A Splendid Sunday

I was never meant to be a NASCAR fan.

And I definitively was not meant to be a NASCAR columnist for the last 15 years in this wonderful corner of the Motorsports internet. I spent my formative years in England, steeped in the traditions of Formula 1. Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen and fellow Brits Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill were my original driving heroes.

NASCAR, or indeed the NTT IndyCar Series, were never meant to be in my sporting universe (albeit an already expansive one – come on, you Gunners).

But as it often does, life takes you down curious paths you never could have foreseen and when I took a job in advertising to work on Sprint’s sports sponsorships back in 2005 it was sold to me as primarily NFL with maybe 10% of the day job being NASCAR.

Turns out that 10% was more like 90%, so I had little choice but to throw myself into the world of driving fast and turning left. The first race I watched happened to be won by Kyle Busch (who’s been in the news a bit this week), his maiden victory driving the No. 5 Kellogg’s Chevy for Rick Hendrick at Auto Club Speedway.

Not going to lie, I hated every excruciating second with a burning and visceral passion. But, since it was my job, I watched again next week, then the week after etc. and as I got to learn the nuances I began to fall slowly and inexorably in love. And just for the record, the first piece of creative work I developed was a retirement ad for Rusty Wallace.

Over the years since I’ve dipped in and out of motorsports, but there are two drivers in particular I’ve worked with for extended periods: On the IndyCar side it was Will Power and on the NASCAR side it was Bubba Wallace. So, although as columnists we remain neutral and objective in our assessment of the sport, last Sunday (Sept. 11) was a day I particularly enjoyed.

I’ll start with Power. The 41-year-old native of the impeccably-named Toowoomba in Queensland, Australia picked up his second IndyCar championship eight years after his first in 2014. For Power, it was a year of unerring consistency and maximizing his results race-by-race.

“The approach was very much going the long game, making sure that we finished every lap, every race and that I was very consistent,” Power said.

Power also led the series in podium finishes (nine) and average finish (5.9) even if he only took one checkered flag in Belle Isle. Wins are great, for sure, but not having bad finishes was the hallmark of this championship – think Matt…