Why Are Fans So Upset at the FOX NASCAR Broadcast?
What’s Happening? Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Gateway was memorable for all the right reasons, but many fans were…
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This weekend at Sonoma, FOX ends its’ 24th season covering NASCAR. However, while Fox has created some incredible moments, like all broadcasts, there have been some misses, and the fans have not been keen on Fox’s misses this season. These are all of the biggest ones.
The Clash at the LA Coliseum was a tough start to the year for Fox. The Clash was moved up at the last minute from Sunday to Saturday, when Qualifying was originally scheduled. This meant the race was moved from network TV on FOX to the FS1 cable channel, obviously not within their control.
Remember that FOX may not have had the same resources available for a normal race broadcast since they were supposed to only broadcast qualifying, but we don’t know. However, that didn’t make some of these issues any less jarring for fans.
During a late restart, Ty Gibbs and Joey Logano got together, eliminating both drivers from contention for the win. Also, two incidents on the last lap were not shown as they happened: Kyle Larson and Bubba Wallace getting together, along with Ross Chastain hitting the wall.
After the race, Ty Gibbs and Joey Logano confronted each other. Fox did not show the actual conversation between the two. Instead, the official NASCAR YouTube channel showed it.
Tempers are a major part of short-track racing, and missing these moments at the end of the race left fans who only saw the race without checking social media in the dark. It was weird to see that Fox made no mention of it.
In fairness, Fox did much better handling a driver conflict later in the season. They showed the Ricky Stenhouse Jr. vs Kyle Busch fight as it was happening, along with in-depth analysis and replays of all that led up to the incident, including Stenhouse Jr. parking Busch’s car on pit road.
All that being said, the LA Clash was still a big miss, and it wasn’t the last time, either. EC 35 points out that Fox did not show the incident between Kyle Weatherman and Ryan Sieg at Portland International Raceway last weekend. Weatherman was fined $25,000 for contacting Sieg’s car on pit road, but, Fox did not show it.
Again, we don’t know everything that happened or why it was missed at Portland, but, it still left fans in the dark.
One thing that Cody Bailey on X pointed out to us was the final restart at Richmond on Easter.
As the story goes, Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin were on the front row for the last restart at Richmond. Hamlin took off well, but, Truex Jr. claimed that Hamlin jumped early. Fox showed a replay after the race, but, they inexplicably did not show the telemetry data to definitively determine when Hamlin jumped.
Maybe there was some sort of technical glitch or something that caused the telemetry data not to show. However, this is the absolute worst time not to show it. This could prove whether or not Hamlin jumped, but, Fox did not show it for whatever reason.
However, the race that probably pushed many fans over the top was last weekend at Gateway. Fox missed multiple things at Gateway.
What’s Happening? Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Gateway was memorable for all the right reasons, but many fans were…
One such instance was Fox curing from the battle for the lead in the closing laps to two boxes of fans in the stands. It seems Fox was trying to put the battle on one screen with fans in the other, which, makes a lot of sense. However, it did not work this time.
Samcamworm particularly disliked this decision.
However, this was not the only thing Fox missed, either. At the end of the race, three wrong names were included in the unofficial results: Justin Allgaier in the No. 5, Shane Van Gisbergen in the No. 16, and Kaz Grala in the No. 15. Each of these drivers had been in the previous race at Charlotte, but they were not entered at Gateway.
Again, maybe this was some glitch, but, it looks sloppy. None of these drivers were even in the race, but, they were included in the results for one reason or another.
Some fans, such as gabe belville, were not happy about how Fox handled the pyrotechnic explosion at Gateway last weekend. Fox did not show them immediately despite them going off during the pace laps.
In fairness, Fox eventually showed the pyrotechnics. However, the delay was not received well by fans.
Fox is returning in 2025 for its 25th season, and fans are hoping some of these mistakes are not repeated again. What do you think about all this? Let us know on Discord or X what your take is, and don’t forget you can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and even YouTube.
