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Couch Potato Tuesday: NBCSN Narrows the Focus at Watkins Glen

Watkins Glen International is an interesting place. You have rolling hills that many people don’t realize just how steep they are (seriously, driving up the hill between turns 2 and 3 is like scaling a wall). You have high speeds and lap times that are long enough to seriously stretch out the field. That creates a challenge when it comes to broadcasting a race. NBCSN had an arduous task last weekend.

Cheez-It 355 at the Glen

Sunday saw the Sprint Cup Series race in front of a sellout crowd at Watkins Glen International. Those in attendance were treated to a different race than what we’ve seen in recent years. However, the finish was very climatic.

Countdown to Green had a heavy AJ Allmendinger focus. I suppose that makes sense since Allmendinger won the pole and was facing the closest thing to a must-win race that you can have in the month of August in Sprint Cup. Granted, outside of road courses, Allmendinger and JTG Daugherty Racing really don’t get that much press, but they shouldn’t dominate the show.

The centerpiece of pre-race coverage was a sit-down interview with Allmendinger conducted by Kyle Petty. Here, they talked about his move to NASCAR, and his overall drive to succeed.

There was also some talk about the suspension that turned his career upside-down. Watching the piece, it seems like I was watching an abridged version of what I should have been seeing. The piece was teased by mentioning last year’s victory as a comeback story, but they buried that fact. I was expecting a little more.

Given the news that came out Friday, there was also some time given to the wrongful death lawsuit that was filed Friday by the Ward family against Tony Stewart stemming from a sprint car accident in which their son Kevin Ward Jr. was killed. While no opinions of the suit were offered, the whole situation was treated with the respect that it deserved. We’ll have to see what happens with that situation because it is sure to get messy over the coming months.

As we’re getting closer to the dreaded Chase for the Sprint Cup, NBCSN debuted a couple of new features for their ticker. One was a new secondary line of information that showed the last lap that each driver pitted and the number of stops that they had made. Interesting touch. Makes me think of Formula 1 a little bit, but it works for me. The other is the color coding of drivers in the Chase (green) and in position to get in on points (yellow). While you’ll never take me as a fan of the Chase, I guess this setup is going to work out OK. It’s not too intrusive and it’s pretty much self-explanatory. The text in those chiclets (as Rick Allen called them) reading either Chase or top 16 might be hard to read on smaller TVs, though.

Denny Hamlin’s day on Sunday was outright miserable, despite having a very fast car. He ended up running into the back of David Gilliland on a restart and caused his hood to fly up and block his windshield. The coverage of Hamlin’s issue was pretty good. However, the booth seemed to think the issue was just a basic chain reaction deal. In reality, it was more than that.

Front Row Motorsports had transmission issues on Sunday that were never really touched upon on the broadcast. With that knowledge, it could have given NBCSN a new angle to approach what happened. Chris Buescher, who was back in the No. 34 Sunday, was a lap down less than three minutes into the race because his car almost instantaneously jammed in fourth gear at the start.

Gilliland also had his own issues.

“All weekend we had transmission issues,” Gilliland said after the race. “This was a fresh transmission and from lap 1 it was a problem. It’s just too bad.”

Perhaps FRM had a bad batch of transmission parts or something. The reason I bring this up is that there’s a high likelihood that something with Gilliland’s transmission caused Hamlin to run into the back of him.

There were a couple of incidents that I’m really not sure as to what happened. The most notable example was when Stewart’s car broke a rear gear to bring out the fifth and final caution, Jimmie Johnson also spun exiting the Inner Loop. I have no clue what happened there. It seems like NBCSN didn’t catch it. I’m pretty sure that Justin Allgaier wasn’t involved after Johnson had spun the BRANDT-sponsored racer earlier in the race, but I would have liked to see something indicating what caused it. Six-time champions rarely spin out completely on their own.

The last 30 laps were run under green. During that time, it seemed like the only thing that mattered was fuel mileage. I’ll give you the fact that Kevin Harvick ran out with half a mile to go, gifting Joey Logano the win. However, we’re talking a solid one-third of the race focused on only one topic. We did get a Through the Field that went through the top-21 cars, but that was almost the only break from the fuel-mileage coverage. No offense, but that gets old. There has to be something else going on as well. It’s a 2.45-mile road course. I just don’t like hyper-focus, and that’s what we got for much of NBCSN’s broadcast on Sunday.

