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Rick Hendrick’s Star the Latest Victim of Fox’s Broadcast Butchery After Unwarranted Incriminating Verdict

Published 04/29/2024, 1:05 AM EDT

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The 2024 Cup Series is slowly shaping up to be quite the season for Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports. Before heading to Dover International Speedway, HMS had the upper hand on Coach Gibb’s side, with five wins over their three. But as Denny Hamlin crossed the line to secure his third win of the season, JGR is inching closer and closer to Rick Hendrick’s drivers.

However, one such HMS driver became the victim of unwarranted attention from the FOX Sports broadcast for playing a role in a wreck that he wasn’t even a part of! Ever since the start of the season, Alex Bowman‘s steady progress has been sidelined by analysts, ultimately reaching its boiling point at the Monster Mile.

Alex Bowman comes under fire for acts he did not commit as Fox makes a major blunder

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As the Truck Series race commenced at Dover International Speedway, the NASCAR community immediately highlighted the flaws in FOX’s coverage. The broadcast had failed to accurately portray the incident between JJ. Yeley, Hailie Deegan, and Dawson Cram. Not only did this leave fans rather clueless when tuning in to J.J. Yeley’s warning for Cram, but also made Hailie Deegan the primary suspect in a wreck she did not trigger.

Fast forward to Sunday’s Wurth 400, and Déjà vu strikes once again. Only this time around, it’s Rick Hendrick’s stars, Alex Bowman and William Byron, that were confused with Zane Smith after a wreck. During a restart, Bubba Wallace and Zane Smith collided with each other, knocking out Christopher Bell and William Byron in the process. But for the commentators, Alex Bowman somehow entered the equation and was blamed for the incident when he wasn’t even involved in.

NASCAR insider DannyBTalks noticed FOX’s blunder and highlighted it on X. He shared, “Lol. Alex Bowman was blamed two times for this wreck by two different commentators. And he wasn’t even near the wreck.” Although small errors in reading out the car’s number can occur every now and then, this time fans felt one thing was unforgivable.

Since the incident occurred right after a restart, the FOX commentators should have been aware of Alex Bowman’s front-running position as he had been leapfrogging the grid during pit stops all day. Nevertheless, the #48 Chevrolet Camaro driver’s stellar pace in Stage Two was sidelined by the false allegations he was hit with by not one, but two commentators.

Although Alex Bowman didn’t have much to say about the incident, the NASCAR community had enough of FOX’s shenanigans right after the Hailie Deegan incident.

The NASCAR community pulls no punches against FOX’s ‘horrible’ coverage at Dover

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If you thought Alex Bowman’s fate at the hands of FOX’s commentators was what made the broadcast such a failure, insiders quickly highlighted other aspects of the failed coverage. One user shared, Shoutout to “@JettMDK for pointing out one of the FOX camera guys randomly zooming in on 3 women before the race started

This naturally ticked off HMS fans further, who joined the wider community to call out the broadcaster. One user stated, “Everyone: can’t wait to see the race. Fox: showing random fans >> the race. Sucks people aren’t getting fired at Fox.” And for others, the sentiment rang similar.

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Another user came with receipts to showcase the lackluster coverage, “Showing Corey Lajoie, the smaller team in the lead, but they show Brad Keselowski’s graphic instead. Nice job Fox!” Slowly, a trend was emerging that highlighted all the downfalls faced over the Dover weekend. Another user pointed out a slower bitrate causing issues; “Does anyone else experience static/picture lag when watching Fox? NASCAR specifically.” 

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As for others, the amount of commercials FOX had sprinkled throughout the race duration didn’t sit well. A lot of the time, major action was missed out on owing to the ad breakup. Naturally, this prompted one fan to share their frustrations without holding back; “#Fox #NASCAR broadcast is horrible. More commercials than laps completed.”

With the animosity toward NASCAR broadcasts slowly heating up and the Xfinity Series soon moving over to the CW, do you think the broadcaster’s Cup Series prowess is also under threat owing to recent fan reception?

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Written by:

Kabir Bajaj Ahmed

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Kabir Bajaj Ahmed is an F1 & NASCAR Writer at EssentiallySports. Known for his storytelling and extensive research skills, he has covered multiple stories on Dale Earnhardt Jr and his legendary dad, allowing readers to relive the thunderous days of 'The Intimidator'. Being a racer himself, Kabir can resonate with the motorsport world better than most.
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Edited by:

Ariva Debnath