Oh, NASCAR. The world’s premier stock car racing series can at times be simultaneously beautiful and maddening, entertaining fans while also making them want to pull their hair out. Though fans’ love for America’s top form of motorsport isn’t in question, scenarios pop up from time to time to create a head-shaking, “This is such a NASCAR thing to happen” sentiment.
These instances can range from humorous to exhausting, enjoyable to frustrating and everything in between. So as the first half of the NASCAR Cup Series season wrapped up last weekend, here are 10 of those moments that have already happened in 2024 — ranked by their “Only in NASCAR!” uniqueness.
10. Wet-weather tires
There are times in NASCAR when something very positive gets overshadowed by a lack of understanding about a policy or officials’ thinking on how a rule will be interpreted. The recent innovation of using rain tires — or wet-weather tires, as NASCAR and Goodyear prefer to call them — in short-track oval racing fits that category.
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NASCAR was able to start April’s Richmond race much sooner after a rain delay thanks to the still-new tires, and the first 30 laps of that event were highly entertaining because of it. Then, last week at New Hampshire, the tires ended up saving the race. Officials would have cut it short during a storm with 82 laps remaining, but they were able to complete the full distance because NASCAR didn’t need to wait for the track to fully dry after the rain passed.
The only problem? There was confusion over when and how the tires were being used, with NASCAR mandating non-competitive pit stops (where drivers couldn’t gain or lose any positions on pit road) and telling the teams when they could and could not put on new tires. That perceived hand-holding somewhat overshadowed the bigger picture of the tires working wonderfully on short tracks in damp conditions and actually putting on great racing in the process.
9. Driver news revealed
Last Friday, Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell accidentally mentioned how “Chase” would be joining the team next year, replacing the soon-to-be retiring Martin Truex Jr. in JGR’s No. 19 car. It wasn’t exactly a secret — The Athletic had already reported Chase Briscoe would be in the car in 2025 — but Bell certainly wasn’t supposed to make the announcement himself.
Bell’s blunder then became a running joke throughout the New Hampshire Motor Speedway weekend, with even a NASCAR official ribbing him in the pre-race drivers meeting. And in a very fitting nod to the mistake, two days after Bell won that New Hampshire race, he was the one who opened JGR’s Tuesday news conference by officially announcing Briscoe’s signing.
8. Michael Jordan
When Tyler Reddick won the April 21 race at Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR got a glimpse of just how valuable 23XI Racing’s presence in the Cup Series could be. Team co-owner Michael Jordan, one of the most famous athletes in world history, joyfully celebrated on pit road and in victory lane. Images of a proud Jordan at a NASCAR race went far beyond the motorsports bubble, and it showed the powerful way Jordan could be an ambassador for the stock car series.
"You going to celebrate?"
"Yeah!"
😊😊😊 pic.twitter.com/1UCsrWOeGI
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 21, 2024
Except just days later, on May 1, Jordan criticized NASCAR in a New York Times story about the ongoing and contentious charter negotiations. So instead of being aligned with Jordan and perhaps having him more willing to promote NASCAR, it was revealed how much officials are actually at odds with “His Airness.”
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7. Missing scoring pylons
After it was revealed Texas Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway had removed their scoring pylons in back-to-back weeks, confused drivers and fans worried if the pylons would become a thing of the past. The topic took over talk radio and social media for a week, all in an overblown non-storyline.
The tracks, owned by two different companies, had no coordination on removing their pylons and there was no widespread plan to take pylons out at every track. The aging equipment is an issue because the parts can no longer easily be replaced, and new pylons with LED screens are quite expensive to install.
In the meantime, having such a minor topic dominate conversation over a week between races — after NASCAR’s most popular driver, Chase Elliott, had snapped a winless streak, at that — was another very NASCAR thing to happen.
6. Iowa’s strange repave
Shortly before NASCAR arrived at Iowa Speedway this month for its inaugural Cup Series race, images circulated around social media of a strange half-repave on the aging asphalt. The bottom and middle lanes each had uneven strips paved in the corners, while the top of the racetrack was totally untouched.
Competitors aired their puzzlement over why NASCAR would re-work the track this way, while NASCAR told The Athletic it was a matter of a late decision and not enough time to complete a full repave. There was concern Iowa would turn into a boring race as a result, with former driver Kevin Harvick saying on his podcast it was “one of the biggest F-ups in the whole year.”
But in another very NASCAR thing to happen, the race turned out to be great. The uneven paving on the lanes actually worked ideally for the Next Gen car and prompted a debate over whether NASCAR should keep the track as is rather than finish the job before next year’s event.
5. Two all-time finishes
NASCAR is known for thrilling, close racing — and that was fully on display as the Cup Series had a pair of incredible finishes within the first three months of the season.
