Last weekend, I was in Indianapolis to cover the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks. The schedule worked out that I wouldn't miss any of the race coverage from Bristol. However, watching those races ended up being three very different experiences.

My hotel, the TownePlace Suites Indianapolis Park 100 on 71st Street in Indianapolis, didn't get FOX Sports 1 as part of their TV package via DirecTV. This ended up being a pain, but I had a backup plan.

I carry an Amazon Fire stick with me when I travel, mostly so I can do things like watch game shows on Buzzr. So, I plugged that into the back of the TV. Unfortunately, Amazon Fire sticks do not have a Spectrum app. So, I had to use the built-in internet browser to get to the site that allows you to watch channels live. This was a pain to get to work and I had some buffering issues, but I got it to work.

The Bass Pro Shops Night Race Saturday night was the easiest of the three. My hotel got USA Network and I watched on there. No problem. Now, the race itself, well, that's another story.

Then, there's Friday night. Oh boy. As you know, the Food City 300 was the first NASCAR Xfinity Series race on The CW. I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, what I didn't realize is that WISH, Indianapolis' CW affiliate, is very hard to see, especially if you're in a hotel.

I couldn't use the Spectrum site I used Thursday because I could only do that if I were home. The channel was unavailable on my hotel TV. Why? 

WISH seemingly hasn't been available on DirecTV or Dish Network in Indianapolis for about four years. It's also apparently unavailable on At&t U-Verse as well. Fubo or YouTube TV? You're out of luck there as well. In addition, if you're out of market, you can't watch your own over-the-air channels via those services. They'll automatically change to the ones in whatever market you're in. That meant that I would lose The CW that I would get if I were in Albany.

Earlier this year, WISH's owner, Circle City Broadcasting, had both major satellite services in Federal Court, accusing them of racial discrimination (Circle City had lost the case last year in state court, but appealed). DuJuan McCoy, president and CEO of Circle City Broadcasting, claimed that the companies "redlined" Circle City by refusing to pay retransmission fees.

For the sake of this discussion, redlining is a term most often used to describe discriminatory practices in regards to minorities (McCoy is African American). It is most often used to describe lending practices to minorities. It has effectively been outlawed in the United States in housing since the Fair Housing Act of 1968 was passed, but you still see evidence of the effects to this very day.

Circle City's case was dismissed from Federal Court in April. However, there has been no movement whatsoever towards a deal to get the channel back on either DirecTV or Dish Network in the five months since then.

Basically, the only ways to watch WISH in Indianapolis are over-the-air, or if you have cable. The second option wasn't available to me, so I bought a digital antenna at Walmart and tried to do it that way. Unfortunately, the ability to program channels is locked on the TVs by the hotel via a password that they obviously weren't going to give me, so I couldn't watch live.

Had they even had the channel at the hotel, I would have missed a decent chunk of the race. Everything that you've read about the mini dishes and storms are true. There was a thunderstorm that moved through during the race that knocked out the picture for a while. I would have been out of luck again.

What did I end up doing Friday night? I spent the evening watching the entire race on YouTube via the live in-car camera in Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car that NASCAR streamed. For most of the race, I had timing and scoring available...most of the race.

NASCAR had some issues with their timing and scoring during stage two. It literally froze in the Media Center at the track on lap 108. That, in turn, meant that the Virtual Media Center scoring froze, as did the scoring on the NASCAR app. It didn't freeze if you were watching on The CW, though.

I ultimately had a good idea of what was going on for much of the race on there, but you could only make out so much. I didn't know what the incidents looked like unless I checked social media.

Races on The CW are only available to stream via your local pay tv provider when you're home. There is no Peacock streaming available. The races are available the next day to stream in full on The CW's app and website.

Unfortunately, I think it takes longer to actually watch the races on The CW app than it does if you watch live. Every commercial break results in four to six unskippable ads.

This weekend, I'm home and will be able to watch everything live. Don't have to worry about hotels. Unfortunately, most hotels generally don't make channel lineups on their TVs available to you before you book. It's guess work what you're going to get.

Even worse, strange things can happen during hotel stays that actually take away channels. While I was in Indianapolis, I got back from the track to discover that I no longer got ESPN in my hotel room. Something had happened so that in ESPN's place, I now got the National Geographic Channel (which I already got, so I had it on two separate channels). I've never seen that before, but believe me, it happened.

For some viewers, watching a NASCAR Xfinity Series race is much harder than it really needs to be. I saw that first hand.

Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.