Sunday is not necessarily football night. It can be NASCAR night especially when the season’s last race, the Ford EcoBoost 400 ran long after a delayed start and into Football Night in America’s time. NBC which was running the Sprint Cup championship race on both NBC and NBCSN had a decision as the race was approaching 7 p.m. ET, the normal sign-on time for FNIA.

NBC was airing main coverage of the race while spotlight coverage was focusing on the four racers in contention for the Sprint Cup Championship was on NBCSN. Before 7 p.m., it was announced that general coverage would move to NBCSN and NBC would move to Football Night in America.

However, it was later decided to stay with the race through the conclusion as outlined in a statement that was issued to Awful Announcing from Jon Miller, President of Programming for NBC Sports and NBCSN:

“This was NASCAR’s championship, with great drama surrounding the final four drivers, including Jeff Gordon in the last race of his iconic career. We felt it would be a disservice to viewers to move the race as long as its conclusion did not threaten the kickoff of Sunday Night Football. We communicated our evolving plans to both NASCAR and the NFL. As soon as the race concluded, NBC shifted to Football Night in America and provided roughly 35 minutes of pre-game coverage. NASCAR’s post-race celebration and trophy presentation were captured on NBCSN, which race fans know well as the network hosted more than 600 hours of NASCAR programming this year, including 15 Sprint Cup races.”

However, the decision did not go over well with viewers who switched to NBC wanting to watch their NFL highlights. And naturally they went to Twitter to express their feelings:

NBC preempts Football Night in America for NASCAR and Twitter is not happy. pic.twitter.com/tAxpsrRuiE — Ben Bergman (@thebenbergman) November 23, 2015

What the hell is NASCAR doing on NBC and not Football Night in America. Worst "sport" in the world — Billy Rehfeld (@BRAYkingBad) November 23, 2015

NASCAR on NBC & NBCSHD? Where's Football Night in America?? This is very dumb. #sundaynightfootball. — Derryck Green (@DerryckGreen) November 23, 2015

NBC airing the end of the #NASCAR race instead of Football Night in America has to be one of the top ten upsets in sports history. — Jordan McGraw (@JordanTMcGraw) November 23, 2015

Hey @nbc where's football night in America? If I want to watch traffic I'll go sit by the highway @NASCAR #FootballSunday #CINvsAZ — Evan (@Evan_lemieux) November 23, 2015

But there were those who liked the decision to stay with the conclusion of the race:

Football Night in America is currently NASCAR Night in America. NBC doing NASCAR a solid here. — Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) November 23, 2015

https://twitter.com/Ian_N7919G/status/668594998871363584

Fantastic! NBC having the guts to stay with the race and not show Football Night in America. This is big for #NASCAR here! #FordEcoBoost400 — Dakota Hunter  (@TheTechiesWorld) November 23, 2015

So NBC was damned if it moved the race to NBCSN and damned when it didn’t. Football Night in America did not sign on until 7:58 p.m. ET while the Sprint Cup Crowning Ceremony was aired on NBCSN. When FNIA did air, Dan Patrick, Rodney Harrison and Tony Dungy did what amounted to a halftime update for highlights, going over one or two plays per game before tossing to Bob Costas in Glendale, AZ for the Cincinnati-Arizona game.

Unless there was a red flag during the last 30 laps of the race, it managed to finish well before the 8:30 p.m. ET kickoff in Arizona and according to the statement, the NFL was aware of NBC’s predicament.

NASCAR fans were happy that NBC stayed with the race while NFL fans waiting for their highlights weren’t. However, one week in which a race ran over its timeslot isn’t going to hurt things and since this is the last NASCAR event of the season, NBC won’t encounter this for the rest of the year. Given the choice between a championship event and a pregame show, you can certainly understand why NBC went the direction they did, even with the NFL’s popularity over everything else in the universe.