“We Haven’t Had a Decent Phoenix Race Since 1989”: NASCAR Insider Snubs HMS vs JGR Fight Claiming “Fans Don’t Care”

Whether the Phoenix Raceway produces good racing or not has been up for debate on the Door Bumper Clear podcast ever since Jamie McMurray made a guest appearance on the show. He boldly claimed that the track has not produced any decent race since 1989. During a recent episode of DBC, the hosts got into another tangle over whether the Phoenix Raceway should even host the Championship 4 race.

They went around a few possibilities and explored what other options they have for the season finale. But as it turns out, according to Brett Griffin, most of the fans don’t really care about the regular-season championship battles.

Brett Griffin revealed what NASCAR fans think about regular championship battles

After the race at Pocono, where JGR’s #11 of Denny Hamlin and HMS’s #5 of Kyle Larson got into a tussle, the spotter for Kaulig Racing, Brett Griffin, pushed out a poll on his Twitter, asking the fans if they care about what happens race in and race out in the championship battle. And it turns out that the majority of the fans don’t really care all that much.

As of now, 6.5k people have voted, and it turns out that close to 62% of NASCAR fans don’t have any interest in regular championship battles. For the fans, it wouldn’t have mattered much if either Hamlin or Larson won the race at Pocono.

Here’s the conversation as it went down during the latest episode of the DBC podcast.

Playing the devil’s advocate around whether the new playoffs format is more exciting than the older one, Griffin said, “When you’re saying… Phoenix is gonna be so exciting, because we’re gonna have 4 guys going for the championship. Well, our TV rating showed on screen that they’re super excited.”

To this, Freddie Kraft replied, “Well, I don’t know that that doesn’t have a lot to do with where we’re having that race at. Because Jamie McMurray came on this podcast and said we haven’t had a good race in Phoenix since 1989.”

“So if that same championship, and I am about to throw out something crazy, let’s say it’s at Daytona,” Griffin said. “You think our ratings are higher? We start the season at Daytona 500, biggest ratings of the year. Will the 2nd biggest rating of the season will be the Daytona season finale if we’re there?”

To which Freddie confirmed with a “Yes.”

But then TJ Majors stepped in, “Oh my gosh, I don’t even wanna think about being in that final. It’s been bad enough. I’ve been part of the final 4 Phoenix, and Homestead, and I can tell you this, when you go to Phoenix, you know, in the beginning how hard it’s gonna be. But at Homestead, you don’t, really. There’s so many ups and downs in that race.”

“The point is TJ, that people don’t care. There’s a regular-season championship, and the average “fan”, they don’t tune in for Phoenix, I don’t think,” Griffin concluded.

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We’re currently only in the 4th season where Phoenix Raceway has hosted the Championship 4 race. Jamie McMurray on his guest appearance on the DBC podcast shared why he doesn’t think Phoenix has produced good races in over 30 years now.

“Does not” – Jamie McMurray on Phoenix Raceway’s ability to produce exciting racing

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During the 276th episode of the DBC podcast, Jamie was asked to answer the spot-on, spot-off question. “First topic, Phoenix Raceway’s ability to produce an exciting Championship race. Jamie, spot on? spot off?”

“I’m kind of both and I know you’re not supposed to be in the middle,” said Jamie. “But here’s why I can say that. The track does not produce exciting racing. I get the restarts, they’re great. I mean, it’s so much fun and then you’re like, ‘Oh boy, we need a caution, right?’ But the facility is amazing, and so, I think from a TV perspective it’s not a good race.”

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So, if you were to vote in Griffin’s Twitter poll, what would you go with? Do you care about race-by-race championship battles or just playoff battles? Share your thoughts in the comments.