Saturday afternoon saw the 2020 Xfinity Series season come to an end at Phoenix Raceway.  For this year, NBC Sports moved the race from NBC to NBCSN, which resulted in a ratings drop.  However, you had a decent amount of racing on offer.  How did NBCSN bring this action to viewers?

As you would expect, there was plenty of championship coverage on Saturday.  The Championship 4 drivers were the only ones that were interviewed prior to the race.

Once the race got going, I found the coverage to be the most inclusive of the three races in Phoenix.  That's not really saying much, but this was the race in which non-Championship 4 drivers made the most inroads.  Drivers that were outside of the Championship 4 were not ignored anywhere near as much as in the other two events.  Ross Chastain was strong on Saturday, as was Noah Gragson.

That said, there was still plenty of action that didn't get the coverage that it should have.  There was some decent racing between the Championship 4 drivers, but that wasn't the only action out there.  I'm pretty sure that there was a lot of action out there that viewers just couldn't see.

On lap 157, Rick Allen talked about the incredible season that Chase Briscoe had this year.  He had nine victories and sealed his spot on the Cup grid next year.  He also dealt with terrible issues while trying to build a family with his wife, Marissa.  As you've probably heard, Marissa has suffered two miscarriages this year.  Naturally, that is a very tough thing to deal with.  

Heck, it's bad enough when you learn that your teacher had a miscarriage.  This happened to me back in 1992 when I was in second grade.  She had brought in pictures of her ultrasounds to show the class and everyone was really excited.  Then, she lost her daughter.  I don't remember the circumstances of what happened there, but it was a really sad time.

Allen talked about how Marissa had her miscarriages and how that has affected Chase this year.  This was done in a way that sounded somewhat blase.  As in, "yeah, Marissa's had two miscarriages this year, but Chase has that Cup ride in 2021."

Unfortunately, this was deleted before I had a chance to see it on Twitter myself, but Marissa was apparently not happy with Allen about this.  A user archived the reaction.    While yes, Allen made note of the fact that the Briscoes made it public, the whole thing came off as insensitive and unnecessary.  The NASCAR Reddit community (r/NASCAR) views this as just the latest in a series of annoying acts by Allen, but also believes that he was forced to do this by producers at NBC.

There are probably a bunch of ways in which this could have been done better.  Do you not mention the miscarriages at all?  Perhaps.  Let's face it.  Chase Briscoe getting to Cup in 2021 doesn't improve his home life in regards to having children.  It just means that he's got more money and doesn't have to worry about certain things.

Post-race coverage was fairly decent.  The race ended right about when NBCSN thought it world.  Viewers ended up getting interviews with the Championship 4 drivers, along with Roger Penske and Tim Cindric (Team Penske president/Austin Cindric's father).  Another blatant example of the focus here is that Noah Gragson didn't get on the broadcast here despite coming within 1000 feet of winning the whole race.  Heck, there isn't even an interview with Gragson on NBCSports.com.  That's not right.

Building on this week's edition of Couch Potato Tuesday at Frontstretch, this all-encompassing focus on the Championship 4 towards the end of the season is really untenable.  Going forward, the approach needs to change in order to not only make for better viewing, but to help the sport as a whole.

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