Even though he was in his race car at the time the 2025 Coca-Cola 600 was being run, and then smashing watermelons in victory lane after winning the race, Ross Chastain still gave Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Prime Video a big thumbs up for the latter’s NASCAR Cup telecasting debut at this past Sunday’s crown jewel event.
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“I thought they knocked it out of the park,” Chastain said on this week’s edition of the Rubbin’ Is Racing podcast. “They’ve got some experienced analysts on the broadcast; they’ve also got some newer people on the broadcast that are bringing a unique and fresh perspective to their roles.
“They just bookended the race with a lot of coverage, and from what I’ve watched back – I’ve watched about half of the race back in different pieces – a lot of two-box coverage where you still know what’s going on even under caution.
“Like we’re idling around under caution, and you can still see us, so you never or you didn’t miss out on as much. So yeah, a lot of coverage,” elaborated the Trackhouse Racing Driver.
Chastain specifically singled out host Adam Alexander and Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s return to a broadcast booth (after taking last season off following a contract dispute with NBC).
“I thought Adam Alexander did a great job calling us to the win,” Chastain said. “Dale even got in a few words on the backstretch when the 24 (William Byron) hit the wall, so that’s very unique to see your main and – I don’t know what their technical titles are – but like Adam gave up part of the backstretch to Dale, who, I don’t think that position usually calls that last lap the way I really noticed it usually.
“I’m pumped for Adam, who’s been around such a long time, and getting this opportunity on Sundays. I think they did a great job.”
Chastain even told a pair of certain family members what they missed.
“I told my grandparents several months ago, they were complaining that they don’t have streaming and they don’t have Prime and they (still) don’t,” Chastain said. “I said, ‘Mimi’ (grandmother), all you need is a credit card and a little patience.”
Chastain then launched into an impromptu and unscripted commercial of sorts for Prime.
“And with the 30-day free trial, you’re going to get most of it for free, anyway,” Chastain said with a laugh. “They were watching on their computer. They don’t have a smart TV, but they were watching on their laptop on my Prime account – I gave them my login, so I probably should say that out loud, but I said, ‘Here’s my login, I’m not using it.’
“They were worried it was going to charge me when they watched. I’m like, ‘No, it’s not how it works.’ So they logged in on my account on the weekend since I’m not using it, of course.”
Sunday’s race was the first NASCAR Cup event that was offered exclusively on a streaming platform, and the numbers were impressive.
Prime Drew Cable-Like Audience Numbers
According to Motorsport.com, Prime drew 2.92 million viewers for the overall event, which put it in the same neighborhood as most cable TV broadcast viewership for NASCAR races on FS1 or the USA Network.
Prime will televise the next four Cup races as part of the overall NASCAR TV contract. It especially received plaudits for its post-race coverage, which lasted nearly one hour, 15 minutes, where FOX or NBC typically have very short post-race coverage because of overall time constraints for the next show in line to be aired.
Earnhardt said on his weekly Dale Jr. Download, “The other luxury of streaming is that the post-race is fluid. If we feel like we’ve got everything done and everything we can possibly share in 30 minutes, that’s when it’ll end.
“If it needs to go longer, it’ll go longer. We don’t have an out. And if there was ever so much going on that we need to be on for an hour and a half, they will. That’s the great thing about the post-race.”
The upcoming Cup Series race this weekend at Nashville Superspeedway will further give evidence to the fans to build an opinion around if they prefer a streaming service such as Prime Video as the sole broadcaster of NASCAR or not. Going by the way the sport is evolving, the fanbase should ideally be all for it.
