Michigan suffers from rain and prolonged breaks

Anything can happen at Michigan International Speedway.

This includes the weather. The whole weekend was a nightmare, with rain causing delays on all three days. This also includes the FireKeepers Casino 400, which was postponed to Monday (August 19) after 51 rounds.

For some reason, NASCAR decided not to advance the start of the race on Sunday, or to do so only very slightly. As a result, rain began to fall for the first time during the formation laps, which in turn led to a two-hour stoppage.

During this time, viewers were treated to a number of interviews with crew chiefs and drivers. Finally, USA switched to last week’s Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway, which featured some improvements. A chyron was added to indicate that Austin Dillon had lost his playoff winning rights. Joey Logano’s interview was also beeped. Viewers also received regular updates from the race track.

Speaking of Dillon, the whole chaos around Richmond was the focus during Countdown to green. This didn’t really surprise me, as it was pretty much the only topic of conversation on NASCAR last week. The penalties were detailed and Dillon got some time on the air to explain his thoughts.

Of course, since Richard Childress Racing has appealed the suspension and will present its case on Wednesday, the situation in Daytona could look very different.

Given the limited time they have these days for pre-race programming, I didn’t want them to spend a lot of time on Sunday dealing with the chaos in Dillon. If they had, they wouldn’t have had much time to actually pre-show the race.

It was a similar scenario during the red flag on lap 51. We got a few interviews before everyone retreated to their coaches. It was 6:10 p.m. ET when the race was postponed to Monday. I was happy with the coverage we got here. I just wish the race had started earlier so we wouldn’t have to deal with this for the second year in a row.

When the USA broadcast began at 11 a.m. ET on Monday, the cars were already on the track, barely having time to introduce themselves before talking about what Denny Hamlin’s team had to do to repair his car’s chassis after he spun into the grass on Sunday.

Monday’s broadcast seemed to be dogged by bad luck, with two of the three biggest stories of the race occurring during the non-stop commercial breaks.

The second problem will be the moment that will be most remembered from this race. On lap 138, Corey LaJoie had a real accident on the backstretch.

This was an alarming accident in that seemingly all of the equipment NASCAR mandated for the Next Gen car (side windows, roof flaps, hood flaps, vertical fin, diffuser flap, etc.) did absolutely nothing to keep LaJoie on the ground.

The team was in complete agreement on this point. The best example of this accident that comes to mind in Michigan is Johnny Benson’s rollover in his debut in what is now the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 1993.

The only similarity between this crash and LaJoie’s is that the spin that led to the rollover was caused by simple contact. The other two crashes were caused by other causes. Elliott Sadler had a tire blowout in 2000 that let in too much air, while Kyle Sieg’s car was pushed by Chandler Smith on Saturday.

NBC Sports aired a virtual cut car segment explaining what should happen in such an accident, but obviously didn’t happen. I feel like the wind played a bigger role here than the broadcast suggested. How much, I’m not sure. Still, I felt like they covered it pretty well.

The other example was the series of flat tires that occurred just after the halfway point for Logano, Todd Gilliland and AJ Allmendinger. I have no idea what caused that.

There were suggestions that it might have been debris on the track that caused this. That would make sense as there were three retirements in about one lap. Then there was discussion about possible issues with the tire cord on the rear tires during the Sunday portion of the race.

I heard it live on Monday and thought to myself, “What?” Why am I only hearing this now? Shouldn’t this have been hinted at in the red flag interviews on Sunday? If that was the case on Monday, why didn’t we send one of the pit reporters to one of the teams in the pits and show it?”

If the blowouts were caused by debris, NBC Sports hasn’t found them. We saw footage from the NASCAR Drive camera in Logano’s car showing what he was doing when his tire blew out, but nothing was visible.

Overall, this was a real downer. I was unhappy that we were never able to find out the root cause of what was happening. The fact that this happened during a break only made it worse, even though it was outside of the cabin’s control.

Racing-wise, the race was pretty action-packed. I think a lot of spectators sometimes think it was thin on the ground, but it was more exciting than last year. According to NASCAR’s Loop Data, there were 435 more passes than last year. Monday’s race had eight more passes per lap due to the extra time, but still more passes per lap.

At times the action was fast and furious, and NBC Sports did a good job of conveying that action. The caution in the middle of the race led to alternate strategies being used, giving viewers a very good idea of ​​what to expect from the various maneuvers.

The post-race coverage was pretty good. The viewers got interviews with the top eight finishers, which I enjoyed seeing. But when you broadcast a race on a channel that seems to regularly Law and Order: Special Unit for Victims Marathons, you can work pretty well with them.

I have no idea how long this race was supposed to run on USA Monday. Spectrum had literally only scheduled the broadcast for half an hour, which I knew was ridiculous. I had the entire race on my DVR for two hours extra, but I don’t know what they were planning.

Also of note, Monday’s show was Rick Allen’s last Cup Series broadcast as a live commentator. Starting this weekend at Daytona, Leigh Diffey will take over the booth. Allen has been in his current role since 2015 and has set the tone for the broadcasts. In 2018, I sat down with Allen and he talked about it.

We thought there would be some confirmation that this was Allen’s last Cup broadcast (for now). Unless I missed something, there was nothing. Seemed kind of weird.

Then again, it’s not like Allen is leaving the network tomorrow. He still has four more NASCAR Xfinity Series broadcasts airing on USA via Watkins Glen. The eight broadcasts on The CW that close out the season will also be NBC Sports broadcasts. If nothing happened after that to thank Allen for his work over the past 10 seasons, that would be suspect.

Overall, there were some good races in Michigan on Sunday and Monday. NBC Sports did a good job bringing viewers closer to the action. However, they missed some key moments on Monday. This was partly due to the nonstop commercial breaks, but also due to not being thorough enough. With the playoffs coming up, they need to get that right. Daytona is a good place to get back on the track this weekend before the Southern 500.

That’s all for this week. This weekend we have a split setup in play. The NASCAR Cup Series will be co-located with the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Daytona. Saturday night’s broadcast will be Diffey’s first Cup race in the announce booth since 2017.

Meanwhile, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series playoffs begin on Sunday at the Milwaukee Mile. This will be accompanied by a combination race of the ARCA Menards Series and the ARCA Menards Series East. IndyCar is visiting the Portland International Raceway this weekend, while Formula 1 is returning from the summer break with a trip to Max Verstappen’s home track, the Circuit Zandvoort. You can find the TV schedule here.

We’ll have a review of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 from Daytona here in the next edition of Couch Potato Tuesday. Front line. We’ll have some thoughts on Diffey’s return, in addition to other aspects of the show.

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