Halfway through the 2020 season: Things we have not learned

Hard to believe we're at the mid-way point in the 2020 season. That means 2020 is half over -- REJOICE. This season has had many twists, turns, and completely unpredictable moments. We've learned a lot. But there's still a lot of things we have not learned. Here are a few of them.

Chase Elliott has won three races this year -- the Alsco Uniforms 500 at Charlotte (on a Thursday night), the All-Star Race in the Cup Series (on a Wednesday night), and the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 in Gander Trucks (on a Tuesday night). No Sunday wins. These were also all night races. This makes us think that he enjoys sounding the Dawsonville Pool Room siren only when it wakes people up on a work night. That's sadistic, man.

The alleged good luck charm that Kevin Harvick so eloquently suggested Jimmie had residing comfortably in the lower portion of his digestive system has been at large for about three years now. Right now it seems that black cats consider it bad luck when Jimmie crosses their path. If I'm Jimmie, I'm wanding the abdomens of all my competitors like a TSA agent to see where the hell it is.

Clint is America's funcle. He's the guy that shows up at the party with a 24-pack of Busch Beer and an armload of illegal fireworks. But he's also in a contract year and we're not sure at the moment if he's staying put, moving to a different team, or going full-time to the broadcast booth. I'm honestly fine with all three. But MAN is he good in the booth. His commentary is the perfect mix of astute on-track observations, and wildly off-topic non-sequiturs you'd expect from Gary Busey.

To be honest, how many of the young Xfinity Series drivers actually send Christmas cards anyways? These Gen-Z kids don't mail anything. They DM or WhatsApp or TikTok each other. It's a whole new technology-driven world. Old customs are gradually disappearing and being replaced with digital alternatives at a rapid pace and we're all just trying to keep up. Wait ... what was the original question? OH, yeah. Probably one or zero.

Chase Elliott pulled off wins in both the Kyle Busch bounty race in Gander Trucks and the All-Star Race. As the Wu-Tang Clan famously declared, "Cash rules everything around him / C.R.E.A.M. get the money / Dawson-Dawsonville, y'aaaaaaal." Worth noting the bounty cash went to charitable endeavors. It's true money can't buy happiness, but it CAN buy you THINGS which then make you happy, like an Xbox or a sweet drone.

I had this theory that we should hand Mother Nature a completely false schedule every February. That way, she shows up at the entirely wrong track every weekend and we can race under sunny skies. Well, that kind of happened. The schedule is completely different. And yet here she is, showing up every weekend, throwing down cloud juice and mucking up the works.
Is it because we so blatantly ignore basic atmospheric principles and think that race cars going in a circle will keep her away? I mean, that'd bother me too I guess.

YEAH, I'm hell-bent on keeping the "Big 3" trope alive and I will die upon this hill. So far Harvick and Hamlin are the only certain shoo-ins, both with four wins apiece. But other than those two, the third member of the Big 3 has yet to come forth. Keselowski and Logano both have two wins, but Logano knows that things tend to go better when you're NOT a member of the Big 3.

This year's ROTY battle has lived up to expectations. It appeared Tyler Reddick would be the runaway winner, that was until Cole Custer slingshot himself around the outside at Kentucky for the shock win. Now it's anyone's guess -- Tyler Reddick or Cole Custer. One is running up front more consistently, while the other is first to win. One barely outside the top 16 in points, and the other in the playoffs. One who thinks the white-flag lap ends the race, and the other who falls off his car in Victory Lane. Last sentence unimportant, but related.

The objective was noble enough – a facemask that has your own face on it. The end result looks like he stared directly into the Ark of the Covenant and his face started melting off. We haven't seen it since. Granted, we are not complaining. This thing was two full cans of nightmare fuel. It didn’t say "Yay, I won!" so much as "It puts the lotion in the basket ... "