NASCAR is BACK.
The 2023 NASCAR season is officially underway as drivers returned to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the second straight year to the run the Busch Clash, the annual exhibition race that kicks off the NASCAR Season.
The broadcast was handled by the likes of former drivers Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart, and play-by-play analyst Mike Joy, however a number of special guests were on hand.
Including Gwen Stefani, the singer/songwriter and frontwoman of the ’90s era rock band No Doubt.
And here’s the thing, Gwen is married to country music’s own Blake Shelton, who just so happens to be good friends with Clint Bowyer.
So when she got into the broadcast booth, she got a little too comfortable with her ol’ pal Clint Bowyer, recalling the first time she met him… and he just so happened to be hammered drunk.
She didn’t leave that part out, though:
“I’ve heard Clint do “Don’t Speak,” at a campfire… the first time I met him he was WASTED, right?
And he was singing “Don’t Speak,” he was confessing that he was a fan.”
Clint was visibly uncomfortable:
“No… we’re still on the air Gwen, we’re on the air… this is a job for me, this is not play. I’ve worked for this.”
I mean, his face said it all. He was PISSED.
Gwen responded:
“No, it was a compliment to me to know that you actually listen to my music so thank you… ok, change the subject.”
OOF…
I mean, Clint is always the comedian, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him so uncomfortable in an on-air situation. And could you blame him? His buddy’s wife shows up on the scene and starts putting him on blast… ON THE AIR.
Granted, she wasn’t trying to do anything malicious, but damn man… something tells me Blake is gonna get an angry text tonight.
And of course, Tony Stewart was laughing his ass off the whole time.
NASCAR Bans Ross Chastain’s Wall-Riding Move From Martinsville
The fun police have struck again…
Last November, the NASCAR world (and the sports world in general) was in awe at Ross Chastain‘s electrifying move at Martinsville to put himself into the championship four.
Chastain entered turn three on the last lap needing to gain spots to put himself in position to compete for the championship the following week.
So in one of the most incredible video game-type moves that anybody had ever seen, he put his car against the wall and floored it, riding the outside wall all the way around and sling-shotting himself past Denny Hamlin to secure the final spot in the championship four and knock Hamlin out of the trophy race.
I mean, it looked like it was fake it was so incredible.
But some of Chastain’s fellow competitors weren’t a fan of the move, with Kyle Larson even calling it “embarrassing” (despite the fact that Larson had tried to do the same thing at Darlington in 2021).
But apparently NASCAR agreed with all the naysayers, and they’ve announced that the move will no longer be allowed in the upcoming 2023 season.
Now, NASCAR isn’t issuing a new rule to ban the move. Instead, the sanctioning body warned competitors that it will use current rules to issue penalties to anyone who tries it.
According to NASCAR, any driver who pulls the move that Chastain did last year will receive a time penalty under rule rule 10.5.2.6.A, which states:
“Safety is a top priority for NASCAR and NEM (NASCAR Event Management). Therefore, any violations deemed to compromise the safety of an Event or otherwise pose a dangerous risk to the safety of Competitors, Officials, spectators, or others are treated with the highest degree of seriousness. Safety violations will be handled on a case-by-case basis.”
NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition Elton Sawyer confirmed that the video game move would in fact be a penalty going forward:
“Basically, if there’s an act that we feel that compromises the safety of our competitors, officials, spectators, we’re going to take that seriously. And we will penalize for that act going forward. Basically, what it would be is a lap or time penalty at the end of the race, so that move at Martinsville would be a penalty.”
But isn’t this a hypocritical move by NASCAR? After Chastain’s dramatic finish, the sport and NBC were replaying the hell out of the move to promote the championship race, and you know that you’ll see it in every commercial for this year’s Martinsville races.
Either way, looks like we won’t be seeing it on the track in 2023.
It was fun while it lasted…
