April 22, 2009
By Chuck Abrams
For those of you who did not walk away from the Fox broadcast this is old news.
For those who gave up after green flag commercial break number 3, perhaps it is news.
Before I get into all the problems with the broadcast, let’s first give a shout out to Mark Martin who became one of the few drivers to win a Cup race at the age of 50.
Martin had the pole, led a ton of laps and his team performed consistently giving him a chance to shine. And shine he did. As the laps wound down, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. slapped the wall bringing out a late caution. That put Stewart right on Martin’s bumper and Martin took off around leader Ryan Newman, who had not pitted -- to gain track position late in the race. Martin went low, then high and then took off like he was shot out of a cannon. No doubt about his ability or desire to win.
His win was a popular one with fans and drivers alike. It had been 97 races since Martin last won and he looked like it was his first, grinning ear to ear and slapping teammates’ outstretched hands. Ever the eternal pessimist though, when asked what this did to his title hopes, Martin replied, “I am not going to ruin a good time by worrying about that. Let me enjoy this."
And while this is the shortest race of the year, I wonder how many people actually saw it from their homes?
While I have not seen the minute-by-minute breakdown from cawsnjaws.com yet, I have to think it is a bad one. Perhaps it is just us here in this particular household, but the commercial breaks came early -- and then often.
At first I thought it was because there was a long green run and Martin was well out in front. OK, I can accept the need to get commercials in early at that point. But the second and third breaks came right on the heels of the first. Now I was starting to get annoyed. While these breaks allowed me to get some laundry folded and dishes washed, I wanted to watch some racing!
And when racing was on, it was all about the leaders. We rarely saw much racing going on throughout the pack, unless it was because Dale Jr. was sliding back again.
It seemed that the only time Fox was not showing the top 10 was when there was a vehicle-induced caution – and those were few.
But back to the commercials –- I was wondering if Fox had sold the same number of spots that they would have for a much longer race and shoehorned them into a short race? That would explain a lot –- but it also begs the question of “why would you do that”?
Now maybe I am off my rocker. It is entirely possible. Millions of others saw this race and I would like to know if you had the same issues or not.
Last gripe – why was the race 500 kilometers? Just so they could call it the Subway 500? Does anyone really care?
And if you have been trying to email me and either got no reply or a bounce back in the past week or two, I apologize for that. I discovered late last week that my email was down. I now have a new link and I appreciate all your input. If it weren’t for you all reading and replying to me, this would just be an exercise in futility.
Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up. And if you are bored to tears this week, listen to me this Wednesday evening on www.racetalkradio.com starting around 8:30 ET.
The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.
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