Late in today’s Toyota Owners 400 a Fox “side-by-side coverage” segment showed a Goodyear commercial featuring Dale Earnhardt Jr. as a Goodyear tire failed on Dale Jr’s car failed on the track. Sources close to the situation added “No, really, this actually happened” without any prompting.
“It was so weird, seeing that Dale Jr. Goodyear commercial just as the Goodyear tire was falling apart for him on the track”, said one race fan watching from home, adding, “No, seriously—it really happened—I know it sounds like a joke but this really did happen for serious.”
The ironic moment was a diversion from the usual procession of events in Nascar on Fox coverage, such as announcers mispronouncing Matt Kenseth’s last name and talking about action nowhere to be seen on screen.
“I had kind of dozed off, and I thought for a minute I was hallucinating when I saw that commercial just as the 88 went in the wall”, said a well-respected sportswriter from the Richmond media building. “I asked the guys around me and they all agreed it actually happened. Pretty ironic too since I was working on a story on how Nascar is screwed now that Dale Jr’s going to retire.”
Experts couldn’t remember the last time such an event had happened, especially considering that “side-by-side” coverage typically just shows standard green-flag ‘action’ or track workers picking up debris.
When asked about the strange event, Dale Earnhardt Jr. himself replied “That sounds almost as exciting as watching Kyle Larson race!”