October 31, 2007
By Chuck Abrams

Chuck Abrams

Thanks for the feedback on the length of the races and whether they need to be shortened.

Most of you agreed that the quality of the races was most important and one even pointed out that the 400-mile Dover race was just as long as the former 500-mile race there.

My point, and I have to agree with Yahoo’s Ricky Craven and Jerry Bonkowski, is that the while the quality does need to improve, shortening the race to a more manageable length WILL do just that by forcing the drivers to not just ride around for 400 laps and making drivers challenge for the lead sooner and more often. There would just be more at stake during any given race.

Even more of you argued that the races were not as bad as the on air broadcast team. Many fans were eager to see ESPN back in the mix for race coverage, but most respondents are disappointed to say the least in the ESPN team coverage. While you can’t deny the racing pedigree of the team in the booth, the banter seems very stiff and overly scripted.

The pre-race coverage team is, well, worse than former FOX talking head Chris Myers. Brad Daugherty? Daugherty certainly tries hard, but I have a really hard time buying the former basketball star as a race fan. As always the pit road reporters do the lions share of the really important work although the questions they ask trying to fill time before the race can often be horrible. For example, one reporter asked a driver how he went about getting a win at Atlanta and his answer was – "Well, how about just WINNING"?

Anyway, how about that race at Atlanta? Another finish under caution! What was certainly looking like a duel to the finish between Carl “my driver can beat up your driver” Edwards and Johnson turned into another bad finish due to a spectacular wreck caused by Earnhardt’s left rear wheel flying off sending him hard into the wall and collecting Jamie McMurray in the process.

Add that the Hamlin inspired wreck just prior to that as Hamlin’s motor failed him on a restart leading to Martin Truex, Jr. piling his car into the rear of the No. 11, ruining Truex’s shot at his second win of the season, and you had quite the “exciting” finish.

Cautions were the call of the day and started early with Montoya blowing two right front tires within laps of each other. Just guessing that they won’t use THAT set up again…

The David Gilliland continued his wrecking crew season when he slammed into the wall and catching Mark Martin in a vicious looking wreck.

The David Ragan continued his late season caution highlight reel spinning out once and spinning out Mayfield another time. Ragan started the year as a rookie known for bringing home his equipment and rarely causing an accident. I guess the odds are catching up to him.

Or he has simply run out of talent.

And speaking of running out of talent, NASCAR fans are running out of patience. With Atlanta ratings down over 16%, where are the fans turning to? The Colorado Rockies ran out of time, The NFL’s best game of the year is coming up in a season full of mediocrity and the National Hockey League is a non-factor in the national sports scene. So where are the fans going? Are they simply fed up with the amount of time required to watch an average race or are they turning to the National Football League, even though it is not full of great teams this year? Is a mediocre football game better than a mediocre race, even when the Chase is as tight as ever? Perhaps fans are simply not buying the “playoff” format, even as tight as the race is.

Or is it the broadcast of the race itself? It sure seems that if your name is not Johnson or Gordon during the Chase, the only way to get TV time is to lead the race, or wreck, otherwise, you might as well not even bother to show up as no one knows you are even racing. That is not NASCAR’s fault per se, but of the brain trust set up inside ESPN. While ESPN says that they will be evaluating the season to see if they can determine the cause of the ratings slide, perhaps they should look at their own weak broadcast as a potential recent cause.

Lastly, you have to look at the Chase itself. After this week, it is all but a race between Hendrick automatons Gordon and Johnson. Unless these two teams seriously fall apart, it is a done deal. And frankly, that battle does not hold a lot of interest for many race fans. With no real personality to the Chase, what is to hold a viewers interest? And looking at the final three races, Gordon and Johnson are top 10 finishers at all three tracks which means there is not enough opportunity to catch them.

So why waste four hours on a Sunday when it is the height of fall?

Have a great race this week and let me know your thoughts.

Drive fast, turn left and keep the shiny side up.

Feel free to send Chuck your thoughts on this and other race topics at Insider Racing News. The blog at www.turnleftracing.com is down now due to spammers. We will have that back up as soon as we can.

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.