Monday, August 18, 2008

NASCAR/ESPN - Not a marriage made in heaven

ESPN has great technical skills and produces images second to none, but Dr. Jerry Punch doesn't really do it for me with his announcing of the race and ESPN's coverage of the race focuses on the 'Stars'; drivers that are personalities. Unfortunately, that generates a boring 3 hours of TV for real NASCAR fans; fans that understand racing and would like to know how things are going behind the top 5 cars. How boring is it to watch the leader circle a 2-mile track, alone, for 5 laps while Dr. Jerry Punch tells us about him as they lead into a commercial...

Each NASCAR fan has a favorite driver/team. If your team isn't near the front, you better be watching the position crawl across the top of the screen, 'cause you'll never find out how they're performing via images and announcing. ESPN displayed the same terrible approach to broadcasting NASCAR races last season, and it just doesn't work for me. How hard is it to take time to 'go thru the field' a few times a race and show where folks are running, or if nothing else linger on a long shot of the front stretch for a minute or so and we can see all the cars come by; and maybe I can identify 'my guy'!

Next Saturday is the Bristol night race...it's a half-mile track with about 160k fans in the stands. With a track that small, I'll actually get to see 'my guy' even if he's running back in the pack. So even ESPN can't miss getting an exciting show on the TV from Bristol!!!

Do good stuff; have some fun,
JD

2 comments:

Daly Planet Editor said...

JD, when you get a moment, maybe you can swing by thedalyplanet.tv and leave your NASCAR TV opinion.

We would appreciate it.

The "other" JD

Susan Spencer said...

This is my complaint with the Olympics coverage also. It is so focused on the American athletes that we don't get to see the actual competition--mediocre performances, competitors from other countries, and all. I can hardly stand watching the chopped up, fragmented coverage that's so focused on just a few athletes.