Talladega Superspeedway is many things. It is action-packed, stressful, exciting and more. It’s also typically one of the easier NASCAR Cup Series races to cover since almost everyone will be running in a big pack.
This time around, officials changed the stage lengths in an attempt to get rid of obvious fuel saving. It didn’t work… until underdog Chad Finchum decided to crash the party, leading a team record number of laps for Garage 66 (Carl Long’s team). Then, for a bit, it worked out fine…
Everyone having to pit twice in the stage (or press their luck on actually making it in one stop) created an old-school type of race Sunday (April 26). At the time, I thought it was like the late 1990s before NASCAR tried to mandate springs and shocks.
Partially due to Finchum breaking up the fuel saving, you ended up with a significant chunk of the first half of the race with multiple packs. Here’s the problem with that for TV viewers. It’s been a long time since that happened in NASCAR superspeedway races. The broadcast basically didn’t know how to handle it.
Except for one person, it seemed.
Mike Joy did know how to handle the situation, so he settled into the role of a traffic cop for the broadcast. That’s one of the benefits of having someone like him in the broadcast booth. He’s got the experience to adjust on the fly.
A race like this one could be perceived in two ways. It’s either it’s extremely boring for the first half, or it’s interesting since it’s a change of pace from what we normally get at Talladega and there are more things to cover.
But the way FOX covered the event made it seem way more boring than it actually was. Only nine teams made the 260.68-mile opening stage on one stop. Then, FOX went to a commercial before the rest of the pack (including the driver who earned the final stage point, Ross Chastain) got back around. Also of note, these guys were going at it in the pack to get that final stage point. Leaving that for a commercial was a terrible decision for multiple reasons.
Probably the most notable reason why it was bad is that you really didn’t have anyone mixing it up late in the race on Sunday. Why? Apparently, you would have a death wish if you tried. As a result, almost the entirety of the final stage on Sunday saw Carson Hocevar and Chris Buescher at the front. No one else could do anything with them.
As a result, FOX intentionally cut away from some of the only clean and competitive action to favor the second half of the race… where not much happened after the Big One. That’s rough.
Do I think that FOX knew the race would play out in that fashion? I don’t think the production crew thought that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the broadcast booth had at least an inkling based on their own preparations.
Also of note, FOX Sports apparently promised earlier this year that it would not go to full-screen commercial breaks under green. Up until Kansas Speedway, it held to that promise. Then, it slipped in Kansas. Sunday saw the broadcast go to a full-screen commercial three laps after the green came back out to truly get stage two underway.
This choice made no sense for a number of reasons. The previous promise is just one of them. Another is the fact that viewers didn’t even get three minutes under green before a commercial break. The commercials became agitating to watch. Why?
Of course, shortly after the break, you had The Big One. Criminy.
The shot that we had at first was such that you really couldn’t see anything. Once the smoke came up, that was it. Then again, it is accurate to the situation. The drivers couldn’t see anything, either; there’s a reason why these wrecks wipe out 20-something cars.
It took multiple replays to get any real idea of the scope of this mess. Another ill-timed commercial started just as the red flag came out. FOX set up for an interview with Bubba Wallace, then just kept him waiting for an unclear amount of time, which clearly irritated Wallace.
You also had strange decisions like giving Austin Cindric the PODS Big Move award for… wrecking? That confused me.
The disappointment of the FOX broadcast was extra surprising because prior to the race, you had one of the more important editions of NASCAR RaceDay in recent memory. During the show, Tyler Reddick announced his new contract extension with 23XI Racing. Clint Bowyer and Jamie McMurray also revealed their assignments to the Kaulig Racing RAM All-Star truck.
More importantly, we got to see new NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell and COO Ben Kennedy answer some questions. Given the rather substantial change that occurred in NASCAR over the weekend, it was imperative to actually hear something from the corporate suite. FOX and company did a really good job working through these segments, providing breaking news and information viewers really wanted to hear.
That said, if you have any suggestions for O’Donnell, please submit them on our Facebook page as we’re putting together questions that you’d like to ask O’Donnell for this week’s edition of NASCAR Mailbox here on the site.
Overall, the race itself might have been one of the worst superspeedway broadcasts of a Cup race on FOX in years. There were times when it was decent. A lot of that was early in the race and mostly due to Joy’s work.
However, the inability of the production to adjust to a changing race really hurt them. I’m happy they had Joy in the booth for that; otherwise, it would have been far worse.
Also of note, Joy called out (not by name) Stephen A. Smith for his uninformed remarks about whether drivers are athletes last week. Frankly, Joy let him have it, as did many of the drivers themselves over the course of the weekend. You can listen to some of their responses to Frontstretch reporters Dalton Hopkins and Michael Massie below. They’ll expand further on what they learned tonight (Tuesday, April 28) at 7:30 p.m. ET on Happy Hour.
