If you’re reading this blog, it’s likely that you’ve been a reader of my work since 2005 when I first began writing a column for Yahoo! Sports called Observations, which was published late on Sunday night following a NASCAR Cup race or if it was a late night, early on Monday morning. I like to think that it was one of those “must read” columns following a weekend of racing because I touched upon many topics and wrote about more than NASCAR.
I left Yahoo! Sports in 2008 and went on to do other things in racing. However, I still enjoy writing about racing and other topics which is why I write this blog.
After spending many years watching NASCAR Cup races from the grandstands (actually I was in the press box, which is located either in the middle or top of the main grandstands at most tracks and varies in comfort from having real luxuries like air conditioning, toilets and an Internet connection that works reasonably well to professional working conditions so bad you wished you were back in the infield media center, away from the actual race and forced to watch on television) I now watch Cup races on television.
The difference is shocking.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup races as they are being broadcast are, simply put, unwatchable. Period.
If you have spent any time watching NASCAR races live, you just can’t watch them on television. I will admit, the HD picture quality is excellent. The sound is amazing and all those cool camera angles, like the gyro cam and others are designed to add to the viewing and listening experience on a big screen television.
However, the rest of the experience is…something else.
Think of getting an invitation to see the race in person, with tickets at the start finish line in a nice suite with good food and a working toilet, but having to spend the afternoon with your lovable old Uncle Dave, who never seems to shut up about the past and his conversation is filled with non-stop references to the “good old days” – meaning any year when Earnhardt Sr. was driving.
Uncle Dave, of course, brings along his neighbor (and best buddy) Oscar, who used to work at a muffler shop and knows a bit about cars and can pretty much tell you exactly what every crew chief on pit road is thinking. And (lucky you!) sitting next to you in the suite is Uncle Dave’s former brother-in-law (although he still calls him “my brother”) Rodney, who doesn’t really care about racing, would be just as happy being at home watching hockey games, farts a lot and thinks he knows all about NASCAR and NASCAR racing. But, when the invite includes free beer, Rodney is there.
All this adds up to a miserable experience at the track, where your afternoon of racing is either being disrupted by Rodney’s talking about some new reality television show that’s the latest and greatest (and that you don’t care about), Uncle Dave’s non-stop comments about how “Jimmie Johnson is good, but back in the day…” and Oscar’s insistence that taking two tires is the right move, not four.
And then there’s Uncle Dave’s insistence that you go with him to the balcony outside of the suite every five laps or so, while he chain smokes another cigarette (a habit left over from those “good old days”), thus forcing you to miss much of the racing action. Of course, there’s Oscar and Rodney to fill you in on what you missed while you were away.
It almost makes you want to stay at home and watch the race on television.
Or not.
*****
NASCAR’s loop data, which are statistics measured at 10 scoring loops around the 1.5-mile track showed that there were 31 passes for the lead and over 2300 passes throughout the field under the green during Sunday’s race the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, yet the television audience missed most of them. How did that happen?
Ask Uncle Dave.
You’re saying what we’ve all been screaming for years–not that the networks listen to us, because we’re already loyal fans, not the transient ones they’re somehow trying to lure. There used to be DirecTV and TrackPass as alternatives, but one is now gone and the other so messed up that it’s unusable. But the emperor has neat new clothes, right? Uncle Dave says so!
BRAVO Exactly like listening to the bumblers in the booth each week.
You bring tears to the eyes of this ‘good old days’ fan! Used to get as much from the news reels and papers as is televised today. How can sponsors be acquired for 46-plus cars when we’re lucky if we see more than seven, unless they’re in the wall. The dialog is SO boring, over-explained, yudity-yudity-yudity, that I can not stay with the program. Side-by-side viewing?? That’s a bigger joke than the transparency of the White House. I could go on, but it would be as redundant as the broadcast booth. I hope the transfer of power doesn’t get their foot in the way of Rick & Phil giving us good Truck racing coverage. Thank you for listening – NASCAR and Broadcasting Powers don’t.
Classic article, Mr. Margolis. I can’t think of anything to add except that I’m glad I’m headed to Bristol in person this weekend. And Uncle Dave ain’t comin’.
You know, I’ve been steaming mad about this lately. The apologists on SiriusXM NASCAR (The Morning Drive) make excuses for the TV coverage and demand “solutions” from any fan who dares to point out that the emperor has no clothes.
Your commentary is dead on.
I think that all NASCAR media people should be forced to take a sabbatical and watch an entire season on TV. Then maybe they’ll understand how bad it is.
After years of religious viewing, I’m done.
I have better things to do for 4 hours every Sunday than to listen to a couple of chuckle-heads and watch close-up camera shots of cars that show no action and make it difficult to even know what turn they’re in.
Good luck bringing in new fans, NASCAR! You need it.
Unwatchable, is the correct term. How FOX can continue to put Larry Mac on every day of the week, explaining in ALABAMISE, the tires are round, and NASCAR is the best, challanges the imagineation. Add Ol’ DW and the two, create new words of ignorance each and every week. NASCAR does not care about its image on TV, it just controls every aspect of the sport, but the one that counts. Fine Hamlin and let the two stoogies keep rambling along. Neither Larry or DW has any more knowledge of the GEN 6 wonder car, then the avarage fan. TV is out of control, its gets worse each year.
Not that I disagree, but just a question. How come we don’t hear the same about the broadcasts of other types of motorsport. For example, F1 on Speed was highly praised for its broadcasts. And the announcers werent anywhere near the race. They were watching it just like us! So how come? Again just a question.
If ANY of the TV ‘partners’ would show more than just the top 5 or 10 cars, fans just might have an idea of what it’s like to watch a race in person. They edit what fans see so drastically that it’s boring. I’m pretty sure there’s someone somewhere on the track racing for a position, but TV viewers will never see it. Why do they think it’s ‘good TV’ to show one car at a time when the whole point is that there is a track full of cars competing against each other?
Great column Bob! I live in racing country and everyone around feels the
same way about NASCAR. To quote someone previous: “we watch in spite of, not because of”. The product is getting even more stale.
I stopped watching in May of last year. Sometimes I listen to the radio. I get my news the next day, same as I did when racing wasn’t on TV every week. I was a fan for more than forty years but they’ve sterilized the cars and drivers to the point that it’s not worth following intently.
Raise the cars up and put skinnier tires on them. Go back to the bigger gas tanks. Outlaw “satellite” teams and increase the number of engine builders. Run smaller fields in Cup and bigger ones in Nationwide. Don’t assign points below 20th place and add them to the top five cars instead. GET RID OF DARRELL WALTRIP!