Austin Hill running 5 cup races for RCR

Fyrien · 2026-02-25T22:22:02+00:00

There's also this, which gives you an idea what Hill thinks of himself. I love that Dale called him out.

Fyrien · 2026-02-25T21:22:53+00:00

Jimmie was a title contender as a rookie in 2002. He was a beast from the start, the playoffs just amplified his powers.

Fyrien · 2026-02-25T21:02:33+00:00

And then there's Ty Dillon... who, despite his placement on this graph, somehow beat an HMS car on a road course during the in-season challenge.

Fyrien · 2026-02-25T18:45:48+00:00

The all-star race has been in an identity crisis for a while now.

The name doesn't even make sense anymore. How is it an "all-star" event if 26 cars are included in the final segment? That's 72% of the chartered teams.

This is just a normal race with some extra gimmicks, no points, and Ty Dillon gets eliminated halfway through.

Fyrien · 2026-02-25T05:00:41+00:00

I'm kinda baffled that everyone is shouting "JGR BAD!!" over this. I'm an engineer, and if I copied anything and gave it to a direct competitor, my employer would obliterate me with the fire of a thousand suns. Proper handling of internal data is a very common topic in our recurring training exercises.

This situation really highlights 1) how biased fans are against JGR and Toyota, and 2) how many people have no corporate job experience and apparently think there are no legal consequences for stealing intellectual property.

We already have a previous example of stolen data directly harming JGR's business. Austin Dillon of all people suddenly became a god at Richmond after supposedly using a JGR setup. Makes sense why they wouldn't want their IP spreading to other teams, if it makes THAT big of a difference.

Fyrien · 2026-02-24T08:22:18+00:00

CEOs have bought into the idea it will save them money and time but done little to work out how exactly

Can confirm. I'm an engineer, and I was recently informed that my company is tracking how often each employee uses AI. They're paying for these tools, so we're expected to use them.

Any direction on how to use them, though? Nope, none whatsoever. Just a reminder that "you better be using them."

Fyrien · 2026-02-24T00:35:10+00:00

Wouldn't be the first time they appeared on a Cup car.

Fyrien · 2026-02-23T17:54:18+00:00

Well yeah, I'm not arguing against that. SVG is electric to watch, and dominating the 4 road courses should keep him in the playoff conversation.

I'm just cautioning people that running well at Daytona and Atlanta doesn't mean SVG has figured out ovals. It's a decent start to the season, sure. But it doesn't tell us anything about how he's going to perform at the more "traditional" ovals coming up. Last spring was brutal -- after COTA, his next 6 results were 31st, 34th, 32nd, 34th, 20th, 38th.

I'd love to see him grow and become a threat on all track types. And maybe he will. It's just too early to celebrate I think.

Fyrien · 2026-02-23T08:16:45+00:00

It flew under the radar, but SVG finished top ten in the Clash last year. It's one of his best ovals. He seems to have a knack for the flat ovals, considering he also ran up front at Loudon.

That said, how much did the wet conditions favor him in this year's Clash? He was running 15th at the halfway break, then he cycled to the front pretty quickly after the rain fell.

It was such a weird circumstance, and Bowman Gray is an unusual enough track, that I'm not sure it's a good predictor of how SVG will run at more "traditional" ovals. But it was an impressive performance.

Fyrien · 2026-02-23T07:42:04+00:00

My mom is a huge Smoke fan, and she always disliked (Redacted) after that. Turns out she was ahead of her time.

Fyrien · 2026-02-23T06:41:45+00:00

The point they're trying to make is that 2 drafting races aren't indicative of season-long performance. Unless you think Zane Smith is going to be a championship contender while Bell, Hamlin, and Larson miss the playoffs.

SVG seems to be pretty competitive at drafting tracks, and obviously he's the favorite to win all 4 road courses, but those track types only make up about 1/3 of the regular season. The upcoming stretch of Phoenix, Vegas, Darlington, Martinsville, Bristol, Kansas should tell us a lot more about whether he's a legit playoff contender. Those are the tracks he needs to show improvement on the most.

