Brad Keselowski is one of those drivers who has seen it all in NASCAR. We aren’t just talking about the racing but also everything that comes with it from a business and a broadcast perspective. 

The RFK Racing co-owner is a Cup winner who grew up watching races on traditional cable, like most, and has even been part of the commentary booth for a few NASCAR races. 

Keselowski would often work with FOX to review his own races as well as take up the role of a broadcaster who called Truck races. Recently, Keselowski was performing similar duties post-race in Pocono, but this time with Amazon Prime, NASCAR’s newest broadcast partner. 

Post-race in San Diego, Keselowski was asked by a member of the media about his thoughts on what Prime is doing right. Kesewloski used the press conference uploaded by Cup Scene on YouTube to laud Prime and the perspective they bring. 

The No. 6 RKF driver said, “I think Amazon comes in with a fresh set of eyes and they’ve really brought something to our sport. Certainly, we could find any issues to pick them apart with, but I’ really proud of their flexibility, really proud of their professionalism and willingness to push our sport and the other broadcast partners to be better."

Keselowski didn't just praise Prime, but he also meant that this is a good cue that other broadcasters can take to up their game. The biggest example of this is FOX Sports.

FOX has been a longtime partner of NASCAR, covering the sport since 2001, and throughout these years, they've had their fair share of ups and downs in terms of the feedback received from fans.

Keselowski pointed to the flexibility of Prime, who were able to move the Pocono race up by two hours because of rain predictions. While Prime was able to do so, other broadcasters may not have been able to do the same, given the fixed broadcast timings and multiple events to stream live. 

So the veteran driver just believes that the newcomer's efforts are encouraging existing partners like FOX to improve their own coverage and storytelling.

The 2012 Cup Series winner was part of the post-race show on Prime, and he was awestruck with the kind of race telemetry and data that Prime had provided him to make a sharp and critical analysis of how Christopher Bell ran out of fuel while leading the race in Pocono. 

Keselowski believes Prime got better with fan feedback

Prime is currently in the second year of its broadcasting deal with NASCAR, and its five-race streaming quota has just come to an end. Keselowski, who got to experience everything Prime has on board to provide the best viewer experience, elaborated on how Prime got better. 

In the same interview, he said, “I have a lot of empathy for them because I think when it was announced that NASCAR was going to have a three-headed media rights deal between broadcast, cable, and streaming, that there were a number of people that came down on Amazon and there was a lot of negative sentiment.”

Keselwoski added, “I think they somewhat took that to heart and have made sure they delivered a product that was so fantastic that the sentiment has been quickly turned down and they deserve all the credit in the world for having that mentality and for executing upon it.”

It’s not just Keselwoski who is all praise for Prime. FOX has often borne the heat of fan dissent over the quality of broadcast, and there has been a visible shift in the number of fans asking for Prime to be given more races to stream. 

What Prime does incredibly well, apart from being flexible with timing, is taking the feedback of fans on board. Not only do they take the negative feedback about their own broadcast, but it seems like they closely monitor what fans say about other broadcasters to increase their efficiency. 

Who do you think provides fans with the best race viewing experience?

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Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason