For the first time since June 2000, the ARCA Menards Series platform will race at the tight, banked quarter-mile Flat Rock Speedway when the ARCA Menards Series East takes to the track on May 20, 2023. 

The ARCA Menards Series raced at the track, affectionately known as The Level Pebble, 56 times from 1953 through 2000. The track’s first races were a pair of 250-lap events, run on the same day, both won by JulianPetty, his only two series victories. Other winners at Flat Rock Speedway over the years include Bob Hunter, Bill Lutz, Les Snow, Iggy Katona, Bobby Watson, Andy Hampton, Ramo Stott, Ron Hutcherson, A. Arnold, Moose Myers, Bill Green, Bill Kimmel, Jim Cushman, Marvin Smith, Bob Dotter, Lee Raymond, Bobby Jacks, Bill Venturini, Ed Hage, Bob Keselowski, Tracy Leslie, Dave Weltmeyer, Grant Adcox, Bobby Bowsher, Harold Fair, Jeremy Mayfield, Gary Bradberry, Andy Hillenburg, Joe Ruttman, Tim Steele, Frank Kimmel, and Bill Baird. Kimmel won the final race in 2000. 

Brittany Force put a big Bowtie stamp on the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season in the Auto Club NHRA Finals.

Force, driving the Monster Energy/Flav-R-Pac Chevrolet dragster, earned her second Top Fuel world championship in the season finale at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona to become the fourth female in NHRA professional ranks to win multiple titles. 

"I want people to remember this day here in Pomona with this Monster Energy/Flav-R-Pac team -- David Grubnic, Mac Savage, every single one of my guys," said Force, who also joined three-time champion Shirley Muldowney as the only female multiple titleholders in Top Fuel. "We have been working all season long, we never gave up, and then we struggled in the Countdown and we recovered when we needed to in Vegas and win it here today in Pomona.

“I have to thank every single one of my guys and our sponsors. We wouldn't be here without them today, and I'm just so proud of everybody. It just seems surreal right now. I can't believe it ended up this way.”

Teammates help each other out. 

It’s part of racing, and always has been.

When Jeff Gordon was trying to wrap up his first title back in the 1990s, Rick Hendrick would enter an extra car in the race just so it could drop out and guarantee Gordon another spot. When stages are about to end, drivers often don’t lap their teammates even if they are able to do so, out of respect for their overall team goals. Every team on the grid, from Hendrick to Gibbs to SHR and beyond, has told its drivers to support their teammates in one way or another, often explicitly on the radio. 

So the decision to punish Cole Custer and the 41 team for alleged improper action to help teammate Chase Briscoe at the end of the Roval race is quite dishonest in my view. This wasn’t a Clint Bowyer itchy arm situation and there was no blatant manipulation. Briscoe was going to dive bomb into that corner regardless of what Custer did, and likely make the pass anyway, so overanalyzing the 41 car’s actions is unnecessary. 

What’s most bothersome is the inconsistency. In recent years, Chase Elliott did a playoff favor for Kyle Larson by holding up Kevin Harvick, and Erik Jones was told explicitly to not pass teammate Denny Hamlin. But nobody was punished in those instances.

Let’s not get into the habit of over-policing, which is the complete opposite of “boys, have at it” and not the direction we need to go in as a sport.