Hello, motorsports enthusiasts! Welcome to the another edition of Seven Points with Kobe Lambeth and Kenneth Lee Jr. We will provide a weekly discussion each Wednesday on various topics in motorsports. Most content will focus on NASCAR but other racing series will be discussed as well.
Lambeth is a student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, who is a Communications major with a concentration in mass media and minor in journalism. He is a contributor to The Podium Finish and RockinghamNow. Lee is a graduate of Tuskegee University with a bachelor's degree in Communications, an alumnus of the NASCAR Diversity Internship Program, and an Associate Producer in Content Development for the Motor Racing Network. 1. Well, it finally happened: Kyle Busch won his 200th-career NASCAR race at the national level. Any thoughts? Lambeth: I am going to be completely honest, before my days of chasing a professional career in the sport, I was definitely not a Kyle Busch fan. I did not appreciate him winning all the time in multiple series. Just like the domination of the New England Patriots and Golden State Warriors, it grew old fast. As I matured over the years, I started to respect him as a driver. He is doing something that nobody else will likely come close to accomplishing ever again. It is cool to witness history while it is happening in front of our eyes. I am curious to see how many national level wins he will have at the end of his career. Kyle Busch is one heck of a wheelman, who will not be denied the checkered flag. Lee: Kyle Busch has knocked down quite an amazing accomplishment in this day and age. He is currently the all-time leader in both Xfinity and Truck Series. Last Sunday, Busch earned win No. 53 in the Cup Series. Now he is only one win away from being tied for top-10 (Lee Petty 54 wins in Cup) and he has easily made a name for himself over the years. His domination across all three series has been something that has never been seen before, even if people don’t like it. I think because the majority of people don’t like his ways, they aren’t going to appreciate him until his career is complete. I think you’ve got to at least respect the fact that he has 53 wins at the Cup level, which is something that has been accomplished by only a handful of drivers. 2. Cole Custer won last Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, delaying the Kyle Busch 200-win ceremony to the next day. How special is it for an Xfinity regular to beat a driver like Busch? Lambeth: As some Xfinity drivers have said in the past, Kyle Busch is the perfect measuring tool for them. Whenever you see Busch on the Xfinity entry list, he is automatically considered the favorite to win. If you can go out there and beat him, then you know that you have defeated one of the best. It must have been an incredibly special win for Cole Custer: winning in his home state and beating the driver with the most wins in Xfinity Series history. Lee: In the final stage, Cole Custer seemed to have the best car on the track at the time. The late race caution proved this point even further, after he stretched his lead to almost two seconds before capturing the checkered flag. I always think it’s great when a young guy can go out and beat the best of the best. Congrats to Cole Custer for capturing a win at what we can deem as his hometrack! 3. The No. 31 Action Express Racing/Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi claimed overall honors in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Felipe Nasr, Pipo Derani and Eric Curran each performanced above the rest on their way to victory. Derani is now a three-time overall race winner of the Florida endurance classic. Will it be hard to knock off Derani and Nasr for the DPi title? Any thoughts from LMP2, GTLM or GTD? Lambeth: Action Express Racing continues to add to its impressive, growing list of IMSA victories. They are the standard of excellence in the DPi class. It is hard to believe that Pipo Derani has three overall victories at Sebring and he is only 25 years old! The Brazilian has yet to enter the prime of his career, so there is still a lot of time left to go for Tom Kristensen’s all-time record of six overall wins. With Eric Curran stepping back to an endurance role this year, the duo of Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr will be difficult to beat. Both are insanely fast so the competition must step up their game big time. As for the other classes, I would love to see more entries in LMP2. A single Oreca 07-Gibson each from Performance Tech Motorsports and PR1 Mathiasen Motorsports are the only full-time entrants. The Porsche GT Team recovered nicely from falling behind during the period of rain to claim GTLM class honors. GRT Grasser Racing Team won GTD, claiming another class victory for Lamborghini. It seems like Grasser has the IMSA endurance races figured out. They should consider running the full season someday. Grasser is a world class organization and they would be instant title contenders. Lee: Action Express Racing captured the overall win at Sebring, overcoming the period of rain early in the race. They showed pace in the rain, in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, after a downpour took place and almost captured a win at Daytona. I think this win at Sebring proves the point even further that this team clearly has the pace to compete for a championship. I think they will be hard to compete with this season as we continue to move forward to October. They will be a threat for the title all season long. As for the other classes, like Kobe said, it would be great to see even more entries for the LMP2 class. I’ve always enjoyed the GTD class and I think it will be pretty competitive throughout the remainder of the season. 