NASCAR on FOX has been one of the most hated entities in sports television in recent years, but at one time it was far from it. NASCAR on FOX used to be on the cutting edge of NASCAR broadcasting and made the first half or so of every NASCAR season both fun and exciting to watch on a weekly basis. So today we are going to look back in time 10-20 years ago to see just what they did so right to endear themselves to the vast majority of NASCAR fans. This is why NASCAR on FOX used to be great.
Video Credits:
Barney Ward
Dave W
FOX Sports
John Snyder
Motorsports on NBC
NASCAR
NASCAR on FOX
NASCAR Productions
NascarAllOut
Scott Allen Brown's Mashup Museum
SHEVYWOOD
Skewcar
SMIFF TV
Vitor Souza
Thumbnail Credits:
Getty Images
NASCAR
NASCAR Images
Outro Song:
Strange Animal (Crowder Remix) by Gowan
Songs:
NASCAR on FOX 2001 Grid Intro Music by FOX Sports uploaded by Scott Allen Brown's Mashup Museum
NASCAR on FOX 2011 Grid Intro Music by FOX Sports and uploaded by Victor Souza
#NASCAR #Motorsports #racing
37 comments
What is your favorite NASCAR on FOX moment?
Darlington 2003 easily
Too many to count but here’s one that stands out, “Smith gets the flag! And this time he’ll get to keep it!”
Talladega 2012
The first time I watched it in 2007.
I think FOX has gone downhill ever since Steve Byrnes died
Steve was the very best in his profession.
Ik I wish I was him
@TatsuPazuzu to replace by Steve Neville and Vince welsh
Yep and ever since Mikey got a full time job at Fox and stopped racing.
And now we have ads that go “i NeEd tO tRy iT fIrSt!” Nonstop
FOX in the early 2000’s was GOLD with DW, Mike Joy and Larry Mac. Now today Mike Joy is still there, but past his prime, Clint Bowyer the goofy comedian at points, but doesn’t provide as much analysis, and a rotating 3rd Commentator (honestly, have Jamie McMurray be the 3rd person in the booth.
What FOX needs to do is get Bowyer out the booth and Jamie Mac in the booth full-time, have a better lead Commentator, Stop doing goofy and cringe skits trying to make a big race look like a big Joke, and GET RID OF THE GOD AWFUL CARTOON CHARACTERS!!!!
At this point, why bother? They’re about to get screwed by NBC and the new TV deal, so I say, let them go the way of CBS and TNT/NBCSN
Boyer is the 1 who tells what is going on a d why. The other 2 are asking him things. I don’t even think the critics on these channels even watch the races!
It seems like Fox has turned to NASCAR to promote absolutely everything else they have coverage of during race broadcasts. I never see NASCAR pushed that hard during any of their other events like I have this year with USFL Football. (I see now that Fox Corporation is the owner of the league)
On top of that it’s pretty evident they oversell ad spots to increase revenue because they see NASCAR as one big advertisement parade and not a sport.
I agree. But Tbf NASCAR isn’t really a sport but more of an entertainment product somewhat akin to reality TV.
I mean, stage cautions, driver fights, be glad the track doesn’t stop for commercials like NFL do, but they’re getting real close
The 2001 starting grid animation with drivers making goofy faces and amusing music, is the best starting grid presentation I have ever seen and is one of the reasons I started actively following Nascar as a kid. I never understood why they abondoned this concept so soon.
I thought of this too. My favorite was Kenny Wallace and the monkey dance or whatever it was that he did.
That was probably the most cutting edge thing I had ever seen when that debuted! Heck, it still holds up great today more than 20 years later!
FOX didn’t get “better” or “worse”, it’s just that all the people they poached from the pre-2001 era eventually cycled out and the people they replaced them with weren’t acclimated with the sport nor really cared to do so. FOX has always been FOX, it’s just that for a little while there the adults were still in the room. Once they were gone it became a cartoon show.
Yep.
That’s why I say the decline started when Fox replaced Speed with FS1.
During the Speed era, if Fox had an announcer they wanted to try out, they placed them on practice/qualifying sessions, and on the filler shows between sessions. If they worked out, they moved up the latter into becoming regulars, if they didn’t, Fox cut ties, and brought in another announcer.
In addition, it gave their existing talent the chance to broaden their knowledge/relationships with drivers and crews.
