Championship Weekend is a busy time in the world of NASCAR. Everyone is hard at work and dealing with ginormous pressure. So much so that they cannot realistically enjoy the weekend. For TV, that’s not as much of an issue. However, it can result in changes that are not necessarily good for the broadcast.
Season Finale 500k
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series season finale was a day of mixed emotions. You had the championship battle between Joey Logano, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott on one hand. On the other, you had the heartbreaking news about Coy Gibbs.
In regards to the Gibbs news, we first started getting inklings about that right about the time Countdown to Green started. In that situation, you have two options. You can report about it, but you run the risk of being incredibly insensitive at best. If you’re wrong, your credibility is completely shot and you could be punished both by your employer and other teams. The other choice is to sit and wait.
As you know by now, Joe Gibbs Racing announced the death of Coy Gibbs roughly 40 minutes before the green flag on Sunday. NBC had Kyle Petty talk about the situation since he’s been there before. It’s a tough situation, but I believe that NBC handled it with class.
During the Peacock-exclusive portion of NASCAR America Post-Race, they expanded upon the circumstances. It’s going to be a tough offseason for JGR. It also seemed rather tough for Marty Snider to talk about.
An unplanned aspect of the broadcast Sunday was the absence of Steve Letarte, who struggled on Saturday to get through the Xfinity Series Championship Race broadcast before leaving and going to Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix. There, he had to have surgery.
Very little in the world would keep me from broadcasting the Championship race from Phoenix. Well…. Apparently an emergency appendectomy has done the trick. Thank you to Saint Joseph’s hospital and everyone who helped me out. pic.twitter.com/ftkdD31xZ4
— Steve Letarte (@SteveLetarte) November 6, 2022
As a result, Sunday’s broadcast was less technically adept than normal. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was apparently in fairly regular communication via text with Letarte during the race to try to supplement the telecast. It helped to a certain degree, but it just wasn’t the same.
The fear with these winner-take-all championship races is that the whole thing becomes just about the Championship 4 and no one else matters. On Sunday, that particular…
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