At the beginning of the weekend, I was skeptical that NASCAR could have raced at Homestead-Miami Speedway. You don’t want to fool around with wildfires.
As fans may remember, NASCAR was forced to postpone the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway in 1998 from July to October due to wildfires. In that instance, the track wasn’t damaged from the fires, but there were active fires during the original race week within two miles of the track and the air quality was terrible due to the smoke.
Had you had the situation you had Thursday with the 344 Fire (named for the actual street you take to get from U.S. Route 1 to the track) during the actual weekend, we probably wouldn’t have the races complete yet as the fires were all but on the track property. You could see the smoke plumes from the Media Center Friday morning.
View from the media center. So far I didn’t smell much smoke. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/ct23qlcLrm
— Dalton Hopkins (@PitLaneCPT) March 21, 2025
Luckily, the fires were mostly contained by Sunday (March 23) — they’re fully contained now — and NASCAR had its 400-mile race. What we got was a lot of what we’ve seen in recent years at Homestead: competitive racing, drivers hugging the SAFER Barrier and high tire wear.
Entering the race, one of the big topics of discussion was surrounding Christopher Bell’s excursion into Chase Briscoe’s pit stall to tighten his left-front wheel at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In a race that already had two wheels come off, the move prevented a third such occurrence. But there was confusion as to whether or not it was legal.
Since then, NASCAR has clarified that the move is technically not legal, but the penalty that Bell received (tail end of the longest line) was the right one due to it being a safety issue. Had he done it just to get a chassis adjustment, that would have been a multiple-lap penalty.
FOX Sports asked a number of drivers for their thoughts on the rule and asked Bell for the thought process that his team went through when they did it. I found the coverage here to be quite comprehensive.
On Sunday, probably the most notable thing that happened was that roughly 30 laps of the race were simulcast on FOX due to an unexpected complete power outage in the TV compound at The Thermal Club during the NTT IndyCar Series race. Those missing 12 laps appear irretrievable on any platform; you’ll never see those missing laps unless you were there.
Will that affect the TV ratings for Sunday’s Cup race? Perhaps. If it does, I don’t think it’ll be that much of a change since the interruption there was 20-25 minutes at most.
While it didn’t seem too bad to me, Clint Bowyer somewhat sounded like he was in a box. That’s a technical issue. Hopefully, that issue can be rectified for this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.
The existence of the stages ultimately neutralizes the effect of tire wear. Without the stages, teams would be forced to run much longer on their tires. In a 400-mile race at Homestead, the only time anyone would do a full fuel run would be at the end of the race. As a result, you only got a small idea of who was best on worn tires since everyone pitted before the rubber truly got worn.
Of course, the best driver on worn tires Sunday was the same man who won the race (Kyle Larson). Even then, he never went more than 41 laps on a set of tires before the final stage.
The action on track was pretty fierce at times around the restarts, but once things calmed down, it was quiet. That’s sort of the norm for Homestead races. I’ve been to five of them for Frontstretch. Things get calm after a while.
What I wasn’t expecting was that there was significantly less passing Sunday than there was back in October. Like 25% less passing. According to NASCAR’s Loop Data, there were approximately 19.5 passes per lap under green Sunday. Last fall had 25.6 passes per lap. There were also three more laps under green Sunday. As a result, the race was sparser than I was expecting.
Outside of the periods close to restarts, there wasn’t all that much movement, especially early in the race. A lot of the movement came from drivers who were on alternate strategies (namely, they pitted a little later and ended up with fresher tires). That’s namely drivers like Larson and Denny Hamlin.
Last week, I talked about how FOX Sports didn’t do a good job showing action through the field at Las Vegas. It led to circumstances in which drivers ended up with great finishes (like Ryan Preece in third), but seemingly no one knew how they got there.
At Homestead, FOX Sports seemed to still have those issues. It was noticeable to me, but likely not to others. You saw action at the front but almost nowhere else. Unlike Friday night, no one came from the rear to challenge anyone at the front late. Therefore, much of the coverage was toward the front of the field and everything else just happened. Not great if you want a comprehensive view of what was going on.
Outside of Larson’s victory, the biggest story Sunday may have been the pit road issues. Joey Logano finished 14th Sunday, but he had to recover from contact in the pits on two separate occasions, one of which put him a lap down.
It was noted on the broadcast that Homestead has one of the narrowest pit lanes on the circuit, which isn’t surprising to me. It was designed to FIA standards, similar to Circuit of the Americas, only back in the mid-1990s. Sunday is far from the first time that the pits at Homestead have been an issue. In 2001, a nasty pit lane crash at Homestead was the impetus for NASCAR to require crews to wear helmets and fire suits over the wall.
Post-race coverage was fairly brief. Viewers saw interviews with the top three finishers (Larson, Alex Bowman and Bubba Wallace) before leaving Homestead to go to NHRA coverage from Arizona.
Overall, this was a fairly average broadcast from FOX Sports at Homestead. You had some good aspects of the racing for position, but there just wasn’t enough of it. The broadcast has to be willing to open up its coverage, not just for the benefit of the teams but to make the event more exciting when you get into the lulls. When that happens, it’s like the broadcasters forget how to do things.
