Cars in field: 37
Pole: Tyler Reddick (45)
Outside Pole: Bubba Wallace (23)
Stages: 20-25-50
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 77°F, Feels like (sun) 74°, Feels like (shade) 72°, Wind SSE 23 mph, Wind Gusts 35 mph
MRN’s Alex Hayden is on the PRN broadcast of the COTA event.
PRN reports the course is shorter by a mile (2.4 miles), so they increased the lap count from 68 to 95.
I changed the television channel to the race to see if it is watchable. Since I’m seeing a lot of idiotic camera shots and ludicrous split-screens, apparently nothing is actually happening in the race itself. The most interesting thing – and identifiable – was Kyle Larson (5) losing a right front tire on the track. They followed the car without the tire for a bit. That was visually understandable. That was followed by a shot out of the front windscreen with something in the center of the shot seemingly on the windscreen, then a view of the hood of the car and the track surface in front of the car. Nothing remotely interesting visually.
Ryan Preece (60) wins stage two.
I tuned in with eleven laps left in stage two. They seemed endless.
Caution on lap 50 of 95 for a two-car incident that Alex Hayden excitedly called involving Daniel Suarez (99), and teammate Connor Zilisch (87). Alex Hayden says the car has gone up in flames. He reports the flames have been doused and Zilisch is out of the car. The television broadcast is showing commercials. The television broadcast is back. They apparently don’t have actual video of the incident – of course.
Caution on lap 78 of 95 for a crash involving ‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) and Austin Dillon (3). Hamlin locked up his brakes and crashed into Dillon, sending Austin into the gravel pit. PRN says Hamlin had a mission to take out Austin Dillon there. They said he came from ‘way back’
Restarting on lap 82 of 95. The lap-by-lap has disappeared. That seems to happen frequently at the end of races. The leaderboard is displayed, but nothing where the lap-by-lap should be.
Now it’s showing starting soon – as though the race hasn’t started:
STARTING SOON!
Live updates will begin displaying closer to the start of the race.
They have totally wrecked a useful feature.
Finally it has reappeared after more than two laps.
As the first and second place cars battle for the lead we’re stuck with a split-screen shot of the battle, and someone on a pit box watching the race. That’s followed by the track surface for a while, then finally back to the actual racing on lap 89 of 95. Unfortunately then it’s back to looking at a wife watching the race from the pitbox, followed by the backs of grandstands it appears, then the right rear corner of a car.
Christopher ‘CBell’ Bell (20) takes the lead from Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (8) on lap 90 of 95.
More track surface shots with a car in the distance from bumper-cams.
The race is tough to watch on television because the coverage is so bad. It’s tough to listen to on the radio broadcast, because they’re over-hyping a battle that isn’t as exciting or, really as close as it sounds on the radio. Maybe that is a result of the crappy television coverage, or maybe PRN is up to their usual hijinks calling the most exciting race in the world, while watching a mediocre event.
The television broadcast has a caution light graphic on the screen.
The top three cars are lined up behind each other, but since the course is so long that doesn’t really mean much.
PRN’s Pat Patterson is screeching with a few laps to go, asking questions about what might happen at the end of the race, while they continue to drive around in a single-file line.
Christopher ‘CBell’ Bell (20) easily holds off William ‘WilliB’ Byron (24) and Tyler ‘TyRed’ Reddick (45) to win.
Congrats to Chase Elliott (9) on fighting back from an incident on the first lap to a fourth place finish.
Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (8) finished fifth.
It sucked; as COTA races do.
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