Championship weekend. Crikey.
You know where the entire focus of the broadcast was on Sunday (Nov. 10). With Martin Truex Jr. stepping away from full-time racing after Sunday, that meant that the championship contenders weren’t the only focus. Regardless, it was overwhelming at times.
Entering Sunday, the big story outside of the championship battle was the complete shambles that was the finish of the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, as it should have been. Christopher Bell’s comments were featured.
There were two significant takeaways from this segment.
One is that Kyle Petty thinks Bell is a crybaby since he spent a decent chunk of his press conference trying to play the victim. He believed that Bell was rightfully penalized for violating NASCAR’s no wall ride rule. I’m not going to argue that fact. NASCAR penalized him for something pretty obvious on replays. It just took forever to make the call.
What was somewhat surprising here was the tone taken in regard to the manipulation. We know it’s bad for the sport that this garbage went down. You just hadn’t seen the verbiage used Sunday in the week leading up to the race.
The term “point shaving” was broached. This is usually used regarding scandals in basketball (although it can happen in other sports) where players or referees are paid off by gamblers to throw games. Nowadays, sports gambling is legal in more and more places, so a new threat of players gambling for or against themselves is possible.
Once we got into the race, the first big moment was when Ty Gibbs crashed on lap 2. Jeepers, that man has to be happy that the season’s over now because his team went straight into the toilet in recent weeks.
It seemed like the booth didn’t notice the first wall contact for Gibbs when it happened. If the announcers were looking out the window of the broadcast booth at the time, it would have occurred right below them, so there could have been a blind spot for them. Having never been to Phoenix Raceway, I can’t say so for sure.
Regardless, this was an ugly hit for Gibbs. It looked like something broke on the car with how quickly the No. 54 Toyota hung a right. However, Gibbs’ explanation made it sound like a bump caused him to lose control.
The crash actually affected the rest of the race. You didn’t see drivers cutting across the Dogleg as much as you did the rest of the weekend on Sunday. A lot of fans don’t realize that Sunday was the 27th Phoenix Cup race since the track was reconfigured in 2011. The track renovations did not affect the track surface for the most part other than changing pit road, moving the start-finish line and making what is now the backstretch wider.
The overwhelming championship focus meant that NBC ended up tape-delaying Gibbs’ infield care center interview. Even the quirkiest moment of the race, the pace car side-swiping the barrels, was something of an afterthought as it wasn’t quite live.
I was surprised that NASCAR rectified that issue as quickly as it did. It was only a six-minute red flag to replace the broken barrels.
Outside of the championship battle, Truex, in his final start, got a fair amount of coverage on Sunday. Of course, that was mostly when he led the race in the opening laps. Once Joey Logano took the lead away, you only heard about Truex in brief snippets, if at all.
Honestly, it’s something of a shame. The way that NBC broadcasted this race can mask how competitive it was. According to NASCAR’s Loop Data, passing was up nearly 26% over this race last year under green despite six fewer laps under green. It can’t all be everyone lapping Jeb Burton, who finished 18 laps down Sunday.
The extreme championship focus meant that NBC would consciously ignore decent racing to cover more of the championship drivers. As a result, viewers at home saw a race that looked rather boring at times. That can’t completely be the case. Otherwise, why would this race sell out months in advance?
The broadcasters are just so wrapped up in the championship fervor that they have blinders on. If nothing’s happening with the championship contenders, they’re rather lost. I’m convinced that such a strategy might benefit you in the immediate term but hurts the sport overall.
The sad truth of the matter is that NBC knows that not everyone is really on board with the playoffs to begin with. It was outright acknowledged on lap 167 of the race.
Post-race coverage was fairly substantial, amounting to more than 40 minutes. That said, outside of the two main storylines mentioned at the start, nothing else was mentioned.
Viewers heard from all four championship contenders and Truex, plus the winning crew chief (Paul Wolfe) and car owner (Roger Penske). There was also plenty of post-race analysis, both on NBC and Peacock before the sign off.
With the way NASCAR has set up the playoffs, there is no way that Sunday’s broadcast would not have been centered on them unless something incredible happened. Realistically, nothing incredible happened on Sunday.
The problem with the four drivers going for the title is that whoever ends up broadcasting this race, be it ESPN or NBC, more or less forgets how to cover a race in order to cover those four drivers. I find it agitating. It makes what could be a pretty decent race to watch look much more boring.
I think that boring look for championship races led to Homestead-Miami Speedway failing to sell out races even after cutting capacity. It’s why the March race there is going to be so important for that track going forward.
With the NASCAR season over, this weekend will be very quiet. Formula 1 is still going, but it’s off. There is some dirt racing on the schedule and some new broadcast premiers this weekend. TV listings can be seen here.
Next week, we’re going to take a look at the season in review for FOX Sports. The Critic’s Annex in the Frontstretch Newsletter will cover the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series races from Phoenix.
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About the author
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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As usual, you are spot on Phil.
Lee Diffeigh spent so much time hyping the race at full volume, trying to get fans excited about a race that appeared to be anything BUT excited. Someone please tell him that non stop verbiage is NOT appealing? The concentration on only the 4 ‘contenders’ made for a very dull afternoon trying to watch a race.
Agree totally SB… many media types fell all over themselves saying Diffey is the best thing since Bob Jenkins. Yes he tries way to hard ALL the time , screaming at his audience.. it gets old quick. Nice guy I assume, works hard , etc.. just doesn’t work for the majority of fans.
Appreciate the reporting and insight us normal fans don’t usually get Phil. Fox was so STUPID for ending Racehub, certainly don’t need more talking head jocks on the tube.
And one major issue though… NHRA is still running this weekend!!!! They do a GREAT job on the broadcast. Brian Lohnes is superior to anything the rest of the industry has to offer. Tony Pedregon is excellent as well.
One last thought… why the heck did they let the same driver who ran the stupid Toyota pace car into the end of pit road get back in the new car??? What a doofus!!!
But as I was a depressed Broncos fan, having just got kicked , or not, in the ole Klackers… . I sure felt better!!
Legal gambling will forever change how races in NASCAR are officiated. Thank goodness Elton Sawyer is in charge. He drove and worked his way through the sanctioning body. He has integrity and is doing it properly. Are decisions sometimes missed, yes. That is the HUMAN ELEMENT. Not attempts to manipulate.
NBC is the reason we have the playoff format. They have an obligation to hype it. No network shows the great racing in the pack. Best way to enjoy that is at the race, which is the best, or listen to the radio broadcast.
Thanks for the coverage this year. I look forward to next year.
The sport isn’t perfect, but no professional league is. It is hard to mesh competition with entertainment. NASCAR still exceeds the NFL in integrity.