NHRA Racer Tasca Says FOX Sports 'Can Keep Embarrassing Themselves If They'd Like'
NHRA Funny Car team owner-driver Bob Tasca III certainly didn't change his message about the FOX Sports IndyCar Series commercials being incorrect with its tagline 'Fastest Racing On Earth.' But he added some perspective to his remarks from Gainesville, Fla., two weeks ago.
'First off,' he said, 'I want to go on record to all my IndyCar friends out there. I don't have many, because I've never been to an IndyCar race, actually. But I have met several drivers over the years. The truth is, I have the utmost respect for what they do, their sport, their fans. Anyone that gets in a race car and risks their life to put on a show for their sponsors and fans, hats off to them.'
Tasca said the commercials' tag line 'wasn't tastefully done at all' but said, 'My emotion was on the fact that the promotion is singling out that they're the fastest motorsport on the planet, and that is factually wrong. It is not true, and anybody that can look at scoreboard can clearly see that,' Tasca said. 'So I think that they overstepped some bounds – which not only pissed me off, [but] it pissed off a lot of NHRA fans and drivers. And it was great to see the passion of race fans over the last week.'
He said, 'We are the fastest motorsport on the planet, although I did get some call-outs from our Bonneville Salt Flats folks. And maybe I have to preface that we are the fastest side-by-side motorsport on the planet. But again, I love their passion, too, so it's all in good fun.'
But he said he was told that Friday's FOX Sports broadcast of the first day of Arizona Nationals action included uncorrected IndyCar commercials.
'So you want to talk about embarrassment? OK. They can keep embarrassing themselves if they'd like, but the harsh reality is we are the fastest motorsport, and I'm very proud to be able to say that.'
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