NASCAR crown jewel races, who has the career grand slam and who demoted Talladega? Blame Carson Hocevar!
Kyle Larson won at Indianapolis on Sunday, giving him wins in three of NASCAR's four crown jewel races, leaving him one shy of the career grand slam, so to speak.
But of course, like most things in stock-car racing history, it's not quite that simple.
As currently constructed, the four crown jewels are generally accepted to be the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and the Southern 500 at Darlington. Only four drivers have won all four of those races — Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt.
But there's a small problem here: the Brickyard 400 didn't debut until 1994 and NASCAR has been around a little longer than that. In fact, some of the sport's greats had long since traded the cockpit for the rocking chair by the time stock cars were allowed on Indy's hallowed grounds.
And when the concept of crown jewel races started, the Winston 500, now the Geico 500 at Talladega, was embraced as the fourth such event. In fact, there's still debate on its status and if someone can show us the memo announcing the demotion of the sport's fastest race, we'd love to see it.
NASCAR crown jewel race winners: pic.twitter.com/nPGaq4o7ja
— Kelly Crandall (@KellyCrandall) July 21, 2024
Common sense would say, if the Brickyard 400 took the Winston 500's place, then wins in the spring Talladega event prior to 1994 should count. If that's the case, the list of career grand slam winners gets a lot longer.
Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, David Pearson and Buddy Baker all had wins in the Daytona 500, Coke 600, Southern 500 and Winston 500. Of those five, only Waltrip ever started in a Brickyard 400.
Four active drivers are now one short of the current slam — Denny Hamlin still needs the Brickyard while Larson, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski are a Daytona 500 win away.
Just don't ask us what to do with those three years the Brickyard 400 was the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard on the Indy Road Course.
History can be fun. And hard.
Let's go through the gears:
First gear
Next time you have an argument with your spouse, just apologize and blame Carson Hocevar.
It's a tale as old as the Milwaukee Mile: A guy ruffles some feathers on his way up and he can't escape his own reputation.
Sunday, he was cursed over radio by Ryan Blaney, called out in an interview by Alex Bowman and then given a talkin' to by Noah Gragson, yet, for the most part, we didn't see much in the way of egregious errors from the rookie driver.
But for now, Ross Chastain is safe, there's a new scapegoat in town.
Second gear
Just a week ago we questioned Hailie Deegan's future in stock-car racing.
We should've known better.
Over the weekend, Deegan was connected to the Haas Factory Team, the rebranded remnants of Stewart-Haas Racing, with one of its two Xfinity Series rides possibly a landing spot. Those cars finished 1-2 in Saturday's thriller, by the way.
Cole Custer will vacate one of the rides to pilot the organization's Cup ride next year while Riley Herbst remains undecided on his future.
"We believe there's more in her, and we want to be part of that," team president Joe Custer said.
Third gear
The bubble picture tightened significantly again as Bubba Wallace made up 20 more points on 16th-place Ross Chastain, moving to within just seven of the 16th and final playoff spot with seven races to go.
Meanwhile, at the top, Larson separated himself from the pack as the first driver to four wins this year. He also took a 10-point lead on teammate Chase Elliott in the process.
Driver | Wins | Points |
1. Kyle Larson | 4 | 749 |
2. Denny Hamlin | 3 | 706 |
3. William Byron | 3 | 654 |
4. Christopher Bell | 3 | 651 |
5. Ryan Blaney | 2 | 676 |
6. Chase Elliott | 1 | 739 |
7. Tyler Reddick | 1 | 734 |
8. Brad Keselowski | 1 | 615 |
9. Alex Bowman | 1 | 606 |
10. Joey Logano | 1 | 525 |
11. Daniel Suarez | 1 | 460 |
12. Austin Cindric | 1 | 438 |
13. Martin Truex Jr. | 0 | 653 |
14. Ty Gibbs | 0 | 587 |
15. Chris Buescher | 0 | 562 |
16. Ross Chastain | 0 | 552 |
-------------------------- | -- | ---- |
17. Bubba Wallace | 0 | 545 (-7) |
18. Chase Briscoe | 0 | 469 (-83) |
19. Kyle Busch | 0 | 440 (-112) |
20. Todd Gilliland | 0 | 434 (-118) |
Fourth gear
The NASCAR Cup Series is off for two weeks due to the Summer Olympics and will return at Richmond on August 11.
However, two ARCA Menards Series events will help bridge the gap as it will run events at Salem Speedway this Saturday and Elko Speedway on August 3.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: What is a NASCAR crown jewel race? Is Hailie Deegan returning?