Post-race coverage was also relatively thin. It’s almost like NBCSN threw all their marbles in with Allmendinger, and when he faltered, they didn’t have a backup plan. Viewers saw only four quick driver interviews before they moved onto NASCAR America Post-race. I still stand by my opinion from last week that NASCAR America Post-Race should be a little more like the RaceBuddy-exclusive post-race shows that used to air after TNT races a couple of years back. Those post-race shows supplemented the post-race coverage on the actual telecast. What we get instead is more or less a copy of FOX Sports 1’s NASCAR Victory Lane. The only difference is that it’s live after the race instead of at midnight.

I wouldn’t be surprised if some fans were a little disappointed on Sunday since there wasn’t quite as much action as people had been led to expect. NBCSN does play a role here. We just didn’t see much action for position, especially late in the race. It seems like there were a couple of big stories for Sunday’s race and when Allmendinger failed to deliver, they doubled down on what they had instead of searching for additional stories.

Zippo 200

Saturday afternoon, quite simply, was the Team Penske show. Logano and Brad Keselowski were legitimately a half-second faster than anyone else on the track. You could argue that they stunk up the show. However, both drivers copped penalties during the race, so it wasn’t quite as stinky.

The race coverage was a bit of a mixed bag at times. Yes, the Penske teammates dominated. Logano, in particular, was so fast that he could pull off unorthodox moves on whoever he felt like (ex: A move for the lead on Keselowski on lap 16 on the outside of turn 11). As a result, there wasn’t all that much action at the front of the field. NBCSN would have to compensate for that. The compensation was decent. It could have been better. I would have liked to see a little more inclusivity on the broadcast.

We’ll use Jeremy Clements as an example here. He was a move with two laps to go by Paul Menard away from finishing in the top 10, quite an accomplishment for the small team. He kept himself up front for much of the race, despite getting burned by cautions at least once. Yet, his performance barely rated a mention on-air beyond the starting lineup. The booth did note Clements’s past successes on road courses at that time, but that was it. Not even a mention of him avoiding Kenny Habul after the Australian racer crashed.

A good chunk of the telecast was spent talking about how taxing Watkins Glen is on the cars. Sure enough, Saturday’s race saw a lot more non-start-and-park attrition than normal. The booth did a good job describing what caused Kyle Larson’s axle to fail. What really would have made it that much better would have been if they could have gotten their hands on the broken axle piece to show viewers just how bad the forces were.

In the first six weeks of NBC coverage, what I like best about what we see is the fact that aspects of the race that might not be picked up by FOX make air here. An example of that was David Starr’s incident on lap 43 where he slid into the SAFER Barrier in turn 11. I feel like that wouldn’t have made the telecast last year, or earlier this year on FOX. Same with JJ Yeley getting nudged off-course by Brandon Gdovic.

Post-race coverage was great. Of course, most anyone reading this is probably going to focus on the grabbing match between Ty Dillon and Regan Smith (I noted it as a “scuffle”). I don’t think the booth was expecting the confrontation, but they seemed to be squarely in Smith’s corner. During the race itself, the booth was in agreement that Dillon was driving over his head. Honestly, I’m wondering what Menard thought about the move that booted him out of a great potential finish and forced him to charge just to get back to ninth. Dillon not only took out Menard, but also nearly wrecked Brian Scott as well.

NBCSN was on the ball when it came to thoughts from the feudin’ drivers as pit reporters immediately got Smith and Dillon for somewhat heated quotes (much more from Smith than Dillon). In situations like that, getting anything out of those involved is actually quite rare. Since neither driver finished in the top-three, they were not required to stick around or talk to anyone.

Overall, I preferred watching Saturday’s Xfinity race because despite Logano and Keselowski making the race a mockery, it was just a better broadcast overall. Despite the lack of coverage given to drivers such as Clements, it was more inclusive, especially towards the end as compared to the Sprint Cup event.

That’s all for this week. Next weekend, the Sprint Cup and Camping World Truck Series visits Michigan International Speedway, where the high drag package will make its second appearance. My guess is that the general idea of the package may work a little better at Michigan than at Indianapolis, but you never know. In addition, the Xfinity Series makes their yearly trip to Ohio for 200 miles at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Here’s your listings.

