Martinsville Speedway can be a mixed bag at times. Especially since high downforce rule packages were instituted at the paperclip in the late 2010s, passing has been a premium there. Sunday (March 29) was no exception.
There was a controversial moment before the NASCAR Cup Series race even started. As normal, the FOX Sports booth talked to a driver during the pace laps. In this case, Clint Bowyer talked on the radio with Denny Hamlin.
Hamlin kind of downplayed his chances during the interview even though he had quite a bit going in his favor. That interview ended with Bowyer saying, “Everything attached to you is on fire right now.”
While I understand what Bowyer was trying to say here, it came off as horrible knowing what Hamlin’s life has been like the past year. We don’t need to rehash what happened over that time period because we’re all pretty familiar with it. It was just a terrible choice of words that Bowyer would like to have back.
Live broadcasting is generally an off-the-cuff extemporaneous form of communication. While it is possible to go back and make corrections, you can’t take back what’s already been said. That can result in classic calls, screwups and outright terrible instances that can get you sat down on the spot.
Prior to the race, Mike Helton showed up on NASCAR RaceDay, which seemed interesting. After the nightmare that was the 23XI Racing/Front Row Motorsports lawsuit last year, you haven’t really seen much of the NASCAR brass this year. It was pitched to viewers as something of a mini-state of the sport through the first six weeks. It was definitely not that.
In reality, Helton was there to announce the nominees for the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2027. Kevin Harvick is a nominee on the Modern Era ballot for the first time and is likely a shoo-in to be elected.
I was actually wondering Sunday morning when they were going to announce the nominees. Martinsville isn’t a bad place to do it, but Helton’s appearance was pitched as something else. I’ve always viewed Helton as a principal-like figure in NASCAR, so he would have been a good person to talk about the current state of things. While the Hall of Fame announcement was nice, it was effectively a bait-and-switch.
During the race, passing was down significantly from last year. According to NASCAR’s Loop Data, there were 4.6 passes per green flag lap Sunday as compared to 7.2 per lap last year. Yes, there were five fewer cautions Sunday, which likely played a role, but movement up and down the order was pretty rare. No one who finished in the top 10 on Sunday started worse than 13th. That really isn’t typical.
You had some racing for position during the race, but not a lot. If anything, there was more of an effort taken to show the on-track action during the second half of the race. Given the decade-plus history that I have critiquing broadcasts, that is a little unusual. I normally see more action for positions in the first half of events.
Stage one Sunday ended under yellow after Daniel Suarez bumped into John Hunter Nemechek in turn 3. That sent Nemechek into Cody Ware, who spun out. The broadcast did not catch this spin live. The broadcasters were covering a different battle for 10th involving Carson Hocevar. When the yellow flew, it seemed like no one in the booth had any idea why.
The production knew that it involved Ware pretty quickly since the camera immediately cut to the white and pink No. 51. It seems like the booth got too wrapped up in the monitors to look up and even see any smoke. That’s not a good look. You’re at the track. You need to make good use of that.
There was discussion in the booth prior to the race that there could be issues getting rubber to lay down in the corners as the track temperature was borderline. That was not a problem.
In fact, the rubber not laying down in the turns at Martinsville wouldn’t affect the race anywhere near as much as it would at Bristol Motor Speedway in two weeks. We’ve had that before with Martinsville events and you would have had the same race. Of note, we’re still 12 days out, but the forecast for Bristol looks almost identical to last year. Just a couple of degrees can really make a difference there.
The long runs in the second half of the race led to alternate strategies, which made the event much more interesting. Had the caution for the brake rotor pieces from Ty Dillon’s car not come out, Chase Elliott was on an island all his own.
“We took a gamble,” Elliott said after the race. “We were going to two-stop that last stage. I honestly think it was going to work out good for us either way.”
Elliott was likely the only driver who would have been on that strategy. He would have been faster than darn near anyone else, but a long way behind.
As a result, the last 100 laps of the race were probably the most enjoyable of the day to watch since there was so much going on. Ross Chastain took a chance on staying out after taking the yellow in 19th was interesting as well (he did fall back, but finished higher than where he was prior to that yellow, so I guess it worked).
Hamlin still had the best car late, but he probably hurt himself by being too aggressive on the final restart. While he didn’t say anything about it afterward, the contact with Ryan Blaney probably hurt things a little. It might have been why he was using the slightly higher line late in the race.
Sunday’s race ended ahead of schedule. As a result, there was a decent amount of post-race coverage. FOX Sports 1 spent that time conducting a number of interviews. Also, this unfortunate graphic made the air.
Yeah, those are not the point standings after Sunday’s race. What are they? They are the point standings after Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but with all the drivers listed in numerical order. I have no idea why this was loaded up, but it was immediately noticeable that it was wrong.
Chris Myers started reading this graphic on-air, referenced Chastain at the top and realized quickly that something wasn’t right. Thankfully, that was fixed quickly. About 90 seconds later, the correct point standings were shown.
Overall, this wasn’t the best day for FOX Sports. Some of the issues were preventable, others were outside its control and it had to deal with the race itself (it’s not its fault that there wasn’t a lot of action).
Regardless, you have to be careful how you plan and prepare things. Otherwise, embarrassing things can happen and Sunday’s broadcast was proof of that.
That’s all for this week. Sunday is Easter and the NASCAR Cup Series will be taking the weekend off. It is one of only two off-weeks this season.
The only major events this weekend will be the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts and Craftsman Truck Series and ARCA Menards Series East race weekend at Rockingham Speedway. There will also be some short track racing to be had. TV listings can be found here.
In next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch, we’ll cover Saturday’s 235-mile O’Reilly race in Rockingham. Since the Cup days, the track has been remeasured and dropped down from 1.017 miles to 0.94 miles.
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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.
I was surprised after Hamlin contacted the wall and couldn’t catch Elliott. Usually the Toys get faster after a little wall contact, especially in the right rear.