The 2014 Daytona 500 has been postponed all day due to severe weather in the Daytona Beach area. So what did Fox do to pass the time during the delay? They played a re air of the 2013 Daytona 500.
With that, many people on Twitter started live tweeting the event, thinking it was this years Great American Race. Many people. Here are just a few of their tweets:
They weren’t the only ones. At the end of the race, when Jimmie Johnson crossed the finish line Fox News reportedly posted on their Facebook wall reporting that Johnson had won his third Daytona 500:
Even Johnson himself was in on the fun:
I hear I won the #Daytona500? Haha! I also have friends confused and texting congratulations to me. #2013Replay
— Jimmie Johnson (@JimmieJohnson) February 23, 2014
And ESPN got into the act as well…
While others were quick to claim that this was fake, Tireball Sports noted the multiple photos circulating with different numbers of likes and comments.
On Sunday evening Fox News released an apology via Facebook about their erogenous reporting of Jimmie Johnson winning hte Daytona 500.
This evening, we erroneously reported on the Fox News Facebook page that Jimmie Johnson had won this year’s Daytona 500 race. We sincerely apologize to our viewers and readers for this inaccurate report.