4. The FIA World Endurance Championship returned to Sebring International Raceway for the first time since the series’ inaugural race in 2012. After a wild finish in the rain, would you consider the 1000 Miles of Sebring a success? Lambeth: Absolutely! The addition of the FIA World Endurance Championship brought more fans to the event. It was cool to see Sebring packed, based on camera shots throughout the weekend. After a sprint to the finish, during the IMSA race, fans definitely got what they paid for. Also, they got to see Fernando Alonso win the 1000 Miles of Sebring with Toyota teammates Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima. Lee: Admittedly, I was pretty skeptical of having two major endurance races on the same race weekend at the same track. However, I think it actually helped out a ton. It brought IMSA/WEC fans and put them all in one place. Both races last weekend were run in the rain, at some points, but both series managed to put on world class shows. 5. During the Super Sebring weekend, the FIA/ACO mentioned the possibility of adding DPi cars to the 24 Hours of Le Mans grid in the future. We have seen this act before. When the next-generation of DPi regulations come to life, do you think there is a real chance for them to join the WEC Hypercars? Lambeth: Based on recent history, I think the answer is no. I hope that I am wrong though. For years, IMSA and the ACO have been trying to come up with a common set of top-flight prototype regulations. However, the two sides cannot seem to come up with a conclusion that suits everybody. DPi was originally set to visit Le Mans with standard LMP2 bodywork, then the ACO reversed the decision and outlawed DPi. I hope that we can find common ground. It would be very beneficial for sports car racing to have DPi/Hypercar eligible for both IMSA and ACO-backed championships. Lee: I think the DPi class is super entertaining for the IMSA series as it is. However, it would be great to introduce them to the 24 Hours of Le Mans grid, in the near future. Hopefully, with the proposal of the Hypercar concept, they can race with each other but this all depends on the ACO’s decision. Of course, as a guy who loves competition, it would be cool to see both of them collide at some point. 6. After a winless 2018 campaign, Finland’s Valtteri Bottas returned to the top step of the podium by winning the Australian Grand Prix. This must be a massive boost of confidence for the Mercedes driver. Based on his performance last season, in comparison to teammate Lewis Hamilton, was all of the criticism he received fair? Lambeth: When you fail to perform, driving the best car in the entire sport, then it is fair game for a decent amount of criticism. As most people know, Formula 1 is a sport with enormous pressure for its drivers to perform. Valtteri Bottas had a miserable season watching teammate Lewis Hamilton find a ton of success. Meanwhile, Bottas found very little go right for him. The biggest question heading into the season was his ability to reset his form and handle additional pressure for him to perform. With Esteban Ocon and George Russell waiting their turn, Bottas must have a spectacular year. In Melbourne, he put together one of the best drives of his career, dominating the entire race. His 2019 campaign is off to a good start. I hope to hear some more “Blunt Bottas” on the radio! Lee: Bottas finally got over the hump in the Formula 1 season opener this past weekend. I think a lot of people thought he wasn’t going to be up to par when he finished behind Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. A win like that to open the season should easily remind people that there is another talented driver at Mercedes. I’m glad he picked up a win. In hindsight, it should have people off his back at this point. Needless to say, his radio clip should be widely noted by people and an absolutely great mantra to live by. 7. The NTT IndyCar Series is heading to Circuit of the Americas for the first time. Formula 1 has raced at the track since 2012, hosting the United States Grand Prix. Will drivers such as Alexander Rossi or Marcus Ericsson have a slight advantage over the competition, given their past F1 experience at COTA? Lambeth: Based on the level of talent, in the series, a little extra seat time might help a little but not much since drivers have so much access to information nowadays. After testing for a few days and the use of simulators, I am sure that each driver will have no problem learning their way around COTA. On another note, I am excited for the season debut of Patricio O'Ward at Carlin Racing. He is the real deal. Lee: As IndyCar makes their way to COTA, it should be quite a good race for this upcoming weekend. The lack of knowledge of the track should aid the on-track product when the green flag drops. It will be great to see who can manage to adapt to the track fastest and see who will capture the win this upcoming weekend in Austin!
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