The final race of the NASCAR season causes a couple of feelings for me. One, I get a little wistful since there won’t be any more NASCAR for the rest of the year. Two, I get annoyed with the championship focus. Today, there’s more than enough racing to keep me occupied through the winter months. Still bites, though.
What I really don’t like about the Championship 4 setup here is that seemingly nothing else matters other than the championship. There are multiple reasons why this is detrimental to the overall broadcast.
Let’s start with the end of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, Nov. 2. NASCAR uploaded the final couple of laps to social media later on Sunday night.
I can think of an obvious thing that I don’t like here. This was actually a very exciting race to the finish that featured Ryan Blaney making a last-turn pass on Brad Keselowski for the victory. However, if you weren’t paying attention, you’d think that nothing happened at the front since it was completely ignored in favor of Kyle Larson. Blaney’s interview was moved to Peacock.
This is ridiculous. When I watched this on Sunday, I thought, “What the heck, man?” Yes, Larson was ahead of Denny Hamlin and in position to win the title. You can’t just ignore the race for the win because of that. It was probably one of the better races for a victory at Phoenix for the Cup Series.
At the bare minimum, this garbage should never happen again.
Second, we knew from the first lap of practice on Friday that tires were going to be a problem. You saw a number of teams have issues with the tires during the race. Remember that all four Championship 4 drivers had at least one cut tire during the race.
However, the NBC broadcast never really got to the bottom of what caused these issues. On Friday, the discussion seemed to be based around the idea of low tire pressures and cutting the dogleg hurt something with the tires internally since most of the failures were left rear tires.
Sunday saw right rear failures and a number of right front failures. I knew going in that these tires were supposed to wear more than those used back in March, but I had no idea how much. What I wanted to see for the entire race on Sunday is what tire wear actually looked like. Sure, we saw blown tires being removed from the cars, but sitting here a day after the race, I don’t know what a good tire after a long run looked like.
Were drivers showing cords on their tires like we saw at Bristol Motor Speedway back in September? I don’t know. It’s supposed to be one of the benefits of a good race broadcast to bring viewers coverage like that and we just didn’t get it.
The sheer number of failures Sunday made me want to hear from someone with Goodyear, like we saw back at Bristol. Would we have gotten something along the lines of “the tires are working as designed?” I don’t know. But I would have liked to get more of an explanation for the failures. I don’t think they were all due to setup issues.
A third issue I had is not unique to NBC’s Cup broadcast, but was an issue on the NASCAR Xfinity and Craftsman Truck Series broadcasts as well. Normally, there is a camera on top of the control tower that only follows the leader all day. This is referred to as “Camera No. 1.”
In past years, there have been isolated cameras on every one of the Championship 4 drivers in the final race of the season. Unfortunately, that can come at a detriment to some of the other cameras at the track.
It was worse during the support races than on Sunday, but we missed a bunch of stuff, or didn’t have good views of things, because of the extra cameras on the Championship 4. That’s unfortunate.
The Countdown to Green was an hour long, which was nice to see. Here, it was all about the Championship 4. Once again, I would have preferred more coverage of the tire issues, but it didn’t really come into play here.
Each of the Championship 4 drivers had special things about them on the show. For instance, Jimmie Johnson talked about how William Byron has changed in the 20 years that he’s known him. Apparently, Byron grew up in Johnson’s neighborhood and would trick-or-treat at his house.
Steve Letarte also sat down with the Championship 4 crew chiefs to talk race strategy. Obviously, everyone was keeping their plans close to the vest, but there were signs given about how aggressive they might be. Sure enough, it came into play on Sunday.
As compared to last year, Sunday’s race was actually more competitive. It was at least partially to do with the fact that there were five more cautions than last year, but there were also no green-flag pit stop sequences.
NASCAR’s Loop Data indicates that there was an average of 10.9 passes per lap under green Sunday. That is an increase of 1.2 per lap over last year.
However, the way Sunday’s race was broadcast made it a little difficult to see how competitive the race was away from the restarts. The Championship 4 focus was just too high.
Post-race coverage was rather annoying. Yes, the broadcast wanted to give the majority of attention to Larson since he won the title. I would have preferred to hear from the winner of the race before the 30-minute mark of post-race coverage. Blaney was the only non-Championship 4 driver that we heard from after the race.
Keselowski didn’t even get an interview on the broadcast. I’m unclear on whether NBC talked to him at all after the race. For the sake of this conversation, Frontstretch talked to Keselowski after the race.
Let’s face facts. I’d much rather hear from other drivers than watch Katelyn Larson shotgun a beer. I’m sure that some of you like that.
Overall, the whole weekend was just frustrating to watch at times. The tire story was far bigger than NBC made it out to be. Byron’s crash on lap 309 after cutting a tire swung the whole championship. Had it not happened, Denny Hamlin would have won it.
The championship focus was so encompassing that NBC seemingly couldn’t do its job properly. Hopefully, whatever NASCAR decides for next season will alleviate this ridiculousness and free the broadcasters to just do their jobs. The focus just drove me nuts. If anything, it was more annoying than last year.
That’s all for this week. Just because the NASCAR season is over doesn’t mean that the racing ends. This weekend, the FIA World Endurance Championship wraps up its 2025 season in Bahrain. There’s also the World of Outlaws World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte. Hopefully, its track issues have been rectified. TV listings can be found here.
For next week, we’re going to do a year-in-review for NBC Sports’ coverage of NASCAR here at Frontstretch. The Critic’s Annex in the Frontstretch Newsletter will cover the Truck finale from Friday night.
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.
