A new clip from FOX Sports’ SPEED with Harvick and Buxton has been making the rounds this week, and it earns every share it’s getting. In it, motorsport broadcaster Will Buxton sits down with NASCAR legend Kevin Harvick and watches back the play-by-play call that made him the most talked-about voice in racing after May 24.
Felix Rosenqvist won the 2026 Indianapolis 500 in the closest finish in the race’s century-plus history, making a last-lap pass on David Malukas to take the win by 0.0233 of a second.
Rosenqvist surged from third to first in a one-lap shootout, making a dramatic late push past Team Penske‘s David Malukas in a photo finish that, in a normal year, would’ve been the lead story for a week.
FOX brought back their trio of Will Buxton, Townsend Bell, and James Hinchcliffe to call the race, and when the moment arrived, Buxton delivered the kind of call that announcers spend careers hoping for.
The clip opens with a split-screen: Buxton in the booth, physically draped over the desk and gripping his headset, alongside the live on-track feed of Rosenqvist making a daring outside move in the closing yards, slingshotting past leader David Malukas and across the Yard of Bricks by half a car length.
Buxton’s archival call plays over it: “Malukas has to defend from Rosenqvist! Great run off the final corner. Here comes Rosenqvist! Malukas defends. Who has it?! Over the line… IT’S ROSENQVIST!”
Buxton’s Take on the Call Itself
Back in the studio on the couch with Harvick, Buxton isn’t entirely at peace with how it went – which, if you’ve ever spoken to anyone who does live commentary for a living, is exactly what you’d expect. “I’ve watched that back a few times now,” he says, before admitting: “…and there are, I could have done that better, you should have done that better. But that’s the… that’s the drug of announcing, isn’t it? That’s the drug of play-by-play, is it’s never perfect and you always think you could do it better. But very proud. Very, very proud of that man.”
Harvick, to his credit, doesn’t let the self-doubt slide: “You should be proud. That was great.”
What follows is Buxton at his most genuine. “And the loveliest thing, and folks have been very, very kind online about it… and then the nicest thing is I hope people can just see how much we love this race and how much we love this sport. And it’s impossible in a moment like that not to let your passion and your love just sort of spew out of your mouth.” Harvick laughs. It’s a good beat.
The self-critique is worth taking seriously because Buxton isn’t fishing for reassurance. He had the FOX call as Rosenqvist won the closest finish in Indy 500 history, and the reaction online was instant and almost universally enthusiastic. The clip of him leaning out of his chair, practically leaving the building with excitement, was widely described as iconic. And that kind of label usually means the internet has already decided for you. Buxton’s instinct to pick it apart anyway says something about why good broadcasters stay good.
The 0.023-second victory was Rosenqvist’s second in 120 career IndyCar starts and his first ever on an oval, a detail that only adds to why the moment hit the way it did. A driver getting his first oval win at Indianapolis, in the closest finish the race has ever produced, on live network television. When the moment is that large, the booth either rises to meet it or it doesn’t. Buxton rose to meet it. The fact that he’s still mentally editing the call a week later is, somehow, the most broadcaster thing about the whole story.