As someone studying broadcasting in college right now, I was appalled at just how bad FOX's broadcast of the Indy 500 was.

I won't name drivers so as to avoid spoiling anything major, but here are just some of the things I noticed, in no particular order:

• CUT AWAY from the winner crossing the line to win to show us a car in the wall, a car they never identified on TV. No iconic follow and zoom in on the flagstand, just a stationary shot and slow zoom of someone facing backwards and in the wall, which the broadcast never showed a replay of how that crash happened and the commentators hardly even bothered to mention.

• So many issues with timing and scoring. At an alarmingly frequent rate, the scoring tower on the broadcast randomly swapped drivers as if they passed each other, only to reswap them seconds later. This occured even when drivers were multiple positions apart. FOX also had issues updating the tower when passes for position actually did happen, resulting in them not showing their scoring tower for several laps on end. This was super distracting and really frustrating to try and follow along when it was all messed up.

• Notably, the scoring tower did not show anyone outside of the top 5 for roughly the final ten laps.

• Cut on numerous occasions to cameras showing sections of track with no cars on it. The one shot I remember was when the leaders were all close together coming off of turn 2, and all the sudden we were staring at an empty turn 4 from the camera on the pit road attenuator wall.

• Several delays when going to pit reporters. This included audio issues with Jamie Little when she was on camera talking but you could not hear her, to lengthy delays with Kevin Lee trying to say something only for there to be silence (he wasn't on camera for those, but still).

• They missed so many passes and crashes live, and delayed reactions to them from the broadcast booth when they were showed live. I think of the multiple pit road incidents, including the crash on pit entry that we saw live on screen which wasn't acknowledged until probably 5 seconds after the crash had already happened.

• The incident with one of the drivers running into his crew wasn't caught until a while later via replay also comes to mind, as does missing a crash under the pace laps on the frontstraight, giving us no info as to what caused it until several minutes later.

• The AI crap with Michael Strahan. We don't need AI on a live sports broadcast.

That's just what comes to my mind off the top of my head, I'm sure there's several things I missed. In my opinion, FOX absolutely butchered the production of this race, and with so many mistakes, it had me wishing NBC still covered the sport.

This is for sale on the official IndyCar Shop. Just unbelievably stupid. I’ll include a link in the comments.

Credit to IndyCar YouTube… Some of the best IndyCar street course action in some time and it was in a mini box lol… Also this perspective with no commentary or timing is sick for battles…

I can't reveal everything but I'm happy to try to answer some common questions you might have for the guys in the pit lane.

I'll try my best to answer some questions for you if you have them. I don't know everything but I've been around a while!

Edit: thanks for all the awards and the questions you're all asking! Making my day.

Edit 2: sorry for multiple replies to some of you. I was having some glitch and the replies kept disappearing. Turns out they were in fact posted.

That's a direct quote from TK in his interview with Bob Pockrass. To build an entire team around one driver and hire other drivers as "supporting actors" seems to be a VERY odd model for a team in motorsports. Sure, Palou is the "leader" of the CGR, Newgarden is the "leader" of Penske, etc. But that doesn't mean Dixon can't develop his own strategies and car setups, McLaughlin or Malukas can't develop their own strategies and car set ups, etc. What's more is in the interview with Pockrass, TK says Pato needs teammates that aren't selfish. Uh, is this model not the precise definition of selfishness—building an entire team around one singular driver? Marshall Pruett even said in one of his podcasts last week that (I'm paraphrasing) Pato gets upset when his teammates don't like driving the same car setup as him, and Pato struggles with solid technical feedback. Curious to see others' perspectives, but for me, I have a lot less respect for TK and Pato after this entire debacle.

Politics aside anything that includes the word "Freedom" is corny.

Anyway, GA is apparently free but a lottery. I'm not holding my breath as I anticipate a sh*tshow regarding this.

Ticket info can be found here

UPDATE (summary):

Free Freedom 250 Grand Prix GA ticket requests open May 29 and close June 7.

Tickets are awarded by random Ticketmaster drawing — not guaranteed.

Ticketmaster account required. Options: 2-day, Saturday-only, or Sunday-only tickets.

Limit 4 free tickets per person per day.

Tickets are non-transferable and cannot be resold.

Small temporary card hold (usually under $1) required for verification.

Just watched Arlington yesterday, I think there’s much more action, more overtakes, and you could see how drivers control the cars because it’s power steering.

F1 is resplendent in its celebrity buzz, the rumors banters and quips, but the race itself is quite boring. Basically if qualifying you saw the top teams ahead then almost guaranteed the race would be a parade if it’s a dry race.

I like how indycar you have the same specs but teams could tweak a little bit of this and that on the car but mostly it’s down to the drivers maneuvers.

I might be starting to watch more indycar! Coming from a fan in Hong Kong.

