Saturday’s Allen Crowe 100 at the Springfield Mile was a very interesting race. It had a ton of fun on track action, crashes, and storylines like no other. I mean, Brayton Laster got Wayne Peterson his first lead-lap finish of the decade.
But something felt off. Major contender Isabella Robusto’s crash in the entry of turn 3 didn’t have a replay, as well as Lawless Alan, who, after further review, had footage of the crash posted onto Twitter from a local reporter.
When the checkered flag flew, it was part-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and part-time ARCA Menards driver Brent Crews taking the win. Immediately after his interview, they talked about the results for a solid 30 seconds, and immediately after, that was it from Springfield. No interviews for anyone else in the top 10, just a quick scroll through, and that was it.
Dirtvision had the USAC Silver Crown race the night before, and their coverage was miles ahead. They could clearly show you the views of wrecks, replays, and more. The Springfield Mile, along with many other local tracks, would love to have the FOX treatment of the early 2000s-2010s, not the virtual treatment of FOX currently.
So the question is, does FOX really care about the ARCA Menards Series and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series? The answer is no. The producers seemingly don’t (see examples below), and the broadcasters try their hardest, but most races are done virtually nowadays, which leads to sometimes less exciting, enthusiastic calls. It does suck that they are less exciting, and less often have decent camera angles (I mean, we had at maximum 3 at the Springfield Mile), but it gives us the opportunity to watch the ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and at points the Cup Series, every week. I do sometimes enjoy FOX’s coverage. I just think that it sadly isn’t what it used to be. It seems after COVID, they’ve swapped to a mostly virtual booth, and that hasn’t gone out well for them, and this is a key example. 2-3 cameramen at a mile-long dirt track isn’t cutting it.
Looking back at the Coca-Cola 600 on Prime, it was absolutely monumental the coverage we got for the NASCAR Cup Series there. It felt extraordinary to get a breath of fresh air, and to see talent we haven’t seen feel lively, and have nearly hour-long post shows, commercial-free race ends, interviews with some, if not most, of the field. This is the type of broadcasts that fans like myself have wanted!
I hope for a day when we go back to the days where FOX broadcasters are back in the booth at the track, instead of virtual. I hope for a day when we get pre-races for most races, instead of immediately turning on FS1 for a truck race and immediately getting the race. It would help not only the fan experience, but also the broadcast in its entirety. FOX needs to step up their game if they wants to be seen as one of the best again. To get back up to the benchmark that Prime had set back in June, FOX must step up their broadcasting game, and it needs to start now.
Image Credit: Jeff Curry/ARCA Racing
