Fox fares well in challenging debut.

No matter how good Fox's inaugural broadcast of NASCAR's 2001 Daytona 500 was, the event will forever be linked with the death of one of the sport's superstars.

While Michael Waltrip was on his way to ending his 0-462 streak with encouragement from his brother Darrell who was doing duty in the Fox broadcast booth, Michael's boss, driver Dale Earnhardt, was, according to reports, already dead after having slammed into the Turn Four wall.

Fox viewers left the race not knowing the outcome of the Earnhardt incident. We saw Ken Schrader, who was involved in the wreck, emerge from his car and walk to Earnhardt's mangled Monte Carlo as rescue personnel arrived on the scene. Schrader, perhaps sensing the gravity of the situation, simply said ``I'm no doctor'' when asked of Earnhardt's condition by one of Fox's pit reporters. And the TV captured Dale Jr., who finished second in the race, climb from his car and instead of heading to victory lane, sprint down pit lane toward the garage area. But because Fox had already exceeded its allotted time by 30 minutes, viewers were left to wonder if Earnhardt was okay. As we know now, the seven-time Winston Cup champion was killed in the crash, casting a pall over the broadcast.

When Fox was announced last year as the winner of the $2.6 billion NASCAR television rights sweepstakes, race fans were worried the network, known more for its style than substance (remember blue streaking hockey pucks?) would somehow taint the sport. Reports of Fox being unwilling to call cars by their brand names or sponsor's names unless those companies were in the fold as race broadcast advertisers didn't help the network's warm and fuzzy factor.

But the broadcast was actually pretty good. With veteran announcer Mike Joy, who turned in a fine performance in ...