Hello, race fans, and welcome to entry No. 48 in a long-running series where I look into the television broadcasts beamed into our households. This week, I’m covering the first weekend of SpeedWeeks (hooray!). But, before we get into the critiques, some news. First off, Nascar.com will be offering free RaceBuddy coverage of the Gatorade …
NASCAR announced late last week a 10% cut in race purses, with the money instead going to the racetracks. How does this affect the sport’s outlook, given the sagging economy and increasing cost of competition?
Hello, race fans. It’s been a long winter, but I’m back for another season of critiques, commentary, TV news and other random musings. But, before we start, there are a couple of things that I need to discuss. First off, some Frontstretch news. I am expanding my areas of critique for 2010. Non-stock car racing …
Greetings, race fans and welcome to this week’s critique, entry No. 43 in a long running series where I look into the quality of the race broadcasts. We’ve got a lot to talk about, so let’s get right into it. On Friday night, the Truck Series held their season finale race, the Ford 200. SPEED …
Hello, race fans and welcome to my critique, entry No. 42 in a long series in which we look into the quality of NASCAR’s TV broadcasts. This week: Phoenix. Of course, before we get into the nitty gritty of the weekend’s racing, there are a couple things I want to mention. First of all, two …
Hello and welcome to this week’s critique, entry No. 39 in an ongoing series where I look into NASCAR’s TV broadcasts. This past weekend saw the Cup Series compete on Sunday in the TUMS Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway, while Kroger Supermarkets sponsored races in the other two divisions: the Truck Series’ Kroger 200 …
Hello, race fans. Last weekend’s races at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (soon to become Charlotte Motor Speedway once again) were marked by cold weather and somewhat dodgy conditions (both races were somewhat hampered by rain, in addition to the cold weather). This can affect race coverage positively or negatively. Which way did the networks go? Well, …
Greetings, race fans, and welcome to this week’s TV critique. Unfortunately, all three of NASCAR’s major touring series took the week off last weekend. This leaves me to give my opinions on some of the magazine shows on television. However, the buildup to the NCAA Basketball tournaments (Men’s and Women’s) has gotten in the way of rendering any kind of opinion on ESPN2’s NASCAR Now. This is because the show did not air in its normal time slot all week due to preemptions for live games. As a result, the critique of NASCAR Now will have to be pushed back – possibly to Easter Weekend. With that said, I still have some things to say about some of the other NASCAR-themed shows that have cropped up this season on SPEED Channel.
The first thing I do on Friday afternoons is click on SPEED to check out either Cup Pole Qualifying or practice – whatever is actually on. This past Friday was like the start of any other NASCAR weekend; but the minute I turned on the television, I immediately saw a graphical error scrolling across the screen. Todd Bodine had entered this past weekend’s Kobalt Tools 500 with the No. 35, a R&D team for Germain Racing. Well, the on-screen scroll at the top of the screen showed Bodine’s name up there – but with the wrong number attached (Scott Speed’s No. 82). I’ve mentioned this type of an issue before occuring during Truck Series races, but I’ve never seen it transfer over to Cup. Of course, this mistake was confusing for fans, with the more casual ones having no clue what was right or wrong on TV.
Now that Speedweeks at Daytona are over, it is time to look back and reflect upon what we have seen, and what we have been provided for our viewing pleasure by NASCAR’s media partners for Speedweeks (FOX, SPEED and ESPN2). Before I begin, I should state this. Speedweeks is supposed to be the most important time of the year in NASCAR, at least for the television partners. This is because the races at Daytona during Speedweeks are the biggest events of the year for each series that races. This includes the ARCA Re/Max Series that had their season opener back on February 7, in addition to NASCAR’s three national series. As a result, telecasts of said races should be held to a greater standard. It is to this standard that I have to critique the broadcasts.
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