Netflix NASCAR series targets deeper content and showcasing personalities

Aaron Cohen and the team from Words + Pictures believe being the outsiders on a project can be a good thing.

It’s the approach Cohen and fellow executive producer Connor Schell took when working on “NASCAR: Full Speed,” the Netflix docuseries coming to the streaming service Jan. 30. The five-episode series follows nine drivers on and off the track as they compete for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series championship.

“I think people inside the sport might know things and not necessarily realize how interesting they are to a broader audience,” Cohen told RACER. “I’m a big believer in if you do things for the broader audience, the hardcore fan will also find it interesting if it’s well done. The most ridiculous example I can give is if you read an article on NASCAR or Ryan Blaney or Denny Hamlin in The New York Times or Rolling Stone or something more general, I think the hardcore fan will be really interested in that because it’s an outsider’s perspective.”

The first episode, titled “Playoffs or Bust,” covers the final race of the regular season where the 16-driver playoff field is finalized at Daytona International Speedway. The following three episodes break down each round of the playoffs before the finale, “Across the Line,” goes in-depth leading up to and during the fight for the championship at Phoenix Raceway.

All nine drivers who participated in the series were playoff drivers. Among them was Ryan Blaney, who claimed his first Cup Series championship.

“We definitely embraced the idea that we were not NASCAR experts and all of our storytellers working on the show were not experts,” Cohen continued. “So, to come in from the outside and sort of say, ‘Hey, wow, this is a really interesting world.’ So many aspects are super interesting in terms of all the technical stuff and the characters. They are phenomenal characters and I think that’s something we were thinking of first.

“It’s not so much, ‘OK, let’s look at the calendar and how are we going to set up the playoffs?’ It was, ‘Who are the characters that we really want to focus on and dive in on as much as we can?’ And earn their trust to give us the access that we had. We had some amazing access.”

Denny Hamlin opened up his home, brought cameras into meetings at 23XI Racing, and his motorhome at the racetrack. Hamlin’s two daughters, Molly and Taylor, are featured, as is his mother, Mary Lou and father, Dennis.

William Byron shares insight into his training routine and infatuation building Legos. In the episode featuring Ross Chastain, he shares his family’s story of watermelon farming, what it takes to be a race car driver, and even jokes about the nicknames his fellow drivers have for him (spoiler alert, they’re expletives).

Others featured in the series include Bubba Wallace and Bootie Barker, his crew chief. Barker is unafraid of the camera and his honest thoughts on any situation.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who…