Corey Heim made history last Saturday. Running from the pole, the Tricon Garage driver swept both stages and led a race-best 124 of the 175 laps. Eventually, he fended off Chandler Smith to clinch a 0.823-second victory, tying with Greg Biffle’s nine-win 1999 Truck season. The documentation of this fabulous moment, however, may not have been up to the mark – as fellow Toyota driver Denny Hamlin pointed out.

The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran is currently pursuing a championship in his 19th Cup Series year in the offseason. But while Denny Hamlin enriches his JGR resume with 59 trophies and counting, he also keeps track of big Cup aspirants like Corey Heim. That is why FOX Sports’ latest blunder frustrated him.

Another FOX story turned sour

Fox Sports, $25.6 billion partner of NASCAR, has been around for two decades. However, there is no love lost between Fox and fans and drivers of the sport. From blurry checkered flag finishes to inaccurate coverage of crucial racetrack moments, the number of critical points that Fox faced in 2024 was high. The wave of criticism continued into this year as well. Although NBC and USA Network are handling Cup races at present, FS1 is covering Truck races – to the detriment of Corey Heim’s glory. Denny Hamlin broached this topic in a recent ‘Actions Detrimental’ episode, thanking a fan for bringing up a burning issue. “I’m glad I saw someone on social media bring this up. I saw someone say, ‘I’m confused,'” he said.

Then Denny Hamlin broke down the gist of the problem. He chided Fox for going against contemporary color norms of denoting failure or success. He said, “I turned to TV and on FOX it said, Corey Heim’s name is in red, others’ names are in red. And I’m like, but he’s leading the race, why is he in red? What is going on? …When you have red and green, green is good, red is bad…That’s typical, right? …They had all the people that were advancing in red and everyone that was being eliminated in green…I couldn’t make a whole lot of sense of it. Because when I got to the racetrack, there was about 50 laps to go…At the time, there was no live figure.” He scolded the broadcaster: “I’m not really sure on FOX’s graphics department as a whole. Maybe it’s time to rethink it.”

Denny Hamlin’s co-host, Jared Allen, pointed out that Fox may have shown a key for the symbols at some point. But the JGR veteran continued his diatribe: “I think that just would have just made things worse for me. Just simply because I would have said, Now they knew it’s sc—ed up, then they have to clarify.” So he made the line of action clear for Fox. “Let’s just try to keep this uniform to what everything else is. Green is good, red is bad, okay? Eliminated, red. Advancing, green. Let’s just start there. We can work on the cartoon characters later,” he said, referring to the comic-book graphics of drivers that Fox has used since 2022.

Fox has been the subject of scrutiny by many people, including Richard Petty and Kevin Harvick. But while Denny Hamlin critiques the broadcaster’s Truck coverage, he is also addressing a more personal issue.

Drawing a parallel with Denny Hamlin’s moves

Well, Ryan Blaney grabbed the New Hampshire spotlight on Sunday, winning his third race of the season. But alongside the 2023 Cup Series champion’s achievement, a JGR drama hogged the limelight as well. On lap 111 of the Mobil 1 301 race, Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell found Ty Gibbs blocking their path. After repeated warning bumps, Hamlin eventually spun out Gibbs into the wall – although the veteran denied any foul intentions. This incident sparked a massive debate about JGR’s drivers, with people questioning Gibbs’ maturity, considering that he has impeded a teammate before as well (2022 Xfinity championship, Brandon Smith).

Referring to this incident, Ryan Blaney called out both Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs. The Magic Mile winner referred to his own situation, as fellow Ford drivers Joey Logano and Josh Berry were hot on his tail for the win. Blaney said about Berry, “I was never going to lay a bumper to Joey trying to get by him when he was leading.” He emphasized teamwork: “I didn’t want to do it that way — teammate or not. I didn’t want to do it that way, especially with a teammate. I’m not going to rough him up. But I fully expect to race hard. That’s what Roger [Penske] expects of us, and that’s what Eddie and Len [Wood] expect with the Wood Brothers. We’re going to go out there and race hard, but we’re going to do it in a fair way.”

Clearly, Denny Hamlin has problems on his plate as well. While the JGR driver steers through a crisis-filled New Hampshire race, let’s hope Fox can elicit better reviews for Corey Heim’s next outing.