Agree on the tires. I wondered the same…were they wearing and then blowing out, or failing with no visible sign failure was imminent?
As for the race, it was the culmination of the contrived mess that is the current points system. The system does not reward excellence…it rewards luck.
For the first time in my life, I’m not at all saddened the season is over.
Rather, I’m saddened a sport I’ve loved for 40+ years has devolved into contrived “entertainment”, which isn’t really entertaining, and awarding the Cup to a team which was third best within their own organization throughout the year is irksome.
I’ll probably watch next season, but I’m not sure on that front. That’s quite a time commitment when there are other things I can enjoy in my free time. Either way, it’s not as though NASCAR is something any fan needs to enjoy life. The sun will come up tomorrow either way.
Agreed, personally I have gone from 40yr plus fan to casual observer Too much aero dependency too little horsepower Hope changes are made soon but won’t hold my breath
Agreed. I don’t need announcers screaming, and NBC is the worst for that, even when nothing much is happening. I also miss the old ESPN coverage when every single driver was shown and mentioned at some point during the race, even if only half a dozen of them were likely to contend for the win. I don’t care for the championship format, as it rewards only victories during the entire rest of the season, not consistency. It’s so contrived, too much like a game show with cars, and not racing.
Fans complained that winning didn’t mean enough, and consistency was too much. Now fans complain that winning means too much, and not consistency.
Conclusion: Fans will complain no matter what.
You keep repeating that Larson was 3rd best at hms all year. He not only won the championship by riding the wall the last 2 laps, he also had the most points for the whole year.
So I guess he was the most consistent?
mmm, if you win the yearly points total and divide it by the number of races, then I guess you would have the highest consistency rating wouldn’t you !!!
It comes down to average points per race. Or in this current iteration the average POINTS per example of Brian’s idea for his product.
Karma has a LONG memory!
Ya know, you’re right. I was basing my comments off of regular season points, where Byron was crown regular season “champion”. I didn’t pay attention to the points from race 27 – 36, because everything centered around the playoff eliminations.
Though the playoffs inherently cause teams/drivers to make decisions which may skew points (going for stage points vs. going for the win), you are technically correct, which is of course the best kind of correct.
I still feel the playoffs are completely arbitrary in determining a champion, and unless there are large changes, I’ll probably skip watching next season, not that I matter in the big scheme of things.
Totally agree that the ridiculous ‘coverage’ of the race was basically limited to 4 drivers. Most pathetic. Leigh Diffey spent the entire race speculating on which final 4 driver would win the ‘title’, always at maximum volume, non stop. i’m surprised he didn’t pass out from not taking a breath for several laps. I finally had to turn off the sound, because I wasn’t gettin race coverage, I was only getting ‘title’ coverage. Good thing I was watching the screen the last lap, because I would never have known that Blaney won the race from the booth coverage. When the coverage is this bad, and the announcing this annoying, I doubt I will be watching much racing next season. Especially if I’m stuck with another try for ‘game 7 moments’ improvements happen
Agree 100% SB… didn’t they fire the previous announcer for doing exactly what the “new” one does currently?? Overhyping, yelling, predicting, yakking about useless tidbits of info trying to show he really belongs. Here we Go!!!
So glad I don’t have to hear him for another 7 months .. hoping he doesn’t return.
Race coverage was about what you’d expect, Champion centric… what a shock!!
Not a Hamlin fan, but the ending was certainly a kick in the neather region for such a dominate car.
i didn’t even know who won the race. i looked it up on line after the race was over. too much focus on the 4.
i don’t know, maybe i’m alone in this thought, but for william bryon to go to hamlin and apologize for blowing tire and brining out caution which lead to hamlin not winning championship, kind of stinks to me. they all knew that whoever finished higher in the finishing order would be champion. bryon didn’t know his tire would go down and bring out caution. hamlin’s crew chief was the one who decided to put 4 on instead of two, while other 3 put 2 on.
oh my gosh…i can hear it now, earnhardt sr apologizing to mark martin for him winning championship over mark. i think not.
I turned it off with 22 laps to go. I’ve been saying since the last Phoenix race to watch Hamlin in Phoenix because they truly had a great car. I didn’t want to see Hamlin win . Hey Larson should be getting credit for driving the wall the last two laps on 2 tires. He went out and won the championship by doing that, otherwise Denny would have beaten him . And yes, screeching nbc really is bad.
Did anyone really expect anything different?
One can hope.
NASCAR designed this format so that only four drivers matter in this race. The rest of the drivers are just the supporting cast. That’s why the coverage is what it is.
First time in many years that I didn’t watch the race. I have not liked this format for so long so I just didn’t bother
The criticisms here of the broadcast are spot on. It was terrible. It’s easy to blame Diffey – who deserves it for his screeching style. But there’s a producer who should also be criticized for the (let’s not show or interview the winner) ending. NASCAR should be upset with their broadcast partner for this. The Championship broadcasts for all series were certain 4-focused, but my memory is telling me I liked the Infinity broadcast much better. There were a couple times in that broadcast where I thought the broadcast was a little bit “F!” like. They focused on some of the “in-the-field” All around, I like the Infinity broadcast team the best.
I’m OK with tires being a factor in a race — but not tires blowing at the rate of this race. Overall, I was happy with the result — had Byron or Larson as my picks — but have to respect the sentimental dynamic with Hamlin.
Thank you Phil for a great season of Couch Potato Tuesdays. Great insight, and great responses from the fans. To all – Have a great Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. Stay well!
I needed to read that. Completely agree. Thanks to Phil for a great season of reporting, and hope everyone enjoys the holidays.