NASCAR Insider Points Fingers at Controversial FOX for Forcefully Shutting Down Its Crown Jewel

The Charlotte Motor Speedway burst into cheers as Kyle Larson finally returned from the Indy 500. As Larson prepared to swap with Justin Allgaier and take on the Coca-Cola 600 after missing the start and complete a historic double, it turned into a waiting game with the rain gods refusing to relent. And with more than half of the race completed, lightning and rain brought the night to a halt.

As the NASCAR community awaited the green flag to drop, a shocking announcement from the organizers ended all hopes of Larson completing his double attempt. With Christopher Bell announced as the winner of the Coca-Cola 600, racing action came to an untimely end at Charlotte Motor Speedway. This left thousands of fans fuming on social media, demanding an explanation from NASCAR and SMI over the decision to shorten the race. Attempting to dissect NASCAR’s decision, veteran insiders tried to complete the puzzle on X.

Insiders question Coca-Cola 600’s abrupt end as NASCAR overlooks precedent

On lap 246 of the Coca-Cola 600, officials were forced to call a caution owing to worsening weather. Only a few laps later, lightning strikes in the vicinity led to a red flag, suspending the race until the track cleared up. With Sunday nearing an end, NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway officials revealed that the track would not dry up before 1 am EST, making a restart somewhat difficult.

Soon enough, NASCAR brought out Titans on track to help with drying the surface faster. Taking to X, Austin Konenki shared an update on NASCAR’s decision; “Would’ve been really disappointed if NASCAR didn’t try to dry Charlotte Motor Speedway. You can’t blame NASCAR for the high humidity. The race probably wouldn’t have ended until 3:00 AM ET. As much as that sounds fun, it’s too extreme.”

Unfortunately, owing to a lack of equipment, the track couldn’t be dried in time. This left the officials with no choice but to call off the race at11:30 p.m, citing it couldn’t have resumed before 1 a.m. However, as pictures of the track surfaced on X, it was fairly visible that a lot of the water had already evaporated. This meant that, perhaps, rain wasn’t the primary factor that influenced the race’s early conclusion.

This is when Konenski hinted at the broadcaster playing a role in CMS and NASCAR’s decision. He shared, “The weather forecast and radar suggested that NASCAR should’ve gotten the track dry tonight. Around 11:00 PM ET, the humidity was at 94%. With it being that high, I’m not sure if that’s an excuse. I have to imagine FOX played a role too, but would they really want it to end?”

NASCAR cited humidity and possibility of running well past midnight as reasons for calling the race. But in the past, NASCAR has had no issues hosting races well into the AM, prompting many to believe that the sport could have gotten the race underway if all parties were in agreement.

Last year on Memorial Day at Charlotte, a green flag allowed the rain-affected Xfinity Series race to continue late on with the race finishing at 11:27 p.m. ET. In 2015, NASCAR started the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona at 11:42 p.m. ET. The race ended at 2:40 a.m. ET and NBC televised the entire event.

Hence, it may have been possible for NASCAR to allow the race to finish in its entirety even if it meant going beyond midnight. Matt Weaver’s insights into NASCAR and SMI’s position on the matter further solidified such claims.

With the 2024 Coca-Cola 600 being FOX’s last Crown Jewel coverage, could that fact have played a role in the outcome?

The decision must have left Kyle Larson feeling hard done by after he waited four hours for the Indianapolis 500 to start due to a rain delay. He finished 18th in the race and immediately headed to a helicopter before taking a private jet to North Carolina. He then flew to Charlotte Motor Speedway on a helicopter. But just as he arrived the race was under caution for rain.

The early finish didn’t go down well with Brad Keselowski either, who finished second. He expressed his displeasure saying, “It was pretty disappointing. Would have liked to have just had more laps and ran the Coke 600. I think we ran the Coke 350 today.”

Whatever may be the biggest factor behind the Coca-Cola 600’s premature end, the NASCAR community certainly didn’t pull any punches against the officials, as well as FOX.

NASCAR and FOX come under fire from fans for ‘incredibly bad call’

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Even with all the delays owing to the weather, did NASCAR really need to call off the race completely? After all, it was only a few hours prior that insiders were confident the race would get underway again. While NASCAR and CMS officials cited that the track would not dry in time on Sunday night, why could the race not have been postponed to Monday?

That’s a question many fans wanted an answer to on X. One user shared their disappointment, “I’ll say this. Official or not they raced until 1 am last year, on Monday….why hype the 600 up so much and not simply move the conclusion to Monday? It’s a holiday. Incredibly bad call.” Another fan tweeted, “Tomorrow is a holiday and it is in the Backyard of every team. Love what you do and thanks for the info. But this is @NASCAR peeing on us and telling us it is raining.”

Apart from not postponing the race to Monday, fans also felt that the drying equipment present at Charlotte Motor Speedway just didn’t suffice. Since NASCAR had sent some of their Titans to the Indy 500 to help out, the team at CMS was under-equipped to deal with the water. This prompted fans to further state; “I bet they didn’t see the progress they wanted to. They only had like 4 Titans on the track. When NASCAR really wants to get a race in, they throw everything out there. Not the case tonight. I was there.”

Still, NASCAR had at least done their part to try and get the race underway. As for FOX, fans pulled no punches after the insiders’ revelations and seemed to agree with Konenski’s tweet. One fan claimed; “FOX chose this outcome.” When another chimed in, “This has gotta be a Fox decision. Almost all of the examples of races going late into the wee hours are NBC races. Fox doesn’t have a history of broadcasting late races outside of the Daytona 500. It’s their last 600, they don’t care anymore. Sucks that they have that much power” 

At the end of the day, it’s safe to say no party seemed satisfied with the outcome of the Coca-Cola 600 apart from Bell. From Kyle Larson’s heartbreak to the untimely end of the race, it’s safe to say NASCAR’s Crown Jewel had one of its most controversial evenings in recent memory.