In the third part of an ongoing-ongoing series, I take a look at a particular aspect of Nascar (in this case, the TV packages), and give it a makeover from square one.
Trying to "fix" what's "wrong" with Nascar's TV coverage is a little like me going on Match.com--its destined to fail. But really, what do fans complain about more than Nascar on TV? Again, we're taking the point-of-view that we could redo EVERYTHING from the ground up, contracts and restrictions be damned.
THE SCHEDULE
One of my issues with the current coverage is that the Chase, Nascar's playoff, is basically an afterthought to football (College and Pro). We always complain that we can't watch NFL & Nascar at the same time, but ESPN can't put races on Saturday Nights--that's football time. So how about we go to a Network that CAN do it? Here's my idea: Fox does the first 13 races (plus the Shootout and All-Star Race), ESPN/ABC does the next 13 races (includes Indy), and TNT does the 10 Chase races. This would allow MUCH more races to be moved to Saturday Nights or Sunday Late-Afternoons. With that being said…
THE ANNOUNCERS
Hey TNT--if you want to stay in Nascar, make sure you have, y'know, Nascar announcers. That means no more Wally Dallenbach Jr., who always seems like he was forced to go to his high-school reunion when he's on-air. Maybe bump-up one of the B-crew announcers, like Ricky Craven or Jeff Hammond, to pair with Kyle Petty.
Another issue that needs to be addressed--business relationships between announcers and other companies. Its hard to take Darrell Waltrip seriously when he's extolling the virtues of the Toyota Camry. So, all three networks should publish a list before the season with every company its broadcasters are involved with. Look, there's no way to stop former drivers from doing commercials and owning race teams (if they did, there'd be nobody in the booth), but at least we can be informed about it.
As for the announcers themselves, people complain constantly about, well, everybody, but really, other than Wally and the unnecessary pairing of both Waltrips on the same crews, I don't have a problem with 'em.
THE START TIMES
Hey, remember when Nascar had standard start-times for all its races? Yeah, it only took about ONE YEAR for that to go away, even though everybody seemed to enjoy it. I'd like to see them go back to the old system, but if they can't, at least standardize the green flag start-times. In other words, have races start at 1:19pm, 2:19pm, 7:19pm, etc., for those of us who don't have time for the pre-race.
NBC
Simple--keep NBC out of the sport for as long as possible.
CABLE/INTERNET
There are a surprising amount of people who can't watch races on ESPN, TNT, or Speed because they don't have cable. So, make it a requirement that if you show the race on a cable station, you have to make it available online. There's got to be a way to simply put it online with the same commercials you get on TV, or make it available for a very small fee per-race.
SIDE-BY-SIDE COVERAGE…
…is awesome. People get to see the commercials AND see the race. I really find it hard to see the downside to this, since it keeps people from flicking around the channels. Put Side-by-Side on for the final 1/2 or 1/3 of every race and ratings will go up!