Last year’s historic media rights deal marked a change in NASCAR’s media landscape. Fox Sports has covered the majority of the sport for two decades, with iconic commentator Mike Joy persisting since the 1990s. But Fox has often been at the receiving end of criticism for flawed coverage of races like the Daytona 500. So when Fox wrapped up its duties after the Sonoma Cup Series race, fans were glad to welcome NBC.

Yet ironically, we now have the lead NBC sports announcer Leigh Diffey rooting for a Fox insider. He marked the long journey in journalism for Bob Pockrass, who now appears in front of the camera as well. This Fox-NBC crossover may be enough to warm fans’ hearts, which have been in tumult determining which driver won the Daytona race.

Leigh Diffey hails Fox journalist with respect

The last lap of the Daytona 500 race may still be lingering in a corner of our minds. Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron and Alex Bowman executed a photo finish. But the lack of a proper photograph or video left fans and NASCAR in a fix – all Fox coverage seemed to battle with were poor graphics. Additionally, bizarre commercials popped up in between, further obstructing the race view – there was a Wendy’s skit featuring DJ Khaled with about 36 laps to go. Despite the unexpected twist, NBC affiliate Leigh Diffey can be seen passionately cheering for a prominent Fox icon.

Bob Pockrass lives and breathes NASCAR – and we all rely on him for the latest updates in the sport. Instead of harping on a racer’s achievements, it is time to credit the man behind the scenes. In an episode of ‘Door, Bumper, Clear’, Leigh Diffey lauded Pockrass for smoothly transitioning with the sport. “Here’s something really interesting that I don’t think enough people give credit or credence to. When Bob first started out, it was strictly with a newspaper in Daytona Beach. He’s on the Fox side…Dustin Long, Nate Ryan started out strictly as print journalists. Then in the late 1990s, along comes the internet, then they become paper and internet journalists.”

Pockrass has covered NASCAR since 1991, writing for media brands like ESPN, The Sporting News, etc. He hopped aboard the Fox Sports bandwagon in 2019, and his role expanded to contributing videos for Fox’s digital NASCAR coverage. Leigh Diffey harped on this versatility: “Now these guys, whether it’s on the Fox side or the NBC side, have morphed to TV. He’s just dropping in like casually like yeah, I gotta call the office about graphics and all that…He never thought about graphics…TV messaging and all that…He’s on TV now too…on social media, not just a TV journalist. I don’t go to his side of the world. But these guys are so talented, they are coming to our side of the media.” 

Similarly, another legendary Fox personality worked to snuff out fans’ displeasure with the media company.

Coverage of photo finishes explained

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Fans’ main argument problem with Fox was failing to cover crucial moments during a race. Like the Daytona 500’s confusing finish, Atlanta Motor Speedway’s February race also saw something similar. Daniel Suarez, Ryan Blaney, and Kyle Busch executed a spectacular photo finish – and Fox again left fans annoyed at the lack of coverage. The lap 2 crash of the race probably drew the greatest controversy. Josh Williams was eliminated, and Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott fled with minimal damage. While NASCAR posted the clip on YouTube, it took a while for Fox to get there. Then Mike Joy bizarrely dropped out of the broadcast around lap 171 as Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer awkwardly continued without him.

Yet the 74-year-old Fox booth fixture broke down how exactly the commentary works. Joy has covered Dale Earnhardt’s iconic 1998 Daytona victory, and explained it’s not always the commentators who are at fault. “You’re looking at the racetrack, you’re trying to judge the cars as they come to the line. You try to call it as you see it unless it’s too close to call. Then you’re looking at the scoring monitor. And what we’ve learned, because we’ve now done this a few times, is when the scoring monitor order has numbers next to it and the interval is zero, just shut up and wait for NASCAR to make the call. Then you hope they quickly enough send us the video or the imagery to support it.” He said.

Evidently, Fox deserves a little more credit contrary to fans’ backlash. Leigh Diffey uplifting Bob Pockrass is an iconic crossover in itself and may be enough to soothe Fox’s disrepute a little.