Saturday in Charlotte, Kevin Harvick Served as chief announcer in the cabin for the broadcast-only drivers Fox’s coverage of the Xfinity Series race, with Ryan Blaney And the Joey Logano work with him. The three drivers showed how promising they would have a future in broadcasting if they so chose when the racing days were over.
Interestingly, the trio was put into an awkward position late in the race and they all handed it professionally, eventually exposing the net en masse during this moment and highlighting an issue that fans have complained about for years.
Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney race the Xfinity Series at the broadcast booth
Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney aren’t broadcasting beginners. They’ve all worked in the cabin multiple times before, and it shows. Both Lugano and Blaney become regulars On coverage of Fox’s Xfinity Series this season.
On Saturday in Charlotte, Penske’s teammates worked well with Harvick describing the event and providing insights into what was happening on the track.
The trio described an exciting race that featured a pair of JR Motorsports cars of Justin Allgaier and Josh Berry taking off the field and fighting for victory, the latter coming out with a win.
Fox doesn’t show any movement and Kevin Harvick calls them
With just over 40 laps left, Noah Gregson took the lead when Allgaier and Berry stopped on the green flag hole. The broadcast showed a split screen with Gragson in one chest and the bosses swinging in the other. As Allgaier completed his stop and began to leave the pit road, the drivers in the booth were discussing his return to the track and how close he was to Perry, who jumped by more than 10 seconds on the field. .
However, when the split-screen broadcast ended, Gragson showed up exclusively. That’s when things got awkward. For the next 40 seconds the drivers talked about the race leaders at Allgaier and Berry while Fox showed Gragson.
“It will be close. It will be tight,” Lugano said of Allgaier’s return to the track.
“It will be tighter than I thought it would be,” Blaney admitted.
“The momentum of the seven is coming out of Turn 2,” said the 2018 Cup Series champion.
“Seven will get it,” said Blaney.
Lugano described, “There’s an 18-hole road coming from the penalty spot,” while Fox went to split-screen again with Trevor Payne in one box and Gragson still holding the other spot. “Lower back, you can’t see him now, but he took the lead when this whole thing started. Justin Algaer just passed the 8 and he’s stuck in a traffic jam.”
“A big fight between 8 and 7,” Blaney said, as if begging Fox to show movement. Instead, the network reverted to only Gragson’s one-shot.
Harvick didn’t say anything the whole time. However, he said something in the background that was audible and revealed his frustration.
“They don’t show 7 and 8,” he said.
Less than a second later, the broadcast shifted to show Perry and the others racing alongside one another.
“This is going to be a battle for the top spot and maybe a win if it keeps turning green. That’s what we were seeing outside our window here,” Lugano said, starkly calling on the network not to show what they were describing. “Those guys came out of the hole side by side.”
Fans have complained about Fox’s coverage of NASCAR in the past
If Fox’s Adam Alexander had been in his traditional spot, he might have walked away from describing the race between Allgaier and Berry as Lugano and Blaney focused on what the camera was showing with the interim leader at Gragson instead.
However, Lugano and Blaney weren’t interested in Gregson because it was virtually a non-story. They understood the ramifications and correctly highlighted the work between Allgaier and Berry.
The drivers’ actions and words revealed a major disconnect between the manager who fired the shots and what the experts in the cabin saw on the track. And that’s been a complaint from fans for years about Fox’s lackluster coverage.
Camera shots focusing on a car or another driver aren’t discussed, very close camera angles and zooming in on one or two cars instead of getting a larger image have produced negative fan reactions in the past. That doesn’t even include the pre-race performances on the grid that were noteworthy, including one skit about watermelon seeds that ended up on Ross Chastain’s facial hair at a post-race celebration at the Circuit of the Americas. Yes it happened.
Saturday’s dedicated drivers’ broadcast produced a lengthy awkward moment for the network. Drivers have revealed exactly that.
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