Last week, an era came to an end.
On Tuesday, June 11, NASCAR Race Hub‘s almost 15-year run concluded with a 90-minute special on FOX Sports 1, where staples of the show from back in the day and now came together for a sendoff.
This week, I look at what made the show unique and a staple of our days or weeks, why it mattered and some of its best aspects and the overall move to streaming and how that’s impacting things.
I’ll start with the personal since everyone has a story of their own: Race Hub was a huge part of my weekly viewings in my late high school / early college years in particular. I can pinpoint, especially, the summer of 2016 after graduation from Patrick Henry High School and prior to attending VCU.
That was the summer of William Byron‘s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series dominance and when Chris Buescher had his fog-shortened win at Pocono Raceway. I vividly remember watching Race Hub quite a bit during that stretch, as well as Speak for Yourself with Colin Cowherd and pre-off-the-rails Jason Whitlock.
Race Hub at 5 p.m. SFY at 6 p.m. Two hours of legitimately phenomenal programming on FS1.
Down to business. First, I’ll put on my Frontstretch‘s Phil Allaway hat here for a second and critique the special. The finale was excellently done. We start with frames of Jimmy Spencer in a clown wig, Jimmie Johnson’s pasty-white legs, Larry McReynolds holding a lobster and more.
I hugely appreciate the entire roster’s ability to commit to the bit (as someone who tries to do that too). Whether it was emulating wrestlers, doing the “chubby bunny” challenge year in and year out or otherwise, they always went all-in.
I also loved all the panels, from longtime hosts Adam Alexander, Shannon Spake, Danielle Trotta and others sitting down with drivers, crew chiefs, personalities and more. The tribute to Steve Byrnes — presented by son Bryson, no less — was excellent.
I also loved Kurt Busch being the centerpiece for the “Radioactive” highlights. That was the best part of the show, no matter the era or year. We got to hear the drivers we watch week in and week out lose their minds over the smallest (or biggest) things on the track, curse out other competitors and crack jokes.
My personal favorite “Radioactive” is still the 2014 Coca-Cola 600. We got two absolute gems, among others:
Alex Bowman: “Leave it to Brian Scott to say, ‘Hang on guys, I want to be a part of the wreck too.”
Busch: “I think we just dropped a cylinder.”
*car begins smoking*
Busch, exasperated: “I think we just dropped another one. This is (expletive) lame.”
“Radioactive” is second only to the Showtime NASCAR series from way back when, when they didn’t even censor the radio chatter.
Race Hub was unique because it offered a look into the day-in, day-out, week-in, week-out world of NASCAR through the eyes of journalists, anchors, drivers, crew chiefs and other personalities. Its importance lay in the innate ability of the program to convey an insider angle to even the most casual of fans viewing it. And, while Speak For Yourself or SportsCenter or any other of countless daily (sometimes multi-times-daily) sporting programs dove into numerous sports, this was one of the few on ESPN or FS1 that focused on one sport.
Want MLB-focused content? MLB Network. All hockey, all the time? NHL Network. And so on. But few on these major, all-encompassing networks were solely focused on one thing.
(Quick step up onto my soapbox to say to ESPN to bring back the Baseball Tonight of 2013 or so. Need that screaming “Going, Going, Gone” baseball back like I need oxygen.)
There are numerous examples of shows like Race Hub going the way of the dodo, but the most recent is Inside the NBA, which seems all but confirmed to end after 2025. This is during a postseason in which ESPN and/or ABC are showing the Boston Celtics-Dallas Mavericks NBA Finals and Florida Panthers-Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup Finals … and ending and immediately going to other programming.
If anything, we get the incomparable Scott Van Pelt breaking things down, but otherwise, you barely get any analysis of a huge points effort from Jayson Tatum or the latest superhuman save in net by Sergei Bobrovsky.
However, on TNT, we’d get Inside the NBA with the incredible Ernie Johnson, in-game experience from Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley and more. After hockey playoff games, Liam McHugh hosts a panel comprised of Henrik Lundqvist — one of the greatest goalies to ever stand in a crease — and others, sometimes even Wayne Gretzky … the greatest to ever lace up a pair of skates.
We’re truly losing some insider programs that supplemented our weekly, daily or nightly viewing of actual sporting events.
The real question is, was it time? Had Race Hub worn out its welcome or, in a more positive spin, just concluded its run at the right time?
Here, I’m neutral. It didn’t wear out its welcome, that’s for sure.
It did feel inevitable that it’d either get moved to streaming or go away entirely. But it felt a little sudden when it finally did end at the conclusion of FOX carrying NASCAR Cup and Xfinity series races this season after Sonoma Raceway.
With the advent of countless streaming services (some with names that you could make up and half the people in a room would just say, “Yeah, that one,”) as well as Roku televisions, quickly streaming movies after theatrical runs (which I hate, but that’s a conversation for another time) and all of that convoluted nonsense, yes, this was probably inevitable.
I also think that viewership of most evening sports programming had to be down, somewhat, and that certainly wouldn’t have helped things. There are so many shows on Netflix … or movies on Amazon Prime … or miniseries on Hulu … that it’s hard to keep up with things nowadays.
Race Hub is gone.
But that won’t take away our memories.
Wipe your eyes with that Crying Towel one more time, Spencer. They’re tears of joy for the run Race Hub had.
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and also hosts the Adam Cheek's Sports Week podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.