What’s a Good NASCAR Race?

Every week of the NASCAR season, our special corner of the social media platform I will always call Twitter gets asked a question by The Athletic‘s Jeff Gluck.

“Was _______ a good race?”

Of course, the answer to that question is very subjective.

This is the internet we’re talking about.

Answers can depend on a lot, specifically on who won or who didn’t win.

But also how they won.

Winner aside, the final result of Gluck’s poll, more often and not, can leave you scratching your head.

Honestly, the fact 72% of 24,176 voters this week wound up thinking Sunday’s (June 30) Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway was “good” surprised me.

And not because I don’t agree with them.

After the chaos of five overtime attempts, multiple wrecks and a “will they or won’t they” fuel mileage drama to rival a storyline on your favorite teenage TV drama (mine for the record is “Smallville”), a score in the 60s wouldn’t have been a shocker.

I mean, look at what happened the week before at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The last chunk of the race was ran on wet tires, and every lap around the “Magic Mile” suddenly looked like a typical restart at Pocono Raceway.

It was very watchable.

However …

It got a D+?

Sure, Jan.

How much of it was due to Christopher Bell winning?

Was it because of NASCAR telling teams when they could or couldn’t change tires?

When the sport is breaking new, and potentially dangerous, ground, I’m OK with some short-term guardrails. I’d rather be over-prepared than lacking experience.

As for Nashville, even though I threw up my hands with every time the best stock racers in the world somehow couldn’t make it one lap without hijinks ensuing, I was entertained.

Really, I was entertained for almost the entirety of the race that took place after the extended…