First points race at North Wilkesboro since 1996 was a true NASCAR throwback

At the quintessential classic NASCAR racetrack in North Wilkesboro, Sunday’s Cup race was about as throwback a race as you could get. 

Only six drivers finished on the lead lap and only 10 finished within one lap of the leader in Sunday’s Window World 450, which was the first points-paying Cup race at North Wilkesboro Speedway since September 1996. 

The race featured an interesting but not quite edge-of-your-seat battle for the win between Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin, the latter of which laid down about as much of a beatdown as you can have in the parity-driven modern era of NASCAR by leading 323 of 450 laps. 

The best drivers on the night in Logano and Hamlin were head and shoulders above the rest of the field. Third-place Chase Briscoe finished nearly eight seconds behind Logano, fourth-place Ty Gibbs was 15 seconds back, fifth-place Shane van Gisbergen was 17 seconds back, and sixth-place Bubba Wallace was the last driver on the lead lap, finishing nearly 20 seconds behind Logano at a track where lap times hovered around the 19-second bracket all night. 

NASCAR fans often clamor for the days of old, in particular the 1990s and 2000s, during which the sport’s popularity peaked. Sunday’s race was straight out of the 90s, where the gap between the haves and the have-nots was significantly larger than it is today and races like Sunday’s were the norm.

Wilkesboro wasn’t perfect, but it was quintessential NASCAR

That’s not to say that Sunday’s race at North Wilkesboro was the perfect blueprint for what a NASCAR race should be, because it’s not. Some fans, especially casual viewers and those new to the sport, likely didn’t enjoy it as much as diehards who remember the Logano-esque beatdowns of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s at North Wilkesboro and the rest of the NASCAR circuit. 

What Sunday’s race did do was provide a glimpse into a past that while imperfect, is nostalgic for many fans and widely viewed as the sport’s golden era. 

It may not have been the blueprint for a perfect race, but it was the blueprint for a NASCAR race at a classic North Carolina short track that was the perfect representation of what good, solid stock car racing should be.