Fanhouse Predicts Top-5 2008 Stories: No. 4 NASCAR Television Package Has to Work

Friday afternoon, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series gets down to business at Daytona with the first round of practice for the Budweiser Shootout, scheduled for 8:30pm/ET Saturday night on FOX. NASCAR Fanhouse will countdown the days with a look at the five stories that will rule the sport in 2008.

It was a daily cry near the end of the 2007 season to hear NASCAR fans heartily complain about the lack of quality television coverage they were getting of their favorite sport.

FOX had some gaffes, TNT was an interesting dot on the map and ESPN's triumphant return blew up quicker than a Dale Earnhardt Jr. DEI motor. There were horrible camera angles, bad commentators, pointless graphics & illustrations and completely lost knack at telling a compelling story for every fan watching the race.

Sure, if you were a Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon fan, you had plenty of driver coverage down the stretch. The problem, though, was that 41 other cars started the race and a good majority of those never even saw the beam of a camera during the 3 to 4 hour events.

ESPN has already announced plenty of changes -- including the removal of Rusty Wallace as a permanent fixture in the broadcast booth. TNT has said they are coming back at the July race in Daytona with the "Wide Open" coverage that featured fewer commercial breaks. FOX is staying with their tried and true team in the broadcast booth that has stayed the same since 2001.

Will that be enough? I'd like to think so.
TNT is definitely pioneering a concept that could potentially be the new way to watch NASCAR on television. Featuring just a handful of all-out local commercial breaks per race and in-race ads while the cars are still visible on-screen really is a nice break from the all-too-common five minutes of racing per commercial break format that seems to be the norm.

ESPN's revamped hosting line-up is a stride in the right direction, but a focus on telling stories for all of the fans watching the race and treating NASCAR events as if there are more than stick-and-ball sport viewers tuning in is a necessity. Fans are flat tired of hearing the same explanation each week about the handling of a car that they could tell another person in their sleep.

Viewers took to a practice of muting their broadcasts on TV in favor of the audio delivered by the radio broadcasts of both MRN and PRN in 2007 because, frankly, guys like Barney Hall and Doug Rice could tell a much more exciting race to viewers.

That's got to change in 2008, otherwise the downward trend of viewership will continually grow larger.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

2-05-2008 @ 1:15PM

Mike said...

Geoff, I do not think we will ever get everything we want as fans. The fact that last seasons last couple races was an incredible battle between Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson is exactly what Nascar wnated when they went to the Chase format. Under the old system yes, there were years that the Championship was determined weeks before the end of the season. In those years there was less attention paid to the Cup winner and we actually paid attention to who was winning each race until the end. If this year features two or more drivers battling it out hard the last two weeks I predict that once again nobody will care who wins those last two races unless it is one of the contenders. All the attention will be focused on who is going to win the Cup. Nascar wanted to make it more interesting and more exciting. Well, it was from a certain point of view. had there been any other teams in contention more teams would have gotten some attention. Since everybody compares it to other sports PLAYOFF season, how much attention do you give the teams that are not in the playoffs or even the ones that have no more mathematical chance at winning?

2-05-2008 @ 1:16PM

Oops, forgot again.
Michael Bishop LeVan

2-05-2008 @ 11:07PM

Compare Daytona 500 tickets said...

I was stranded in West Virginia after getting my truck stuck, and I had nothing but time to watch NASCAR coverage, it was terrible, hopefully this year is better.

2-06-2008 @ 1:40AM

Don Emerson said...

Good poimt Mike, the chase has made things a little more exciting for the fans, but it sure isn't fair to the teams and drivers. Nascar doesn't seperate the final 12 by enough points. Therefore Gordon's efforts the first 26 races did him about as much good as a roll of one ply toilet paper. The other major sports that have playoffs reward the teams that have better records with byes, and home field advantage etc. Nascar should do the same by awarding a larger point spread between chase drivers based on the first 26 races. Works for me.....

2-06-2008 @ 11:07AM

Don said...

DW is the best there is any where i have had the plesure of being around him when i worked for ALL PRO RACING in the late 80s an earley 90s they all need to hire him he can make a dead man rise as far as TNT there just on the middle like i said GET DW an ESPN WELL THEY NEED ALL THE HELP THEY CAN GET if i was a foot ball fan an i am not there ok but for NASCAR i am sory they just suck

2-07-2008 @ 12:21PM

drgrcr601 said...

I really don't understand what some of you want in the chase. You keep comparing it to other sport playoffs. As far as I know no other sport except Nascar allows points before the playoffs begin. Except for seeding (home field advantage) everyone starts from scratch no matter how many games they won or touchdowns they made or how many points they scored or what a great season they had. I think most of this is from disappointed JG fans because he didn't win the championship. Suck it up for gawds sake and move on. You don't have a case in my opinion.

Ron

2-07-2008 @ 7:19PM

south carolina steeler said...

call me crazy, but if nascar wants to make the chase exciting they should look into changing the locations of the CHASE RACES every year.that way its not the same race tracks every year. regardless, im a fan and will still watch no matter how they do it.

2-08-2008 @ 9:00AM

Rusty Price@therustygourmet.com said...

Getting rid of Rusty? I considered Rusty as a rookie commentator. And as a rookie, I think he did a great job. You've got to have commentators that have gotten their hands dirty, strategized and tasted sweet victory over and over again. I don't believe opinions from those who haven't walked the walk. Okay, maybe Rusty Wallace isn't a 'DW' or Buddy Baker...yet. But you don't win championships your first year out. I certainly hope that Rusty gets signed up with a better Network. Rusty's on fresh tires. He's got alot of laps left.