Michigan International Speedway is an outlier in NASCAR these days. With the former Auto Club Speedway being renovated/shuttered, it is the only two-mile track on the calendar. The racing product there is unique. Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 shows that the track seems to be moving back towards the Michigan that everyone remembers.
Prior to the race, the discussion was about “The Tax.” In this case, that means the time loss that comes out of the pit stops since it takes much longer to fill the fuel cell than it takes to change four tires these days. Steve Letarte’s piece was about when you take the penalty. For some, they didn’t do very well with it (Ex: William Byron). Sadly, this was one of the only ways in which the race was previewed.
Anyone who watched Michigan races in the 1990s would have been right at home with Sunday’s race. Fuel mileage events have been the norm there over the years.
The other piece was an interesting one. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards sat down and reminisced about…a Busch Series race? That’s right. They looked back at the 2006 Carfax 250 at Michigan International Speedway, where the two of them (and to a lesser extent, Robby Gordon) came together while fighting for the win.
This race occurred before my time writing about the sport, but I was definitely watching on a regular basis. I’m not surprised that Edwards was angry at the time. I remembered that he pulled a Cole Trickle by taking fresh tires after the finish so that he could hit Earnhardt Jr. It was a dangerous move (as noted in the piece) since Earnhardt Jr. had a hand out his window, something that Edwards didn’t realize.
Here, you see a lot of the thought process that goes into these shenanigan-filled confrontations. Edwards stopped and thought to himself if he thought Earnhardt Jr. would have taken him out intentionally. He came to the conclusion that it wasn’t. Didn’t stop him from talking to Earnhardt Jr. in victory lane, but it didn’t become physical.
Honestly, outside of this week’s puppet piece about “The Tax,” there really wasn’t all that much coverage that previewed the race. We also only got one pre-race interview with Chase Elliott. I’d like to see more than that.
There was far more discussion about Carson Hocevar being the sport’s resident bad boy than any real preview of the race. A lot of that covered was based around how he spun out Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in Nashville.
A small innovation that has come into use on the Amazon Prime Video broadcasts is a small quality of life improvement. In the pylon, it will display which drivers (if any) chose to stay out during a round of stops under caution. Previously, viewers were reliant on the booth telling viewers who chose to stay out.
Simply, it is a very inexpensive innovation that actually goes a long way towards make the broadcast clearer. I’m surprised that no one thought of that earlier.
The actual racing product Sunday appeared to be pretty good. There was a lot of racing for position and Amazon Prime Video did well to bring that action to viewers. I got a lot of Charlotte vibes from the race broadcast and it does make sense.
Similar to the Coca-Cola 600, passing was actually down as compared to last year, but you got to see more. NASCAR’s Loop Data indicates that there were an average of 18.1 passes per green flag lap. Last year’s race had 22.8 per lap.
It’s another one of those perception things. If you show as much of the action as you can when it presents itself, you can give viewers the idea that it is a very competitive race. The reality might actually be different. For what’s it worth, my friend Brien Kielb went to the race Sunday and told me that he enjoyed it and thought the on-track product was good.
There were some tire issues Sunday. Daniel Suarez blistered a tire early on and was forced to pit. The substantial blister was shown on-air as well. I’m actually surprised that it didn’t happen more Sunday. If it were warmer at the track, maybe it would have.
Hocevar’s tire failure on lap 182 while leading looked similar to a series of failures that occurred in practice Saturday, but his was the only one of the race in that fashion. I find that interesting. There are a number of reasons why it happened, but we didn’t really get a definitive reason for the failure on the broadcast.
Then again, we know that he wouldn’t have been able to make it to the finish on fuel anyway. As Letarte said prior to the race, he had not properly paid The Tax and it would have come back to bite him.
Post-race coverage continues to frustrate me. You have all this time, then you don’t fill it with as many interviews as you can. The timing of those interviews is weird as well.
As you know, Chris Buescher finished second Sunday after winning stage one. He got an interview on NASCAR Live Post-Race, but it aired more than 30 minutes after the race ended. Why?
I don’t really need the whole cold beer setup on a live post-race show. I guess they want to be casual and such, but it just comes off as unprofessional. I don’t think you’ll see that on TNT or NBC Sports once Amazon Prime Video’s portion of the season ends.
Overall, the on-track product with Amazon Prime Video was great on Sunday. There was a lot of action to watch and I never felt bored watching the race. The pre- and post-race shows are seemingly the issue right now. They’re not properly previewing the race. Sure, if you’ve got Amazon Prime Video, you have access to the practice and qualifying broadcasts whenever you want, but not everyone watches them.
The post-race coverage is something of a mess and has been since the start. I think they want it to be a post-race version of SPEED-era NASCAR RaceDay, but I’m not really sure if that’s feasible.
I just want to hear from drivers and get their ideas about what happened during the race. It’s hard to get that at times on NASCAR Live Post-Race. I shouldn’t have to wait 30 minutes to hear from the driver that finished second. It’s not like they made Buescher wait that long. They talked to him right after the race, then aired it via tape delay. Ty Gibbs got a longer interview closer to the finish than Buescher. Granted, Gibbs might be the worst extemporaneous talker in the Cup Series, but he still got his time pretty quickly.
That’s all for this week. There’s a busy weekend of racing coming up with the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series traveling to Mexico City. The NTT IndyCar Series will race at World Wide Technology Raceway, while Formula 1 visits Montreal. Finally, the FIA World Endurance Championship has their crown jewel event, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. TV listings can be found here.
In next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch, we’ll have a look at Amazon Prime Video’s broadcast of the Viva Mexico 250 from the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. In the Critic’s Annex, we’ll look at FOX’s coverage of Saturday’s DQS Staffing & Solutions 250.
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 Amazon Prime Video about the race, go to the link for Sunday night’s race, click on the “Send us feedback” link at the bottom of the page and leave your feedback there. To contact either FOX Sports or NBC Sports, click on either of the links below.
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.