Talladega Superspeedway. It always makes my stomach churn when you know that you’re going to have 40 NASCAR Cup Series cars running inches away from each other for 500 miles.
Unlike other tracks, having the playoffs in play really doesn’t change a Talladega broadcast all that much. Most everyone’s bunched up together, so it’s easier to cover non-playoff drivers. Let’s take a closer look at how NBC Sports did it.
Compared to recent races, the network had a lot more interviewing going on during Countdown to Green. Viewers got a half-dozen interviews on that show. Remember that pre-race coverage isn’t very extensive these days.
In addition, there was a piece where Denny Hamlin talked about taking his 60th career victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and where it puts him among the all-time greats in the sport. More or less, the feature was an extension of the post-race interview he did in Las Vegas, where he took a reflective tone.
Hamlin is the winningest driver in Cup history without a championship. While I have no doubt that Hamlin has thought about his place in the sport’s history privately, Sunday (Oct. 19) is the first time he’s really talked about it publicly. He’s mostly been busy with his race team, 23XI Racing, and acting like a wrestling heel at times.
That said, the piece was an interesting look at Hamlin’s standing in the sport. I think it’s very humanizing for Hamlin, especially given that his father has been having health issues. Heel behavior aside, you’ve been seeing a different Hamlin recently and that feature was an extension of that.
Sunday also brought the Cup Series back to NBC’s main channel for the first time since Daytona International Speedway in August. Going forward into 2026 and beyond, the split of races on broadcast TV as compared to cable, along with race start times, will need to be addressed. I do not doubt that the ratings drop since NBC Sports returned in June is not acceptable to NASCAR executives and stakeholders inside the sport.
That said, NBC’s return broadcast brought additional in-car cameras and the broadcast made use of them. Viewers got a lot of that coverage, especially from the bumper cams. There’s a little too much of it for my taste, however, since you can’t really see much from them in the draft. At least they weren’t sticking to bumper cams when the bumpers were locked together, which really doesn’t work well.
Prior to the NBC Sports portion of the season, NBC announced that it would only use NonStop breaks during green-flag action at superspeedways. It stayed true to its word on Sunday. The only time you saw full-screen commercials once the race went green was during cautions.
Race coverage was pretty easy to follow. After all, it is a superspeedway race. Outside of the pit stop sequences, almost everyone ran together.
The playoffs played a significant role in the broadcast, even though next to nothing really changed with it for much of the race. Chase Briscoe won and scored an automatic bid to the Championship 4. Other than that, the only time that there was a lot of movement was when William Byron and Kyle Larson had their issues on the final lap.
I found it quite interesting we had as many issues with fuel on Sunday, knowing that everyone was able to stop with 20 laps to go after Cody Ware’s engine blew. It appears that drafting partners were so important on Sunday in a race with 77 lead changes that teams were willing to completely compromise their day on fuel just to stick with their teammate.
As a result, Chris Buescher’s crash into the inside wall on the backstretch completely changed the game since a number of drivers were forced to pit for fuel because they didn’t have enough for NASCAR Overtime. TV coverage aside, this misstep was a terrible strategy. It’s like crew chiefs forgot that, dating back to 2010, 14 of 31 Cup races at Talladega went over the scheduled distance. They need to build that into any strategy going forward.
To its credit, NBC Sports was all over what happened. With Talladega having a high risk of shenanigans, the chances of the race going beyond lap 188 were realistic. Ryan Blaney’s stop was 2.7 seconds under the Ware caution. Not much more than a splash of fuel – it was great to be shown the details of why things went wrong.
I agreed with their analysis, as I feel like weight isn’t really a concern here. Team Penske would have been much better off waiting an extra second or so in the pits, knowing that you would probably earn those positions back in the draft.
Post-race coverage for those watching on NBC was relatively brief. Viewers got an interview with Briscoe and a check of the points before leaving for the local news. Luckily, race fans had Peacock extended coverage on streaming this week. On that show, there were additional interviews and analysis from the Peacock pit box.
However, all of these interviews were with playoff drivers. If you saw the results of Sunday’s YellaWood 500, you’d notice that, other than Briscoe, none of the drivers who finished in the top five were in the playoffs. Todd Gilliland, who finished second and was right up in the hunt for seemingly the entire second half of the race, got no attention from NBC. At least we gave him his proper due.