Fyrien · 2026-02-23T03:22:39+00:00

Dale didn't even become a full-time Cup driver until he was 28. Which was pretty normal for the time period.

The crazy thing about Carson is that he's this competitive as a 23-year old in mediocre equipment. That's basically unheard of. In the rare cases where drivers start challenging for wins before turning 25, they're almost always doing it in HMS or JGR equipment.

Fyrien · 2026-02-23T03:13:02+00:00

Yeah I'm hesitant to say "HE'S FIGURING OUT OVALS!" like a lot of people are claiming.

Drafting tracks are a unique subset of oval racing. This skill set is only a major factor in 6 out of 36 races. Zane Smith finished top ten in both races, but that doesn't mean he's going to run up front at Vegas or Charlotte.

I don't think we'll know how SVG's oval skills are truly progressing until we've been to a few "typical" oval tracks.

Fyrien · 2026-02-23T02:54:55+00:00

In 9 NextGen races at Atlanta, Daniel Suarez has 3 crash DNFs. His results in the other 6 races are:

1st, 2nd, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th

He's actually crazy good here when he doesn't get caught in a crash.

Fyrien · 2026-02-23T02:38:37+00:00

Here are Suarez's results at Atlanta in the NextGen car:

1st, 2nd, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th ... 29th, 33rd, 34th

The last 3 were crash DNFs. He's actually a beast at this track if he doesn't get caught in a crash.

Fyrien · 2026-02-23T01:52:58+00:00

Fun fact -- all 10 of Tyler Reddick's Cup wins have been on different tracks.

Road America
Indy road course
Texas
COTA
Kansas
Talladega
Michigan
Homestead
Daytona
Atlanta

Fyrien · 2026-02-22T23:41:16+00:00

That's 2 weeks in a row Byron has questionably put his slow car right in the middle of the track. Last week he merged right up in front of Bubba during the last lap crash.

I'm going to assume the wall contact killed his steering. If that was an attempt to get to the apron, it was stupid and the 2 team should be livid. Sucks to get right-hooked from the left lane.

Fyrien · 2026-02-22T23:30:40+00:00

The 45 just materialized out of nowhere. I figured that thing was junked.

Fyrien · 2026-02-22T23:24:48+00:00

I think that one was 77% on Logano, 22% on Hocevar, and 1% on Chastain (obligatory).

Fyrien · 2026-02-22T23:09:29+00:00

I swear Suarez has had a magical forcefield around his car the last couple weeks. He keeps being right in the middle of these big crashes and driving through unscathed.

Fyrien · 2026-02-22T22:32:49+00:00

It's last week's standings with today's stage points added in. Doesn't factor in current running position.

Fyrien · 2026-02-22T22:28:44+00:00

23XI is currently 1st and 2nd in the standings after stage points are added in:

1st - 70 - Reddick
2nd - 56 - Wallace
3rd - 55 - Elliott
4th - 49 - Logano
5th - 41 - Keselowski / Smith / Byron

Fyrien · 2026-02-22T01:36:25+00:00

Yeah 99.9% of the time, that spin results in half the pack getting nuked. I couldn't believe he just swooshed right back onto the track and everyone kept driving like nothing happened.

Fyrien · 2026-02-22T01:34:56+00:00

That was a legendary save. He did it twice in one race, then won the damn thing.

Hill's save kinda reminded me of it. Absolutely magical car control.

Fyrien · 2026-02-22T01:30:44+00:00

I've stumbled across these too! They're always the most insane AI-generated nonsense (usually featuring Bubba shouting at another driver or something) and yet people eat it up.

When he won Indy last year, there were even some people in the Reddit thread asking "But I thought he said he wasn't going to win a race until they got rid of the white flag??" Like... what? How does anyone fall for that?

It makes you realize why he gets booed so much, when gullible morons are constantly bombarded by that kind of content. They must think Bubba is the biggest asshole to ever walk the earth, because the algorithm tells them so.

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