All-Star Weekend for much of the last 25 years has been used as an experimental center.
Sunday (May 18), unlike a number of past NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Races, really wasn’t that. It was a straight, 250-lap race, but still with a competition caution and a Promoter’s Caution. Speedway Motorsports’ Marcus Smith could call for a caution at any time before lap 220.
To do this, Smith dispatched Michael Waltrip to the flagstand. Wearing a pair of sunglasses and a backwards ball cap, suggesting a mix of Corey Hart and early 2000s Dale Earnhardt Jr., he was strutting in the flagstand.
FOX Sports 1 had Waltrip on a split screen for about 12 laps before he threw the caution. That was completely unnecessary. I don’t need to see that. I want to watch a race. Not stupid stuff. We’re not even getting into the fact that it swung the race to Christopher Bell.
To cap that off, once he finally threw the caution, he lost control of the flag. No really, he did.
I agree with Mike Joy here. Waltrip had one job and botched it. At least there was another yellow flag up there.
Now, it should be noted that this was not the first time that a flag has fallen out of the flagstand. I seem to recall at least one race in which a debris caution was flown because the checkered flag fell out of the flagstand. It wasn’t even being waved at the time. It just fell out.
Regardless, this Promoter’s Caution was ridiculous and didn’t need to happen. And yes, it swung the race. After the race, Joey Logano described it as a “gimmick caution.” It was every bit of that. I hope this doesn’t make it into a points race.
One thing that I was concerned about, even after the All-Star Open, was what kind of on-track product we were going to see. Last year’s race had little action, little passing and little excitement. People only remember that race for the stupid post-race confrontation.
People will remember Sunday night’s race for some of the most competitive racing that I can honestly recall ever happening at North Wilkesboro, even before the place shut down. Prior to 1996, North Wilkesboro races tended to be the least physical of the short track races in Cup. Part of that was the older pavement, which was already quite aged when it had its last points race there. While there were some races with a lot of cautions, you tended to see a fair amount of pit sequences under green.
The overall design of the track means that you have to have something of a compromise setup, something you rarely see on an oval. As a result, drivers weren’t necessarily as aggressive there.
The broadcast booth was overjoyed with the racing product that we had. I was pleasantly surprised, as I had feared the worst.
According to NASCAR’s Loop Data, there was a 244% increase in passing over last year. This accounts for the extra 50 laps. There was less passing per lap than at Martinsville Speedway, but Martinsville had a 38-car field as opposed to 23 Sunday night. If this race were a 400-lap race with a full field, you more than likely would have had much more action than at The Paperclip.
However, the racing was described as good due to the progressive banking. I wouldn’t describe North Wilkesboro as having progressive banking. The banking is basically the same now as it was when there were point races there in the 1990s. It’s more the elevation change and the softer tires that are playing a role here.
The broadcast itself had a couple of changes. As you’re likely aware, FOX Sports will air its first-ever Indianapolis 500 this weekend. FOX is putting a lot of emphasis on that race.
To that end, Chris Myers was not in North Wilkesboro. He spent the weekend hosting qualifying coverage at IMS with Danica Patrick. Josh Sims was pressed into service as the broadcast host in Myers’ place. He did a decent job in the role, but since FOX Sports effectively shut down its studios in Charlotte 11 months ago, he hasn’t had much in the way of hosting work recently.
FOX Sports had plenty of good racing that it could show Sunday night. For much of the race, it stuck toward the front of the field. For the most part, you still had good action there. You had wilder action further back.
Post-race coverage was fairly substantial since the race ended with a little more than a half hour remaining in the broadcast. Viewers got interviews with five of the top-six finishers (Alex Bowman was the sole exception) and an interview with the winning car owner. There was also plenty of post-race analysis, both from the broadcast booth and from Sims and Jamie McMurray in victory lane.
The whole mess with the Promoter’s Caution was ridiculous, and FOX Sports shouldn’t have done that. It hurt the broadcast.
