There was a lot of discussion this past race weekend about Kansas Speedway being the best track on the NASCAR Cup Series calendar. If that were so, perhaps the attendance would have been better on Sunday (May 11). While it was never really broached on the broadcast, it was obvious that there were a bunch of empty seats. I knew that was the case during NASCAR RaceDay when the broadcast showed an aerial shot with large empty spots in the lots. It was almost like the camera on the Goodyear blimp had to pan to avoid showing it.
FOX Sports made it pretty clear on NASCAR RaceDay what this race was going to be about. Kyle Larson vs. his right-rear tire. Had to think back to last year as to why they would say that. Then, I saw last year’s race on the NASCAR Channel. Larson ended up losing his right rear tire and wrecking. The rest of the race was a battle to do anything for him.
Kevin Harvick did a great job explaining why the air pressure in the right-rear tire is critical. Every little bit that you drop the pressure down is additional speed and performance. Goodyear’s recommended right rear air pressure was 46 psi, but everyone wanted to drop it below that number. Harvick indicated that dropping air pressure in the Next Gen car is the most effective at Kansas out of all the tracks on the calendar.
Pointing out the whole Larson vs. his tire topic prior to the race is a nice way to turn people off from watching the race. It made the thing sound like a foregone conclusion. Granted, Larson led 221 of 267 laps and won the race, but that line of discussion was almost like spoilers. Going forward, I wouldn’t choose that strategy.
The most disappointing moment of the race (for multiple reasons) occurred when Brad Keselowski crashed out on lap 196 when he blew his right-rear tire while running second.
TV-wise, it was obvious what was going on, but it’s like no one reacted to it. You ended up with five seconds of dead air as viewers saw the crash happening in real time. Woof. I don’t know what was going on there, but that was not good enough.
The broadcast booth has a lot of monitors available, and the broadcasters had the advantage of being able to look out the window since they were on site. They should’ve taken advantage of that.
As for the other reason why it was so disappointing, it’s obvious that Keselowski has had a terrible season with one thing after another going wrong. He’s much better than the 33rd-best driver in the Cup Series.
Also, it seemed like most of the roof cams were busted when the race ended. This is not a new issue. It’s a recurrence of something seen at intermediate tracks since the Next Gen car was introduced. If anything, the diffusers are likely to blame.
As noted, during the race, Larson was a tough out. In the first two-thirds of a run, no one could run with him. Later on, he came back to the field, but not enough that anyone could do anything with him.
Post-race coverage was relatively brief. Viewers got interviews with the top-four finishers (Larson, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney and Chase Briscoe), plus a second interview with Larson in victory lane.
However, the one thing I wanted to know about after the race is what happened to him on the last lap. His car slowed dramatically and the broadcast booth seemed to believe that he was having a tire issue. I would have liked to have seen what his right-front tire looked like after the race, since Clint Bowyer stated that he saw something coming off the tire on the last lap.
To be honest, I couldn’t quite make out what Bowyer saw. We saw what happened with Carson Hocevar’s tire in the final five laps. It had unwound and showed strings of rubber. Nothing about that is a good thing.
That includes the quotes that were released from the frontstretch and Larson’s press conference. No one asked. That’s rather weak. I wanted to know that, and I’m pretty sure that I’m not alone.
Overall, this broadcast suffered from a number of the issues that I’ve griped about recently, especially last week. FOX Sports is not being inclusive enough. There were long stretches of this race Sunday where the broadcast just talked about Larson when all he was doing was driving away from everyone.
You had the same issues that I talked about with the Texas Motor Speedway broadcast when drivers came out of nowhere to contend. Keselowski is the prime example of that. He was not really in the picture until late in stage two. A good pit stop got him up front. Then, the tire turned traitor on him.
You had drivers like John Hunter Nemechek getting into the top 10 late after being a lap down and you wouldn’t have known it unless you stared at the scoring pylon. I imagine that Nemechek was pretty happy with his finish, but he did it in the shadows.
On NASCAR RaceDay, the main feature of the show saw Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick talk about their recent forays into fatherhood, family living and how it’s changed them. In the case of Wallace, it’s like he’s a new person. Less sullen and somehow less stressed than before. It’s almost like he isn’t putting as much pressure on himself now, which is interesting.
That’s all for this week. Next weekend is All-Star Weekend for the NASCAR Cup Series at North Wilkesboro Speedway. It’ll be joined by the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the first-ever live TV broadcast for the zMAX CARS Tour.
The ARCA Menards Series East will be at Flat Rock Speedway on Saturday, May 17. Its race will begin at 7:45 p.m. ET live on FloRacing.
Outside of North Wilkesboro and ARCA East, the Month of May truly gets underway with practice for the Indianapolis 500 starting Tuesday afternoon with qualifying this weekend. Finally, Formula 1 will be at Imola in Italy. TV listings can be found here.
For next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch, we’ll cover the All-Star Open and All-Star Race from North Wilkesboro. The Critic’s Annex in the Frontstretch Newsletter will cover the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Heart of Health Care 200, where a middle finger reigned supreme.
Also, remember that with the new TV deal for this season, North Wilkesboro will be the final weekend of the FOX Sports portion of the NASCAR Cup Series season. Amazon Prime Video will start up at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
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.