Posted on 02/05/2026 2:04:02 AM PST by WhiteHatBobby0701
The NASCAR season finally got underway, at least unofficially, Wednesday night with the Clash at Bowman Gray. However, fans who were hoping to watch the end of the race on Fox were not rewarded for their patience with coverage booted to the lowly FS2 for The Masked Singer.
The traditional exhibition race to open the NASCAR season is in its second year at the North Carolina short track after a stint at the Los Angeles Coliseum as the racing series looks to continue a return to its roots in the hopes of reconnecting with fans. It was originally scheduled for the weekend before much of the eastern United States was hit with a ferocious winter storm. That delayed the race all the way until Wednesday night.
And then, NASCAR’s incredibly bad luck with mother nature continued as the race was beset by rain. After delays and even the use of rain tires, cars were finally on track racing towards the finish. However, as soon as 9 p.m. ET hit, Fox chose to abandon live coverage on the broadcast network in favor of the primetime series The Masked Singer. With college basketball already airing live on FS1, that meant that the end of the Clash had to be relegated all the way to the barely-watched FS2.
Of course, coverage also continued on the Fox One and Fox Sports apps so streaming-conscious fans with access there had options. But it’s safe to say that the wide majority of NASCAR fans were out of luck when the decision was made. And they were not happy about it with fans flooding NASCAR’s mentions on social media with frustration.
(Excerpt) Read more at awfulannouncing.com ...
True stories I see of real racing.
King of Mask Singer USA is from the Korean state broadcaster Munhwa. It’s because in Korea most of the stars are usually pop singers in Korea, with a few exceptions:
2018: Paul Potts, Britain’s Got Talent participant. One of Mr. Potts’ songs was Nussun Dorna.
2019: Eric Thames, played in KBO and MLB. Bruno Bruni Jnr, “Race” (movie about Jesse Owens)
2020: Mihal Ashminov, Bulgarian chef in Korea.
2022: Ida Daussy, French professor.
2024: Sam Hammington, Australian broadcaster.
The Masked Singer has to be the most idiotic show on TV. And that’s saying a lot. I watched about 10 minutes of it once. Horrible
The crowd that watches King of Mask Singer US (as it’s called franchisewise) is more Asian because it’s a Korean format. In Korea, every K-Pop group puts its members into the show, usually a cycle of two episodes. Episode 1 has the eight competitors in first-round matches. The winners of the judge and audience vote advance to next week’s semifinal, the losers are unmasked.
In Week 2, the semifinal contestants play against each other. Winners to the final, losers unmasked. Then the winner of the final stays and plays King of the Hill against the returning champion. The loser is unmasked, the winner stays as champion where he gets the next week off watching the next batch of challengers against each other.
It’s a game show format where there are eight challengers. The winner at the end plays against the returning champion. The sky is the limit.
Interesting list from 2020: Songs that are NOT Asian that were sung on King of Mask Singer:
2025: Superstar (Andrew Lloyd Webber, Murray Head, and Tim Rice )
2024: “Death Note” (Frank Wildhorn and Jack Murphy)
2023: “A Whole New World” (Tim Rice and Alan Menken), The Gold Star (Michael Kunze, from the musical “Mozart!”)
2020: “Do You Want to Build a Snowman? (Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez), “Desperado” (Glenn Frey and Don Henley), “Mai più così lontano” (Mauro Malavsi), “Black or White,” (Michael Jackson and Bill Bottrell), “Lost Stars” (Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois, Nick Lashley, Nick Southwood), “Let It Go” (Robert and Kristen Anderson-Lopez)
“Steve Phelps is gone”
Trust me, NASCAR’s problems go way deeper than Steve Phelps. They truly hate the vast (and ever-decreasing) majority of their fans.
I was a contractor for NASCAR in the not-too-distant past and before that had NASCAR-related experience dealing with ESPN back when that network was briefly trying to capitalize on NASCAR’s popularity (which was already declining by that time) in the first decade of the 2000s.
Seemingly all of their executives, bean-counters, etc. are exactly how you think they’d be, politically. That’s understandable for ESPN (look at what business they’re in, and where they’re located) but unforgivable for NASCAR.
NASCAR’s execs & White collar staff in Charlotte & Daytona are almost exclusively transplants from “blue” states who despise the old, true NASCAR fans and, obviously, it shows. Phelps just said the quiet part out loud. Their tech department is full of the usual H1-B types as well. The tech guys don’t make NASCAR policy, but their preponderance is just another sign of what the company thinks of real Americans.
The Masked Singer averages 4.8 million viewers.
NASCAR averages 2.4 million viewers.
Sometimes math is very simple.
Maybe if naSCAR ran real cars-instead of the RC car bodies placed on a chassis and engine that all of the drivers use-regardless of car brand.
1 - Why was Fox airing a live race on a Wednesday afternoon/evening?
Masked Singer comes on at 7 central. The race was only half over. The entire hour of Masked was the race coverage.
We watch it on DVR. Had to go to On Demand.
The show has gone down hill over the last 5 or 6 years. We don’t know any of the “celebrities” anymore.
The Cook Out Clash was scheduled for Saturday (qualifying) and Sunday (B and A Main). It snowed out, and Fox was contracted to show the Clash. Then came the mandate from the Korean government.
Shades of “Heidi”.
Agree. My suspicion is the leftist Korean government was involved in this because the show is produced by the state broadcaster.
Last year, Wyatt Miller won a Limited Late Model race at Hickory. He is Kelley’s daughter with L. W. Miller III. He also has been racing some short-course off-road races where he’s been winning too.
“The Thriller” will probably be up with NASCAR fans. He’s mostly racing dirt but has started to do tarmac at places where at 13 he can race.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGm2rFzAZEo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Zt4Wxxlfw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV85F90907k (Won Crandon)
Thanks
Thanks
Thanks
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.