Last weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series was off for Easter Weekend. Meanwhile, the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series spent the weekend at Rockingham Speedway. What followed were a series of interesting events, but for different reasons.
With the Xfinity Series taking center stage over the weekend, The CW gave viewers a full hour edition of NASCAR Countdown Live. There, nine different drivers were interviewed and we got a decent idea of what to expect in the scheduled 250-lap race.
There was something that was clearly lacking, though. The CW did not bother to send the broadcast booth to Rockingham. I find the idea of that to be ridiculous, especially for this weekend. You’re the main show of the weekend, and they’re not willing to send the booth. It’s sad.
A quick check indicates that it is less than two hours to drive to the track from the Charlotte area.
For a venue like Rockingham, the track is small enough that you can see almost everything from the booth. Parker Kligerman or Jamie McMurray would easily be able to point out things that would have benefited the broadcast.
While some viewers don’t notice if the broadcast booth isn’t at the track, it’s painfully obvious that they’re not there. It was even worse on Friday.
Since this was a standalone event without the Cup Series, the production seemingly had to make do with fewer cameras. In that case, you’re going to miss some things.
Saturday’s race will likely be best remembered for the crash in turn 1 involving Katherine Legge, William Sawalich and Kasey Kahne. At the time the crash happened, The CW was in a side-by-side commercial break.
Viewers saw this crash develop live from Sawalich’s roof cam during the break. It appeared that Sawalich literally drove into the back of Legge’s car, spinning her into Kahne. The secondary contact put Legge into the wall. Unfortunately, the crash happening in real time is unavailable.
This crash has resulted in a lot of discussion on social media. Those comments revealed a deeply divided fan base. Some blamed Sawalich for the crash, while others point-blank blamed Legge and claimed that she shouldn’t have been on the track.
Many of the incidents that occurred on Saturday were only caught via static cameras. You could only barely make out what happened.
Other incidents, such as the mess that was triggered by Christian Eckes failing to come up to speed on a restart, were caught live and comprehensively covered.
There was a fair amount of bad luck. Of the 14 cautions Saturday, four came out during side-by-side breaks, including the first three for cause. You can’t predict when they’re going to show up, so this is just going to happen from time to time.
Racing-wise, Rockingham put on a better show than I thought it would. The footage from testing earlier this year made it look like it was going to be borderline flat-out with no real wear and everyone driving on the bottom. That was not the case.
As early as the Truck race on Friday, the groove had widened out enough so that you could run side-by-side. NASCAR’s Loop Data indicates that there was an average of 7.8 passes per lap under green. That’s not bad. There’s no Rockingham equivalent anywhere and Loop Data didn’t exist the last time the series raced there prior to last weekend. It is more than there were last year at Dover Motor Speedway and a little more than Phoenix Raceway, the closest tracks length-wise to Rockingham.
There was plenty of enthusiasm coming from the remote broadcast booth. There was good racing for position on Saturday and The CW showed a decent amount of that. I was not bored watching this race.
With the litany of cautions in the final stage (the race had 14 yellows, tied for the most in any race at Rockingham, including 492-lap Cup races), the broadcast ran very long. The checkered flag flew more than 45 minutes after the scheduled sign-off time.
Despite that, there was some post-race coverage. Viewers got interviews with Jesse Love, Sammy Smith and Parker Retzlaff. There was also a check of the points before The CW left Rockingham.
It should be noted that Love getting disqualified post-race does not affect this broadcast. NASCAR didn’t announce Love’s disqualification until roughly three hours after the race ended. By that time, CW programming for the night was done.
Overall, this was a good race brought down by the fact that the booth wasn’t there. Not being on-site means that you miss so much. It’s more than just not being there to call the race and having that additional vision (assuming that sunshades don’t get in the way), but it’s all the other things that come with being there.
Sure, you can talk to someone on a cell phone (or text them), but it’s not the same as being there in person. You can use all your senses to help convey what’s going on. For example, if someone is burning up their rear-end, you’ll know. It has a very pungent, distinct smell. You’d be able to bring that information to the viewers at home. You can’t do that from a studio in Charlotte.
When the booth was at the track, Carla Metts was assigned to the infield care center for the first few races of the season. That freed up Kim Coon and Dillon Welch to cover additional stories. If Metts’ responsibilities at FOX 46 in Charlotte prohibit her from doing that (remember, she didn’t leave her day job to join The CW’s broadcast team), then they may need to have a sub for certain weekends.
That’s all for this week. Coming up next weekend, Talladega Superspeedway has a tripleheader in store with the Cup Series racing 500 miles on Sunday. This will be the final Cup race on network TV until August. The Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series will be on the undercard. Meanwhile, SRO America will visit Circuit of the Americas. TV listings can be found here.
We will have a critique of Sunday’s Jack Link’s 500 in next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch. The Critic’s Annex will cover Friday’s Black’s Tire 200, where it seemed that Carson Hocevar took over the show.
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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.