3 THINGS TO WATCH

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June 16, 2018 - 4:00 AM

1. Stranger things

If you are looking for odd trends this season, look no further than Clint Bowyer’s two Cup Series victories. In both cases, his wins (Martinsville, snow-delayed; Michigan, rain-shortened) were affected by weather, and preceded an off weekend. Bowyer’s crew chief, Mike Bugarewicz, made note of it Sunday. “I’m pretty pumped about winning (before) off weekends, because the next one is Indy, the (last) one is Homestead,” he said.

2. Now we get it

The NASCAR Cup Series schedule has never gone out of its way to skip over a Father’s Day Sunday. While a Cup race has not been scheduled on Mother’s Day since 1986, dads have enjoyed racing on their special day since, well, forever. NASCAR Cup drivers can send their thank-you notes to the USGA because Fox is going all-in — even sending racing analyst Jeff Gordon — on the U.S. Open. Fore!

3. One more time

Fox Sports has one more Cup Series race on June 24 at Sonoma Raceway in California before handing the cameras and microphones over to NBC Sports, which will finish out the season with 20 consecutive races. The boys at NBC have had three “mock broadcasts” with the new guy on the block, Dale Earnhardt Jr. The mics go live on July 1 at Chicagoland Speedway.

— Godwin Kelly, [email protected]

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