"That’s part of the thing is frustrating to me" - Jeff Gluck alleges NASCAR prioritized TV earnings over fan experience at Michigan

NASCAR journalist Jeff Gluck recently expressed his dissatisfaction with the decision to postpone the race at Michigan earlier this week. According to him, the race should have been held on a day when people could still have attended it.

The Firekeepers Casino 400 was halted after the first stage, with Ryan Blaney leading, due to heavy rain. The remaining 149 laps were held on the following day at 11 am ET. Attendance was noticeably lower on Monday, with significantly emptier stands compared to Sunday.

Many fans missed the race due to the postponement, and Gluck believes NASCAR should have exercised greater caution considering the forecast. He also suggested that they could have adjusted the race start time, as television networks allow for up to 24 hours' notice of schedule changes. Speaking on The Teardown Podcast, he said:

"TV has already agreed to a policy if there’s 24 hours’ notice and people see rain coming, NASCAR has the ability to move up the start time. We all saw the forecast all week. I think NASCAR got to a point to where they just thought, ‘Ah, it’ll be scattered storms and there should be enough time for us to get it in and maybe don’t have to move it up a whole hour or something.’ I don’t know why that didn’t happen." (at 38:22)

"That’s part of the thing that’s frustrating to me. Like, we have seen NASCAR go in such a TV heavy direction. And you get it because look at the money," he added.

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Jeff Gluck believes that most people who attended NASCAR's Michigan event were not locals

Jeff Gluck believes the sport is becoming overly focused on TV broadcasts. He suggests that NASCAR's reluctance to reschedule the race earlier might be due to the significant revenue generated from television.

Gluck emphasized the importance of considering fans who attended the race in person. Noting that Michigan is a sparsely populated state, he pointed out that many fans traveled long distances to watch the event live, only to be disappointed by the postponement.

"So, you can’t fault TV, they wanna get a return on their investment," Gluck stated (at 40:05). "I get that. But at some point, hasn’t it gone too far one way? Because you’re asking people to come to the track like Michigan for example, you’ve taken them down to one race, they’ve got one 400-mile race now."

"It rains here and it’s just not fair to these people. Not everybody’s local and barely anybody’s local around here in Brooklyn, Michigan. It’s not a high population area. People are driving in from a long way, they’re camping all weekend. It felt like there’s no urgency to do something like, ‘Let’s make sure we give these people a race on the day that they came," he concluded (at 41:16).

The race resumed on Monday with Stage 2, which Kyle Busch won under caution. The final stage was marked by several incidents. With just two laps remaining in overtime, Ross Chastain's Chevrolet spun, bringing out the caution flag once more. The final lap saw a thrilling battle between Tyler Reddick and William Byron, with the former ultimately securing his second win of the season.