I’m checking the back of my milk carton, but I only see pictures of Fox’s pit lane reporters. O’ Where fore art thou, Digger! Little Digger! Brave rodent, stalwart gopher, and a true NASCAR fan. Fox’s broadcast exists only for you. My Digger. Alas, my little Digger!
Well, maybe him and the reporters got capped because it was a quickie pre-race show. There wasn’t even a sit down interview with any of the drivers. On the other hand, I would have much rather had all that stuff than Chris Myers’ truly flat efforts at comedy today. The jokes weren’t bad, but the delivery was awful.
The Fox pre-race crew seemed extremely uptight. Especially if you compare them to Rusty, Brad, and Alan from yesterday’s Nationwide pre-race. Those guys were loose and having fun. Chris, Jeff, and DW were just nervous. I don’t think it was because Fox didn’t let DW participate in the Saturday Night Legends race. No, these guys were practically begging the drivers to start a fight. All the promo images showed drivers getting into it with each other. It was emphasized that the race was finally a sellout. Then there were lots of close up shots of the crowd.
To digress for a moment, NASCAR broadcasts never show the crowd. In baseball, they always show the crowd, pictures of nice-looking families having fun, kids in particular. (Fan cam is one of the better features of Fox’s baseball coverage.) In football, you always get shots of Darth Raider and dudes in 10 degree weather wearing only painted letters on their chests. In basketball, you can’t help but see the crowd. Hockey is probably the only sport with less coverage of the people in attendance.
In short, the Fox guys were trying to sell the sport, and desperately. They wanted something to happen during the race that would make newscast reels around the country. They went out of their way to show that NASCAR was popular and that people were coming out to the races. After four lack-luster races in a row, including a fan drought at Atlanta, NASCAR and Fox needed a good race.
Unfortunately, what they got was a different track with the same racing. How could cars get that strung out on a short track? You would think that it would be hard for the race leader to run away with the lead, given the size of the track and the traffic. When I saw it Saturday with Kevin Harvick, I thought it was an aberration. I accept that Kyle Busch is a great driver, but how could even he stretch it out like that at Bristol after a Green/White/Checkers restart?
I think it’s the COT. The car was designed to be generic, to produce close racing, and somewhat hard to drive, to make driver skill more important. A few drivers have adapted and thrived, but not enough to make the championship more interesting. The car’s inherent instability is also encouraging the drivers to give one another a wide berth in racing. A good COT race is the exception. A boat race is the norm.
Bristol is always somewhat overhyped. It’s strange that a race marred by frequent cautions and less than spectacular wrecks would be so popular. I think it’s really the spectacle of the track itself that draws the crowd. In person, the stadium must be awe inspiring, regardless of the quality of the racing. At times, it’s the modern Circus Maximus. I remember the end of a Busch Series race a couple of years ago, before the Green/White/Checker rule. They stayed green during two wrecks and then only stopped the race when a third wreck completely blocked the track. The crowd went nuts. I was at home and jumping up and down cheering.
The main goal for a TV crew covering the race is to make their audience want to be there. At Bristol, that isn’t hard. The stadium is very TV friendly given its small size and the height of the grandstands. Even Digger cam was useful today in showing the "marbles" that the commentators are always talking about. I have to give ABC/ESPN credit for a couple of their camera angles in the pre-race. They showed the view from the top of a pit box, and had a wide-angle shot of the whole track detailing where the best pit stalls were and why.
Quick hits: There were a few unenthusiastic Junior updates during the race. I think Fox is about to give up on him saving their half of the season. Props to Macros Ambrose getting a top ten finish in a wounded car. Interviewing the Aussie after the race would have been a good move. A bad move would be showing more freaking movie videos and other flashing ads at the top and bottom of the screen during the race. It was like watching a letterbox picture inside of a letterbox picture. Obnoxious to say the least.
My best idea to boost ratings would be to show more of Jeff Gordon’s wife, Ingrid. The racing may not be good every week, but I can guarantee she’ll be beautiful every week. Jeff, for everything you’ve got going for you, you just got lucky hooking up with her.
Geek moment: Logano’s Halo/Gamestop paint scheme in the Nationwide race. Cool, and it was good to see the old-style NASCAR car again.
J.
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