NASCAR Journal 5-4-14

I was quite confused that Fox was showing Talledega qualifying on Saturday.  I was confused to the point that I actually forgot about it until it had been on for about a half hour.  Did NASCAR want to showcase their new qualifying format?  No, the whole thing was just additional promotion for Fox’s new 24 series.  If it’s only going to be 12 episodes, how’s it going to add up to 24? 

If it was supposed to show the excitement and drama of the new format, the broadcast failed.  I showed up late and was flipping between this hockey, but I doubt I could have figured out the new format anyway.  There was some rules confusion on the part of the officials during one of the sessions, so I wasn’t alone.  Superspeedway qualifying is probably a different animal than at other tracks, but still, drivers were using their brakes during laps to let packs catch up with them.  In the mess at the finish line, somebody won the pole, though it wasn’t obvious who, because it was by speed and not an actual race.  The pole winner, Brian Scott, emphasized that their team cars on track had good teamwork together and a solid game plan for qualifying.  Isn’t that what we all tune into qualifying for?            

Now that I’ve sort of seen it, I can live without seeing this new format again.  All it did was distract me from watching a great hockey match.  (The Bruins came from two goals down in the Third Period and won against the Canadiens.  Players were literally fighting each other before the opening face-off.  I still don’t understand why the Canadians have a “C” and an “H” in their logo.  They’re from Montreal, not Halifax.  I’ve almost forgotten that I used to watch baseball games on Saturday afternoon.  No wonder I’m feeling depressed.)  Strategy and teamwork during a race is one thing.  During qualifying, it’s overkill.

The weather was beautiful in Talledega over the weekend.  The stands were full Saturday and Sunday.  I missed most of the pre-race on Sunday, but did catch Michael Waltrip asking the drivers what they talked about while waiting around for the driver introductions.  Junior was talking about the fight Saturday, which I unfortunately watched as well.  It is admittedly cool watching the drivers hanging out with each other before the race.

We’re going back to pack racing here at the superspeedway.  With rules and car changes, it’s hard to predict what you’ll get at Talledega and Daytona.  It wasn’t the usual constant car shuffling packs though.  Drivers ran three-wide and 10 deep, but held their positions much of the time.  The ending was a massive letdown.  There was a wreck in the field right before the leader took the white flag.  Instead of going to caution right then or just letting them race all the way for the final lap, NASCAR dithered and threw the yellow/checkers more than halfway through the lap.  Denny Hamlin was handed the win.  NASCAR’s whimsical rules enforcement and the audience lose.

Well, no comments about the commercials so far, there’s a reason for that.  I needed a separate section for them.  I was challenged to put some hard data behind my complaints about constant commercial interruption.  The race started at 11:21 am MST and ended at 2:38 pm MST for a total of 3 hours, 17 minutes.  My calculated commercial time during that period was 1 hour, 2 minutes. 

I’ll break that down for you.  8 minutes Side-by-Side coverage (2 of which were under caution).  22 minutes of commercials while under caution.  32 minutes of commercials under green flag racing.  There were 3 cautions during commercial, one of which Fox did break away from to go back to the race for a large wreck.     

Broken down by hour.  1^st hour partial (39 minutes), 13 minutes of commercial;  2^nd hour, 21 minutes of commercial; 3^rd hour, 24 minutes of commercial; 4^th hour partial (38 minutes), 4 minutes of commercial.  If you enjoyed the end of the race (up until the last lap), now you know why.

This was the worst way to watch a race ever.  There were three baseball games on the radio and a hockey game going on at the same time, and there I was sitting there counting commercials.  I can’t tell you how happy I was when the race ended, regardless of how.  I’m not doing this again.  From now on, just trust me when I say there’s a bunch of commercials on during a race.