Las Vegas on TV: Wait, you're going to commercial NOW?

I admit, I was thinking that Fox had done a really good job with the broadcast of Sunday's Shelby American (what type of name is that?) with about 60 laps to go.

And I was thinking that as the race wound down to the final laps and Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson were fighting for the lead.

But Fox didn't want me to be incredibly positive. What the heck were they thinking going to commercial with 19 laps to go and Johnson on Gordon's bumper?

I realize that Fox has to get in its commercial allotment, and that it had one more set of commercials to get in. But Stevie Wonder could have seen that a pass for the lead was coming -- and coming SOON -- as Fox split away.

Fox tried to play it off as smoothly as possible as it came back from break, showing the pass like it was happening live, but that's like trying to polish a turd. Things like this will always keep fans annoyed with television broadcasts, no matter how great the rest of the broadcast has been.

The Good: I appreciated the full field rundown with about 60 laps to go, and again in the dwindling laps. It was a great decision by the crew to not try to create artificial drama about Gordon's ability to catch Johnson and instead go through the field. Digger was conservatively used again Sunday, and I can handle that.

The Bad: No one caught the potential penalty on Gordon's pit stop. The fuel man was engaged before he backed up over the line. No one explained exactly why Dave Blaney was running the full race this week. Addressing all the reading that went on between the lines during the week about the car confiscation would have been nice.

Overall Grade: C-. I'm docking them down from the B I had in mind for the misplaced commercial. That's probably pretty harsh, but you can't miss the pass for the win. Ever.