In the past, the second race of the NASCAR Cup Series season was a move toward normalcy in NASCAR. You didn’t have to worry about drafting or pack racing. You had a more normal race.
That is not the case since the former Atlanta Motor Speedway was reconfigured into the current 1.54-mile quad-oval with 28° banking. Now, you have another drafting extravaganza.
NASCAR RaceDay really set the tone here with Clint Bowyer going on about how EchoPark Speedway is now his favorite track on the schedule. It sounds like he wants more of this. The whole setup comes off as a way to get the type of racing they wanted with the high-drag package without the high-drag package.
With this kind of racing, Atlanta is likely the most important track on the calendar for spotters. To that end, FOX sat down with a number of spotters (Ex: Brandon McReynolds for Ross Chastain, Freddie Kraft for Bubba Wallace, Branden Lines for William Byron, etc.) and had them describe their craft. It’s a tough one. They seem to enjoy the work, but it’s literally 212 minutes of constant radio communication.
This was a good way to help viewers understand the sheer amount of work that goes into running these races. Diehard fans likely already understood, but a piece like this does help the newer fans understand what truly goes into a winning effort in these races.
Prior to the race, Josh Sims sat down with Daytona 500 winner Tyler Reddick to discuss last season and what changed over the offseason. They teased questions about the off-track issues with his family from last year, but we didn’t really see that, just about how his family was there at Daytona International Speedway to cheer him on.
Since this is a superspeedway race, it’s a little easier to bring you the action since everyone more or less stays together all day. It appears to be easier for everyone to keep up as well. There were only a couple of drivers all day that really fell off the back of the pack (JJ Yeley and Erik Jones once).
As a result, you’re not necessarily worrying about whether races will be shown. They will be. As compared to Daytona, you saw more split-screen action, which is worth noting.
FOX appears to be handling split-screen situations a little differently this year. Previously, you had a couple of boxes that showed multiple battles. Now, you have half the screen with one group and half with the other. This is a positive move since all the space is being used. Never understood why so much space was being wasted.
The event was very competitive with 57 lead changes. A lot of those were back-and-forth situations where someone would get the advantage in turns 3 and 4, lead at the line, then lose the advantage in turn 1. Other times, you’d have ultra-flashy moves, like the kind of thing that Carson Hocevar is known for.
Yes, Hocevar finished fourth, but he did some things that people aren’t going to be pleased about. For example, he wiped out Joey Logano on lap 238.
This also had one point of the race where I wasn’t really a fan of the direction. There’s a cutaway from the spin in progress that FOX Sports caught live. Not sure why that happened, but it did.
Later in the race, Hocevar tried a very optimistic move on the first overtime restart and put Christopher Bell into the wall. It’s like Hocevar gets tunnel vision at times.
We all know that Hocevar is a very talented driver. He’s been showing that since he was 12 or so. He just needs to harness things. What he’s doing right now is how you end up with an unusual number of bad finishes after running great all day long. Last year, Hocevar scored the 12th-highest number of stage points but ended up 23rd in points. This kind of stuff is why that happened. At least he’s not intentionally wrecking people, like that one time at Martinsville Speedway when he drove for Legacy Motor Club.
Ultimately, this race ended very similarly to last year. Byron ended up wrecking to send the race to overtime. This time, the crash came due to contact with Austin Cindric a couple of laps earlier, which cut a tire. It was unclear which one, to be honest. This wreck ended up being a lot bigger than the one last year.
Granted, Reddick’s won the first two races this year, but you’ve seen a lot more of Michael Jordan so far this year, and it’s not just because of the team’s success. It seemed like FOX had Jamie Little hanging around Jordan for the final 25 laps of the race Sunday. Yes, that put her in a position to talk to Jordan as soon as the checkered flag dropped, but it’s starting to become a little bit of overkill. It came off almost like she was stalking him, to me.
Post-race coverage was about average, knowing that the race finished roughly five minutes after the scheduled sign-off. Clearly, FOX learned its lesson after last year when the race had a 210-minute timeslot and reached the end of that with 19 laps to go.
