Kansas Speedway has become an interesting venue in recent years. It is probably one of the best tracks for the Next Gen car in that you can basically race anywhere.
Sunday brought hot weather into play as well. The forecast prior to the weekend indicated highs around 84 degrees with low humidity. It ended up being 90 degrees. That makes a big difference, as it was much more slippery than normal.
For this week, we’ll start toward the end of the race. This race will be best remembered for two things. One is the finish. The other is the big wreck during the first overtime attempt that resulted in Zane Smith rolling his SpeedyCash.com Ford.
The clip above shows more or less what you saw live on the NBC Sports broadcast Sunday. Smith was hit from behind by John Hunter Nemechek and got squeezed into the wall. Then, he started riding the wall before rolling twice.
Honestly, I’ve never seen a wreck like this before at Kansas. The booth tried to compare it to this Brad Keselowski crash at the old Auto Club Speedway in 2007. I don’t think it’s an apt comparison. If anything, that’s a much uglier crash than what we had Sunday.
The closest comparisons that I could give you both occurred at Bristol. Current NASCAR official David Green had a big crash there in 1997 in which he rolled his car. Another comparison is a crash for Kasey Kahne in 2010.
Given the time of the race, NBC Sports was focused on the battle for the lead between Bubba Wallace, Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell. As a result, they didn’t see this wreck live. They caught it in progress with Smith already on his side.
What they really didn’t catch well were the hits that Nemechek and Josh Berry took on the SAFER Barrier. A fan in the stands had a better shot of those hits than the broadcast did.
While yes, Smith rolled his car (the first time a Cup car has ever done so at Kansas Speedway), the broadcast failed to bring home how big the other hits actually were.
Now, the final lap, this is where Leigh Diffey thrives. As we’ve seen over the past 20-something years that he’s called races in the United States, he always brings his A-game when the occasion warrants it. This was no exception when Chase Elliott snatched the win.
From the start of Sunday’s broadcast, the focus was on the playoff drivers. When that happens, the race doesn’t really exist for itself. It’s a means to an end. In this case, the only thing that seems to matter are the points. It’s frustrating, but I’m sure that some people like that.
Despite the constant playoff focus, there was still a lot of good racing to be had on Sunday. NBC Sports did a good job of bringing that action to viewers. That said, a large amount of that action featured playoff drivers. Non-playoff drivers could get themselves into the discussion, but they had to mix it up with the playoff drivers. Easier said than done, as playoff drivers monopolized the top 10 for much of the race.
According to NASCAR’s Loop Data, passing was down a little from last year despite really similar races. Lead changes were down from 30 to 20 and average passes per lap under green were down from 16.9 to 15.8. That said, it was slightly more than the spring race had.
In practice, this broadcast looked a lot like last year’s did. There wasn’t really a terrible instance in the broadcast that drove me nuts. In last year’s race, Berry got parked due to NASCAR refusing to give him a tow. Thankfully, that rule has changed since then.
Early in the final stage, there was a point on lap 185 when my feed cut out. I’m not 100% sure what happened there, to be honest. It might have just been on my end since I didn’t see anything about that anywhere else. I ended up missing a couple of laps as I had to mess around on my end before my feed came back.
The red flag for the aforementioned Smith crash and a couple of overtime restarts meant that the race ended up running long. Despite that, viewers still got plenty of post-race coverage. There were interviews with a number of the top drivers, all of whom are in playoff contention, before the broadcast left Kansas for a rerun.
Overall, this was yet another playoff race at Kansas. It was a very competitive outing, and anyone who was there likely would have enjoyed themselves immensely.
For those at home, this was very much a playoff-focused broadcast. Since the playoff drivers dominated at the front of the race, leading all but 13 laps Sunday, they were always near the front. That allowed NBC Sports to focus nearly exclusively on them.
The problem is that it can lead to some lulls in activity. Stage two in particular was not all that exciting to watch. There wasn’t much action at the front of the field as Bell and Denny Hamlin dominated. It just happened. Was that the case throughout the field? I seriously doubt that.
That’s why I always plead with the TV partners to be more inclusive in their coverage. I don’t really care about the playoffs. I just want to have an enjoyable race to watch all the way through. If you focus so much on a particular group of drivers, you’re going to have stale portions of the race that you can’t avoid unless you go outside of the box.
That’s all for this week. Next weekend is a big tripleheader weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series joining the NASCAR Cup and NASCAR Xfinity series on the road course format for the first time. Expect non-playoff drivers to wreak havoc in all three races.
Formula 1 is back in action this weekend at Singapore, while the ARCA Menards Series wraps up its season at Toledo Speedway. TV listings can be found here.
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 either of NASCAR’s media partners, 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.
I found this race to be pretty boring, until the final stage. This is another one I think would have benefited from removing mandatory cautions at the end of stages. Again, I have no problem with the stages…I do have a problem with the cautions, which remove most opportunities for strategy. Telling that a pit call in the final stage would up playing a part, with Elliott having four tires. One wonders what other strategy calls may have been available throughout the race, but for the forced stage breaks.
With side by side broadcasts regularly being utilized during commercials, it would seem advertisers would get more attention during green flag runs, so I don’t see the point in having cautions just to make advertisers happy. For my part, a full commercial is just a good reason to hit the FF button on the DVR.
As usual, I agree with Phil that too much focus was on the front of the field, which also happened to be where most of the playoff drivers were running. Was glad to see them give shout-outs to Buescher and SVG for breaking up the playoff party in the top ten.
Also agree that Diffey was masterful in calling the final restarts. The booth in general was quite good here.
Would have liked to see an interview with JHN, to hear exactly what he was thinking before/during the contact with Zane Smith. I can’t figure out how that could have played out as it did, other than JHN simply dumping Smith. Left me wondering if there was an earlier issue between them which culminated in the wreck.
i got a nap in and woke up with 20 laps to go. i loved how hamlin’s last pit stop went from a “long” 4 seconds to 9 seconds.
i figured when elliott took 4 tires they were gambling. once they start with g/w/c it usually means multiple g/w/c. the toyota drivers lost focus and the sneaky light blue chevy went low and passed them. first time in a while elliott has been that aggressive.
Yep. Was impressed with Elliott. Was beginning to think he had lost his edge. Not a fan of his, but gotta give credit where it’s due.
I think JHN either loses attention or he is a idiot.
Diffey said during the event, “Good racing right through the field.” Why won’t they show it?
Yes, the feed cut out for me too, and took a couple minutes for them to fix it. No mention was made about why.