2024 was shaping up to be a big year for FOX Sports’ NASCAR coverage at the outset.
It ended up being bigger than most would have imagined.
Entering the season, the big news was the addition of Kevin Harvick to the broadcast booth full time for NASCAR Cup Series races. Harvick had been the best of the various guest analysts that had been working on NASCAR Xfinity Series broadcasts in recent years.
Also, since Harvick had just retired from full-time competition at the end of the 2023 season, he would have fresh knowledge of the Next Gen car and help explain a lot of the car’s idiosyncrasies.
Viewers had plenty of advance knowledge of the move. FOX announced during the Clash weekend in Los Angeles last year that Harvick would be in the booth full time.
In addition, Harvick had worked with Clint Bowyer for many years previously, having been his teammate at both Richard Childress Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing. In other words, this man would know how to keep him on task.
The result was great at times, but not so much otherwise. The worst race of the season was Texas Motor Speedway in April, where Harvick all but accused Bowyer of being hungover on air.
I know for a fact that the Texas broadcast struck a nerve for a lot of people. It was one of the most-read articles at Frontstretch for the first half of 2024 with over 100,000 pageviews.
On the Xfinity side, Adam Alexander held up the fort with a revolving door of guest analysts. You could argue that it’s getting worse in that FOX wasn’t even releasing a schedule for who would be there; you’d only find out a week in advance. It must have been very taxing on Alexander to barely have any idea of what you’re going to have from week to week.
For the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, it had a mix of people in the booth. Jamie Little called some races, as did Alexander. The Little races did not particularly go all that well. Despite Little now having dozens of races on play-by-play under her belt, it seems like she’s plateaued, and not in a good place.
Something just seems off. She seems stilted at times and says some strange things up there. It’s hard to listen to at times. I don’t have any issues with Alexander’s booth calls.
Finally, you have the ARCA Menards Series. This season saw races split between FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports 2, with 11 of the 20 races simulcast on FloRacing.
Those races were all over the place. You had races as support to Cup…
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