Pocono Raceway is a tough track. That has been the case since the mid-1970s, when the scalene triangle joined the calendar. For the last 35 years or so, passing has been difficult there.
One of the biggest stories to come out of Sunday’s (June 22) NASCAR Cup Series race is dirty air and how it can negatively affect races. Amazon Prime Video was proactive here. The announcers talked about the issue by lap six. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Steve Letarte did an excellent job in explaining what it is, what causes it and how the air can be manipulated.
Sure enough, that was one of the major stories that the drivers were talking about after the race. Chase Elliott indicated that this is going to become more of a thing as teams continue to race the Next Gen car. That likely isn’t good news.
You likely saw a lot of the discussion about how it was hard to pass on Sunday. That’s true. What you probably didn’t see is the fact that there was more passing than last year.
NASCAR’s Loop Data indicates that there were roughly five more passes under green per lap than in last year’s race. There was also one fewer caution period, which means one fewer restart. That said, there were only a couple of true lead changes on the track under green.
Also, if you make a big mistake and lose positions, it could be nearly impossible to make up for it. That happened to both William Byron and Carson Hocevar.
Based on that data, there was significantly more action to be had as compared to last year. Watching this race, it didn’t seem like it at times. A lot of coverage seemed to center on a couple of cars running together, but not battling much.
The focus was a little too much toward the front of the field during the green-flag segments. As a result, viewers missed out on some action. That said, it did get spread out.
It took a little while for the broadcast to realize the issues with brake rotors that were happening. It took until Letarte took a closer look at the replay of Bubba Wallace’s crash to realize that the rotors were coming apart.
That said, when the broadcasters realized what they had, it was time to go to work. The camera work was excellent here. I knew that it was likely brake-related because a blown tire doesn’t usually have the entire wheel well in flames.
Of course, it also meant that the announcers realized Riley Herbst‘s crash was also due to a failure. Michael McDowell had one as well, but he didn’t crash.
Pocono also brought the first rain delay for Amazon Prime Video. Or, more accurately, lightning-filled delay. When the broadcast went on air at 1 p.m. ET, there was a thunderstorm in and around Pocono that forced the track to clear the stands.
The on-air stage crew (Carl Edwards, Corey LaJoie and Danielle Trotta) were forced to move to an auxiliary booth in the tower until the all-clear was initiated. Once that happened, they moved back to the stage in the infield and had a full pre-race show.
Of note, if you want to know when that all-clear will be given in those circumstances, NASCAR has a site with a clock on it. It’ll count down and if an additional lightning strike occurs within eight miles of the track, the 30-minute clock will reset.
Now, it should be noted that, unlike everything else that Prime Video has aired during this five-week stretch, you can’t go back and watch pre-race coverage from Sunday. If you go on the site and try to watch the replay, it will start right at the opening ceremonies. That appears to be a change, and not a good one.
Post-race coverage was pretty typical of what we’ve seen for the last few weeks. Somewhat light on informative content, but heavy on fun. I had previously noted that NASCAR Live Post-Race is trying to be like the SPEED-era NASCAR RaceDay. The problem is, I don’t think that works all that well after a race.
I don’t want to see Ryan Fitzpatrick on a post-race show. He would be fine before the race, though, given enough time.
With that, we’ve reached the end of the Prime Video portion of the season. What is my biggest takeaway from this mini-season? That it wasn’t all that flashy.
I’ve previously stated that when I watch one of these Prime Video races, it feels like an NBC Sports broadcast. That’s a good thing as there aren’t as many shenanigans as we get with FOX.
For as much as I’ve gotten on Prime Video for not doing the best job in previewing the races, what the broadcast provided was good. In this situation, the puppet pieces with Letarte are actually the most important part of NASCAR Live. That’s where you learn important aspects of the races. I wish that it wasn’t this way, but that is what I’ve discovered.
That’s not all. They build on each other. Letarte spent a significant amount of time on Sunday talking about the “Fuel Tax.” That is something he described in the piece prior to the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
Think of it like a college course. You learn about certain things, one topic at a time. The idea is that you would gain knowledge over the five weeks. Now, I’m not sure if that’s going to continue in the Warner Bros. Discovery part of the season or not, but I wouldn’t be shocked if it did something similar. There probably won’t be puppets, though.