There were also a couple of other issues. For example, there was a period of time in which the scoring pylon had Justin Allgaier in the No. 5 instead of Kyle Larson.
Yes, Allgaier practiced and qualified the car on Friday (May 16), but he hadn’t been in the car since. The team effectively skipped its heat race Saturday, and there was no indication that Larson wouldn’t have gotten there, knowing that since Larson qualified 21st for the Indianapolis 500, he had nothing to do in Indiana Sunday.
That said, I enjoyed the rest of the All-Star Race broadcast. There was good action to be had, and FOX Sports did a decent job.
With that, we’ve reached the end of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season for FOX Sports. It seems strange that we’re ending this early, but there you go.
How would I describe this portion of the season for FOX Sports? Up and down.
The broadcast struggled to adjust to the new Damaged Vehicle Policy rules that more or less require on-air crews to cover it like they did years ago. It caught a bad break in Austin due to high winds.
It simplified some events to one storyline, like at Kansas Speedway. That killed any reason for anyone who isn’t a fan of Larson to watch that race.
When we got some good action, FOX Sports showed viewers some of it. However, it is telling that Richard Petty himself called out the broadcasts mid-race at Darlington Raceway on this issue.
Say whatever you want about that; that’s not a good look. Granted, Petty’s been out of a car for over 30 years and has only an extremely minor involvement with Legacy Motor Club, but he’s noticing what other people have noticed.
The coverage is not necessarily where the action is. To improve the broadcasts going forward, FOX Sports needs to be more cognizant of that.
That’s all for this week. Next weekend is one of the sweetest race weekends of the whole year. Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Monaco, all on the same day. I suspect that many of you won’t leave your living room between 7:30 a.m. ET and midnight ET Sunday, May 25, other than to use the bathroom and get snacks. TV listings can be found here.
We will be back with a recap of the Coca-Cola 600, Amazon Prime Video’s first NASCAR Cup Series race broadcast, in next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch. It has been indicated that, like The CW for the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the Cup races on FOX this year, there will be no full-screen commercials under green.
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 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.
To say I didn’t miss Chris Meyers would be an understatement. He’s just a better dressed version of Michael Waltrip….totally annoying and mostly unnecessary.
i actually enjoyed meyers not being there. the crew that was there did a good job.
I like Meyers more than Mike Joy. He’s the one they need to replace as far as I’m concerned.
ironically i will not be able to watch the coke 600 as i do not have prime. for a sport that markets itself so steeped in tradition and honoring those who we lost in war on memorial weekend, they’ve become more money hungry than ever with the tv package.
I knew this was coming but I assumed the final FOX race was The 600 (I guess I never really scrutinized the schedule too closely).
I can’t believe NASCAR has sacrificed one of their crown jewel races to stream only, and on a day when (you’d think) they’d want to strut their stuff with F1 and Indy.
This was a bad decision IMO. NASCAR took themselves out of the parade. A lot of viewers will only be able to watch the F1 and Indy races.
i’ll watch indy. f1 is on too early for me to remember about it (old people’s disease) LOL
It’s always been about more money for the family, you’ve been around long enough to know that. Notice this generation car is a piece of crap everywhere but Nascar won’t do anything to fix it because teams get components from Nascar. $$$. Always. I’m not going to even bother watching. That’s happening more and more often these days.
There is no greed like France family greed.
I think the next generation car looks great, but it certainly didn’t make the racing more competitive. Actually, in many ways it ruined the racing. We’re also back to the same situation where the top teams with the money are on top, again. I don’t know what the answer is, either.
Me either, and it really torques my shorts. I’m sure that there are a lot more people in our positions than NASCAR thinks. I hope they suffer the consequences, too.
I do not have Prime, so no NASCAR Cup races for a bit. How sad.
No credibility when that goober M. Waltrip (Dumber of the Dumb and Dumber Waltrips) Smith is better than employing that to do the promoter’s caution. Sad.
