Homestead-Miami Speedway always seems to deliver for NASCAR. For 17 years, the South Florida oval hosted the season finale for the NASCAR Cup Series and likely wants it back. I attended five of those races and generally came away satisfied. If Sunday’s (Oct. 27) Straight Talk Wireless 400 was the final race of the season, NASCAR would have been overjoyed.
But it’s not.
Naturally, the biggest moment in Sunday’s race was right at the end. Denny Hamlin was looking good for victory before Ryan Blaney drove around him coming to the white flag. It seemed like it was over, but Tyler Reddick, on slightly older tires than everyone else, swept past on the outside on the final lap to win.
This is another one of those situations where I’m happy that we have Leigh Diffey in the broadcast booth. He realized the gravitas of what we were seeing here. It’s not often that we get a race like that in the Cup Series. This was a combination of a great move from Reddick and a bit of a blunder from Blaney.
In all seriousness, I was surprised that he was able to keep up given the tire wear that Homestead is known for these days. Had Kyle Larson not spun himself out with 14 laps to go while racing Blaney for the lead, this race would’ve had a completely different outcome. Either Blaney or Larson would have won and Reddick would have been around 14th. Still would have been enjoyable, though.
Sunday’s race will likely go down as one of the strongest playoff races ever for playoff contenders. Other than Joey Logano, who struggled with handling issues and a case of senioritis for much of the race, the playoff drivers were up front all day.
That led NBC Sports to focus almost all its coverage at the front of the race. As you can imagine, I’m not a fan of that. Such a plan for coverage means that you’re probably going to miss things.
There were only a couple of times during the broadcast that NBC Sports broke away from this general focus, including the couple of times that Justin Haley got spun out and when Larson had to charge up from the back following his early wall contact.
As a result, we only saw a small piece of what was going on. According to NASCAR’s Loop Data, passing under green was up an astounding 75.6% over last year. I’m at a bit of a loss to explain that, to be honest. There wasn’t any reason to explain such a big change. It would be argued that there should have been more lead changes than the track-record 33 that we saw (last year’s race had 25).
With such a strong focus at the front of the field, the data suggests that viewers missed out on even more sweet action. Honestly, I want to know what I missed. Regardless, had I made the trip to Homestead, I would have been very satisfied.
There was no footage shown of JJ Yeley’s hit into the wall with 40 laps to go which could have substantially changed the race’s outcome. For a moment, it looked like he wasn’t going to be able to get his No. 44 Chevrolet back to the pits, but Yeley was able to do so. As it stands, that incident resulted in the race’s only DNF, but we don’t know what caused it. Not great. Sure, I could guess, but I shouldn’t have to.
As for Larson, his chance of winning went away when he rubbed against Blaney while racing for the lead and spun in turn 3 with 13 laps to go. As you know, that changed the entire complexion of the race. Had the yellow not happened, it would have been a two-man race for the win with Hamlin six seconds back.
Prior to the first commercial break under green, NBC aired a piece on running against the wall at Homestead and the benefits of doing so. While it was a nicely-thought-out piece, the placement stunk. It strikes me as something that should have aired during Countdown to Green. However, Countdown to Green has been pared down significantly this year.
I have no idea why that decision was made, but it doesn’t benefit the broadcasts or the viewers. NBC Sports has had significant trouble trying to accurately preview these races with the limited time it has at its disposal. If anything, it was worse for the NASCAR Xfinity Series races that aired on USA Network up until last month. The same applies to The CW. It’s a bad move and I wish they’d reverse course.
Post-race coverage was relatively brief as the race ended about 15 minutes prior to 6 p.m. ET. In that time, viewers heard from the top three finishers and winning car owner Michael Jordan. Jordan was a very happy camper, although if I were Reddick, I don’t think I’d want my boss referring to me as a “little kid” if I were 28.
Overall, this was a spectacular race on Sunday. I’d argue that anyone who watched it would have been happy with the outcome. However, the focus was way too tight in this race. It’s likely the most competitive Cup race ever run at Homestead and the most competitive intermediate race of the year. But you only really saw a few drivers.
I would have loved to know just how Ross Chastain ended up in the 30s. It’s not every day that he finishes 33rd on merit. Pretty much the only non-playoff driver who wasn’t in a wreck that got coverage was Bubba Wallace. That was because Wallace drove himself into contention for the lead early on. Once he dropped off, you didn’t hear jack about him.
I get that we’re in the playoffs and they’re important, but that doesn’t change what makes a race. Provide the most inclusive broadcast possible while covering your precious storylines. If you can do that, you’ll have a great broadcast and the viewers will be overjoyed. As it stands, we got an excellent finish and what looked like an OK amount of racing for position, when in reality the race was much better than what we were shown.
That’s all for this week. Next weekend, NASCAR has another tripleheader, this time at Martinsville Speedway. The Championship 4 will be set there. Meanwhile, Formula 1 will make its annual visit to Interlagos in Sao Paulo. Finally, the FIA World Endurance Championship will determine its 2024 champions in Bahrain. TV listings can be found here.
Sadly, the fall race in Martinsville is one of the least competitive races on the schedule with the Next Gen car. Hopefully, it will be a little more exciting to watch this year. We’ll have a critique of Sunday’s broadcast in next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch. The Critic’s Annex this week will cover Saturday’s Baptist Health 200 for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Remember that Daylight Savings Time ends Sunday morning at 2 a.m. ET. Make sure to turn your clocks back an hour (if they don’t do so automatically before you go to bed). Due to the time change, it will likely be very close to if not completely dark by the time the race ends.
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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.