Are FOX Broadcasts Hurting NASCAR’s Ratings?

1. Was no penalty for Ryan Preece at Bristol Dirt the correct call?

One of the biggest in-race stories from the NASCAR Cup Series’ Easter Sunday (April 9) at the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track was the race-long quarrel between Kyle Larson and Ryan Preece.

Larson first squeezed Preece into the outside wall out of turn 4 in the second stage; the contact bent a right rear toe link and ultimately spoiled what was shaping up to be Preece’s best performance of the season.

Preece and the No. 41 team were clearly not happy with how the situation went down, and they threatened retaliation afterward.

After Larson spun on his own in the final stage, the two met again with 76 laps to go. Preece returned the favor and put Larson in the outside wall, and whether it was out of frustration or because the car couldn’t turn, Larson bounced off the No. 41 car heading into turn 1 and spun out. The contact ended his day with a 35th-place finish.

Preece, however, denied intentionally wrecking him after the race and said that he got loose.

While such an incident would normally be a nothingburger when it came to penalties, Denny Hamlin’s penalty (and the upholding of said penalty) for running Ross Chastain into the wall at Phoenix Raceway changed the game.

But there is a difference between promising retaliation and admitting an intentional act because a driver or team threatening retaliation does not always mean that it happens (just ask Martin Truex Jr. about how Joey Logano did in fact win the damn war in 2018).

Judging from what happened in the race, one could conclude that Preece decided to squeeze Larson. But since it didn’t come out of his mouth, the possibility exists that it was, in fact, an accident or a product of hard racing.

Hamlin decided to remove all doubt while Preece did the opposite after the race; no penalty was the right call.

2. Are FOX broadcasts hurting NASCAR’s ratings?

NASCAR’s 75th Anniversary season began with a degree of fanfare and goodwill that started to come undone in race one.

The season-opening Daytona 500 puts more eyeballs on the TV and more butts in the seats…