Not many people remember Mike Joy being in the MRN broadcast for the 1979 Daytona 500. Then he interviewed Darrell Waltrip when he won the Daytona 500 in 1989. Starting in 1998 he became a full time commentator. That’s the stepping stones of how broadcasting should be set. People that have decades of knowledge with the sport. People that don’t sound overly scripted or cringy. Same can be said with the pit reporters. They had personality, some even joked around with the drivers like Tony Stewart and Dale Jr. You just dont see that anymore. FOX really made NASCAR stand out since NASCAR isn’t considered a sport by most fans: the pre shows helped that out. These days it’s a joke.
IMO, the decline started when Fox rebranded Speed into FS1.
The reason I say that is that yes, Fox itself ended coverage in May or June, but these same announcers were seen year around on Speed, which means that the announcers where able to show their personalities without detracting from the racing product, and is why Fox had the chill vibe going on, while still being professional.
In addition gave time for people who didn’t have a strong knowledge base of the sport a chance to learn, and gave their existing talent a chance to further their relationship with the teams and viewers.
Fox is trying to shove the antics/features they used to do on Speed during the race telecast itself, and it detracts from the broadcasts, and it doesn’t help that outside of Jamie Little, the people they hired to replace their old guard either have a personality of cardboard, or are told to try way too hard to be goofy.
And that re-brand started when Speed lost the F1 rights to NBC after the 2012 season. Outside of NASCAR & IMSA, SPEED’s biggest property was F1 & when that left, it really started SPEED’s demise (though there were warning signs leading up to that).
Also, Jamie Little can’t hold a matchstick to Krista Voda when she was around. Idk what Fox was thinking
What made Fox so good, especially the first decade was the personalities. Between Chris and Jeff in the Hollywood Hotel to Mike, DW and Larry in the booth even to the pit reporters. You could tell that all the on air talent had real chemistry and genuinely liked each other. Sadly as the original crew began to retire, it’s just not the same. Don’t get me wrong. Mike Joy is still absolutely fantastic as a play by play, but they just never could get the color right after DW retired. Bowyer has shown some signs that he is getting better. But it just isn’t quite as good as it was in the beginning.
You mentioned that around 2012 is the last great period for nascar on fox, around that time, I liked when they had Dierks Bentley do a modified version of “Sideways” for the nascar on fox intro. Great intro to hype up the race. Miss those types of things they would include. Feel like once Fox sports took over Speed channel, that was the beginning of the downfall of nascar coverage on Fox
To me, the top NASCAR on Fox moment has to unquestionably the 2003 Darlington spring race, you had a truly great race, there was plenty of lead changes, the now iconic side by side finish with Kurt Busch and Ricky Craven, and to top it all off, Craven beating Kurt Busch to the line by a literal nose. One moment in Fox’s tenure with NASCAR I’ll likely never forget.
It’s funny that you post this as over the last few weeks I’ve been going back and watching early 2000s Nascar races. What hit me beyond the nostalgic racing was Fox’s level of care and authenticity to the sports core. Everything was tailored so well. And Jeff Hammond, Larry Mac, DW, and Mike Joy in the booth were always great. The whole team were consummate professionals.
I personally preferred broadcasts from about ’88-’97 to anything Fox ever did. Yeah, the production quality may have been lower, but I loved the commentators we had back then. Ken Squire was great at making each race feel like a grand event of its own, not just 1/36th of a championship battle, Bob Jenkins had a perfect balance of being informative and exciting, and Ned Jarrett was always a good calming presence. And before the introduction of tickers, they did a good job of really going “through the field”. Starting lineups would mention everybody, and everyone would get talked about at some point in the broadcast. Fox to me was always a bit too goofy, even in their heyday.
Thank you I agree
Second on that
Right F-ing on!!!
Pre-2000 was awesome. Great announcers. Great production. It was classy. And you had CBS, TNN, ESPN, ABC, TBS and NBC all promoting the sport. Now, you have 2 networks, and the other networks don’t care.
I will always maintain that the 2001-2006 NASCAR TV package (including NBC) is the zenith of motorsport broadcasting.
I think the major problem is the change of culture in NASCAR. Before the chase/playoffs, each race was the focus of a given weekend. Matt Kenseth recently observed that back then, points weren’t talked about very much (except for after the race). Now, under a system supposedly all about wins, points are talked about constantly. The broadcasts uses to follow what’s happening right now. These days, the agenda is following the playoff contenders. Anyone not within reach of making the cut is not talked about unless they spin or crash.
I personally think that when Darrell Waltrip retired from the booth is when everything started changing for how NASCAR on Fox was like Mike Jeff and Darrell worked well together, not to the degree of Mike Larry and Darrell, but after he retired from broadcasting in 2019 full-time at least I feel like that’s when NASCAR fox started to change