From the Boston Red Sox at Fenway to NASCAR in Phoenix – what happened last Saturday Night on FOX?

Now let me state the obvious, as you may have noticed, I am a huge NASCAR fan and I blog about it regularly, the word diehard can be used to describe me and when there is a NASCAR (Cup Series mainly) race on, chances are I am either watching it live or at least recording it on my DVR, however what you may not know about me is that I live up here in New England, to be more specific, Massachusetts and I am also a sports fan who enjoys not only watching Football and my favorite team the New England Patriots, but baseball as well and my favorite team just so happens to be the Boston Red Sox which my friend and family got me into watching since I was in high school and granted I don’t watch every game nor do I know the roster or stats by heart, but nonetheless I am a sports fan who enjoys it.

Now I was excited when these two sports came together a couple years ago, first with Dale Jr. running the MLB paint schemes and then with Roush and the Fenway Group joining forces, it was cool see.

With that said, I never would have imagined that the two would come together in such a way as it did last Saturday Night. Basically, the Boston Red Sox vs. there huge rivals the New York Yankees game which is also good to watch went into a rain delay for a couple of hours, the game was televised on FOX and once the game was ready to resume, it was already into the pre-race coverage for the NASCAR Race in Phoenix. At this point, I didn’t care if FOX televised the preshow or not, it was the timing that would become the issue, more importantly when FOX made the switch.

I mean, there it is with the game being televised on both FOX and FX and while NASCAR fans were waiting for the NASCAR coverage, the baseball fans were watching the Red Sox lead the Yankees by 4-3 in the top of the 9th inning with one out at Fenway, the pitch was thrown and… damn the pictures gone and all of the viewers and fans find themselves in Phoenix looking at Ryan Newman let the pack of 42 other drivers coming at you into turn 3, so what happened, did the Sox win… I turned over to the Red Sox game on FX just in time to see the manager and players celebrating the victory over the Yankees.

So what’s the big deal, it’s the way FOX switched from the baseball game to the NASCAR race in Phoenix and keep in mind that NASCAR had pushed back the race 15 minutes to around 8:53pm to help FOX, in the end, the baseball fans didn’t get to see the last two pitches thrown and the Red sox win, nor did the NASCAR fans see the green flag being waved at Phoenix for the Subway 500. So no one got what they want to see, so now the question is, what’s with the last second switch?

At this point, I will say that I have to give it to FOX for at least trying to show the entire game and show the entire race, however there is two better ways to make the switch, first since FOX has to show the entire race, tell the baseball fans that due to the 2hr+ delay, the game has been moved to FX and now we join the Cup Series race in Phoenix 2 minutes before the start or second, if all else fails, show it in a split screen or side-by-side view of the last pitches and the start of the race.

Bottom Line, there’s not really to much to say here, no fans likes to be shut out like that, this shouldn’t have happened this way with a last second switch from the baseball game to the NASCAR, however while I give credit to FOX for trying to get the entire game in and the start of the race in at the same time, one group of fans were going to get hurt and yes I wanted to see if the Red Sox was going to win, nonetheless, the switch some have been made a minute or two before the green flag and that’s it.

So now that the Red Sox game was over and the Red Sox had beating the Yankees 4-3, the Cup Series race in Phoenix was on and what an exciting race it was, it was worth the wait, I don’t know about the races at the 1.5 mile tracks right now, but the Phoenix race was great, lots of passing, side-by-side racing and no lack of contenders going for the victory. At times during the race, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leading with his past in the rear view mirror to say the least with the #8 Mark Martin stocking him every which way. I had mixed feelings about this if the #8 won, on one hand any times Mark Martin wins is huge, however it’s the #8 DEI winning and this Junior fan still hasn’t forgotten, would I have been cool with it, yeah I would have, past is the past.

But you know, in the late stages of the race, Jimmie Johnson was coming in a hurry, he was one if not the fastest car on track and then the splash for gas for most of the field. Normally a fuel mileage race wouldn’t be interesting, however this was at Phoenix and you could hear Chad Knaus on the radio saying back it way down, give me two seconds a lap, give three seconds a lap, back it way down and in turn three and four, just put it in neutral and coast and what a victory it was for Jimmie Johnson and the #48 Hendrick Motorsports team.

It was a good ending to the race, on one hand you had Jimmie Johnson going for his first victory of the season and in this day in age, victories are hard to come by in the Cup Series and on the other hand you had Clint bowyer saving gas in second, but at the same time the drivers who had stopped were charging hard, you had a race on your hands period. Would it be Johnson, Bowyer or Hamlin winning, good to see it was Johnson this time in victory lane. Comments.

- Racedriven