Ever since Las Vegas Motor Speedway got a second date in the fall, the South Point 400 has been marked by high temperatures and slick track conditions. To think that this race used to be in mid-September; 100° weather is all but the norm for that time of year. It’s a little more unusual in October, but it shouldn’t be considered to be out of the question.
On the broadcast Sunday (Oct. 4), the idea of the race being the hottest ever was broached. I’m pretty confident that it wasn’t. One of the Fontana races when it was on Labor Day weekend holds that. I seem to recall it being 107° at race time. Woof.
USA Sports Pre-Race was focused on Kyle Larson’s recent form and the battle for the points lead. There wasn’t really much to preview the race, other than the aforementioned heat, which must have been pretty miserable in person. You can say that it’s a dry heat all you want, but 100° is toasty, no matter what.
We also had a piece where Chase Briscoe talked about how his adjustment period to Joe Gibbs Racing is over. Time to kick some butt. For most of Sunday, he did.
Speaking of Larson, his car was miserable at the start of the race. A 26-second stop to make a highly manual adjustment to the right front corner of the car put him a lap down. This is a sequence where I wish USA Sports had one of those virtual pieces ready to go. You couldn’t really make out what was being adjusted. The crew made it sound like it was supposed to take that long.
One of the biggest moments Chase-wise Sunday was Denny Hamlin’s spin on lap 78 in turn 4. Almost everyone thought that it was going to cause a caution and end the stage early. Not so fast.
To be fair, I’m not surprised that the booth thought it was going to bring out the yellow. Probably most of the crowd at the track thought so as well. NASCAR probably wanted to be consistent since it didn’t throw the caution when Cody Ware spun out at the start after getting hit by Noah Gragson.
However, the Ware spin was at the literal start of the race with no one behind him once he spun. These were not the same incident.
As the race went on, it seemed like most of the coverage was solely on the Chasers. Granted, with 16 of them, that isn’t necessarily hard to do, but at the same time, they’re not the only drivers on the track.
Ultimately, only one non-Chaser managed to get into the top 10 by the finish (Shane van Gisbergen). He did a great job to get there, but he did it quietly.
As this race went on, you just never heard about anyone outside the Chase unless someone was getting a free pass. Basically, you’re not getting a full picture of what’s going on. Heck, you’re not even getting a full picture of all the Chasers. How did Ryan Preece end up 28th? I’m not sure, but he was nowhere most of the day.
We know now that Briscoe won this race Sunday thanks to the tactic of air blocking. He didn’t have the best car for pretty much the entire final run, but was able to place his No. 19 Toyota in such a way that no one could get a run on him.
Watching the broadcast, there was never any reference to this. The announcers likely knew what was going on, but they chose not to broach the issue.
Probably the only good thing about having Trevor Bayne as a pace car reporter is that he can confirm certain things. For example, the debris caution that flew on lap 94. He was in the pace car for that and noted that the pace car driver noticed the debris on the previous restart and called it in to the tower. Why it took six laps after that to call the yellow, I don’t know. If the pace car driver called it in when he did, it was too late to call off the restart to retrieve the piece right then and there.
In the second half of the race, one of the biggest stories was Christopher Bell’s power steering issues. Bell was running in the top five when the system turned traitor on him.
The team seemed to think that the system had a leak and that they could simply plug it. However, the coverage indicated that the pump was broken and had been infiltrated by water. An explanation was given on the broadcast as to how this could happen, but I’m not really sure how common this type of failure is. This is probably something for NASCAR Inside the Race on YouTube and NASCAR Channel to solve.
Obviously, this would make a racecar very difficult to drive if it was not set up to run without it. Hence the concern for Bell since he had the wrist injury at Michigan International Speedway in June.
Tires were something of an issue Sunday. A few drivers had issues, such as Carson Hocevar unwinding a tire at one point. The issues were generally covered when they arose, but there was no preview of this potentially being an issue before the race. I’m not sure if the hot weather played a role or not.
The last 30 or so laps were focused on the battles at the front between Briscoe, Larson, Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace. What else was happening out there? It wasn’t noted.
The booth hypothesized that Wallace burned up his tires trying to keep up with Briscoe. However, we didn’t get the full story until after the race. In his post-race interview, Wallace indicated that he had a tire start to unwind, hence why we went into freefall in the final 10 laps.
Post-race coverage was about average. Viewers got seven post-race interviews, post-race analysis and a point check before leaving Las Vegas.
In past years, race coverage narrowed significantly as the playoffs continued. That was mostly due to drivers being eliminated. This year, USA Sports is basically cutting people down on their own. This was the broadcast where it seemed the most obvious to me.
I’m generally going to be against that since exposure will be important for everyone, regardless of the time of year. I always want a broadcast to be as inclusive as possible. You could make the argument that outlets like Frontstretch can fill the gaps in these situations, and we’ve done that many times in the past and will continue doing so.
When we did get battles to cover Sunday, USA Sports did a decent job. It’s just that the Chase focus was so high for much of the race that we missed out on some things.
That’s all for this week. Next weekend is a home game for most of the garage. Charlotte Motor Speedway will host a tripleheader, including a late afternoon NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday (Oct. 9) and a 400-mile Cup race Sunday. Formula 1 will make the short haul from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. Finally, SRO America will wrap up their 2026 season with the Indianapolis 8 Hours. TV listings can be found here.
Next week’s edition of Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch will cover the Bank of America 400 from Charlotte. The Critic’s Annex in the Frontstretch Newsletter will cover the Focused Health 302 from Las Vegas.
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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