Welcome to my 16th season of TV commentary at Frontstretch. This year, we’re going to have more race broadcast critiques, along with some TV interviews. Recently in Daytona, I sat down with NBC Sports’ Leigh Diffey and had a 20-minute conversation with him. I also had the opportunity to talk to James Hinchcliffe about his TV work. Look for pieces on those interviews as we get closer to the NTT IndyCar Series season opener next month in St. Petersburg.
This week, we’re talking about the first FOX NASCAR broadcast of 2024. The Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum could have been a complete nightmare. The Pineapple Express storm that is still hitting Los Angeles as this column is being written was correctly forecast to wreak havoc on the original schedule for the event. As a result, NASCAR moved the race up a day.
When this was announced, I thought NASCAR had violated the terms of its TV deal by doing this. Moving the race itself up wouldn’t have done so, but moving on such short notice could have. My previous understanding is that such a move would have required 24 hours’ notice to the new scheduled start time (if prior to the original start time), meaning NASCAR would have needed to make the move on Friday.
I suppose this situation could be described as force majeure as had the move not been made, NASCAR would have been trying to run both races on Thursday, assuming there isn’t damage to the local area. That is, if they didn’t call off the whole weekend permanently.
Regardless of the situation, FOX Sports 1 was ready to go at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Saturday night (Feb. 3) to unveil its newest permanent broadcast booth, with Kevin Harvick joining Mike Joy and Clint Bowyer. I am very happy that FOX has finally dispensed with the guest analysts (for the NASCAR Cup Series, at least) and created a setup where chemistry can actually exist.
In Harvick, FOX gets a recently retired driver who already has dozens of races worth of booth experience from his guest analyst work over the past nine seasons. Unlike Bowyer, Harvick has raced the Next Gen car for the past two years and can bring a lot of insight to the broadcast that wouldn’t have been there.
In addition, Harvick can help keep Bowyer focused on the task at hand. I’ve previously taken a page from South Park’s Mr. Mackey and described Bowyer’s on-air behavior at times as “skylarking.” By that, I mean he tends to say a bunch of random stuff at…
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