NASCAR's WWTR race was a chaotic mess. And it was beautiful

In the moment, Sunday’s race made many question what had happened to the so-called best drivers in the (stock car) world.

Chaotic. Messy. Drawn out.

But the NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway delivered on multiple fronts. In short, Sunday was as chaotic as it was cool because sometimes pandemonium is exactly what makes racing great. Or, dare we say, fun.

The tone was set early when the first of 18 cautions flew on lap six. It left little to no rest for the competition, and whereas one might look at all those yellow flags and wonder what the hell was going on or question the talent of the field, those cautions told a story.

It was a story about the challenge of the Madison, Illinois, track, and how hard NASCAR’s seventh-generation race car is to run. The drivers had to work last weekend. They had to muscle up and fight their way around that racetrack, and at times, it bit them.

These cars are hard to drive, which is everything they should be. Racing should be hard. It should require talent and determination, and drivers who separate themselves from their rivals by what they can get out of their race car.

Some of the other incidents came from drivers forcing themselves in tight spaces because a hole is a hole, regardless of its size. A run is a run, and that opportunity for a spot or two or three might not come again, and if it does, it likely won’t be easy. Add in long straightaways and hard braking zones, and it creates a recipe for a driver to get out of shape or find themselves on the losing end of a battle with the car and taking others with them.

The car has fenders, and it’s a contact sport. The world won’t end because not every move gets pulled off cleanly. Some drivers won’t make the move at all. Those who do shouldn’t be insulted. The product is far better when a risk is taken, and there is something to watch, than when no moves are made at all.

Smith was one of five drivers who got bitten by brakes at WWTR. Jeff Curry/Getty Images

It was a 'keep you on your toes' type of afternoon. For some, those toes, and arch, and maybe the heel depending on how hard they were trying to get the pedal to the floor, were not strong enough to stop the wild ride that comes with brake rotor explosions. Those taken by surprise either haven't watched a race at Gateway, or haven’t understood how tough a place it is on brake packages. It’s almost expected that some teams will get it wrong and pay a high price.

Five did it this time around. Yes, five of 36, which means it was far from a NASCAR problem or a parts problem. Again, it comes from decisions made, and don’t overlook that teams were running the high-horsepower package – an added variable that has now given them plenty of information to digest.

Regardless, most teams got it right. Zane Smith likely doesn’t appreciate that his team didn’t get it right, having taken a hard hit when his Ford slammed the wall in Turn 1. Ryan Blaney, another Ford driver, took a hit into the wall and the championship points deficit. Noah Gragson appeared to have a brake issue, as did Chris Buescher. They were also in Fords. The outlier was Chase Elliott in a Chevrolet.

Together, all of this created a race with plenty to digest before looking at the big-picture implications. As the second race of the Chase, some championship-eligible drivers fell further behind and are getting ever closer to potentially taking themselves out of the conversation altogether. On the flip side, for the second straight week, the value of winning showed how much of a boost it provides. Kyle Larson had a 73-point day and remains in the thick of the fight, as Christopher Bell had done a week prior in the Southern 500.

Denny Hamlin leads the championship standings, but he was let off the hook for the second straight week. Hamlin’s team stubbed their toe again and were on the cusp of feeling those consequences, but too many issues by other Chase drivers lessened the blow. A slow pit stop at Darlington Raceway buried Hamlin in traffic, and when he didn’t finish his pass on Michael McDowell, it got him knocked into the wall. Sunday, a slow pit stop again buried him in the field, and despite it being late in the final stage, that rash of cautions helped Hamlin pick his way up the leaderboard.

There should be no freebies or layups while racing for a championship. A driver should have to go through the gauntlet before laying claim to the trophy, and NASCAR is getting more of that under this format than the last. The focus isn't on who wins and who falls below an invisible cutline and faces elimination.

The focus is on how chaotic a race plays out and the overall implications. The pressure feels a bit higher. The free passes are gone. Bell had to race on Sunday and race for another win and more points. It was not a weekend off because he had won the week before, and being involved in the lap 223 crash mattered.

Sunday, certainly, was a lot of things and can be described in many ways. None of them would be wrong, though as a whole it was one of those rare, fun days because of how chaotic it was and what it left for everyone to digest.