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Mike Joy Calls Out Fox's Production Team After Multiple Martinsville Mistakes
Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Fox is celebrating its 25th season of NASCAR coverage. Mike Joy has been there since the very beginning and the network's first race back in 2001. Clint Bowyer joined the broadcast booth full-time after retiring from racing in 2021.

On Saturday, the pair were joined by regular boothmate Kevin Harvick for Cup Series practice and qualifying coverage at Martinsville Speedway. Interestingly, both Bowyer and Joy had issues with the production team during the broadcast.

The initial incident occurred at the end of the first practice session when Bowyer was trying to describe how the track was taking on rubber in the corners of the half-mile track.

”If you can see where that rubber's starting to build up there and there,” Bowyer said, while using the telestrator and highlighting a section of the track with yellow marks. “I've always said, Kevin, if you're gonna be good here,” he said before pausing as the camera started to zoom in on the area he was talking about.

“Let's see if they can — hold still here, Artie,” the analyst suggested to the production team and director Artie Kempner. “If you're gonna be good here,” the former Stewart-Haas Racing driver continued and started to circle a portion on the screen when the broadcast immediately cut away to an unrelated shot of pit road. “The money's made right there,” Bowyer said, his words and yellow circle no longer applicable to what he was talking about, which drew a big laugh in the booth.

Several minutes later, it was Joy’s turn when the crew talked about Chris Buescher’s practice session with an in-car camera of the the No. 17 driver before switching to an in-car camera of Josh Berry while the graphics initially showed information for Kyle Larson.

“Kyle Larson, a little bit different approach here,” Joy began before Bowyer interrupted him.

“That is not Kyle Larson,” the analyst pointed out.

“I'm sorry,” the veteran play-by-play announcer replied. “We went the other way. Josh Berry.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Bowyer said. “I'm like, there's no way, unless he's ate something this week. He has grown seven inches somehow. His helmet, this guy's helmet is way too high in the seat for my man Kyle Larson.”

“This is what happens when the voice in your ear says, ‘Going to last week's winner,’ and we go to the winner a couple of weeks ago," Joy said. "It's OK.”

It's not OK but it's what fans have come to expect from Fox's NASCAR coverage on a weekly basis.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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