Tuesday, August 11

TimeTelecastNetwork
2 a.m. - 3 a.m.NASCAR RaceHubFOX Sports 2*# (from August 10)
6 a.m. - 7 a.m.NASCAR AmericaNBC Sports Network*# (from August 10)
7 a.m. - 8 a.m.NASCAR AmericaNBC Sports Network*# (from August 10)
10 a.m. - 11 a.m.Moto3: IndianapolisFOX Sports 1*# (from August 9)
11 a.m. - 12 p.m.Moto2: IndianapolisFOX Sports 1*# (from August 9)
12 p.m. - 1 p.m.motoGP World Championship Grand Prix of IndianapolisFOX Sports 1*/# (from August 9)
5 p.m. - 6 p.m.NASCAR AmericaNBC Sports Network
6 p.m. - 7 p.m.NASCAR RaceHubFOX Sports 1

Wednesday, August 12

TimeTelecastNetwork
2 a.m. - 3 a.m.NASCAR RaceHubFOX Sports 2*# (from August 11)
6 a.m. - 7 a.m.NASCAR AmericaNBC Sports Network*# (from August 11)
7 a.m. - 8 a.m.NASCAR AmericaNBC Sports Network*# (from August 11)
4:30 p.m. - 5 p.m.NASCAR Scan all 43NBC Sports Network
5 p.m. - 6 p.m.NASCAR AmericaNBC Sports Network
8 p.m. - 9 p.m.Pirelli World Challenge: Mid-Ohio, GTS ClassCBS Sports Network*/ (from August 1-2)

Thursday, August 13

TimeTelecastNetwork
1 a.m. - 2 a.m.Pirelli World Challenge: Mid-Ohio, GTS ClassCBS Sports Network*/# (from August 1-2)
6 a.m. - 7 a.m.NASCAR AmericaNBC Sports Network*# (from August 12)
7 a.m. - 8 a.m.NASCAR AmericaNBC Sports Network*# (from August 12)
4:30 p.m. - 5 p.m.The States of NASCARNBC Sports Network#
5 p.m. - 6 p.m.NASCAR AmericaNBC Sports Network
7 p.m. - 8 p.m.K&N Pro Series East Bully Hill Vineyards 125NBC Sports Network*/ (from August 7)
9 p.m. - 10 p.m.TORC: The Off-Road Championship Roundup in TexasFOX Sports 2*/# (from April 24-25)
9 p.m. - 11 p.m.Pirelli World Challenge: Mid-Ohio, GT/GTA/GT Cup ClassesCBS Sports Network*/# (from July 31-August 2)
10 p.m. - 11 p.m.TORC: The Off-Road Championship Rumble on the RiverFOX Sports 2*/ (from May 16-17)
11 p.m. - 12 a.m.V8 Supercars Coates Hire Ipswich SuperSprintCBS Sports Network*/# (from August 1-2)

Friday, August 14

TimeTelecastNetwork
6 a.m. - 7 a.m.NASCAR AmericaNBC Sports Network*# (from August 13)
7 a.m. - 8 a.m.NASCAR AmericaNBC Sports Network*# (from August 13)
10 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.The 10: NASCAR's Most Outrageous MomentsFOX Sports 1#
10:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Continental Tire Road Race ShowcaseFOX Sports 1*# (from August 9)
11 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.Sprint Cup Series Practice No. 1NBC Sports Network
1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.Camping World Truck Series Practice No. 1FOX Sports 1
1:30 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.XFINITY Series Practice No. 1NBC Sports Network
3 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.XFINITY Series Happy HourNBC Sports Live Extra$
5 p.m. - 7 p.m.Sprint Cup Series QualifyingNBC Sports Network
7 p.m. - 8 p.m.NASCAR AmericaNBC Sports Network
8 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.Camping World Truck Series Happy HourFOX Sports 1*
9:30 p.m. - 10 p.m.1979 Daytona 500: Pop-up StyleFOX Sports 1#
10 p.m. - 11 p.m.BEING: Stewart-Haas RacingFOX Sports 1#

Saturday, August 15

TimeTelecastNetwork
8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.Sprint Cup Series Practice No. 2CNBC
9 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.The 10: Greatest Truck Series MomentsFOX Sports 1#
9:30 a.m. - 11 a.m.Camping World Truck Series QualifyingFOX Sports 1
10 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.Mobil 1's The GridCBS Sports Network
10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m.MotoAmerica: IndianapolisCBS Sports Network*/ (from August 8)
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.XFINITY Series QualifyingNBC Sports Live Extra$
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.Sprint Cup Series Happy HourCNBC
12:30 p.m. - 1 p.m.NCWTS SetupFOX Sports 1
1 p.m. - 3 p.m.Camping World Truck Series Careers for Veterans 200FOX Sports 1
3 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.Countdown to GreenNBC Sports Network
3:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.XFINITY Series Nationwide Children's Hospital 200NBC Sports Network
11 p.m. - 1 a.m.Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship: UtahNBC Sports Network*/

