Denny Hamlin believes NASCAR on FOX has a stage break caution length issue and detailed those frustrations on Monday during his latest Actions Detrimental podcast episode.
“Apparently, what’s happening is Fox feels they need to see the pit stops,” Hamlin said. “So, the end of the stage break happens, green-checkered (stage break flag0 and boom, we’re under caution. The pace car comes out, they catch us, and we’re under commercial. We’re going to get our commercials in, they’re going to get them in, all five minutes of it.
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“It seems like awhile. They open pit road, and then it’s a reset, we got to line up … It’s just so long.”
He noticed it to a similar extent on Saturday during the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race as well.
“Can we get a side-by-side (commercials + race) for the pit stops maybe,” Hamlin continued. “Or, when you come back from the commercials, just do a recap because we’re running too long under caution. We have to find a way to shorten them up and we won’t shorten them up as long as we’re doing what we’re doing in the sense of ‘well, TV has to catch the pit stops live.’
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“So okay, well you have to shorten your commercials or something because we’re under caution too long.”
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Specifically as it comes to Saturday, Hamlin just said it made watching the NOAPS race really unpleasant.
“I’m telling you my experience as a watcher: It was a single-car wreck, there’s not debris on the track, there’s no clean-up to be had, and it’s just yellow…yellow…yellow. I’m like ‘CHOOSE ALREADY!’”
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Hamlin also conceded that ‘everyone has a boss’ and these decisions are being made by someone’s supervisor and it’s the byproduct of needing to justify the money spent on the broadcast rights. However, Hamlin also said the lengthy caution periods risk running off fans and making the broadcast rights less valuable.
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