This was a twisty Sunday at Gateway last weekend. While the crowd was awesome, and proved that this race track deserves to be in the Cup Series, everything around it seemed to go awry. There was a nearly 2-hour lightning delay despite there being no rain, four brake rotor failures, two more red flags late in the race in addition to the early delay, a power outage causing the TV broadcast, radio broadcast, and at-track Internet to go down, and a rash of cautions causing the race, which started just after 3:30 PM ET, to end just after 9:00 PM ET.
It was a chaotic day to say the least. Here is a look at all that went down, and how that continues to
After only one lap of green flag racing, a caution came out for Tyler Reddick spinning in turn one. That quickly turned to red after a lightning strike within eight miles of the race track caused the 30 minute lightning clock to start. The lightning clock seemed to restart routinely, causing many fans to get restless.
avery watkins used a Noah Gragson meme to express her frustration.
This was not the only Lightning McQueen reference.
Who did it better? Elliott or Gragson?
In fairness, the IndyCar race was quite entertaining.
Could this happen?
Probably the most concerning thing from this race in terms of on the race track was that there were not one, not two, not three, but four brake rotor failures. The failures ended the days of Carson Hocevar, Tyler Reddick, Noah Gragson, and Bubba Wallace. Bob Pockrass caught up with Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Randall Burnett, and Kyle Busch after the race for their thoughts on the situation.
Each of them expressed how unique that Gateway is in terms of braking. With the long straightaways and tight turns, drives use more brake at Gateway than other tracks of its’ size. It’s definitely something for teams to look at.
However, what some of these brake rotor failures did was bring out three of the seven cautions in the final 64 laps elongating the finish. Which some of our YouTubers expressed some frustration over.
Jaret aged about 40 years seemingly.
It seemingly would not Darian.
Just as FOX was showing a replay of Hocevar’s incident the screen froze, and FOX lost their TV feed. At the same time, MRN lost their radio broadcast feed as well. This caused a social media frenzy amongst fans.
Yes, we were all asking that question Brandon.
Twice is not so nice in this instance.
That was a problem.
Eventually the broadcasts were restored, but that was not the only issue. There were issues with the fiber connection at the race track causing teams to work without Internet and without critical SMT data.
NASCAR officially said that the issue was not with their equipment or equipment at the race track.
Not much you can do without SMT data.
Overall, it was a chaotic day at Gateway, and a race that everyone was seemingly excited to finally see come to an end. Hopefully when NASCAR returns to the track there will not be these kinds of issues like there was this year.
Lionel Racing finally confirmed the first wave of 2026 NASCAR Authentics 1:64 scale diecast for Monday morning, with the line of retail-exclusive diecast featuring a new look for the new year.
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Chase Pistone, a former competitor on the short track racing circuit in addition to NASCAR’s National Series, has passed away. Pistone, now a successful Legends Car owner, was 42.
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Three races in, the 2026 season is finally starting to show its hand. COTA shifted narratives, exposed weaknesses, and raised new questions about contenders, pretenders, and everything in between.
From substitute drivers being forced into action to points gaps growing faster than expected, COTA delivered more than just a road course chess match. There were momentum swings, reputation hits, and at least one young driver stacking up enemies before stacking up results.
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