My Two Cents Worth
http://www.laidbackracing.com/2013Articles/LBRpitcrew2.html
Mike Sanders: I sat down to watch a bunch of commercials and a stock car race broke out. Seriously, this is getting ridiculous. The frequency of the commercial breaks is getting to be too much to take. When you factor in the "on air personalities" we have to listen to its making races impossible to watch on TV. But it only gets worse in two years, when the contract extension FOX signed this year takes effect. Their rights fees are going up 36% over what they pay now. You know what that means: even MORE commercial breaks. And the "side-by-side" thing is worthless. The racing portion of it is about the size of a postage stamp. And btw, both Chris Myers and Mikey tried to out-stupid each other today. It was painful to listen to. Enough already...
Racemama: Well, like I said there was an improvement in the racing on the first 1.5 miler we raced on this year. BUT we will have to see where it goes from here. Did I sit spellbound to the TV? NO. I had to get up and do something because I started dozing in the first half the race. Things picked up in the last 100 laps. I really think we need to go to heat races. The drivers only want to get it on for 30 to 50 laps than let’s race 30 to 50 lap segments.
This week again it was all about who got out of the pits first and the fuel mileage talk. THAT IS NOT RACING! Make the tires wear out and fuel mileage won’t even be discussed because drivers will be screaming for tires at every opportunity.
On NASCAR and the Hamlin fiasco, NASCAR just can’t seem to help them selves from looking foolish. That being said I don’t see Hamlin winning his appeal. I also see many speeding penalties in his future.
Mad Mikie: The tone of the race was set during the pre-race segment. Cheerleading from the get-go for Hendrick & MWR. Johnson got 15 mentions versus the reigning MPD who only got one and the reigning Cup champ who got 2. The COT II got more mentions than both Bad Brad and Jr. combined with 5. Stewart came 2nd in 10 mentions and both the Queen of Hype and her boyfriend tied for 3rd with 7 mentions.
273 total gimmick shots were used during this race. With only 198 laps of both green and yellow flag racing being shown. That works out to 1.378 gimmick shots per lap. Of these, 43 involved the #48 car with 31 of them being the gyro cam.
There is a discernible pattern with the gyro cam shots if you haven’t figured it out by now. It’s the #48 and then particular race sponsors like Bud and 5 hour Energy. Next came Stewart and the reigning MPD. You’ll be extremely lucky to see a gyro cam shot from Trevor Bayne, Dave Blaney or Michael McDowell even if they were leading the last lap.
There is also another pattern developing. The closer the end of the race, the more myopic the coverage gets. From Lap 247 through the end, it was the 20 and 5 being covered with a couple of quick shots of the #2 and #18.
Excuse of the Race has to be Jabbers Jaws making excuses for the Queen of Hype. At Daytona, it was her talent that got her on the pole. Last week, it was a tire blowing out. No mention of her running into Yeley pushing in the right front fender cutting the tire. This week’s excuse was a bad car. Jabber Jaws rambled on how she was unable to set up her car because of the rain-out for qualifying. He sure seems to forget that in her IRL and IndyCar days she had to have her teammates set up her cars. And the excuse of being a rookie doesn’t hold water either. Her boyfriend is a rookie too and look where he finished. 15 spots ahead of her. And the excuse of only racing for 3 years doesn’t hold water either. She’s been racing at the professional level since 2005 and with NA$CAR since 2010 which makes this year her 4th year. Jabber Jaws needs to take his own advice regarding what he said about Hamlin. “Work with your hands and not your mouth”.
Dawg: Well, I thought we were going to get through this entire race week without an engine issue from the Toyota camp. But that thought went up in smoke on lap 217, along with Travis Kvapil's Toyota engine and trust me this wasn't any valve spring. Being as it was just Travis and the 93 Burger King/Dr. Pepper team, the producer chose to ignore them. The follow up was all about Danica being behind it. While I'm thinking about Toyota, we all know that Ole DW is a bought and paid for shill for the brand but give it a rest!
As for the race. Drivers talk about getting into a rhythm, well, we fans need to do that too. But it's really hard to do when the action keeps getting interrupted every 15 laps or so for commercials. I switched over to reruns of American Pickers and had a hard time switching back.
No secret that I admire Matt, so I was pleased with the outcome. I was very happy to see that the change of brands and crews didn't change things for him. Now he's really part of the new family.
Just one last thing to say........Damn you, Denny Hamlin............ If you'd just kept your mouth shut, we'd never have noticed. Now you've spoiled it for all of us. They didn't fine you enough!
Nice article, folks, You hit on all the topics that were items of conversation since there isn't really any racing to watch. Considering the really poor broadcasts, let alone the Waltrip show that the booth has become, I spend very little time watching racing on tv. I use my computer and twitter but between the booth buffoons, commercial load and "focus" on specific cars, there's not much racing being shown. I understand that Fox plans to move the NASCAR races to the new network in 2014. Once upon a time I'd be concerned about that but now I'm giving a lot of thought to checking with my cable provider and dropping that tier altogether since there's nothing on as far as I'm concerned so I don't feel the need to pay for it. I could easily drop ESPN as well since for the most part, NASCAR gets the short end of the stick for Nationwide and I hate the broadcast style (with scripts) for the chase.
ReplyDeleteI am not a Hamlin fan, but I agree that this fine was a stupid idea on NASCAR's part. Bad PR for them plus as was pointed out in your comments, I could see the racing wasn't great all by myself.
I knew that Kenny the Klown, DW and the rest of the NASCAR paid shills would be all in favor of NASCAR's perspective. Let's see, ratings are down since Daytona, attendance didn't look too good at Phoenix or Vegas either. Anyone find a clue yet?
I love having my Direct TV Genie. I either put the race on "pause" at the beginning and wait for a while so I can then fast forward through commercials, etc. or I record it to do the same. Fast forward at the slower speed allows me to watch parts and stop and play when it looks interesting or go for the faster speed fast forward through a lot of the race and all the commercials and just watch the wrecks and the last 100 laps or so. I agree that each year seems to get more boring in the effort to keep the cars as similar as possible, etc. You certainly don't want anyone to be unequal - that might make for a little more excitement and DW is getting too old to handle too much excitement. Don't you just love him reminiscing about races he was in - NOT - all the time? Sure, he was fun to watch with Earnhart senior, Petty and others way back when but it appears that he is still living in the past. Maybe the one big wreck he had just before he retired scrambled his brain more than we thought. You already know how I feel about the Princess so I won't even go there. It is a shame that it has to be this way as I used to be able to sit through a whole race without taking my 50 lap nap. Now if I fall asleep I usually don't miss anything much! So, sure who is leading and who is challenging for the lead is interesting but why can't we see some of the cars in the middle or even the back once in a while? Its Oh look, so and so has raced all the way to the front from the back - well, why didn't we get to see some of that? As far as Hamlin, no I don't think he should have been fined at all. He was being honest. A gag order on drivers who disagree with NASCAR? Wow. Talk about Big Daddy watching and censoring. Let us form our own opinions, let the drivers speak out and be honest about the way they feel. About the most exciting thing that happened all race was the possibility of a fist fight at the end. How sad.
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