Iowa Speedway saw USA Sports’ debut with the NASCAR Cup Series in 2026. On paper, it’s essentially all of NBC Sports’ NASCAR crew from last year, but when Versant split off from the rest of NBCUniversal’s holdings, NASCAR was declared to be a Versant property. As a result, even though there are still four Cup races a year on NBC, they will all be from USA Sports.
There were obvious changes as a result of this move and some not-so-obvious ones. For example, the theme music used since 2015 was dropped in favor of a new theme that was “meh” at best. Countdown to Green and NASCAR America Victory Lap are now USA Sports Pre-Race and USA Sports Post-Race. Compared to the rest of the season, pre- and post-race content was quite limited.
Something that I wasn’t expecting, but was announced last week, was having Trevor Bayne in the pace car all day. When I saw this, I questioned why they did it.
The press release (which also indicated that it won’t be a one-time thing) included a quote from USA Sports executive producer Jeff Behnke where he said, “Having Trevor report live from inside the pace car at select races this season is going to bring a new insight to our coverage and give the fans at home unique viewing experience.”
Was it unique? In NASCAR, I guess. I can recall times when ABC put one of its on-air personalities in the pace car at the Indianapolis 500. Did it really add much to the broadcast? I’d argue no.
If anything, sequestering Bayne in the pace car all day means that you have fewer people in the pits. Kim Coon and Marty Snider were left to cover all 36 teams in the pits themselves.
Bayne’s done OK over the past year or so with Amazon Prime Video, so getting an additional gig with USA Network could be viewed as a positive for him. This pace car analyst setup gives him a little more airtime, but at the expense of providing decent content.
Sure, the straightaways at Iowa are bumpy because the pavement on the straights is original to when the track was built.
Before the race on Sunday (Aug. 9), USA Network ran a piece on the burgeoning popularity of Carson Hocevar. It’s unknown who is comparing Hocevar to Dale Earnhardt, but he is clearly not Dale Earnhardt. The closest parallel is Ernie Irvan. Both drivers were very aggressive on track, and it’s gotten them into trouble. Irvan was quite successful and quite possibly could have won the title in 1994. However, near-fatal injuries at Michigan International Speedway ended that chase. Just racing again was an accomplishment after that (he actually won three races post-injury), but he was never the same.
Then again, Hocevar entered the national-level series at a younger age than Irvan did, so he might not have been as mature as Irvan was. Hocevar seems to be a breath of fresh air for a lot of people.
For the race itself, you had the same booth as last year with Leigh Diffey back on play-by-play with Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte. What they brought to the broadcast was more or less what we’ve come to expect from them. You had a lot of energy and good information.
The broadcast innovated with some camera angles. However, they might have gotten a little too close with a shot during one of Ryan Blaney’s pit stops.
In at-track meetings for photographers, they emphasize that you don’t want to be the show. That camera almost became the show. USA Sports needs to be careful about that.
The overall racing product was OK, but the recent paving of the turns likely made the event a little less competitive. Everyone was fighting for the lower two lanes since you’d drop like a stone if you went over that line. The only driver who could even remotely run competitively with a sliver of a tire over the line was Christopher Bell.
NASCAR’s Loop Data shows that the amount of passing has dropped significantly each year. The 2024 race before the turn paving had 11.7 passes per green-flag lap. That race also had eight cautions for 49 laps. Sunday’s race had four fewer caution laps, but averaged only 7.3 passes per lap under green.
As a result, people were treated to a less competitive race. This really wasn’t all that special Sunday, but the booth made the race sound decent, especially late in the going. However, the deficiencies of the Next Gen car played a role once again.
That said, when there was action to be had, USA Sports did a decent job bringing that action to viewers. Just wish that there was more of it.
The combination of the lack of passing at times, the repaved corners and apparently low tire wear meant the race turned into a strategy affair. This makes the decision to stick Bayne in the pace car all day even more egregious.
I wanted a better idea of what the tire wear looked like on Sunday. It would have given us a better idea of why drivers like Chase Elliott chose to stay out on 50-lap tires. Or, why he did it again on 70-lap tires, which didn’t work out. Elliott is lucky to have finished 15th with that strategy.
Post-race coverage was really short since the race ran a little long. In that time, viewers got interviews with the top-five finishers, along with Joe and Heather Gibbs. Ty Gibbs won the race and really didn’t say much. Not surprised there. He doesn’t really have much to say. That’s why it wasn’t that much of a surprise that he didn’t go to the USA Sports Pit Box after the race (Bell was there instead).
There was a little post-race analysis, but not much. With the race running long, they did not fill the full 30 minutes before leaving for NASCAR Americana, the new series that debuted after the race.
Overall, it was a relatively quiet day. The on-track product is still not great on shorter tracks and NASCAR is trying to improve it, but the moves that they’ve made really haven’t worked. The pace car analyst setup probably looked better on paper than it worked in practice. Dave Burns in a tractor-trailer to talk about the upcoming repave was a little weird as well.
That’s all for this week. Next weekend, NASCAR will make its lone visit to Richmond Raceway for a fairly rare Saturday night duel. The Cup Series will headline with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on the undercard. Meanwhile, the NTT IndyCar Series will make its first appearance in Markham, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto. TV listings can be found here.
In next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch, we will cover USA Network’s broadcast of the Cook Out 400 from Richmond. The Critic’s Annex in the Frontstretch Newsletter will cover Saturday’s Hy-Vee Perks 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.
So the average was 7.3 passes per green flag lap. Judging by the TV coverage I’ll bet there were a lot of zeros.
Patience. Give NASCAR another 20 years and they’ll have everything running just like the past 20 years. Please, don’t hold your breath.
First time I had to mute the broadcast in a while.
Diffey grates on my nerves. I just don’t like his voice.
I somehow forgot he was part of the USA deal.
Agree.. they hid Diffey until the last second… I personally hate his whole shtick , voice, overhyping Everything, accent , a wanna be NASCAR fan hiding behind his Indy car roots.
I really enjoy the Adam Alexander Dylan Welch types who actually grew up in America, in the racing community, earning our respect. Not some 10 year citizen of the USA posing as a dyed in the wool stock car fan.
Letarte and Burton deserve a better partner, as do we , the Fans.
I don’t have anything against him. But he’s out of place calling stock car races in the USA. I felt the same way when Jackie Stewart did it back in the day.
Oh do they still have Diffey calling the races? Another good reason besides the boredom factor to not watch. Once upon a time I would never miss watching a race. I worked my weekend schedule around NASCAR. Now I don’t know where to watch
I thought Trevor in the pace car was a step above Fox’s Digger the Gopher. Barely.