Questions of truth in advertising often come up. But it’s rarer to see those come up from a motorsports driver and team owner in a post-race interview on the network that’s broadcasting their own race about that network’s own promos for other organizations. And when that happened from NHRA owner and racer Bob Tasca III Sunday in an interview after his first-round FunnyCar drag race at the NHRA Gatornationals, complete with a “fake news network” line about Fox’s “fastest racing on earth” claims in IndyCar ads, the NHRA itself posted the clip on X (and YouTube, and other platforms):
.@Tasca3 making noise in Gainesville. #NHRASpeedCheck
Watch on FS1 at 7p ET. pic.twitter.com/l9ylD2XVKw
— NHRA (@NHRA) March 9, 2025
That conversation starts with the reporter saying “Well, Bob, you came over and leaned in and said ‘I’ve got something to say.’ What is it?” Tasca then says “Yeah, I should be talking about that run right now, but really, for me, I got to call out Fox Sports. You know, all winter long, we heard about ‘the fastest motorsports on the planet,’ and I was a little confused, because I didn’t see that PPG Mustang when I saw that ad, and I didn’t see that [Austin Prock] car over there. The truth is, it’s an insult to our fans and our drivers for Fox to go on TV and say ‘the fastest motorsports in the world,’ and it’s IndyCar? Come on, now, I didn’t think it was Fake News Network on Fox!”
A motorsports driver and team owner objecting to a claim in an ad promoting a competing circuit is one thing. Doing so to a reporter from that company, on that company’s broadcast of the driver’s own race, is something else, as is calling them a “fake news network” in the process. But what’s perhaps particularly remarkable is seeing the NHRA’s own official account amplify this. And Tasca took to social media himself to make it clear he stands by his remarks:
I said what I said.
— Bob Tasca III (@Tasca3) March 9, 2025
Tasca is certainly right that drag racing cars are much, much faster than the open-wheeled cars seen in IndyCar or F1 (which are themselves faster than the stock cars in NASCAR). NHRA cars often exceed 330 miles per hour (Tasca set a record of 341.6 mph last year, albeit at a non-NHRA event), while the IndyCar speed record is an average of 237 miles per hour (for four Indy 500 qualifying laps by Arie Luyendyk in 1996), and the best F1 speed in a race is 234.9 mph (by Valtteri Bottas in 2016 European GP qualifying in Baku).
Open-wheeled cars have gone faster than that under some circumstances, including Honda hitting 246.9 mph in straight-line testing (more similar to drag racing) of their F1 car in Utah. But they’re not approaching the speed of specifically-built drag racing cars, and that’s understandable considering that circuit racing is very different. Still, “fastest racing on earth” for IndyCar is not true (it could be with a “circuit” disclaimer, but they didn’t add one). And that is the definite claim Fox’s ads made at the end of each segment. Here’s one of those:
It’s understandable why Tasca and others may be a bit miffed about this. Fox has spent huge amounts of money advertising their acquisition of IndyCar rights, including more than they paid for the rights in Super Bowl LIX slots alone (to say nothing of NFL playoff slots). And that’s drawn a bit of blowback from drivers and fans in other racing series aired by Fox, including NASCAR and NHRA events. But Tasca’s promo here, complete with “fake news network,” might be the strongest criticism yet. It did lead to a funny rejoinder from IndyCar driver Scott McLaughlin, though:
Well at least the commercials are reaching far and wide. Hope you tune in Bob on March 23 at 3pm on FOX !! https://t.co/UuJXWzA3Zg
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin93) March 10, 2025
This is far from the first time that Fox’s various sports ads have annoyed someone in the sports world. But at least it isn’t James Dolan this time, and Tasca probably won’t be specifically calling up Rupert Murdoch to complain. But he certainly got his point out there, on Fox airwaves no less, and the NHRA’s amplification of it helped (and might make things slightly awkward between them and Fox).
