FOX will enter its 26th season in NASCAR this year. Spending almost three decades in a popular motorsport is no mean feat, and the media giant has successfully sustained itself. Unlike its coverage, its reputation may not have sustained itself as such. The issues that have sprung up around FOX have been many and have elicited rounds of fan uproar. And just as FOX was set to make amends with revamped graphics, things went haywire once again.

Another weekend of blurry NASCAR

“FOX New graphics will not debut until the Daytona 500.” Larry McReynolds, FOX crew chief analyst, rolled out this announcement according to a Reddit post. “Yesterday on his sirius show he clarified that the new package will not debut till the 500 due to most of the FOX Nascar crew working on the NFL playoffs until last weekend. Thought Id share this to hopefully avoid some of the meltdown that would happen when the Old Graphics show up this weekend.”

This is a dampener for the heightened expectations that NASCAR had garnered for the Cookout Clash. Held at the Bowman Gray Stadium, the exhibition race is expected to be as exciting as last year. And FOX Sports hoped to add to that with a new TV graphics package for the 2026 season. The specifics were unclear, including the driver cartoons that generated outrage last season. But one thing was sure, that fans would see the revamped look at Bowman Gray. However, now that is not a possibility anymore.

Ranging from full-screen commercials to incoherent broadcasting, the issues with FOX’s coverage have been plenty. The 2024 Daytona 500’s last-lap coverage attracted immense backlash, and fans lashed out intermittently with more shortcomings in other races. FOX’s disrepute also extended into IndyCar, as the media giant covered the 2025 Indianapolis 500. Fans complained of full-screen commercial breaks during green-flag racing and random broadcast chatter.

For its 2026 broadcast line-up, Mike Joy, Clint Bowyer, and Kevin Harvick will return to the FOX booth. Jamie Little and Regan Smith will be in the pits. Like last season, Jamie McMurray and Chris Myers will have prerace coverage. One endearing expectation is to have Digger, one of NASCAR’s greatest mascots between the 2008 and 2011 seasons, make a comeback.

For now, however, fans are sulking over FOX’s latest announcement.

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Lots of dismay for the delay

The Cook Out Clash race is scheduled for February 1st, or this week on Sunday. It typically serves as a warm-up for the rest of the NASCAR season – and could have been a trial run for FOX Sports’ new graphics package. So one fan lamented, “Seems like the smart thing would be to roll them out at the clash, make improvements based on feedback, and have an even better product for their biggest broadcast of the year. But who am I? And when does Fox improve based on feedback? Lol.”

Others are anticipating a glorious mess that may be a cause for the delay. In this age of AI-generated media, nothing seems impossible anymore. So some fans believe FOX is up to no good: “Yay can’t wait to see whatever AI garbage.” Another fan dialled up the sarcasm as FOX is waiting for the big surprise for NASCAR’s most prestigious race, the Daytona 500. “Awesome. Biggest race of the year and they’ll be rolling out a brand new graphics package that’s most likely going to be a glitchy mess.”

Many fans called for an outright expulsion of FOX from IndyCar after the 2025 Indy 500. It’s disastrous coverage of that iconic event left a NASCAR fan feeling jittered. “Gotta be honest, after how the IndyCar graphics rollout went on FOX last year, that is a bit nerve wracking for me.” Somebody else sent out a plea in the hope of some respite from last year’s experience. “No more cartoon characters please,” they wrote.

Clearly, enthusiasm is drooping a little across the fanbase for FOX’s new season. Let’s wait and see how the graphics package turns out to be.