Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. stood out last week at Dover International Speedway in the AAA 400, but not for the reasons they would have wanted.
With competition being so tight throughout the field, success is increasingly defined by drivers eliminating mistakes, according to NASCAR America analysts Dale Jarrett and Parker Kligerman.
Larson was hit with two penalties during the race weekend – one that dropped him to the back of the field and forced him to give up his pole position and one that cost him two laps for an uncontrolled tire.
“Generally as (the race track widens out) it makes passing easier, but that wasn’t the case (Sunday),” Jarrett said. “Things were just different there. And I think it’s all year you’re seeing this. That’s why it’s so important that these teams stop making mistakes on pit road.”
“One thing that’s adding to this is we’re not seeing a lot of cautions these days,” Kligerman added. “It just seems to be a lot of green flag racing, so when you make a mistake and you’re having to come back through the field, cautions help you, right? They group the field back; you can get a good pit stop to make up for that last one; make up a couple of spots there. But when it’s green flag and it’s purely down to speed and your ability to pass – and we saw from Martin Truex that he wasn’t able to do that when he got back in the pack.”
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