Embedded amongst the NASCAR media corps regulars at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday night was a reporter from TV Guide Magazine on assignment to gather quotes about NASCAR Full Speed.
A positive sign that the Netflix docuseries was at least worth the trip, the reporter attended the post-race press conference and asked Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney about their depictions in the show after it went live earlier in the week.
“I loved it,” Busch said. “I thought I came across as the star of the show.”
That was followed by laughter in the room because unbeknownst to the writer, Busch was scarcely featured in the production, reduced to just a cameo in this first season.
“I loved you in it,” said Logano, equally straight faced, with commensurate laughter.
Hopefully someone let him in on the punchline after getting a thoughtful answer from Blaney, who was featured heavily in the pursuit of his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.
“I thought it was pretty good and showed people a different perspective of our home lives and then showing the pressure of the final 10 weeks of the year, the ups and downs, the positives and negatives,” Blaney said. “The playoffs are pretty brutal.
“It puts a lot of emotion on these teams and these drivers. Whether you’re a diehard fan or a new fan, it gave you something to learn. It was great and I can say I loved the ending because the ending was great. I thought Netflix did a great job with it.”
Logano quipped that he wishes the show had come out one year sooner … after he won his second championship.
“Of course, he liked the ending,” Logano said with a laugh. “He won the championship. I had a hard time after the second episode watching myself get knocked out of the playoffs again and couldn’t watch it anymore. I couldn’t handle it!”
He said all of that with his trademark laugh.
“I will say, I thought it was a huge win to see that it was like top-five of all Netflix shows in the US and how many households it reaches. That can only be good and it seems like that can only be a positive so really good. I just wish it were one year before.”
The show has been genuinely well received for both its authentic but dramatic presentation of the NASCAR Playoffs and numerous drivers expressed that sentiment earlier in the day during their pre-race media availabilities at the Coliseum.
On one hand, Denny Hamlin received the most screen time across the five-episode run but it’s also true that he gave the film crew the most access. His nearly two-decade pursuit of a Cup Series championship is also one of the most compelling stories in the sport.
“Again, no one had editing rights except for Netflix, so they are ultimately the ones putting out the (stories) they thought were compelling,” Hamlin said. “And obviously, my quest for this Cup has been 18 years in the making, so they thought that was a compelling story.”
Hamlin said he has received generally positive reactions from those in his social circle.
William Byron, one of the top drivers from this past season, says he gained over a thousand followers on Twitter within the first 24 hours of the show being released. The show also focused on his history as something of a prodigy behind the wheel to his LEGO hobby away from the track.
“I think they did a really good job capturing the intensity of the final few races and did a really good job in production, in general,” Byron said.
Fellow final four driver, Christopher Bell, whom the production crew admitted wasn’t in their initial plans until he won his way into the championship race says he won’t watch but only because he never watches his interviews or segments.
He’s heard nothing but positive commentary about how he and wife Morgan were portrayed though.
“So that’s good,” he said.
Brad Keselowski, the 2012 Cup Series champion, was not asked to be part of the production but says he isn’t mad about it.
“No, no one asked me to be in it,” Keselowski said. “I understood they couldn’t do everybody so I’m not angry about it. I think that program is going to be really successful and when it is, everyone will kind of get a turn in the apple line.
“I didn’t get a turn the first time but I’m not bitter about it.”
Meanwhile, Logano says the camera crew got a little too ambitious sometimes. On one hand, they got some really compelling content the night he was eliminated from the playoffs at Bristol.
On the other hand …
“They just follow you everywhere you go,” he said with a laugh. “They were trying to film me changing and I said, ‘OK, I think this is probably enough.’
“I don’t know how to say it politely, but …”
He also recognized that Hamlin really put himself out there, at risk for better or worse, and it probably worked out for him in how everyone was portrayed.
“We didn’t open the doors as much as others,” Logano said. “I mean, Denny really did. I don’t know if I feel really comfortable doing that just from a privacy and safety standpoint. That was my reason for kind of like, ‘OK, this is what I’m comfortable with.’
“At the racetrack, everything was fine. You’ve just got to have some limits there for me. Maybe I’m weird about that stuff, but I didn’t feel like they said anything that wasn’t true, at least about me.”
And based on the three episodes he’s watched; he says it’s a net victory for the sport.
“I think the show is a great success and I think on Netflix it’s probably a big win there,” he said.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.