Sunday, August 16

TimeTelecastNetwork
7:30 p.m. - 9 a.m.motoGP World Championship Grand Prix of the Czech RepublicFOX Sports 1
11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.NASCAR RaceDayFOX Sports 1
1:30 p.m. - 2 p.m.NASCAR America SundayNBC Sports Network
2 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.Countdown to GreenNBC Sports Network
2 p.m. - 3 p.m.Moto3: Czech RepublicFOX Sports 2*
2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.Sprint Cup Series Pure Michigan 400NBC Sports Network
3 p.m. - 4 p.m.Moto2: Czech RepublicFOX Sports 2*
4 p.m. - 5 p.m.motoGP World Championship Grand Prix of the Czech RepublicFOX Sports 2*/#
5:30 p.m. - 6 p.m.NASCAR America Post-RaceNBC Sports Network
11 p.m. - 12 a.m.NASCAR Victory LapNBC Sports Network

Monday, August 17

TimeTelecastNetwork
12 a.m. - 12:30 a.m.NASCAR Victory LaneFOX Sports 1
3:30 a.m. - 4 a.m.NASCAR Victory LaneFOX Sports 1#
6 a.m. - 7 a.m.NASCAR Victory LapNBC Sports Network*# (from August 16)
7 a.m. - 8 a.m.NASCAR Victory LapNBC Sports Network*# (from August 16)
8 a.m. - 9 a.m.NASCAR Victory LapNBC Sports Network*# (from August 16)
12 p.m. - 2 p.m.NASCAR 120: Pure Michigan 400NBC Sports Network*/# (from August 16)
5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.NASCAR AmericaNBC Sports Network
6 p.m. - 7 p.m.NASCAR RaceHubFOX Sports 1
8 p.m. - 10 p.m.IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge: Road AmericaFOX Sports 1*/ (from August 8)

Key:
* – Tape Delayed
/ – Highlighted Coverage
# – Repeat Coverage
$ – Available via password-protected online streaming. Check with your programming and/or internet service provider for availability.

I will provide critiques of the Sprint Cup, Xfinity and Camping World Truck series races for next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here on Frontstretch. The Critic’s Annex on Thursday in the Newsletter is currently undecided.  However, NBCSN did air the Strutmasters.com 199 from Bowman Gray Stadium last week. As you all know, heck goes down there on a regular basis. It’s definitely a candidate.

If you have a gripe with me, or just want to say something about my critique, feel free to post in the comments below, or contact me through the email address provided on the website in my bio. Also, if you want to “like” me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, please click on the appropriate icons. If you would like to contact either of NASCAR’s media partners, click on either of the links below.

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As always, if you choose to contact a network by email, do so in a courteous manner. Network representatives are far more likely to respond to emails that ask questions politely rather than emails full of rants and vitriol.

Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.

Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.

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kb

Funny. I have seen many a time when the “six time champion” has spun himself out and had damage and miraculously had his car fixed without going down a lap. Just saying.

I agree Logano’s win was “gifted” and I even stated a “racing deal” last week with him NOT winning. My beef is with the media with their wording regarding Kenseth’s win and how “great” it was when he “earned” into 3 other drivers running out of gas and how it was “Kyle’s heartbreak to lose” forgetting the dominate driver. Just sayin.

Kyle hasn’t won these past couple and the media gushing continues as if he was a winner too. The past two weeks 2nd place has been treated like first place because of Kyle. Lol. His “attention seeking” wife is now repeating on her “twitter” account and parroting the dig but not overtly so that Adam Steven was the reason Kyle didn’t poor on the juice. He said that on all the TV interviews that he could have won, but Adam told him to back off. From what we saw, he was a long way off from the drama of Dirty Harvick and Logano. Is Adam “Miss Daisy” telling “Hoke” how to drive..give me a break. Kyle said he was in 3 car lengths. That must have been one hell of a series of stretch limos and football fields that in a blink of a Kyle eye he could have overcome and conquered, and the media takes their cue with his self serving words and runs with it. Bad times ahead with this garbage….IMO OF COURSE! :) :) :)

The booth handled with class the saga of Tony S.