The on-track product is quite a bit better than what we got with FOX Sports. You saw a good amount of action and you had a booth that wanted to bring you that action. There isn’t some random motive in play.
It almost seems like the announcers were just more interested in the racing than FOX Sports was. That seems ridiculous knowing that FOX is in the first year of a seven-year deal. Its broadcast crew came off like lame ducks.
Remember that this weekend, the Warner Bros. Discovery portion of the Cup Series season will start. While the broadcast booth will be the same as Prime Video, we’ll have some new faces, such as Dylan Smith, on the broadcast. Still wondering what his role is going to look like.
Also, remember that practice and qualifying sessions will be on TruTV and Max for the remainder of the season. It’ll be good to be able to watch them on regular TV again.
That’s all for this week. Next weekend is a rare split weekend for NASCAR. The NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series will be at the newly-renamed EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta. Meanwhile, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the ARCA Menards Series will make their first-ever visits to Lime Rock Park. Formula 1 will be in Austria as well. TV listings can be found here.
We will have a critique of Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 from Atlanta in next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch. The Critic’s Annex will look at Friday’s MillerTech Battery 200 for the Truck Series.
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 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.
Is anyone at Nascar aware that the CW is having problems making the Xfinity races available? Their local Detroit affiliates show soccer or rerun sit coms instead of the race. CW had been showing the race on their web site for detroit area fans, but the past 2 weeks hasn’t been able to do that. So, if you don’t want to watch a ‘battle cam’ (with no stats or commentary), or a driver cam. you are SOL. Wonder how the sponsors feel about his?
Try KTLA, WGN or USA.
I have Direct tv which broadcasts local channels. The main alphabet channels are HD but the CW is digital. Something about the rebroadcasting. Also, the voices and lips don’t match up. Like watching a Godzilla movie with southern accents.
Same issue here with the audio, though I’m on Xfinity. Picture is supposed to be HD, but looks awful compared to other networks, especially Prime’s picture quality.
I hope someone from NASCAR raises a stink with CW. I always get the races, but the poor production makes the series look like a Saturday night special, not a national racing series.
Can you change the picture from HD to SD during the broadcast? When I play an old VCR race my TV changes to SD.
I’m in NE Ohio and my DirecTV channel is in low definition and it’s nearly impossible to read the scroll or race standings. I put up an antenna to try to pull in the broadcasting Hi Def but it’s far enough away to be hit or miss as well.
What happened to our ‘Recent Comments’ box? I use it to see which articles to read first. Is it my browser?
It disappeared a few days ago. My guess is FS wants us to click on the articles from the main page instead of taking a shortcut from the comments section. It probably generates more revenue? I don’t know how stuff like that works.
Yeah, as Shayne noted, not you, but a site change.
I also hope they bring it back. I often don’t see eye to eye with some posters here, but it’s always interesting to read their perspectives, which sometimes changes my own perspective a bit. And I’m not going to click on every single article, just to see where an interesting discussion may have broken out.
I’m glad you asked, as I was going to ask too.
Tom, please bring back that “Recent Comments” box!
My only negative about the Prime broadcast was no FF. I tend to record on the DVR. I typically begin watching about an hour after the race starts and FF through some of it until I get to the live portion of the recording.
It seems this depends upon the device being used for streaming. I use a Roku Ultra running the Prime app, connected to my TV. I could choose to start from the beginning of the broadcast, with full FF/RW control.
A family member was streaming the Prime app on their Xfinity cable box, and they reported no control of the broadcast, just a live stream.
Must be a device thing, as I am able to fast forward and rewind just fine on both my phone app and laptop web browser. I joined the broadcast late Sunday and noticed that Prime split the coverage into Pre-Race and Race. Interesting that the Pre-Race is gone now.
In my area ( Spectrum) the cw channel in hd shows all the races but the digital cw channel shows other events. I do like the way they show the running order across the bottom versus horizonal.
I don’t have a smart big screen and I’m not about to try watching a race on my phone. Therefore i have missed the last 5 races. Guess what. I’ve learned that I have time for other things. Saw my 1st race live at Soldier Field back in the late 50’s and have been hooked ever since. Now, with BS ideas like playoffs and stages, I’ve been wavering. Thanks to Prime I’m finding it easy to walk away.