Is NASCAR overblowing the Coronado hype, or is it right on the money?
As a racing journalist who moonlights as a dirt track promoter and photographer, I’ve seen my fair share of hyped up events. Ask every promoter you know, and they’ll tell you that their next sprint car show is going to be the greatest thing on wheels (I dare you to ask me about the upcoming GW Elkins Memorial $5K to win 305 non-wing sprint car race in Amarillo, Texas).
But oftentimes, these races happen, encounter issues, or don’t deliver on all their promises, and they’re never heard from again. That’s the problem with pushing something so hard, isn’t it? The thing that you’re pushing doesn’t always deliver.
That won’t be the case this weekend for NASCAR, though. The same sport that began its season with the two-word slogan, “Hell Yeah,” is about to celebrate the upcoming 250th birthday of America by driving 750 horsepower race cars around an active naval base. There may not be a more “Hell Yeah” thing in all of recorded history.
And before anyone starts griping that professional stock car racing should be some sort of gentleman’s sport, just shut up. Is NASCAR going to try to pretty up the weekend in San Diego? Absolutely. We’ve all seen the pictures by now of NASCAR’s “paddock” for the weekend set up in aircraft hangars and military buildings, and while they look very good, that’s not the centerpiece of this weekend.
The centerpiece is that NASCAR is about to throw all of its drivers (and Kevin Magnussen) onto a track that nobody has practiced on except for on iRacing, let them race between aircraft carriers and see what happens. That last sentence is something I would only expect in a video game, but as I found out when I woke up this morning with a splitting headache, this is real life. And that’s awesome. It’s so awesome, in fact, that it’s going to be pretty hard to over-hype.
What good news did NASCAR gamers get yesterday?
The big reveal was that reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Larson will be the cover athlete for iRacing Studios’ second rendition of NASCAR’s officially licensed console game. The second-biggest piece of news is that in NASCAR 26, players can finally celebrate with a winning burnout.
As a console gamer, I can say this is something many fans were looking forward to. By and large, iRacing’s first rendition of the game checked the boxes it needed to and inched the product back towards the golden era of NASCAR games in the early-to-mid 2000s. There were, however, a few bugs to work out.
Fans hope that iRacing’s second stab at the product follows a similar pattern to its World of Outlaws dirt racing games, in that the second edition remains wildly popular among the oval-racing console community and has consistently added more tracks and improved its experience.
If iRacing Studios reverts to type and listens to the fans, which it often does, this game should offer a more complete experience. We’ve only seen an incredibly short glimpse of in-game footage, but over the next few weeks, expect more gameplay and features to be released to drive up the hype of the new title.
I only ask that we get some unique tracks in the game, too. The technology used by iRacing requires laser scanning, which means a track must still be standing to be used in the game. That knocks out historic venues like Riverside, unfortunately, but tell me it wouldn’t be cool to turn a few laps on the old Memphis International Raceway in a Cup car.
How will Jimmie Johnson’s stint in the booth with TNT go?
The short answer? Fine. As long as they keep him away from whatever he was into after his stint at Le Mans. If they were on streaming, I’d say they could let the opposite happen for a truly memorable broadcast, though.
In all seriousness, it’s good to see Johnson fully back in the sport following a few years where his presence was missed. Between his venture with Legacy Motor Club and lending himself to the cameras now, two icons of the previous generation are back on the scene, essentially full-time, in Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Fans have come to love Earnhardt’s skills in the booth, along with his ability to scream “we’ve got a spin!” in the funniest way possible. It might take some time for Johnson to acquire his own such catchphrase, but having his wealth of knowledge in the booth, along with gaining the draw of his old fan base, is a major win for both TNT and the sport overall.
Now, fans can experience both on the same broadcast, with Marty Smith, who covered the sport for ESPN during its heyday, on the pre- and post-race shows. You can never say that NASCAR doesn’t like to play the nostalgia card, but when it’s this solid of a lineup, who can blame them?
How important is it that Kay Adams was talking about NASCAR this week?
If NASCAR is the only sport you tune into, then you might have missed that Ryan Blaney spent a chunk of his morning on Wednesday talking to Kay Adams, a nationally renowned sports talk show host who predominantly talks about the NFL, NBA, and other big three sports.
It cannot be overstated how much this kind of content actually matters when it comes to gaining new fans in the sport. On Twitter/X alone, Adams commands a follower count of nearly 750,000. She’s a titan of the sports media world, and her show with the FanDuel network is also underneath the MSG Sports brand, the same group that owns the NBA Champion New York Knicks.
All in all, Adams has well over 1 million followers across all her channels. A significant portion of those have more than likely never given NASCAR a passing glance. Now, though, Adams is planning to attend her first race this weekend, and will more than likely bring a plethora of fresh eyes with her.
Hate it or love it, these kinds of interactions are paramount to the sport’s success in its next chapter. More than likely, future media rights deals will involve fewer and fewer traditional cable broadcasts, and in the digital space, the only way to reach fresh eyeballs is by engaging with personalities whose fan bases haven’t yet been connected to the sport.
That’s the precise thing Adams and other stick-and-ball sports talking heads can bring to NASCAR, so long as they do so with respect to the sport and the drivers who populate it (looking at you, Stephen A).
Just this year alone, NASCAR has broken into the mainstream sports media world after the trial result this offseason, Carson Hocevar‘s win at Talladega and now this first-of-its-kind race at Coronado. I’m not going to jinx it, but with nostalgia and early 2000s trends making their way back into the mainstream, who’s to say NASCAR couldn’t take the same path?
Tanner Marlar is a staff writer for Sports Illustrated’s OnSI Network, a contributor for multiple automotive news outlets, an award-winning sports columnist and talk show host, and a PhD. student at a premier college of media and mass communication. Tanner began working with Frontstretch in 2022, covering the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.
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