The booth had a huge problem keeping their mouths shut once they declared the fuel strategy was going to play into the end of the race. They kept repeating the same garbage. Let the race play out organically and let us watch. It was over the top that need not have been.

Dan

I’ll say this kb, your very first sentence says it all. This why they are going to be giving that big trophy once again to the 48. The only way to keep that from happening is do enough damage that he gets several laps behind and maybe that won’t even stop him.

JohnQ

Sometimes Phil I wonder if we are watching the same race. While the Waltrips assure us that worse coverage is not possible NBC is making an admirable effort. Right up to the last lap they did not let the actual on track action force them away from either their Home Team Toyota or All Kyle Busch narratives. Like NASCAR, and I suppose the racing press, it seems that NBC vastly overrates the popularity of Kyle Busch and to a much greater extent Toyota. Unlike Chevy or Ford if Toyota packed up and left tomorrow I would imagine that it wouldn’t cost NASCAR a single fan.
PS: Rick Allen needs to lose the talk show host voice. In turn one It’s a neeeew raaaaaaace caRRRRR!

GinaV24

Well let me state the obvious and that is that my dark point of view about the race coverage was because Gordon had the brake line problem that took him completely out of being in the mix for the win so I was grumpy for most of the race.

I was doing chores & other things during a lot of the broadcast but I did think that the booth harped on specific things — AJ and then the fuel mileage stuff. NASCAR surprised me two weeks in a row by NOT throwing a caution.

LOL kb, yeah I agree that we’ve seen “6 time” spin himself out quite often but somehow he always stays on the lead lap & manages to get a great finish. Wish that would happen for MY fav!

Carl D.

Kyle Busch’s 2nd place finish garnered him 43 points, while Gilliland’s 33rd place finish was good for 11 points, so Busch gained 32 points on Gilliland Sunday. Kyle sits in 30 place in the points, 19 ahead of Gilliland. I’d say Gilliland’s bad transmission was somewhat significant.

DoninAjax

I started to watch my recorded race starting with the green flag. The first commercial was lap 6 and came back at lap 9. The next was at lap 12 and came back at lap 15. The next was at lap 18 and came back at lap 21. Thank God for fast forward!

Is anybody but Kyle Busch in the race? You wouldn’t know it. Even The Jimmie is being ignored.

salb

My biggest issue was only showing the top 5 finishers at the end of the race. How many other drivers ran out of gas? Any close runs at the finish line? I’ll never know. I think NBC needs to let Kyle turn back into a pumpkin.

BIff Baynehouse

Kicker for me was, how many times Le-Tard referred to the #9 as being driven by Marcos Ambrose! Smh, poor Sammy! And who can forget, near the end (of the WGI race), when re-capping the eerily similar finish at Pocono the prior week, Steve referred to #22 as running out of gas & being passed by his teammate in the #18! Whoa! Lol! That was, what, 4 years ago!
Steve makes pitfalls during broadcasts, but he is still a major improvement, & much much more intuitive than Mikey or Darrell, who is not even in the same league as Steve, imo. The Waltrips are clowns (no disrespect intended, but he is). Their niche is the stereotypical Nascar fan. The back-woods in-bred moonshine running wood-tick who requires race commentary in generalizations, clichés & a dumbed-down Southern-twang (not that there is anything wrong with that) to maintain their short attention span. That might have worked in the 90’s but that is an outdated production scheme now-a-days. Where-as Steve is much more enjoyable for me. He is literally a mad scientist, who’s mouth gets way out ahead of his brain in making points that are, again, way out of Mikey’s & Darrell’s league! So in the grand scheme, that is not a worrisome flaw. He needs to work on it & I think he will! After all, Steve is quite new to the booth.
I think the rookie will get it all ironed out in no time!

Steve

I’m glad someone else is finally noticing the Kyle Busch obsession. Seriously, last week he ran out of gas because he didn’t conserve fuel and worry about big picture. His fault This week Stevens had to hold his hand to make sure he conserved and get the points and Kyle throws him under the bus. NBC can gush all over this guy all it wants but he will not be a factor in the Chase. His team will implode as a result of their driver as usual.

I noticed no mention of Harvick trying to take out Logano on the last lap by the booth. Pretty bush league move on his part but of course the media gives him a pass once again.

Man, can Stewart be having a worse season? He finally runs well and now the car fails him. At least with the stupid Chase there is still hope for a race win if he can put a good week together. Time is running out though.