NASCAR has issued a statement apologizing to fans who weren’t able to watch the first 25 laps of Saturday night’s Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The statement read:
We are disappointed that our fans were unable to see the start of tonight’s race. We do all we can with the networks to avoid delays when live sports run late. We’re grateful for the passion of our fans and are thankful to those now watching on ABC.
The race was set to air Saturday evening on ABC, but the Baylor vs. TCU NCAA football game on the station took longer than scheduled.
ABC then announced that the race would be switched over to ESPNNEWS after the Miami vs. Cleveland preseason matchup, but that game went into overtime, and the race couldn’t be seen there either.
ABC later announced that the race would be streamed on ESPN’s website ESPN3.
The race didn’t end up airing on ABC until the competition caution at Lap 26.
ESPN has commented on the issue as well:
We started the race on ESPN3, which is available to 95 million homes. We’re fortunate to have multiple TV networks available, but tonight there were live events on all of them, including an epic football game on ABC and an overtime NBA game on ESPNEWS. We joined the race on ABC at lap 26.
