Watkins Glen International is probably one of the races that has been negatively affected the most by the Next Gen car and the stages. Add in the fact that Shane van Gisbergen has been in the zone this year on road courses and it means that the race might not be all that exciting. That’s what we got Sunday.
It appears that NBC Sports (and by extension, NASCAR) is taking a page from FOX Sports’ coverage of the NTT IndyCar Series in regard to pre-race coverage. If I didn’t know that it wasn’t the case, it would seem like Countdown to Green is being done in hurry-up mode. There’s maybe 17 minutes or so (including commercials) prior to opening ceremonies.
Granted, we’re still actually getting pre-race interviews with drivers and some preview analysis. You’re not getting much else. If you want to learn a little more about the drivers that you’re going to see race, you’re going to have to go somewhere.
That said, the only feature that aired during pre-race coverage was a “Track Walk” with Justin Marks and van Gisbergen. Here, the discussion is about the whirlwind that has been van Gisbergen’s career over the past couple of years. It sounded like the original plan was just a one-off in the Chicago street race for van Gisbergen. Then, he won the race.
That set the wheels in motion for a full-time effort here. The whole effort, along with Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91, was couched as a way to shake up the sport. To this point, it is the biggest shake up that we’ve seen.
That said, van Gisbergen noted that the rest of the field has caught up to him on road courses over the past couple of years. You got the idea from the piece that this was going to be a very competitive race. The stomping that followed probably came off as surprising to casual viewers.
With only three cautions all day and the only non-stage break yellow being a debris caution, the field wasn’t stacked up all that much. As a result, the broadcast had to make do with strategy to try to make the race seem exciting.
From what I can tell, they had limited returns doing so. That said, there was still some decent battling to be had Sunday. It just wasn’t really at the front of the field. Of the eight lead changes, only a couple of them were competitive. The others were around pit sequences.
It says a lot that van Gisbergen (on the preferred strategy) was able to run down Ryan Blaney and take the lead while also having carrying more fuel. He was just on another level Sunday.
The tires Sunday were another storyline that wasn’t really talked about during the race. If anything, it was covered more during the practice and qualifying broadcast on TruTV and HBO Max.
The rubber did drop off quite a bit Sunday. That put some drivers in trouble, like Chase Elliott, Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher. In the case of the RFK Racing teammates, they didn’t pit during the first caution and were still on the rubber they started the race with when they had the front row on the lap 24 restart.
Brad Keselowski pitted from the lead with 17 laps to go and had a chance to drive back into the top 10 from 22nd. Then, he had contact with Kyle Busch and cut his left rear tire. That’s why he ended up 31st.
Buescher got all the way to second late and was only a couple of seconds behind van Gisbergen. Then he ran the tires off and dropped off a cliff. He lost second to Christopher Bell on the final lap, both more than 11 seconds back from the lead.
Speaking of Busch, he was involved in one of the few incidents Sunday when he was spun in turn 11 by Denny Hamlin coming to halfway.
As this was one of the few incidents Sunday, the full court press was put out to determine what happened. With that much available to NBC Sports, it was good.
The different tire strategies should have made for a more interesting race than we saw Sunday. There was some passing shown late in the race, but not much. Also, you’d think that there would have been more coverage of those having issues, perhaps pertaining to the rubber. Elliott finished 26th Sunday, a miserable performance by his standards on a road course.
I felt that the broadcast didn’t do the best job keeping track of those drivers that were progressing through the field. I knew that Bubba Wallace was in the top 10, but Daniel Suarez getting himself up there was quite the shock to me. I was happy that he got there, yet you all but never heard about him being there.
The race actually ended a lot closer to the end of the scheduled timeslot than I thought it would have. That said, there were a decent amount of post-race interviews. Unlike the other two races this past weekend, NASCAR had the drivers finishing in positions two through eight park at the post-race bullpen. They interviewed everyone there for post-race coverage except for Kyle Larson, who was there as the “special.”
Overall, NBC Sports didn’t have a great card handed to them in Watkins Glen. The field got spread out to a degree and seemingly no one could touch van Gisbergen. However, you have to make do with what you’ve got. I think they could have done a better job finding the good action to show.
Believe me. It was out there. They found it from time to time, but not always. It really wasn’t at the front of the field for much of the race. You have to deviate from the grandmaster plan to get the good stuff out there.
That’s all for this week. Next weekend, NASCAR makes their one and only visit to Richmond Raceway for this season. The Cup Series will be the headliners on Saturday night (Aug. 16), while the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will race Friday night (Aug. 15). SRO America will be at Road America. TV Listings can be found here.
In next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch, we’ll have a critique of the Cook Out 400 from Richmond. The Critic’s Annex will cover the messy Mission races from Watkins Glen.
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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.