2024 NASCAR Cup Series Race Two Atlanta

Cars in the field:
Pole: Michael McDowell (34)
Outside pole: Joey Logano (22)
Stages: 60-100-100
Weather: Partly cloudy, 62 degrees with 3-6 mph winds

Caution on lap 2 of 260 for a multi-car wreck that began with Austin Dillon, collecting Chase Elliott, Noah Gragson, Josh Williams, Christopher Bell, Harrison Burton, Bubba Wallace, Daniel Hemric, Ryan Preece, John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, Justin Haley, Ty Gibbs, Carson Hocevar, BJ McLeod, Daniel Suarez

Television has a three-way split-screen on lap 115 of 260 which shows the track surface passing, the bumper of a car, and something else that I haven’t been able to identify – maybe a driver’s helmet. It’s been on the screen forever it seems. Every once in a while it would switch to the front of the field, but mostly it was those weird shots that completely took me out of the racing action. Granted the on-track action is lacking. It’s more than a bit boring as they seem to be mostly driving around in circles, side-by-side, with little ability to race door-to-door.

Green flag stops are underway on lap 130 of 260.

Michael McDowell (34) lost control and spun at the entry of pit road collecting William Byron (24). Both tapped the inside wall. Lots of pit road speeding penalties. They are observing the two-stage speed limit, 90 mph on the apron, and 45 mph on pit road. They’re running around 180 mph on the track prior to pitting. Sections 1 and two the speed limit is 90 mph with the rest 45 mph under green. Under caution the speed limit is 45 mph across the board.

Caution on lap 159 of 260 involving Joey Logano (22), Chris Buescher (17) and ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11).

Austin Cindric (2) wins stage two under caution.

Caution on lap 174 of 260 for a spin by Kaz Grala (15) after contact with Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (8).

PRN reports the lights have just come in at 1744 eastern at the track as the sun sets. They also report the wind has picked up.

Caution on lap 198 of 260 for a spin by Chase Elliott (9). Ross Chastain (1) ran into the back of Elliott twice sending Elliott around. Ty Gibbs (54) also went around. TV is only showing the useless video of Ty ‘TeamOwnerJoeGibbsIsMyGrandfather’ Gibbs driving through the spin, and PRN’s Doug Rice began yelling ‘Chase Elliott’ over PRN’s Rob Albright/Doug Turnbull’s report on the spin, so he was unable to finish telling the audience us the details of the incident.

Another busy but boring event. Stuff is happening on the track, but there seems to be no continuity with the race. They drive around two-by-two for a while then eventually somebody will spin. Since the cameras are either showing the front three rows of the field, or a distant shot from the blimp, or the track surface or a bumper the viewer can’t see the car numbers, and at times the car colors (on the distant shots). So it’s virtually impossible to watch the television coverage and tell what’s going on. They also continually show a shot from an in-car camera with something on the lens obscuring the view out the front window. The race seems boring on television – though PRN is yelling their lungs out about what’s occurring on the track. Then again, we’re rarely able to see what they’re calling.

Austin Dillon (3) slams the wall on lap 205 of 260. He just seemed to swing wide in the turn.

PRN reports the crowd is on their feet and they have been on theiir feet most of the afternoon. TV has shown a number of fans arguing with each other and kids playing and not watching the track, but never fans on their feet for something happening on the track.

At one point Kyle usch was battling for the lead and we were looking at a very attractive sunset skyscape shot. They have shown some lovely sunset shots, but they suck at showing on-track action.

Caution on lap 219 of 260 for a crash involving Kyle Larson (5), Brad Keselowski (6) and John Hunter Nemechek (42). Corey LaJoie (7) tapped both the Keselowski and Larson cars. The Keselowski car turned in front of the Larson car.

Brad Gilley, Doug Turnbull, Rob Albright said the teams on pit road are glued to the televisions watching this race. Doug Rice said it’s been a great race. The television coverage of this event has shown a pretty boring event with cars driving around in pairs, and bumpers of cars, and the track surface, and shots through dirty windshields and pretty shots of the sunset.

One lap after the restart we see the track surface from the front windscreen, followed by the front bumpers and track surface from the rear window of a car, followed by a shot through a dirty front window and finally a shot from outside the car of cars racing. The television coverage indicate the only thing worth watching is the sunset. No need to buy a ticket and sit in the chill for that. The television coverage needs to show what PRN is calling – or PRN is st

There’s a strong battle for the lead and television is showing a shot from the window of a few car bumpers and the sky.

Caution on lap 239 of 260 for a spin into the wall by Chase Briscoe (14) collecting Denny Hamlin (11), Justin Haley (51), Josh Berry (4).

When we’re actually able to see the on-track action from outside the cars, but close enough to read the car numbers, the racing is engaging and exciting, but usually we aren’t able to see that.

Red flag. Caution at 1843 – so about a fifteen minute red flag to clean up the oil dropped by the Chase Briscoe (14) car when he hit the outside wall.

PRN’s Wendy Venturini missed her queue giggling with NASCAR President Steve Phelps. They had to go to someone else for a report and come back around to her at the end. She then gave a report on Denny Hamlin’s team’s plan on pit road, then went on about Steve Phelps being down there talking to pit crew members. She followed that up with a gushy interview with Phelps, again going on and on about him being on pit road talking to people. From the way she’s carrying on I guess the president of NASCAR generally ignores the crew members of the teams.

The television broadcast threw the coverage to the studio desk with Shannon Spake and Jamie McMurray and it looked like a Saturday Night Live sketch set.

Restarting on lap 245 of 260 with Ryan Blaney (12) and Daniel Suarez (99)on the front row.

Caution on lap 248 of 260 for a spin by that collected Josh Berry (4) spun and ran into the Carson Hocevar (77) and several cars went spinning behind the spin including Chase Elliott (9). Berry doored Hocevar so hard Hocevar’s wheels left the track surface.

Restarting on lap 255 of 260 with Daniel Suarez (99) and Ryan Blaney (12) on the front row followed by Kyle Busch (8) and Martin ‘MTJ’ Truex Jr (19), followed by Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace (23) and Austin Cindric (2), Ricky Stenhouse Jr (47) and Ross Chastain (1).

They come across the line three-wide! Daniel Suarez (99) wins by .003 of a second (about an inch) ahead of Ryan Blaney and .007 ahead of Kyle Busch (8).

Those last five laps were worth watching. They were exciting and engaging and decent coverage from outside the car. The end was so exciting it made up for the icky coverage throughout the rest of the event. When we could see the racing in the third stage we would occasionally see some entertaining racing, but then it would change to either an in-car camera shot or a blimp shot, or bumper-cam shot, or some other shot of something besides the exciting on-track action taking the viewer out of the race and out of the excitement.

The television booth guys (Mike Joy, Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer) were very excited about the race they saw. The PRN guys were very excited about the race they saw. I am not excited about the race I saw and it doesn’t compel or encourage me to buy a ticket for the next race at Atlanta. It appeared to be nothing much for 245 laps then exciting racing for 15 laps. That’s a lot of money (tickets, lodging, food), time (race time plus commute time), and energy to put in for fifteen laps of racing. The television coverage needs to improve and the race needs to occur at a little warmer time of the year.

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GO Hendrick 48 & 9!!!!