sports.
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What Pocono (and almost every other track) can use most is making the draft effective again a la last week's Eastern Propane Modified 100 at New Hampshire. And a Lee Spencer report published the night before the Pocono race indicates NASCAR in 2019 will implement what is called the NA18D package, a modified form of its draft duct package at Vegas, Fontana, Texas, Kansas, Charlotte, Michigan, Chicagoland, Kentucky, and Indianapolis. The intriguing tidbit is that NASCAR apparently wants to use a smaller engine spacer rather than a restrictor plate and have two unrestricted engine packages - the open motor and the "NA18D" engine set at 550 hp.
The curious aspect is the set of tracks apparently overlooked for this NA18D package - Pocono, Atlanta, New Hampshire, and Homestead. New Hampshire has certainly demonstrated in its 29 seasons of Whelen Modified Tour competition that the draft can kick in, and the other three are more than large enough for the draft to make a huge difference. And even more curious is why Daytona and Talladega are not yet targeted for draft ducts, which certainly can only help the effectiveness of the draft at those places as they have elsewhere they've been used.
One can certainly hope such a package improves the racing as the present version unquestionably already has. For now the series surges to Watkins Glen - which has seen plenty of melees that make Bubba Wallace's wild ride look tame.
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