So far, the weather has not cooperated with Amazon Prime Video since its return to NASCAR. For that matter, the past couple of weeks have been plagued by rain. It stinks, especially when races are on Sunday nights.
Sunday (May 30) night’s Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway started about 80 minutes late due to rain. I was looking at the radar during NASCAR Live Pre-Race and I was worried. It looked like it was going to be a complete deluge and a complete stop due to lightning.
The pre-race coverage was somewhat unclear about how severe the local weather was. The broadcasters were ignoring as much as they could until it was obviously raining. In NASCAR, that’s natural, but it isn’t right. You’re not being forthright with that strategy.
On NASCAR Live Pre-Race, we learned a bit about how Carl Edwards will continue to contribute despite being on his sailing trip. He provided tips on racing on concrete, something very apt for someone often referred to as “Concrete Carl.” He also predicted that Ryan Blaney would win. That didn’t come to pass.
In place of Edwards this week, we had Mark Martin on the stage. Even though he’s been out of the car since 2013, he is clearly still up on what’s going on in the sport. He had a lot of good things to say about Corey Heim regarding his full-time gig for next year and generally did well in his role.
However, Nashville wasn’t the right weekend for him. He never raced there and couldn’t add as much to the conversation as I would have liked. If at all possible, Martin’s slot should have been swapped for Martin Truex Jr., who will be on the stage this weekend at Michigan International Speedway. Truex raced well in Nashville, while Martin won five races at Michigan and was always in the mix there, even into the 2010s.
As the delay continued, the broadcast added a bunch of extra driver interviews to keep the show going. Yes, you noticed the race was starting late, but it was never boring.
Once the race started, it didn’t take long before the big story of the night cropped up: brake rotor explosions.
What followed was fairly in-depth coverage of what could be gathered. Connor Zilisch noted that he didn’t feel anything unusual before the rotor failed spectacularly.
Once Ross Chastain had his own failure, the cameras were dispatched to the garage to get shots of the air inlets on Chastain’s No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. And by that, I mean extreme close-ups, the kind of thing that us Frontstretch reporters would not be able to get because security would shoo us away.
The close-ups were based on the notion from Steve Letarte that the rotors were exploding due to getting too cool and warping. The close-ups showed that Trackhouse had removed some tape from Chastain’s right front brake inlets in response to Zilisch’s failure. That move appeared to only make the explosion more likely.
Quite simply, this is exactly what we’ve seen at World Wide Technology Raceway in the past. I was standing right next to the inside wall with a photo vest on when Tyler Reddick had a rotor explode under similar circumstances in 2023. Scary stuff.
It didn’t take long for the discussion to head toward the new rules that were instituted for the 2026 season to increase power and decrease downforce. Decreasing downforce would increase the amount of braking required even without adding horsepower. That was accompanied by 75 additional horsepower, so the cars are going faster when the brake is applied than they were last year.
Nashville was one of the trickier tracks regarding that before the changes were made. Now, everyone’s really going to be worried for Gateway in September during the Chase. That track was already the worst place on the circuit for these issues and we know that it’s going to be even more of a factor.
Prior to the explosions, the thought was that the explosions were going to happen for the opposite reason. Too much heat. Carson Hocevar was blazing his right-front brake rotor early in the race. Turns out it didn’t really hurt anything as he managed to not only survive but finish 10th.
Would we have gotten this level of coverage had this been a FOX Sports race? Maybe not to this level. It certainly would have looked different. Maybe the broadcast would have gotten to the same place eventually, but it would have involved a virtual cutaway car and not as much legwork.
Prime Video broadcasts tend to be very analytical. If you’re looking for someone to go in-depth on something, you can get it here. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is encouraged to talk about what he notices with drivers. For instance, he spent some time early in the race describing how Zane Smith was driving his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford. At that time, being able to maintain a good pace while holding the inside line was really good. Smith had to fight his car to a certain degree.
Honestly, I am perfectly fine with that type of coverage. As a completionist, I want to know as much as I possibly can. Coverage such as that can help me get there.
The on-track product was pretty good, much better than I was expecting. You had a record number of lead changes (31). According to NASCAR’s Loop Data, passing was down this year from an average of 15.4 passes per lap to 13, but you had 38 more laps under yellow this year and fewer pit stop sequences under green.
Viewers got a decent amount of action for position during the broadcast. There was a decent spread of coverage throughout the field.
The booth of Earnhardt, Letarte and Adam Alexander continues to work well together. This is only race No. 12 for them as a group, but it’s like they’ve been doing broadcasts as a team for the better part of a decade. They know each other’s strengths and play to them.
Post-race coverage was quite substantial. Prime Video promises an hour of post-race coverage after every race and we got that. There were roughly a dozen interviews with a number of drivers, including Reddick after his big wreck at the finish. Prime Video might have been one of the only outlets to get quotes from Reddick at the track.
It was a late night at Nashville. The sign-off at the end of NASCAR Live Post-Race was at 1:34 a.m. ET. Denny Hamlin’s press conference wrapped around 2 a.m. ET. Not the latest one I’ve ever attended (that would be Earnhardt Jr.’s press conference after winning the 2015 Coke Zero 400 that ended around 4 a.m. ET), but still quite late. I was toast after that race.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed Sunday night’s race. I wish it had never rained so that it would have ended earlier than 12:25 a.m. ET. The broadcast was quite informative and enjoyable to watch.
That’s all for this week. Next weekend is still busy, but a little calmer. NASCAR makes its annual trip to MIS, where the NASCAR Cup and Craftsman Truck Series will race, along with the ARCA Menards Series. The ARCA Menards Series West will also be in action out at Tri-City Raceway. The NAPA AutoCare 150 Greg Biffle Memorial will take place on Saturday, June 6, at 11 p.m. ET with live coverage provided by FloRacing.
The NTT IndyCar Series will be at Gateway in Illinois. Formula 1 has its crown jewel, the Grand Prix of Monaco. Finally, IMSA will be at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for the sole standalone Michelin Pilot Challenge race of the year. TV listings can be found here.
We will have a critique of the broadcast of Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 here at Frontstretch next week. In the Frontstretch Newsletter, we’ll have a look at Saturday night’s Sports Illustrated Resorts 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.
Sunday morning F1 Monaco RACE. Sunday afternoon NA$CAR product. Sunday evening IndyCar RACE. Two out of three…
Did I miss the coverage on the 23XI employee getting arrested?
Perhaps Prime wanted Truex and Martin, but their schedules didn’t work out that way.
I would have expected more brake rotor problems at Martinsville or Darlington. Having them here, and more expected at Gateway, is surprising to me.
I suppose there can be good coverage of a not so good race. Hated staying up so late to see 4 laps of hard racing. It seemed like a 1000 mile race.
It’s getting harder to have any interest with the stage breaks and laps wasted under caution. I’m trying.