Why NASCAR Needs Better Broadcast Partners
4/16/2013
Kevin Abraham
As
many who watch NASCAR Sprint Cup coverage know, it is painful to watch a
broadcast of the race these days. In my
experience, Fox, TNT, and ESPN need to work on their telecasts. I know that many races, I need to click the
‘mute’ button, and listen to the radio on MRN, or PRN, depending on who carries
the race. I know that there are many
fans that are sick and tired of the coverage, so I want to offer some advice to
each network to help them improve their coverage.
The
first network in the NASCAR season is Fox. My biggest gripe with them is the
constant ramblings of the Waltrip brothers.
Darrell Waltrip (DW) was a great driver in his day, and started off as a
decent announcer (pre-Fox days). Since
Fox is all about hype, they have DW, Michael Waltrip (MW) and the others shove
the same 3 things down our throats.
1.
Danica. Yes she is a female in a
male’s sport, but to praise her for running 30th most weeks? There
is something wrong with that in my view.
2.
Hendrick Motorsports. I know DW
drove for Rick Hendrick from 1987-1990 (driving the Tide car, and won the 1989
Daytona 500 with Hendrick), but that does not mean that he needs to show
favoritism towards that team. I
understand that Hendrick one of the best teams in NASCAR right now, but we do
not need to be reminded of it every 5 minutes.
3. Too many commercials. Some weeks I was able to watch more of the
golf game on NBC/CBS than the race, because of all the commercials on Fox. The side by side needs to be done ALL races,
and make the box bigger than 1 inch on my screen. Not everyone has an 82’ HD TV.
Another drawback of Fox is the underutilization
of some good announcers. Mike Joy was
one of the best announcers when he did the old TNN and CBS telecasts back in
the 1990’s, but it’s almost impossible for him to do his job, trying to talk
over the Waltrip boys and Larry McReynolds.
Jeff Hammond has been made into a joke with all they have him do. My honest opinion is that they need to assign
Hammond to pit road, fire the Waltrip brothers, move Steve Byrnes to the booth,
and get rid of the Hollywood hotel, and focus on the racing, not the drama.
The
middle 6 races are covered by TNT. They
have Adam Alexander, Wally Dallanbach Jr., and Larry McReynolds in the
booth. TNT is definitely a step up from
Fox even if it is only due to no Waltrips on the telecast. Wally is one of the best NASCAR commentators
today, if only he had some decent support (When Benny Parsons was alive and
broadcasting with Wally, they made a great team, even with Bill Weber). TNT
also had Racebuddy, which allowed those without TNT access to be able to listen
to the audio coverage of the race. Their
commercials on TNT are even worse than Fox however (remember the KFC 400 at
Kentucky last summer….there was a race between all the KFC commercials, I
swear!). Six races are not a lot for a commentator
group to jell, but the TNT coverage seems to not struggle with jelling, unlike
ESPN.
The
final NASCAR Sprint Cup coverage is done by ESPN/ABC. There just is no chemistry in the current booth. Back in the 90’s ESPN was the BEST in
covering NASCAR with Bob Jenkins, Benny Parsons, and Ned Jarrett. We now have Allen Bestwick, Andy Petree, and
Dale Jarrett. ESPN also has the pit
report booth with Rusty Wallace, Nicole Briscoe, and Brad Dougherty. What a
joke this coverage team has been. The
main issues I have with ESPN are:
1. The broadcasters focus too much on chase
drivers, especially Jimmie Johnson. Back
in the old days, they covered ALL drivers, not just the top 12. I can remember the through the field, that
spotlighted all drivers on track.
2.
Most of the ESPN crew needs to be fired in my honest opinion. Andy Petree, Rusty Wallace, Brad Dougherty
all need to be let go. Andy Petree seems lost in the booth often times, and struggles
with applying the knowledge he has as a crew chief and car owner to the
telecast. Rusty was a good driver, but
that does not equal a good announcer.
Brad Dougherty needs to focus on owning the 47 team, and making it into
a contending team. I understand he was a
good basketball player, but it appears he still has not adjusted to announcing
NASCAR races very well. I would get rid
of Tim Brewer as well, because I still don’t understand what he adds to the
coverage.
Here are my suggestions on how ESPN should
reshape their line-up:
1. Nicole Briscoe could host the countdown
show on her own with help from DJ, or their part time analyst Ricky Craven.
2. I would have Allen Bestwick, Ricky Craven,
and Dale Jarrett in the booth, and have those 3 cover the race, not do any
hyping. Allow the product to hype
itself. I would also bring back the old
Quaker State track facts, for the new NASCAR fan to get bits of history from
the particular track.
Finally,
if I was in charge of any of the coverage teams, I would do my absolute best to
bring Ned Jarrett and Bob Jenkins in to teach these commentators how to
properly cover a race. I would also
require my team to watch coverage of the races aired on CBS, TNN, ESPN, TBS,
and ABC from the late 90’s to teach the announcers how to properly announce a
race. I am a firm believer that the
coverage of the race is driving fans away faster and quicker than the economy,
outrageous ticket prices, and the issues with the Gen 5 (COT) cars. All 3 broadcast booths need to get their act together, otherwise they will have worked themselves out of
a job, due to NASCAR being regulated to ‘has been’ status. As a race fan of 20+ years, it really breaks
my heart to see that happen to my beloved sport.
Please feel free to share your thoughts
below.
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