I, for one, will miss Joy, Harvic, and Jamie Little.
M Waltrip needs to move on as his time has long since expired as a broadcaster. Dropping the flag was right out of WWE Give C Boyer that role and move J McMurray to the booth as Boyer’s routine has gotten old quickly
Be thankful the last TV time out didn’t come with three laps to go to set up a GWC with a double file restart!
I’m surprised to see actual video of Waltrip dropping the flag. I figured that would get censored, LOL. They didn’t show it on the broadcast.
I guess with Fox having the Indy 500, they didn’t want to compete with the Charlotte 600, too, in case of delays like last year. Bummer for us. This race should be on Fox, not cable or streaming.
Thank god Fox is done until late January. Seriously since the pandemic, their coverage has gotten awful but this year was the worst by far.
That Waltrip act was pathetic. I can’t believe that NASCAR sunk to that level. They’re turning NASCAR into the WWE with braindead decisions like that.
BTW, broadcasting the next 5 races on prime is a bad move, too. I hope it backfires on NASCAR and their viewership tanks. Unfortunately, I won’t be watching the next 5 races even though they’re at some of my favorite tracks.
Coming into the race, my expectations were low because I was never a fan of North Wilkesboro way back when. But this race delivered in a huge way, and without the past “Allstar” treatments was a help. I didn’t mind the competition caution, but absolutely could have done without the Mikey (I could have done without him a long time ago).
The promoters caution wasn’t a horrible idea, but I thought it would have been more of a surprise and that it would have been determined by the promoter via race control.
But it has been a long time since I have enjoyed the Allstar race
Now we will see how Prime does with it.
Disgusted by the buffoon caution.
Don’t have access to Prime so I guess I’m done watching
To start with, does anyone really believe Waltrip dropping the caution flag was an accident???? Even though Fox didn’t didn’t show him actually dropping it, I have a hard time believing that it wasn’t a planned part of the whole All Star Promoter’s Caution gimmick. That bit with Waltrip just further convinced me that I made the right decision years ago when I decided not to watch anything that Waltrip was on. I would have DVR’d the All Star race if I’d realized Waltrip was going to be part of it.
I have Prime so I’ll see the 600. I often DVR races both so I can do other things and also to fast forward through all the commercials, so since I can’t record Prime there’s a good chance I’ll be missing some of the Prime Cup races. As far as I’m concerned, that’s NASCAR’s and Prime’s lose, not mine. I can understand Prime wanting the additional broadcast content to draw more subscribers in. What I can’t understand is NASCAR making it harder for fans to watch races, especially in an era when they’ve had a lot of erosion of their fan base.
I have to admit I’m worried about what Fox is going to do to the Indy broadcast. It wasn’t a good sign that they decided to keep Danica, but I’m even more afraid it’s going to mimic their Cup races where all they show is the top 2 or 3 cars. It amazes me that Sky can bring enough cameras to an F1 race on a 3 mile road course, that they NEVER miss any action, yet Fox, The CW, etc can’t seem to catch 80% of what happens on a 1 mile oval.
First I’ll say that I’m not a fan of streaming either and the only reason I have Prime is for the other benefits. I had it long before they started streaming any programs.
However, regarding…
“I often DVR races both so I can do other things and also to fast forward through all the commercials, so since I can’t record Prime there’s a good chance I’ll be missing some of the Prime Cup races.“…
while not being recorded on your DVR the race will always be available on Prime. If you sit down an hour after the race starts, you can opt to watch it from the beginning or pick it up live. You can pause it if you have to do something else and restart it when you are ready. If you have other plans and can’t watch it until the next day it will still be out there for you to watch on Prime. In fact, if you go to Prime right now you can watch any of the practice/qualifying sessions that they’ve covered since the beginning of the season. I’m just pointing out that, in some ways, it is better than having it on your DVR. What you will have problems with is fast forwarding and reversing the program once you start watching. It isn’t anywhere near as easy with a streamed program.