That’s not right. The playoffs aren’t everything. As we know now, you have two drivers locked in, two more in what could be a death struggle to make the Championship 4, and four others who have to win to advance. There really isn’t that much of a postseason story to cover, at least not to the level we’ve seen in past years. You could play it straight from a coverage standpoint.
In the case of Gilliland, he is a good story. Ty Gibbs ran well Sunday and deserved his due. Bubba Wallace was a half a lap from winning the race. Then, you have Cole Custer, who’s done next to nothing all year, but earned his second straight superspeedway top five. There are stories there, but NBC didn’t cover them.
Overall, Sunday was a good race to watch. But knowing that Talladega is a superspeedway race, there was too much focus on the playoffs, especially after the race. I didn’t need to have constant point checks. That makes it very difficult to make any real use of the pylon to check positions unless the driver you were looking for was in the top 10.
The playoff focus also reinforces the “means to an end” nature of races that drives me nuts. Five hundred miles at Talladega means something to a lot of people. It’s more than just a way to get into the Championship 4. The sooner NBC Sports realizes that, the better.
That’s all for this week. Next weekend is another busy one. NASCAR will host a quintuple-header this weekend at Martinsville Speedway. The weekend will determine who will be in the Championship 4. In addition to the Cup Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Craftsman Truck Series, Whelen Modified Tour and Whelen MX-5 Cup will also wrap up their seasons on the paperclip.
In open-wheel racing, Formula 1 is making the 900-mile haul from Austin to make its annual visit to Mexico as well. TV listings can be found here.
Next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch will cover the Xfinity 500 for the Cup Series, while the Critic’s Annex in our Frontstretch Newsletter will cover the Love’s RV Stop 225 at Talladega for the Craftsman Truck Series. Over-the-air TV puts a lot more eyes on the Truck Series, for better or worse, even with a terrible time slot.
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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.
If I have to listen to Leigh Diffey saying once more,”…could THIS BE the time…” I’m going to scream. YES! LOTS of things ‘could be the day that…’ Leigh! However, screaming ‘what ifs’ all race long gets old quickly. Silence for a few seconds is not a sin.
i’d still rather listen to Diffey over Burton and Letart anyday.
Steve Letarte is fine with me, its Burton and Jr I will pass on.
We’ve all lived through” Boogity, Boogity,Boogity. Let’s go racin boys” screech, I think we can live through these 3 guys. Blessing about the DW’s screech is, we knew when it was exactly going to happen and could mute the TV.
I agree!
Someone needs to tell Diffey there is NO “R” at the end of Toyota.
Given that NASCAR racing has its own unique Southern culture, it continues to be a mystery why they use ‘outsiders’ like Duffey on the TV broadcasts. The best TV commentators are those who are a product of that Southern culture — or at least those versed in American-style racing.
Agree 100 %…. I don’t think some American is calling Aussie Super Car races, and he butchers the English language more than Larry Mac! Yet they jam him down out gullets with glee.
And also agree… Junior and Burton in the same booth is THE WORST team ever.. like 2 cats screaming in the night!
Its most iconic voices weren’t southern. Chris Economaki was from Brooklyn, Ken Squire-Vermont, Mike Joy-Connecticut…even Paul Page did a lot of nascar races in addition to his IndyCar work. Some would include Jackie Stewart in this list. There’s southern roots no question but this sport was not built in only 4-5 states.
Not to mention Bob Jenkins (Indiana), Jack Arute (Connecticut), and even Adam Alexander (Indiana). I’m not a fan of Alexander, but many are.
Some would argue Indiana is southern, but it’s geographically mid-western, and the accent differs greatly from the stereotypical southern twang.
Really, the only truly Southern announcer who stands out to me turns out to likely be the best who ever did it…Barney Hall (North Carolina).
“That’s not right. The playoffs aren’t everything.”
It is to the networks ALL YEAR LONG! It starts after the last event of the year with “Who will be in the Farcial Four next year?” and the Daytona 500 at the beginning event for the year and every broadcast ALL YEAR LONG.
It became very annoying to see the “points race standings” on the screen pylon for far too much of the time. I would rather be able to see where all the drivers are positioned throughout the field than to have a near-continuous listing of the 8 drivers in the points race.
Especially since, until the checkered flag, those points don’t matter.