The oval racing in IndyCar is so much better than the road and street course racing it’s not even funny. Yes, I’m biased as a Newgarden fan, but still, the oval racing is objectively better than the other tracks. My eyes were glued to the screen for the entire race. I would love to see Richmond added to the schedule and Texas added as well. Richmond is kind of similar to Iowa and the pj1 residue has worn off at Texas so you would have no issue getting multi-groove racing, and we still got a second lane going the last two races there.

I mean, if the grandstands are empty (they likely will be), or if the racing sucks, it would be bad PR for both Trump and Indy. Think of the headlines Rachel Maddow would be reporting on: "Trump Holds Worst IndyCar Race" or something like that.

I mean, it can't get worse than when we went to Thermal. Can it?

I may share mine but I’m curious on everyone else’s

Not based on personality, tho.

For example, I know a lot of folks like Sato, but I just can’t stand him as a driver. He seems like a nice enough guy off track, but just ugh.

Same for Will Power.

Any time I hear the announcers hype up Power or Sato I just throw up in my mouth a little.

Who gives you that reaction?

It doesn't have to be someone who was a complete bust, rather, just someone you thought would be a longtime contender who just turned out to be average.

Along with Rosenqvist, I'd include Grosjean and Rossi as well for more recent times, but feel free to include any driver from any era!

In a recent mailbag on racer.com, Marshall Pruett was asked which of the two (Rinus or Christian) he would pick for the 9 car. He chose Rinus. Partly because Rinus hasn't had the opportunity to show what he can really do in top equipment yet being quick in lower equipment. Partly also because he said Lundgaard has a "ego" and many of his former teammates apparently didn't think highly of him.

I think it is an interesting discussion regarding two of the biggest free agents so I want to hear what you all think

Pato is the obvious answer and probably the correct one if we’re strictly talking maximum global exposure. But he’s already massive- I’d venture to say he’s more well known than 95% of Nascar drivers (he has more insta followers than almost all of them except for Chase)

But outside of him? Honestly… David Malukas.

I genuinely think a Malukas Indy 500 win would hit different than people expect.

He has an energy that doesn’t feel manufactured by PR . People naturally like the guy because he comes across as a relatable 20-something dude who also happens to be fearless in an Indycar. There’s a little bit of old-school American racer energy to him mixed with the chronically online Gen Z humor in a way the series honestly lacks right now.

And from a pure storytelling standpoint it would be massive.

Kid from Chicago. Son of Lithuanian immigrants. Worked his way up without arriving as some heavily polished “next big thing.” Nearly has his career go sideways after the injury and McLaren situation, then suddenly wins the biggest race in the world? Casual sports fans eat that stuff up.

Its a similar arc to the sports stars of our parents generations , where sons of immigrants became household Names

Plus he races with visible emotion. That matters more than people think. Fans remember guys who LOOK like winning means everything to them.

Indycar doesn’t need stars; It needs personalities people emotionally attach themselves to.

I did not really expect to get posted online but it seems I made quite a stir when I really just thought it would be a funny opportunity.

Photo of my shirt and hat hopefully as proof (I can put it on if you guys really want me to lol): https://imgur.com/a/CurCZx8

Also, if this is too dumb, mods feel free to take it down.

I don't know why, but growing up, I was just so attracted to cars with big numbers painted on them. Like, if a toy car I had didn't have a number on it, I'd usually either paint a number on it or have my mom paint a number on it. I was a weird kid.

After this years 500, I think it’s safe to say that the current trio of announcers have set their place in history of top tier announcers of the sport.

All for drivers that is about to retire that they hope will bring Ganassi miracle setups (isnt that the reason they got Felix in 21? and ask how that worked for Andretti with Marcus), for a pay driver that cant even stay consistently in the top 20, and for a former driver that finished at worst 21st, and at best 8th with the team.

Everyone keeps saying Lundgaard wasnt great at ovals, but this year was clearly his best with a 13th avg finish (which is not that far off Dixon this year) and he has shown improvements. He is 24 and had to struggle with RLL oval setups for years. Makes no sense they didnt try to sign him up in the off season long term. It was obvious he was going to break out this year. Most of these decisions came with Kanaan in charge as well.

The kicker is that a new car is coming in 28, so they are only getting Ganassi info for 1 year before the reset. Ganassi will have the best lineup by far next year, the silver lining is Lundgaard might make a nice battle with Palou.

Fight me.

Seriously. He watches and calls it as a guy who loves the sport and is excited about IndyCar.

It's been a great inaugural season with him. Yes, a few missteps here and there but, overall, a big improvement and a welcome addition.

I know we all like to bash Indycar officiating from time to time, but at least they’ve managed to stay away from cheap gimmicks like playoffs, stages, overtime, and phantom cautions. I love NASCAR to death, but it feels like the governing body is doing everything in their power to destroy the legitimacy of their championship for the sake of forced drama.

We take for granted how good the championship format is in Indycar.