Folks, there is nothing more frustrating than missing some part of the race due to a sudden commercial break. And we don’t have to look too far back to find some precedence. Fox, broadcasting the recent Atlanta Cup race, failed to show some important cautions. When the commercial was over and the race resumed, the moment was already gone. And Fox has been blamed for this in the past too. And all this, Xfinity racing fans were pumped with the $7.7 Billion media rights deal. Why? Well, Fox no longer had the broadcasting rights. CW was set to take over and there was hope for seamless racing action. But here too fans are faced with disappointment.

For those of you who missed the recent Phoenix race, picture this. It’s the last lap of the GOVX 200. Alex Bowman is leading the race and veteran Aric Almirola is on his tail waiting to make a pass. And finally, that moment came. What a stunning pass this was…but people in Atlanta missed it completely. As a certain CW affiliate chose to run a commercial during that time!

Here’s what happened in Atlanta. NASCAR fans were watching the race on Peachtree TV. It’s CW’s local affiliate in Atlanta. The white flag was flown. And suddenly it cut to a baseball ad for the Boston Red Sox vs. the Atlanta Braves. So they missed all the last-lap action. Everything from…when on the final turn, Bowman dived too deep into the wall. And Almirola got a bit loose and traded paint with Bowman. But still held his composure and took the checkered flag by 0.045 seconds. It was a photo finish. Marked the second-closest finish in Phoenix, ever. What happened at the end of the ad was even more bizarre. Instead of resuming the race broadcast, the channel went straight to an NBA game scheduled for later in the day.

Naturally, fans slammed CW! And slammed might be an understatement. But this Atlanta incident is so bizarre that it left everyone spellbound. Even NASCAR analyst Eric Estepp could not believe it. And it’s after he keeps getting tons of comments on his videos with fans ranting about the Xfinity broadcasts.

Estepp, in his recent video, said, “I’m going to get on my soap box for a moment. Every single week fans are in my comment section saying hey I can’t watch the Xfinity Series race. The CW in my area is showing re-runs of Gossip Girl or something. Shoot last weekend the CW had to apologize because apparently their Atlanta station cut away from the final lap of the Xfinity series race. Are these stations being run by AI? How could anyone paying attention let that happen.”

And it could be a massive missed opportunity for CW. Recently, the viewership numbers were revealed. 1.2 Million viewers tuned in to watch the race which is the highest in the last four years. This meant that people who were hoping for the CW to broadcast better than FS1, tuned in. Had this blunder not happened, it would have been a picture-perfect broadcast.

Even Estepp agreed, “The CW 13% year-over-year increase for the Xfinity series race. Imagine how much bigger that number could be if the CW could keep their affiliate stations in check…The broadcast themselves have been very good Adam Alexander, Parker Kligerman, and Jamie McMurray in the booth have been excellent. Pit Road reporting is superb. NASCAR Productions handling the actual Direction the camera’s very good. No notes. The problem is accessibility or an apparent lack thereof.”

One thing is clear. CW and NASCAR overhyped the broadcast for the year. They promised that it would be better than what Fox did all these years. They were like ‘For the first time in the series’ history, every NASCAR Xfinity Series race will be broadcast live on free. Over-the-air television. Extra content is available on The CW app. All races and related content will be produced by an Emmy Award-winning NASCAR Productions team. Basically, they said anyone with an antenna can watch a premium production of the Xfinity Series free of cost. But clearly, they failed to deliver on this hype.

And CW, in their apology statement, has promised to never let this happen again: “We appreciate that our affiliates are still learning the power of our new programming and the implications that has for serving our collective viewers. Our local affiliate in Atlanta has acknowledged the mistake in prematurely ending coverage of yesterday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, and we have been assured this will not happen again. We will continue to work closely with our affiliates to ensure that the entire NASCAR Xfinity Series continues to receive the premium treatment racing fans deserve.” Only time will tell if they deliver on this or not.

Big things in store for Amazon’s Cup Series broadcast team

While Xfinity fans missed out big time with CW’s affiliate, the best aspect of the $7.7 billion deal will be kicking in soon. Because it’s not just CW, FOX, and NBC handling the broadcasting, fans will now be treated to Amazon’s new strategy for broadcasting. As part of their plans, they are building a superteam of broadcasters that includes Dale Jr. Fans will remember very well the horror they felt when Junior announced his exit from NBC’s broadcasting booth. Well, his return is not even the best part.

Amazon is going all out, bringing Hall of Famer Carl Edwards back to NASCAR as a race analyst! And what an effort it was to bring him on board. Instead of reaching out through an intermediary, they jumped through the hoops, made it to Cousin Carl’s home, and convinced him to come back on board. Even Dale Jr. was behind Edwards’ retirement.

“Dale’s involvement in this is key,” Edwards revealed. “I didn’t get anything out of my mouth and the first thing he said to me was, ‘Hey, I want this to be a good team. We are going to support each other; we will build each other up.’ Hearing this I thought, ‘Man, this is just perfect.'”