World Wide Technology Raceway has been a tricky track for the NASCAR Cup Series since it joined the schedule in 2022. The racing there has been a little better over the past five seasons, but it greatly tests the limitations of the Next Gen car.
Over the past few years, brakes have been a serious issue. In 2023, I was standing at the pit road exit taking pictures for Frontstretch when Tyler Reddick had a brake rotor explode. The result was very similar to what happened to Ryan Blaney on Sunday, Sept. 13.
This is a topic that should have been covered more substantially during USA Sports Pre-Race Sunday. With the rule changes for this year that increased horsepower back up to approximately 750 along with less downforce, that would make the situation worse. Knowing what ultimately happened in the race, it would have greatly benefited them to cover it ahead of time.
What did we get during pre-race coverage? Some emphasis was put on the whole Brad Keselowski–Carson Hocevar spat from Darlington Raceway. Yes, Gateway had posters depicting both drivers. The chaps that run the place like to do that. There was more coverage of it during the race itself, but it didn’t amount to anything Sunday. If you wanted a spat that sparked up during the race, look toward Saturday night’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race. Hocevar and Keselowski were the only drivers interviewed pre-race.
Brakes are not dead sexy. If Magic Johnson on the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers was like the Keselowski-Hocevar spat, brakes would be more like Kurt Rambis. The working class. But, like Rambis to the Lakers back then, brakes are incredibly important to racecars.
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who is a player contributor to USA Sports in addition to her playing, was on-site as well. Even though Cunningham apparently grew up in a NASCAR family in Missouri, I would describe her experience as similar to ESPN’s field trips that they used to do to expose some of their non-NASCAR personalities to the sport back in the 2010s.
Regarding Chase/playoff races, there isn’t much previewing of the race. It’s based more on rehashing previous stories and reiterating the basic Chase storylines. That doesn’t give viewers any real idea of what could happen.
Granted, that’s harder to do today since we don’t have a full suite of practice anymore. It’s hard to tell who’s truly good.
Sunday’s race will be best remembered for the brake failures. At least five different drivers (Blaney, Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, Noah Gragson and Zane Smith) had rotor explosions Sunday, most of which resulted in big crashes.
With the rash of braking issues, USA Sports had a virtual cutaway piece to show how air flows through the nose to the brake calipers and rotors. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take much to cause problems at Gateway.
In the past, it has been noted that the straights are long enough that the brakes can cool down too much. As a result, the rotors can either warp or crack. Either scenario can lead to a catastrophic explosion.
With the current design and rationale of the Next Gen car, I don’t know whether or not this is fixable. The new rules for 2026 regarding this situation should have been discussed on the broadcast since it did play a big role in the race.
Outside of the brake failures, you had an inordinate amount of wrecking Sunday. Of the 18 yellows, all but one were for wrecks (the Smith crash prematurely ended stage two). This resulted in some frustration out of the booth as the race ran in a start-and-stop fashion. Not counting the red flags, the race took nearly as long to run as the inaugural Gateway 300 for the then-Busch Grand National Series in 1997 – a race that was three hours and 48 minutes long.
When teams weren’t wrecking, there was a decent amount of racing for position. The track has multiple grooves on both ends and drivers made good use of it. The yellows kept the field close together, so you got to see perhaps more than a normal Gateway race.
Since the 18 cautions caused the race to run long by more than a half-hour, USA Sports Post-Race coverage was relatively short. Viewers only got a few interviews and a check of the points before USA Network left Gateway.
In that post-race coverage was Dave Burns’ interview with Alex Bowman, who finished a season-best second. On Saturday, Bowman announced that his dog Finn had passed away, which is why he was so broken up.
In these situations, there is a right way to go and a wrong way. Burns went the right way. Effectively, Bowman volunteered the information here.
An example of the wrong way was in 2020 when Rick Allen worked the miscarriage of Chase Briscoe’s wife Marissa into his commentary. While the post that was put out there at the time was deleted shortly afterward, we know Marissa was unhappy about that. It was in bad taste.
Overall, I was frustrated with the race, but not really because of USA Sports. You had the brake issues entering the race, but USA Sports seemingly put it on the back burner. When that wasn’t happening, people were impatient as heck. Makes for a long day. The decision to downplay the braking issues at the top of the broadcast was not good.
The racing product was OK, but there was so much wrecking that we could only see it in chunks. A whole 35% of the race was under yellow. That’s never good. At least it was exciting at times.
That’s all for this week. Next weekend is pretty busy. Bristol Motor Speedway is hosting a quadruple-header. The Cup Series races Saturday night, while the NASCAR O’Reilly Series race is on Friday night. Thursday will be a doubleheader between the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and a combination race between the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East. The race serves as the ARCA East season finale. IMSA will also be in action at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. TV Listings can be found here.
In next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday, we’ll cover Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race from Bristol. The Critic’s Annex will cover the Nu-Way 225 powered by Bobcat and how The CW handled the pit disaster.
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.
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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.
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