2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Thirty-Three Phoenix

Cars in field: 38/40
Pole: Sammy Smith(18)
Outside pole: Austin Hill (21)
Stages: 45-45-110

Caution on lap 2 of 200 for a spin by Justin Allgaier (7).

Caution on lap 7 of 200 – the restart – for a spin by Kyle Sieg (38).

The television ‘coverage’ is awful. They are showing a split-screen of a crew-chief sitting on the pit box watching the event and the track surface and outside wall and occasionally the bumper or hood of a car. That should is occasionally replaced by the view of the track surface and wall from the inside of a car with the sides of cars intermittently appearing. There’s no context possible for any of it. Apparently there’s no racing action to cover. Gotta love a championship race without decent racing action to broadcast. So we have 155 laps of nothing to look forward to seeing; hours of the track surface, the passing outside wall, the frame on the passenger side of the car, side panels, bumpers and hoods of cars. I hope they move the championship race to a different track in the near future.

John Hunter ‘JHN’ Nemechek (20) wins stage one.

Caution on lap 85 of 200 for Derek Kraus (11) hitting the wall and coming to a stop on the track.

Caution on lap 100 of 200 for a crash by J.J. Yeley (08). TV was showing the passenger side frame inside a car when the incident occurred. MRN reported that Yeley slid down the track. Looks like – in the replay – someone got into the back of Yeley and turned him around. Of course there’s not a decent camera angle so we can actually see the number of the car that turned him. I’m not sure why they almost bother to occasionally shoot the race.

J.J. Yeley (08) hit the pit wall and the car is wedged against the pit wall. There’s a tow truck coming to get the car. Both front tires were flat so he had no steering coming into the pits ending up in the wall.

Caution on lap 136 of 200 for a slide, spin, and crash into the outside wall by Myatt Snider (19) with help from Brett Moffitt (25). MRN called the Snider crash. TV was again showing the inside passenger-side frame of a car instead of any racing that might have been occurring on the track. They managed to catch some of the crash before he straightened out the car and headed for pit road. Clearly the broadcast folks don’t believe anyone is interested in seeing what’s happening on track in this event. Maybe they’re correct. If so, NASCAR probably needs to cease televising events if a championship race is too boring to show on-air.

Restarting on lap 142 of 200.

MRN is calling a lively race. NBCSports is broadcasting views of a car hood, the track surface, the wall, and the rear-end of a car in the distance. They change to a 16 panel split-screen. Not q

MRN reports Chris Hacker (53) goes up in a cloud of smoke in lap 162 of 200. MRN reports Hacker spins at the end of pit road on lap 163 of 200. The event remains green. MRN’s Alex Hayden reports Hacker hit the right side wall which caused the smoke. After a quick television replay of the on-track incident, we’re back to looking at a hood and the track surface and outside wall as it passes.

MRN reports one of the lap cars hit the wall, in the vicinity of the leaders, but continues on lap 168 of 200.

Chris Hacker has hit the car four times in the last lap and a half according to MRN’s Dave Moody. MRN reports Hacker is trying to limp that car to pit road. We’re still looking at a hood. The shot finally changed to a shot of two cars from a distance. Back to the hood.

MRN is reporting a tight race between the two leaders Cole Custer (00) and John Hunter ‘JHN’ Nemechek (20) with Justin Allgaier (7) closing in on the lead pair on lap 173 of 200. TV continues to show the hood. NASCAR digital reports the championship four are in positions one through four.

Caution on lap 180 of 200 for Connor Mosack (24) riding the wall.

Daniel Hemrick (10) wins the race off pit road followed by Cole Custer (00), Justin Allgaier (7), John Hunter ‘JHN’ Nemechek (20), Austin Hill (21), and Sam Mayer (1).

Justin Allgaier (7) seems to have smoke coming out of the pipes on the car as they head to the green flag. He is lined up behind Cole Custer on the inside.

Restarting on lap 188 of 200 with Daniel Hemric (10) and Cole Custer (00) on the front row. Custer and Allgaier (7) rapidly pass Hemric for the lead.

Caution on lap 195 of 200 for a spin by Anthony Alfredo (78) with help from Dawson Cram (07).

We will restart in overtime with Cole Custer (00), John Hunter Nemechek (20), Justin Allgaier (7), Sam Mayer (1), Austin Hill (21), Sheldon Creed (2), Riley Herbst (98), Josh Berry (8) and Chandler Smith (16), and Kaz Grala (26).

Cole Custer (00) wins the race and the championship.

They raced in the final 14 laps. The rest of the event sounded lively, but looked exceptionally boring since the television broadcast rarely showed the action on track, but instead showed the frame inside a car, the hood of a car, the track surface and the wall.

2023 Xfinity Series Champion

- - Cole Custer (00)

“Hey Cole! America is waiting for you to grab a trophy”, Marty Snider yelling in the microphone as Cole Custer who was talking to his team owner, Tony ‘Smoke’ Stewart, a few feet away on the stage. Snider is so tacky and inappropriate.

“Maybe the truck series drivers will learn something. You don’t have to destroy each other to win races”, Tony ‘Smoke’ Stewart, during his television post-race interview talking about the final restart of the Xfinity series race.

That was not an enjoyable event. It was boring until the final fourteen laps, then it was exciting for almost a lap on the final restart and the finish was just okay. It was not remotely my idea of an exciting race, not to mention an exciting championship race. Basically boring with a very few exceptions on restarts.

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2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Thirty-Three Phoenix

Next Race: Daytona 2024

GO Justin Allgaier (7)!!!!