The Adventures of Digger and Friends
The Adventures of Digger and Friends was a series of vignettes that showed during NASCAR on Fox pre-race shows in 2009. Background. In 2009, Fox Sports announced that "Digger", who had already been a mascot for the corner camera in NASCAR, would be subject to a series of vignettes that would air during NASCAR on Fox pre-races. Keith Urban would compose and write a new single for the show, called "Lil' Digger". In an interview, Urban was noticeably happy with creating the song, saying "How could you turn the critter down? I  immediately went to my drum machine, then to my guitar, back to my drum machine and on to my banjo and it wasn't long before I had the song. I just hope that Digger likes it." An animation studio in Romania would animate the series. Premise. The series follows Digger's life, and adventures in a racetrack with his friend, Marbles, his girlfriend, Annie, his grandpa, Gramps, and a police officer that chases Digger's mischievous acts, Lumpy Wheels, who was named after former Fox Sports president David Hill and former Charlotte Motor Speedway Humpy Wheeler. Criticism. After a  NASCAR town hall-style meeting at the end of May 2009, Fox Sports chair David Hill reported receiving an email from a high-ranking NASCAR official whose identity he chose to conceal, stating that Digger could have been the cause of ratings declines for Fox's NASCAR coverage. Hill said "It was because of Digger that people were turning off in droves because they couldn't stand it, I said, I'm so sorry. If I'd known, I never would have created him. I didn't realize how insidious he was. It's the biggest crock of shit I 've ever heard." The criticism led to Fox Sports slowly phasing out the character in 2010; it was completely removed from their broadcasts by the time 2012 Subway Fresh Fit 500 aired.