Rain delayed the start of Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway by more than 90 minutes. Given the likelihood of a race time of more than 2 hours, 30 minutes, NBC will switch coverage to its cable-satellite affiliate.
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NBC planned to move the race to NBC Sports Network at 7 p.m. ET, according to Sporting News’ Jeff Owens from Homestead. NBCSN carried the race from its start in a simulcast with the mother ship. As 7 neared, NBC adjusted its plans and stayed with the race.
Nov. 15’s Phoenix race was delayed more than six hours. NBC had to move that to NBCSN, too.
Running past 7 ET isn’t an option for NBC. It has other obligations, including a Sunday night NFL game.
Kevin Harvick won the 2014 race and the Cup championship that required 3 hours, 16 minutes to complete.
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UPDATE: NBC announced it would stick with race coverage past 7 ET. At that point, 85 laps remained. The network’s pre-game football coverage was scheduled to run until 8:20 ET.
Give NBC credit: It stuck with the race through its finish about 7:55 p.m. ET.
Sports fans might have heard of the Heidi game, when in 1968 NBC switched away from a Raiders-Jets game that had a wild finish to show a made-for-TV children’s movie. NBC carried that sting for … ever. It appeared NBC wanted no part of another Heidi Bowl blackeye.
