Motorsport News

FOX Innovates In Atlanta, But Still Has Some Fixable Issues

NASCAR Cup Series

Before we even get into the critique, I’ll state that I am not a fan of the reconfigured Atlanta Motor Speedway. I have no idea why the dudes running the facility thought this redesign was a good idea. The place needed a repave badly, but they didn’t need to go about it this way. Also, it seems like they didn’t do a good job as the place is bumpy as heck.

Superspeedway-style races are some of the easier events to cover for TV partners. Having everyone bunched up together means that you don’t have to deviate all that much from your general grandmaster plan to cover the event.

That said, there really wasn’t that much action at the front of the field early on Sunday. Joey Logano seemed to have the pack wrapped around his finger. Don’t be shy. Feel free to drop back and show all of the action since the pack was pretty rarely fully single-file Sunday.

I understand that FOX wants to make as much use of Larry McReynolds on the broadcasts as they can. I still believe that the best way to go about doing that is to have him at the track every weekend, but I don’t have control over FOX’s personnel moves. What they really shouldn’t be doing is having full-screen virtual cutaway car segments during green-flag racing. If you’re going to do that as a full-screen piece, do it under yellow. If not, make it a split-screen. I feel like viewers shouldn’t miss any action because of that.

Sunday brought a counteraction to the mess from back at Daytona International Speedway last month. Aric Almirola’s cut tire that caused him to crash out of the race resulted in FOX cutting out of the full-screen commercial to show the wreck. When this happened, I thought, “Oh man! They did it.” The shock of the move is the same now that it was when they did it for the Big One in the 2001 Daytona 500.

Speaking of the ongoing Mike Joy issues, he seemed to welcome people to contact him during Sunday’s broadcast. That, in and of itself, is not necessarily new with Joy. He’s always been willing to talk to fans about the broadcasts, all the way back to the news group days. Social media has, if anything, made him more reachable. Heck, he’s actually read Couch Potato Tuesday here at Frontstretch over the years. I cannot say whether he still does or not, but I can tell you that I’ve gotten e-mails from Joy in the past based on columns that I’ve written. And no, he wasn’t being a jerk about anything I wrote.

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