In February at Atlanta Motor Speedway, a three-wide race across the finish line between Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Daniel Suárez prompted comparisons to the movie “Cars.” The day after the race, an informal X poll saw fans label it as NASCAR’s greatest finish of all time — even beating the 2003 Darlington classic between Kurt Busch and Ricky Craven.
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Voters may have been prisoners of the moment, but fans were then treated to an even closer finish in May at Kansas Speedway. Kyle Larson beat Chris Buescher to the line by 0.001 second, the closest finish in NASCAR history.
Except, in another “this is so NASCAR” moment, Kansas was tinged with a bit of controversy. The start/finish line was painted slightly unevenly, which prompted confusion among fans over whether Buescher actually won instead. As it turned out, NASCAR officiates the line with a high-speed camera — not the painted asphalt itself — so it was an irrelevant conversation.
4. North Wilkesboro fight and penalties
After Busch intentionally wrecked Ricky Stenhouse Jr. at NASCAR’s All-Star Race, Stenhouse had nowhere to go. The old-school track at North Wilkesboro has no pedestrian or vehicle tunnel, nor does it have a crossover bridge. So Stenhouse sat and stewed for a couple hours until the event was complete, then waited at Busch’s hauler in a meme-able moment captured by The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi.
Stenhouse eventually punched Busch after a brief conversation, and crew members joined in on the brawl. It was a classic NASCAR moment — contact on the racetrack leads to a fight off of it — and the footage went viral around the sports world.
Despite this publicity, NASCAR reacted with a heavy hand. It issued a $75,000 fine to Stenhouse (a record for a fight), suspended two of Stenhouse’s crew members for surprisingly long periods (four weeks and eight weeks) and suspended Stenhouse’s father indefinitely.
That led Elliott to question why there would be a penalty after NASCAR’s own social media accounts repeatedly promoted the fight on various platforms.
“You’re going to fine him, but you’re going to promote with it? Like, what are we doing? That’s a little strange to me,” Elliott said. “It’s not OK, but we’re going to blast it all over everything to get more clicks. I don’t really agree with that.”
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3. The ‘Double’ waiver controversy
Larson’s attempt at running the Indianapolis 500/Coca-Cola 600 “Double” was thwarted by rain, which forced Larson and team owner Rick Hendrick to pick between which two races he would start. Larson chose the Indy 500, seemingly with the understanding NASCAR officials would give him a waiver for missing the start of the Coke 600.
Except that wasn’t the case at all. NASCAR, upset Larson prioritized another race over one of their crown jewel events, left it undetermined for a week as to whether Larson would get a waiver or be banned from competing in this year’s playoffs. Larson’s contribution to all of American motorsports during his Double attempt appeared to actually backfire, as NASCAR’s unhappiness over how it all unfolded and the lack of clear communication on which race would get the priority led to hurt feelings instead.
For days, there was serious consideration to not giving Larson the waiver at all. But eventually, after Larson had already run another NASCAR race and had his playoff points stripped to zero, NASCAR granted the request and avoided one of the potentially all-time great PR disasters. Larson, of course, then won the next race.
2. The rainy Clash
There was a mild controversy heading into the third edition of the Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in February. Several weeks before the race, NASCAR announced no fans would be allowed to attend the Saturday portion of the weekend, which was scheduled to feature the lineup-setting heat races, along with practice and qualifying.
That prompted a large social media outcry, so NASCAR not only reversed course but made Saturday a free day for possibly the first time in its modern history — no tickets required.
But then it got even stranger. With a large, days-long storm system approaching Southern California, NASCAR for the first time moved up one of its major races an entire day and ran the Clash that Saturday on just five hours’ notice. In the process, the sanctioning body had to eat millions of dollars in ticket revenue because the event ended up being held on the non-ticketed free day instead of Sunday.
Meanwhile, completing the race before the rain’s arrival turned out to be a genius move. When the weather finally abated days later and NASCAR officials returned to the track, a safety truck began sinking into the asphalt because it had been so weakened by the rain.
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1. Bristol tires
Out of nowhere, the March race at Bristol Motor Speedway experienced some extreme tire-wear issues that caught everyone by surprise.
Goodyear was so concerned, it had a mid-race media availability to try and explain what was happening. Except it was far from a disaster and, if anything, the high tire wear was a wild success.
Drivers having to manage their equipment created a crazy race that saw a NASCAR short-track record 54 lead changes. Meanwhile, after much talk about NASCAR’s difficulty in nailing the short-track package with its Next Gen car, Bristol put an emphasis on the tires becoming a much larger focus and a potential cure-all for many of the woes.
The only problem is no one still seems to know exactly how it happened (it was the same tire used last year) or whether it can be replicated at the next Bristol race in September — except on purpose this time.
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(Top photo of Daniel Suárez edging out Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch in a thrilling three-wide finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
