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NASCAR Reveals Cause of Wi-Fi Issue at Darlington

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Alexandra Lange | Last updated Apr 9, 2025 1:18 PM ET

Last Sunday at Darlington Raceway, several teams reported technical difficulties early in the race, particularly citing Wi-Fi issues on the spotter stand.

While a race without internet is fitting for throwback weekend, it posed significant issues for spotters who relay key intel to drivers and teams about timing and scoring data, race lines, and more.

On NASCAR’s weekly Hauler Talk podcast, Mike Forde, Managing Director Racing Communications, revealed the cause of this connectivity issue.

“The reason they lost internet is that there were so many devices on the network, it just kind of suffocated the network,” he said. “It seemed like there were devices that should not have been on it, on it.”

Forde explained that NASCAR quickly resolved the issue, saying, “Our IT folks kicked those devices off and once we unclogged the network, we were able to free it up and get it back in working order. It got back pretty quickly. We definitely had it for the second half of the race.”

Hopefully teams won’t experience this issue in the future. NASCAR says they are working on a solution.

“Looking at it, we’re going to come up with a solve in the future,” said Forde.

The podcasters joked about March Madness being a potential cause for the surge in Wi-Fi activity during the race, especially with the local-favorite University of South Carolina women’s basketball team playing in the NCAA Championship at the same time.

“I did not give out the password to my buddies,” NASCAR.com contributor Nate Ryan joked.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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