As compared to previous years, the NASCAR Cup Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway on Sunday (Sept. 7) was a little different. Goodyear brought a softer tire to the racetrack, and that meant there was a little more tire wear compared to the past three years. Remember that the track was repaved not too long before it was added to the Cup schedule. The groove was already fairly wide last year, but you had three lanes at times on Sunday. It was nice to watch.
That doesn’t really translate to NASCAR’s Loop Data, though. That data indicated that there were roughly four fewer passes per lap under green than last year. Then again, there were also five more cautions and little pitting under green. Given these circumstances, you could argue that the passing data is a little truer to life.
The racing around the restarts was pretty hairy at times. Drivers, such as Kyle Larson, were willing to let it all hang out. At one point, Larson used the far outside on fresh tires to pass a half-dozen cars in turns 1 and 2.
The current tire and track setup favors drivers with a dirt background. A number of the passes were made with dirt racing techniques. Of course, that also resulted in the contact between Larson and Ryan Blaney on lap 134 in turns 3 and 4.
Blaney was not happy about that contact. During the post-race playoff driver scrum on pit road, Blaney interrupted Larson’s post-race availability to talk to him about the incident.
The overall racing product on Sunday was mixed. NBC Sports showed a decent amount of racing for position, but you didn’t really have a good idea of whether the race was truly competitive.
For that, I blame the playoff focus. The vast majority of the race broadcast was centered around those at the front of the field since they were all in the playoffs. All but 14 laps of the race were led by playoff drivers. Non-playoff drivers rarely factored in much by that standard.
Most of the battles that you saw were almost solely involving playoff drivers. I don’t like that strategy. The thought is that since the playoffs are going on, the other teams out there don’t really matter unless they cause cautions or negatively affect the playoff drivers.
Race broadcasts during the playoffs must still take great pains to be inclusive. It shouldn’t really feel like a non-playoff broadcast, yet NBC Sports seems to think that it should. We all lose in that scenario.
It’s another one of those situations where this race was probably a lot better to watch if you were at the track rather than watching on TV.
John Hunter Nemechek got himself into the picture at times on Sunday. It’s good to see his recent improvement in form, knowing that a couple of years ago, the No. 42 was around 35th in owners’ points.
The new tires opened up more pit strategy moves. Some drivers took two tires while others went with four. There were a couple of instances when drivers stayed out late in stages for track position, but 35-lap tires were quite a bit slower than fresh rubber.
Even after the final caution that could have allowed him to take tires and extra fuel, Brad Keselowski chose not to on Sunday. This was not a winning strategy for him as he ended up 17th. RFK Racing chose an odd strategy and got burned by it.
The end of the race nearly had something that I had feared come into play. Just as Denny Hamlin was taking the checkered flag to win the Enjoy Illinois 300, the feed went completely black. Luckily, it came back pretty quickly, but we missed Hamlin taking the checkers.
In our weather forecast article ahead of last weekend’s races, I noted that Gateway has a history of infrastructure issues surrounding electricity. Power outages have affected NASCAR races there on at least three prior occasions, with one NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race postponed due to the lights going out.
What that means is that I was worried that it was just plain curtains for the day since the actual race was over. Thankfully, it wasn’t. Admittedly, I was more worried about problems popping up during the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday night.
Once the power outages were over, post-race coverage was pretty average. Despite the 10 cautions, the race ended right on time. Viewers got a number of post-race interviews in addition to a check of the point standings.
Sunday’s race had near-perfect weather. As for the broadcast, there were some bright spots. The booth was solid on Sunday. However, the playoff focus was too heavy for my taste.
I go on and on in this column about how I want inclusive race broadcasts. Storylines should be covered throughout the field. The playoffs cannot dominate a race broadcast because they can substantially affect how a race is perceived. Perhaps this race was more exciting in person than it looked on USA Network. I want to be able to get a better idea of that from the broadcasts.
That’s all for this week. Coming up later this week, Bristol Motor Speedway will host a quadruple-header of action. Thursday (Sept. 11) is a doubleheader for ARCA and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The ARCA event is a combination race between the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East, which will serve as the East season finale.
The ARCA Menards Series West will also race this weekend at All American Speedway. That race will take place on Saturday, Sept. 13 at 10:45 p.m. ET with live coverage on FloRacing.
Friday night (Sept. 12) brings the NASCAR Xfinity Series to town as they start their playoff push. Finally, the NASCAR Cup Series will race 500 laps Saturday night. The European Le Mans Series and various dirt racing series will be in action as well. TV listings can be found here.
We will take a look at NBC Sports’ broadcast of the Bass Pro Shops Night Race in next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch. The Critic’s Annex will cover Saturday night’s Nu Way 200 Sauced by Blues Hog BBQ.
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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.