Post-race coverage was quite brief since the race ended right at the end of the four-hour timeslot. Viewers got interviews with Hocevar and Buescher before the broadcast ended.
We also had Hocevar’s wildly dangerous post-race celebration, which FOX aired in full (it’s partially responsible for the lack of post-race interviews since that went on for a while). Is it unique? You betcha. Is anyone else going to attempt that in Cup? No, because Hocevar is basically the tallest driver in the series and I just don’t know if most of them could reach the pedals while sitting on the door sill like he was.
That’s all for this week. Next weekend is shaping up to be quite busy. NASCAR has a tripleheader at Texas Motor Speedway. The trucks will race Friday night, May 1, while the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races Saturday, May 2. Cup teams will take to the track for 400 miles Sunday afternoon (May 3).
The NASCAR Channel will also be busy on Saturday. The ARCA Menards Series East and West both race then, with the East at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway and the West at Shasta Speedway. Both events will be broadcast live on FloRacing and the NASCAR Channel. The East race will begin at 9 p.m. ET and the West race will go green at 11:30 p.m. ET.
Outside of Texas, Formula 1 returns to action in Miami Gardens while IMSA will be in action at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. TV listings can be found here.
We will have a critique of Sunday’s Wurth 400 in next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch. The Critic’s Annex in the Frontstretch newsletter will cover Saturday’s Ag-Pro 300, a generally enjoyable 300 miles of racing.
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 disagree Mike has lost it many wrong calls.
He should go.
Great critique of the race and FOX’s coverage Phil. As always. 👍
I wonder how NA$CAR fudges the numbers for green flag passes when the cars stay in line for 30 laps. I was watching commercials and suddenly there were cars running around on a “race” track. What a “race” we get to see between commercials!
Not only are the ads intrusive and numerous, they are interminable! And if something happens on track, do they go back to live at the race? Nope, they just keep trying to sell me stuff I don’t want. For all those people who complain about Mike Joy, this was the perfect example of why he is so valuable in the booth. Alan Bestwick is the only other play-by-play announcer that is comperable…in my opinion. His knowledge of the sport is encyclopedic, and detailed.
Thanks as always Phil. I love this column every single week.
I agree with KU in the earlier comment…the commercials and in-race ads have reached a critical mass. I understand NASCAR cannot afford F1’s policy of zero commercials, but the NASCAR broadcasts border unwatchable.
The actual commercial breaks are bad enough, but even when they’re “covering” the race, nearly every single moment is crammed with ads. Arby’s Pit Box tells us nothing useful. Whelen sponsors the caution lights, and is mentioned many times each race. Sunoco fuel is always noted. Toyota sponsors an “ad free” segment, but the bulk of the action is ignored here, while updating each Toyota car, again adding little to no relevant race info. Did I hear pit road was sponsored this week? That’s a new one. In car cameras are sponsored, resulting in forced segments in car, even if the car isn’t competitive. PODS move of the race, which I also found funny this week.
There are so many of these I’m sure I’m missing some. It’s reached a point where coverage has no flow or direction, other than prepping for the next sponsored segment.
Went to an antenna a few weeks ago. I can afford higher TV bills, I just no longer see the point. With streaming services I already have, I can get all races other than those on FS1/FS2, so I’ll miss the next three Cup races. Meh. Just means I’ll have hours less ads in my life the next three weeks. Texas is just another cookie cutter track, and the all star race lost its shine years ago. For Watkins Glen, I might watch in car feeds on HBO Max, and listen to the radio broadcast. I might do a free trial of the Fox app. Or, I might skip that one too.
Hi Phil.
I don’t know if it was just me, but there seemed to be a ridiculous number of commercials during Talladega on Fox. Two laps, time for another commercial. The reason you mentioned “commercial breaks” so many times in your article was because of this.
Maybe it was because it was on the broadcast Fox network or the race itself, I found it obscene. It is hard to get into a race that is constantly interrupted. Gee and I thought “stage breaks” were designed to reduced the breaks.
I wondered to myself what must Mike Joy think about the breaks as he has constantly start and stop.
Another NASCAR fan I know thought the same thing.
Fox, I know commercials are necessary but please stop milking the cow so much.
Thanks Phil for another week of covering the coverage.
Completely agree. Definitely an increase in commercials this year. Constantly broke up the flow of watching and trying to keep up with what’s going on.
Agree with everyone… too many commercials…and then once you’re endured one set, they freaking REPEAT them all over , just to make you insane!
Diffey can’t come close to Joys knowledge, and Mike doesn’t yell at us all day long, like ole Lee.