That’s all for this week. Next weekend, NASCAR has another tripleheader in store, this time at Martinsville. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races on Friday night, while the NASCAR Xfinity Series races on Saturday. Sunday has the Cup Series in action. Away from Martinsville, SRO America starts its season at Sonoma Raceway. TV listings can be found here.
In next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday at Frontstretch, we’ll cover the Cook Out 400 from Martinsville. The Critic’s Annex will cover Saturday’s Hard Rock Bet 300 from Homestead.
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.
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Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email 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 Frontstretch 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.
larson racing in all 3 series…i think that was done to put butts in the stands.
i made it though an hour of sunday’s race, then i turned it off.
There was a lot more hate when it was Kyle Busch.
As an indication of what TSN really thinks about Brian’s product, the event was NOT available on TSN1, TSN2, TSN3, TSN4 or TSN5. It was on TSN Plus, which is basically PPV. They did show the NCAA basketball and tennis. This Sunday they are televising the NCAA basketball and men’s curling. I prefer women’s curling because the scenery is better. However I did find the event on two CTV channels. I have Fibe and the event can be seen on channels 1154 and 1054.
Name me 1 thing FOX covers right. Just like NASCAR, it’s ALL about money only. That’s it, period. They don’t care.
Brian Lohnes and Tony Pedregon do a fantastic job on Fox’s NHRA broadcasts, far superior to anything they do on Indy car or NA$CAR.
To Steve and Kevin in SoCal below….
I too enjoy Mike Joy, as he actually has been part of the sport for Years and offers much needed historical tidbits during the broadcasts, unlike the wanna be foreign voice… I don’t give a crap if Diffey has been a citizen for 10 plus years .. I want an American voice… you think the folks in England want to hear a Yank on F1 ? .also…. I do enjoy the C/W broadcasts.. Adam, Jamie and Parker are a great team, offering information and chuckles along the way.
Not a fan of Diffey either. Have always liked Mike Joy. Really miss Allen Bestwick. Happy to not have to listen to waltrip.
Are we able to get the Busch races on Saturday back in Canada ? I’m another 50+ year NASCAR fan slowly exiting the sport due to poor coverage ( no FS1 or CW)
Stage racing at its finest. The races have become a 3-4 hour infomercial. Nothing but ads, commercials, and sponsor plugs – with cars occasionally shown in the background. The booth is too busy selling ads to properly cover what little action happens right under their noses.
NASCAR doesn’t care if the product (racing) puts on a good show for the fans. Not anymore.
One issue that has been happening for a long time now is the camera cutting away from the finish line at the end of the race and to pit crew, wives, driver etc.
Finish covering the finish as I really do not care about the reactions of the people and care about the finish of the race. Numerous times there are battles going on outside the top 5 to cover or to the point made a how did he finish there aspect. The people shots are copy paste, guys jump off the wall, high five,hug etc., wife/girlfriend is all happy and teary eyed, and the driver is hootin and hollerin, and pumping his fist in excitement. It is pretty much the same every race where the finish is different. Let fans see all the cars finish. One can always go back and show the people’s reactions.
Watching the F1 race as the winner crossed the finish line, the camera did not switch to the crew jumping up and down or the wives and/or girlfriends. They actually showed cars still racing. What a concept never to be seen from the “coverage” of Brian’s product!
Plus the director cuts away from the on track action that people in the booth are calling. Really poor.
Fox has been doing this for years. Much like their coverage, if you aren’t at the front of the field, you don’t exist.
That’s standard procedure for an Artie Kempner production. Fans have been saying the same thing for years and he won’t change. He also needs to know there are more than 20 cars in the race who have sponsors and lot’s of fans.
The Cal Wells teams had helmets on when going over the wall in 2000. Lots of prominent people made light of it and poked fun at them, until that Homestead thing. Then of course helmets became NASCAR’s idea and the same set of sycophants praised the sanctioning body for its safety first policies.
I remember the same fun being poked at Danica Patrick when she was shown letting go og the wheel during a crash…how ‘dangerous’ it was! Now I see most drivers doing the same thing to avoid injuries to hands and wrists.
I’m probably in the minority, but I like Mike Joy in the booth. I do feel bad for him since he doesn’t have a whole lot to work with though. The Harvick/Bowyer are just bad. And their favoritism toward the chosen ones is tiresome.
I thought there were going to start crying when Blaney blew his motor on Sunday. Same thing happened last week when I think it was Elliot who blew up or had problems. Other drivers have have head on collisions with the wall at Daytona multiple times and they barely talk about them and we never hear if they are ok. Every driver has their fans. How about showing a little respect to the whole field.
And my last gripe is the “here we go” after every single restart. I know you want to generate excitement and its usually exciting, so do we really need to hear it on every restart. They do look stupid when nothing happens like this week.
Harvick is good at his talk show, but his input in the Cup races leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion. Same with Bowyer.(minus the talk so) I’m not really sure what positive he adds to the booth besides being Mikey light.
I’m a Mike Joy and Kevin Harvick fan too. Bowyer is ok, I just wish the two of them would stay on topic instead of their constant wandering. I wonder if they have some beef with each other and its spilling into the broadcast every week.
I used to enjoy Mike Joy as an announcer. Now he just seems to be there to introduce the commercials.
I have enjoyed CW’s coverage showing good racing in the back and returning to the front when necessary, not just the follow the leader in the front of the pack.