I'll be honest with you. I hate this race name. Periods do not work well with race names. It's terrible. That said, the race name above has been an official slogan for years.
Saturday brought the Xfinity Series to Daytona International Speedway for their season opener for the 40th straight year (it's started every season for the series since it officially became a touring series, but it actually predates 1982 by a couple of decades). There was plenty of action to be had, but defending champion Austin Cindric walked away with the spoils. TV-wise, there was plenty to talk
about.
The announcement in late January that Tony Stewart was going to join Adam Alexander and Clint Bowyer in the booth for the race was intriguing. Bowyer is his usual bouncy self, but Stewart also has a reputation for silliness when the pressure is off.
Stewart is a different man today as compared to 15 years ago. For one, his eyesight is not the best. He was asked to read off the Race Analysis before the race went green and couldn't because he didn't have his glasses on and couldn't see it. Whoops.
This trio in the booth together was more or less pitched as chaos. Adam Alexander was apparently going to have quite the time keeping Bowyer and Stewart in line. In practice, that wasn't really an issue. When you really get down to it, most people don't want to screw things up intentionally, or go completely off-script. When it does happen, the results can be all over the
place.
In practice, this wasn't chaotic at all. Bowyer was his usual self on-air. As for Stewart, once he could see what was going on, he was able to add a lot of good information to the broadcast. Since he and Bowyer have worked together for five years, they know each other quite well and can bounce things off of each other. I think the broadcast was better for having the two together up there with
Alexander.
During all of the broadcasts last weekend, FOX made substantial use of a Drone Cam. It typically hung out exiting turn 2 and provided shots of the field coming past. I felt this was overused and added nothing to the telecast. Perhaps it was used in lieu of a regular cameraman not being allowed to make the trip.
Side-by-side commercial breaks are a good thing for NASCAR broadcasts since the racing generally doesn't stop during commercials. Racing is the only sport other than Track & Field that has to deal with these issues (that includes marathons). However, you can't treat the smaller screen and complete lack of sound like everyone and see and hear everything going on.
For example, Josh Williams had a pretty terrible day Saturday, bringing out two cautions in the first 25 laps. The first was due to a blown tire. I'm led to believe that he stopped to draw the yellow then, but I don't know if that's the truth or not. He brought out his second yellow during a side-by-side break. This was when he spun exiting turn 4. Viewers never got a replay of what happened to him, nor did
the broadcast even really talk about it. They just said that the caution was out and that everyone was coming into the pits. Williams' No. 92 Chevrolet could be seen sitting on the apron during the side-by-side break, but only if you looked quickly.
Caesar Bacarella's incident was only seen during a side-by-side commercial as well. This included replays. I cannot speak for everyone, but I'd rather be able to see that full screen and have some analysis.
Last weekend was also Valentine's Weekend. Love was in the air. FOX Sports 1 celebrated this by airing what amounted to a personal ad from Noah Gragson. This was creepy as heck. Given Gragson's track record, they could have chosen someone better. Like anyone else on the grid. A number of my colleagues at Frontstretch have publicly voiced their opinions on Gragson's actions with women in the past. In response, Gragson has actually blocked our website on Twitter.
Due to the cautions, the race ultimately ran long and finished right around the time that the built-in slot overrun ended. As a result, post-race coverage was minimal. Viewers only got interviews with the top two finishers (Cindric and Brett Moffitt) before leaving Daytona for college basketball.
Overall, this was a pretty decent race. Yes, Cindric won and put some distance on his potential adversaries for the championship. Viewers got some good racing and some questionable moves on-track that led to shenanigans.
In the booth, the trio of Alexander, Bowyer and Stewart did work well together. While there was quite a bit of brevity, no one was bouncing off the walls or anything like that. There was a fair amount of control here. There was good insight to be had. I enjoyed the commentary. I just didn't enjoy some of the other choices made on the broadcast. Remember, everyone does have
fans. People want to know what happens.
Phil Allaway is the Frontstretch newsletter manager. He can be reached at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
