Bristol Motor Speedway’s night race is traditionally one of the races that fans look forward to the most.
However, things have changed significantly in recent years for three reasons. One is the Next Gen car and the ongoing challenges that it faces away from intermediate tracks.
Another is scheduling. This used to be a late-August race. Now, it’s in mid-to-late September. That builds to the third reason, which is the fact that it is a playoff race. All three of these factors play a role in how the race is covered.
As you’re likely aware, Saturday’s one (Sept. 21) was the final race of the Round of 16. As a result, there was a lot of coverage regarding the points cutoff. I knew going in that this was going to be a thing, but I don’t think I figured that it was going to affect the broadcast as much as it did, especially late in the race.
That storyline was emphasized early on during Countdown to Green, where pretty much the only people who were interviewed were those in and around the cutoff. Knowing what ended up happening, it is somewhat surprising that Kyle Larson was in that group, but because of his Atlanta Moto Speedway crash, he was only ninth in points entering the race.
The final run to the finish was 163 laps of green-flag racing.
During that time, most of what was covered surrounded drivers such as Ty Gibbs, Martin Truex Jr., Daniel Suarez and Chase Briscoe. Why these drivers? They were the ones on each side of the cutoff. This was even though they weren’t really racing anybody most of that time.
You seemingly either saw coverage of those drivers, or coverage of Larson, who was kicking serious butt. The problem is, this type of coverage doesn’t make for the most enjoyable watch.
I looked at the scoring pylon late in the race and was thinking to myself, “Gee, Bubba Wallace is running down Denny Hamlin and they’re going to have a sweet battle. I’d like to see that, please.”
We did not see that battle. I think Wallace got past Hamlin on the final lap to take a deserved third-place finish. I only noticed when the top-10 finishers were noted on the pylon after the checkered flag. I thought to myself, “Hey, Bubba got him. Wish I could have seen it.”
Why is this problematic? It goes all the way to the fundamentals of putting anything on TV. The goal of the broadcast is to paint a visual of what is going on for the viewership.
For a race at Bristol, you want to have close, competitive racing and it appears that there was quite a bit of that Saturday night. The problem is that the focus on the dang playoffs took a lot of that good racing right off of the broadcast, to the viewer’s detriment. There’s a reason why this race was the lowest-rated broadcast of a non-delayed race last year.
A battle between Wallace and Hamlin for third in the closing laps didn’t play into the narrative that USA Network had been laying out there since 7 p.m. ET. As a result, it DNQ’d the broadcast. That stinks.
In addition to my colleagues Stephen Stumpf and Trenton Worsham, who were covering the race for the site, Luken Glover was at Bristol Saturday night in the grandstands just to watch the race. He reports that there was plenty of action to go around. Since he was there, he didn’t really know what it looked like on USA Network.
That’s a tricky issue to work out for broadcasters for all short track events. Many events just don’t have the cameras available to show all that much action. That wasn’t the case here. Bristol being a playoff race actively hurts the broadcast of Cup races there.
The butt kicking that Larson was putting on the field didn’t help things much. There’s only so much wonder that can be shown on-air for this level of skill.
The sad truth is that NASCAR’s own Loop Data indicates that Saturday night’s race actually was more competitive than last year’s race. There were 419 more passes made under green as compared to last year (with 22 extra laps run under green, which equates to an extra 0.7 passes per lap).
Unfortunately, that number pales compared to the spring race this year, which had 1,302 more passes under green despite 62 more laps under caution. The spring race had nearly nine passes per lap, while Saturday’s race had just under five. As a result, yes, this race looked a lot like last year’s race did. But not quite the same.
The fact that the tire story ended up being a dud really did hurt the broadcast. My best guess is that it would have been a big topic of discussion during the race and when it didn’t come to pass, it left the production in a quandary.
Then again, it’s not like it wasn’t foretold. During the bullpen sessions on Friday, a number of drivers talked at length about the lack of wear.
Without that major topic getting any traction, it seems like there wasn’t much of a backup plan other than to keep hammering home the playoff cutoff. Pit road ended up being such a big issue with both Gibbs and Truex getting burned by speeding penalties that they never fully recovered from.
In Truex’s case, he literally made no recovery at all. He restarted 24th on lap 338 and finished there. He admitted that the handling on his No. 19 Toyota went straight to the john once he was back in traffic, but he could do nothing at all.
Post-race coverage was fairly substantial owing to the fact that it was a cutoff race. Viewers got a dozen interviews, all of which were with playoff drivers. Despite finishing third, there was no interview with Wallace that aired. I guess the broadcast talked to him after the race, but no video of that is available.
Saturday night’s race is just another example of why the playoffs can be a detriment to coverage of the NASCAR Cup Series. The announcers keep jabbering on about the playoffs, the points and the cutoff and the race itself becomes the B-story at best.
Maybe the Bristol night race would be more enjoyable to watch if the broadcast made it about the racing. Unfortunately, the schedule for 2025 puts this race right where it is this year. The last race of the Round of 16. So, we’ll likely have to deal with the same stupidity all over again.
We’re talking about talent gone to waste. The crushing playoff focus literally leaves the broadcast with nowhere to go. The tire story could have been the place to go, but Goodyear’s thoughts from the spring actually came true. The extra heat made the tires work the way they were supposed to. Couldn’t tell you what happened during the recent tire test, though.
I had to go back and check last year’s column to make sure that the column you’re reading wasn’t a cut-and-paste of last year’s Bristol critique. It’s not.
Last year had rain issues. You had a significant decrease in passing as opposed to a slight increase. With some luck, next year’s night race won’t be like this again.
Next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch will feature a critique of Sunday’s 400 from Kansas Speedway. The Critic’s Annex will cover The CW’s NASCAR race debut from Friday night. This was a complete nightmare for me, and it had nothing to do with the broadcast itself. More to come on that.
That’s all for this week.
Coming up, Kansas Speedway will host a quadruple-header of action this weekend with all three of NASCAR’s national-level series, along with the ARCA Menards Series. TV listings can be found here.
If you have a gripe with me, or just want to say something about my critique, feel free to post in the comments below. Even though I can’t always respond, I do read your comments. 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.
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.