Texas Motor Speedway has facilitated back and forth many times in its history.
At first, it was a travesty marked by several obvious deficiencies. Then, it got good. Then, it was repaved for a good reason (issues with drainage) and effectively ruined by PJ1.
Now, things might be starting to get better … when drivers don’t wreck due to bumps. Sunday’s (April 14) AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 started off clean, then turned into a wreckfest.
This was not the best hour (or hours) for FOX Sports. The trouble seemed to start early.
On the second lap of the race, there was some kind of stack up that started around where Ross Chastain was running. Do I know what happened there? Not really. All we have to go on is the booth talking about it and some aftermath. The root cause was never shown. Forty-five seconds into the race, and the broadcast team was already in trouble.
Later on, there was a fire in the pits.
You see the black smoke from the fire, but it’s almost like they ignored it. Thankfully, pit crews with leaf blowers put it out pretty quick, so no caution was thrown. This is another thing that should have been reported on more thoroughly when it happened. Watching this broadcast, you wouldn’t have had much of an idea of who caused it.
Later on, a shot was shown on the jumbotrons literally more than an hour later indicating that Ryan Blaney drove through some spilled fuel, setting it ablaze. However, it wasn’t Blaney’s fuel that caught fire (he hadn’t even taken any yet). It was Corey LaJoie’s. Apparently, the Spire Motorsports No. 7 team had some issues with spillage all day Sunday. It wasn’t broached on the broadcast, but I know for a fact that it was covered on PRN Radio.
The situation was made worse by the fact that it did negatively affect at least one driver in Ty Gibbs. The fire went through his pit stall, forcing him to delay his stop. That ultimately cost him track position.
Shortly before the fire, FOX Sports thought that it was a good time to de-emphasize the live coverage in favor of a piece where Michael Waltrip talked to Kyle Larson about his upcoming Indianapolis 500 adventures. I’m very happy that Larson is going to have at it at Indianapolis, and it seems like he’s adjusted well (he claimed after winning the Cup pole Saturday (April 13) that the Dallara DW18 at Indianapolis was somehow less sketchy than the Next Gen car in Texas). A good run at Indianapolis could very…
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