Fox's Mike Joy corrects NASCAR fan after misleading info claim about HMS driver

Veteran NASCAR announcer Mike Joy set the record straight after a fan accused him of spreading misleading information about Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman.

A fan on X claimed Joy incorrectly mentioned Bowman gaining the most spots at the start of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway, saying five cars ahead dropped back. The 75-year-old lap-by-lap voice for Fox NASCAR corrected the fan and explained that only one of three faster cars (Ty Gibbs, Zane Smith and Chase Briscoe) was in Bowman’s lane.

"Bowman qualified 21st (11th row, inside lane). Three faster cars (54,38,19) dropped to the rear, but only one of them (#19) was in his lane. So the 48 moved up just one row and took the green 19th. That's where we measured his improved positions from," Mike Joy wrote.

Bowman drove from 21st position and charged into the top 10 early before a hard hit into the wall nearly derailed his day. That incident came when Front Row Motorsport's Smith veered into Bowman on the backstretch and damaged the No. 48 car. Bowman finished fifth but had been as high as third in the final laps of the AdventHealth 400.

Meanwhile, Bowman's HMS teammate Kyle Larson won the race from the pole position.

"We're not attracting the younger fan base": Mike Joy breaks down NASCAR's biggest challenge

Mike Joy has spent the last 25 years in the booth for the NASCAR Cup Series. During a recent podcast appearance on 'Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour,' he shed some light on the sport's biggest challenge.

Joy explained that NASCAR had huge fan engagement in the 2000s, when drivers were promoted everywhere, even in grocery stores. But today, most sponsors focus on business-to-business deals and don’t connect with the general public.

"I remember going into a Food Lion in Bristol, Tennessee, and you couldn’t push your cart down any aisle without knocking over a cardboard cutout of some driver hawking something. You couldn’t go in a supermarket without knowing about NASCAR. It was everywhere," Mike Joy said (28:45).

Joy also mentioned that the sport needs to do more to attract younger fans.

"We have 18 and 20-year-olds coming into the Cup Series and making a mark. The fan base is getting older. We're not attracting the younger fan base that we need to move this sport forward into the next decade, into the next couple of decades," Joy said (27:45).

He also warned that NASCAR can lose the next generation of supporters unless teams, sponsors, and PR teams actively promote the sport to everyday fans again.

Meanwhile, last weekend was the last NASCAR Cup points race broadcast by Joy for this season, as Amazon Prime will broadcast the next five races, starting with the Coca-Cola 600, followed by 19 races on TNT.