As usual, Fox Sports did an incredible job getting the NASCAR Cup Series season underway, going back to Bowman Gray Stadium's preseason Cook Out Clash exhibition race three weekends ago and including all of the pre-Daytona 500 sessions, namely the single-car qualifying session and the two Duel at Daytona qualifying races, plus the "Great American Race" itself.
But there was one shortcoming that became obvious during the broadcast at Daytona Interntaional Speedway, almost as soon as the Daytona 500 went green.
One of the top storylines in NASCAR during the last few weeks of the offseason was the late decision to introduce a point to the driver who runs the fastest lap in each race. The bonus point is officially a part of the new Xfinity Fastest Lap program.
Yet during the entire Daytona 500 broadcast, Fox did not have a fastest lap indicator anywhere on-screen.
Now, is it really a major issue? Not really. But it was somewhat of a disappointment, given all of the talk about this new fastest lap being such an impactful part of strategy, and an interesting twist that could potentially be a crucial element in the final standings.
You'd think they would have done something more than just casually mention it every 85 laps or so.
After all, they show you the stage results at the end of each stage, as points are awarded to the top 10 drivers in each stage. That change was appropriately made in 2017, when stage racing was introduced.
Additionally, they denote the stage winners, given the fact that the stage winners are awarded an extra playoff point which is added to their point total ahead of each round of the playoffs, provided they qualify.
But there was nothing official shown for the fastest lap throughout the event, even though that is indeed now an official aspect of the sport.
By comparison, during Formula 1's six-year run of awarding a fastest lap point from 2019 to 2024, there was always a small indicator, a purple stopwatch, beside the name of the driver who currently owned the fastest lap.
Maybe this will change in future races, and hopefully it does. There certainly isn't any reason to think it can't, given the technology advances we have seen and the data that is readily available. All you need is a small icon, a slightly altered font, or maybe an Xfinity-style X – just something to let fans know who the point presently belongs to.
Oh, and by the way, it was Spire Motorsports' Michael McDowell who secured the point at Daytona.
Will a change be made ahead of race number two at Atlanta Motor Speedway? The Ambetter Health 400 is set to be shown live on Fox beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 23. Start a free trial of FuboTV and don't miss it!