The final race in the Prime Video slate of the season at Pocono held no shortage of action, strategy and even gave a brand new winner in 2025 in Chase Briscoe to the NASCAR field. 

The Tricky Triangle produced a plethora of storylines to cover which we’d like to take a peek into. Here’s five things Jack & I at TWA noticed throughout the race. 

Prime of the Season 

With Pocono done, the Prime Video stretch of the NASCAR season is officially done and we are quickly approaching the in season tournament on TNT. Seeing Prime go after what seemingly felt like just starting is unfortunate, and the broadcasts they delivered seemed to understand what the average viewer would want to see from the sport. 

Between the burn bar, the various camera shifts to different battles across the track, the extensive pre & post race and the accessibility, its inclusion has easily been the best part of 2025s broadcasting thus far. 

If you take a look at any of the metrics for the demographic of viewers on the Prime schedule, you’ll see an overall decrease, mainly from the 50+ demo, but a huge increase for the 18-49 demo. This bares well for the sport but one has to ask if five races is enough? Will this inspire these new viewers to find a way to watch the in-season tournament on TNT? Or will the lack of accessibility not latch their attention. 

Regardless, the passion and time put into these broadcasts alone will be missed dearly. Lets hope its good reception gives us even more races on Prime in 2026. 

Gamblers Luck 

Even though I touched on the team last time we went over takeaways, I can’t help but come back to the topic of 23XI. From 2021 to 2024, the team had steadily improved over time, making strides in equipment performance and stringing together moments and wins, especially for the 45 of Tyler Reddick. While Bubba Wallace missed the playoffs in 2024 after a statement 2023, his averages in finishing and starting position improved. 

Now in 2025, with a third car in the #35 of Riley Herbst, the team has seemingly regressed quite a bit. Whether it can be attributed to the entry of a third car, flat out poor luck, or puzzling strategy calls, things have been middle of the road. 

While Wallace’s season started out well, his late spring to early summer stretch has been awful, finishing sub 32nd four times in a month and a half. After a 36th place finish in Long Pond, what was once a nice points cushion above the playoff line is now merely 29 points in 15th. Things need to change fast and quick for the 23 team. 

More puzzling is Tyler Reddick’s season, who finds himself 107 points above in the cut line in 13th place after his 32nd place finish today. This is a driver who was in the championship four last season. Whatever is going on in the 23XI garage needs to be figured out and fast. Oh and Riley Herbst? His best finish the entire season is 14th. He’s often a liability on the track and is there as a pay driver. So one should ask; Was it time to add a third car for a team who has yet to win a championship?

No more Bris-woes

It seemed like it was inevitable that the #19 team of Chase Briscoe, who had been finding speed in practice and qualifying the last few weeks, would finally put it together and secure a win, and that they did at Pocono. 

Briscoe took the pole three races in a row, but could only finish in the top five in one of them. After a successful top ten in Mexico City, Briscoe finally broke through today amidst a bout with the Tricky Triangle where he won with consistency, good pit stops and well timed cautions. The win marks his first with Joe Gibbs Racing, making the Bass Pro Shops 19 a sight for sore eyes in victory lane. 

With the rest of JGR having success at various points in the season, barring Ty Gibbs, is this the breakout win for Briscoe to finally be a part of the mix in the playoffs? No doubt he wants it, and this time would prefer not to just be a splash for a few weeks like he was at SHR. 

Back on Track? 

After Connor Zilisch’s first win on a NASCAR oval at Pocono in the Xfinity Series on Saturday, it’s only a matter of time before the young star starts to win on a weekly basis. It’ll be time for the folks at Trackhouse to make a choice; either field a fourth car full time, something that seems strenuous to an already stretched team or cut someone off the leash. 

The most likely and seemingly only candidate on the chopping block is the 99 of Daniel Suarez, who besides winning an xfinity race in Mexico, has had a very tough season. The urgency to fast track Zilisch to Cup will only increase as he ticks off milestones in the Xfinity series. He’s no doubt currently a threat to win the championship, and if he lessens the mistakes, it could be a sooner promotion than anyone realizes. 

Does Suarez have a chance to stave off this fast rise? Maybe, but it would be a revelation from the 99 team that we haven’t seen since he’s taken over the car for Trackhouse. Zilisch, when ready, will have the talent, fan support and sponsorship behind him to take a car at Trackhouse. The clock is ticking is one way or another for the folks at Trackhouse and it’ll be interesting to see what comes of it. 

Tourney Time?

With Prime’s broadcasting rights coming to a close, the next race at Atlanta officially kicks off the inaugural in-season tournament. That might be to the surprise of many like myself because it hasn’t been marketed nearly at all, for something that is supposed to be for the fans.

The drivers seeds are set for what NASCAR hopes to be an exciting factor in the background for fans. I’m skeptical about it, I’m not sure how much fans will care for their drivers to win $1 million or about a driver versus driver tournament style can even fair in this sport. Apparently it’s worked in the NBA, but that doesn’t pique my interest either.

I hope for the sport that it does click and that the TNT crew is able to give it the attention it deserves, while not distracting from the race and playoff chase. It feels like a bad time for more to pay attention to in a sport that is focused on changing it’s demographics. At least NASCAR is trying something new to beat the dog days of summer.