Despite that, viewers still got a decent number of interviews. Once again, the focus was on 23XI Racing as we heard from both Reddick, Wallace and Jordan before anyone else.
When I watched the race, I worried that we weren’t going to hear from drivers like second-place finisher Chase Briscoe. Thankfully, that was not the case.
Overall, the broadcast was solid. The cut that I mentioned earlier was not swell, but that’s easily fixable. Atlanta is not really a place where the booth has a lot of experience (Bowyer retired before the reconfiguration, while Kevin Harvick has a couple of races on it and didn’t really like it), but they still have good analysis to go around.
That’s all for this week. Coming up this weekend is the first split weekend of the year. The Cup Series will make its sixth trip out to Circuit of the Americas to debut the 750-horsepower package. As of this writing, the weather forecast doesn’t indicate that there will be high winds this year, but stay tuned.
They’ll be joined out there by the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge.
Also out West, the ARCA Menards Series West will begin its 2026 season at Kevin Harvick’s Kern Raceway. That race will take place on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 8 p.m. ET with live coverage on FloRacing.
Meanwhile, the NTT IndyCar Series starts its 2026 season on the Streets of St. Petersburg with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series as primary support for the first time. TV listings can be found here.
In next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch, we’ll cover Sunday’s DuraMAX Grand Prix from COTA. Hopefully, this year, the winds won’t be as high. The Critic’s Annex will cover Saturday’s Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250.
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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.
FOX is all-in with Hurricane Hocevar. That’s the problem. NASCAR seems to be going along with this storyline to see where it lands.
It’s something to talk about.
I’m glad we weren’t playing “Take a Drink” every time Mike Joy uttered Hurricane Hocevar.
I grant you that Hocevar tends to get carried away with his moves..and he did take responsibility for the wreck. You failed to mention that Kyle Larsen also caused a wreck…and last season I believe had the most DNFs? Let’s at least be fair about things. While I’m not sure Atlanta is the ‘best racing ever’, it was at least a pleasure to see cars able to mass and/or make moves without needing 10 cars pushing behind them.
The problem with Hocevar is he drives this way nearly every week, irrespective of the track. It reminds me of early career Ernie Irvan, who eventually stood up in a drivers meeting, apologized, and made efforts to clean up his driving style.
Larson’s “plate” track results don’t match up with his overall resume. It seems Larson just isn’t a very good plate racer, though the inherent randomness of plate racing probably plays a small role here.
I completely agree Hocevar attracts more attention when he causes a wreck. Right or wrong, he has earned that scrutiny through myriad altercations he has had over the years.
Great analysis! I thought the coverage was better than Fox usually manages as well. The race itself seemed like it should have been a good one…..but…having another drafting/big pack race added to the schedule and right after the first one just doesnt sit well with me. I feel that these races are just so much of a crapshoot that it becomes less racing and more gambling. And how in this day and age of uber aero-engineering does a car with no front right fender win at a drafting track? I’m not calling BS per se but something doesnt feel right.
Regarding the missing fender, I am curious how much the fenders weigh on these cars. Does NASCAR have a tolerance number for missing parts? Not long ago, Alex Bowman was disqualified for the playoffs in the last race of the regular season because of being slightly underweight. Wouldn’t Reddick’s car be slightly underweight due to the missing fender?? Food for thought: I wonder if NASCAR is so enamored by Jordan showing his face in all their broadcasts that they might be handing out plates with just a tinch bigger holes to those teams. I’m not even sure if they use that technology anymore. But, back in the day, when the 8 and 15 cars were colloquially known as the 23 car because they almost always ran 1-2…….lots of eyebrows were raised….lot’s of people talkin’, few of them know…….that they were getting preferential treatment regarding the handing out of plates.
NASCAR is very tolerant of inspection issues that result from on-track racing contact. They are only looking for intentional modifications made to the car to gain an advantage.
Once a car gets behind another car the aero disappears on the trailing car. A Short Track Modified could keep up at a restrictor plate track when it is in line.
Why does it seem that a Gibbs Toy runs faster after it suffers some damage?