October 1, 2008
By Larry Van Zandt
As I sit here on my couch, watching the Camping World RV 400 at Kansas Speedway, I am now noticing a problem with watching the race itself from the (dis)comfort of my own home (4 sons also demanding my attention...and of course, I have to get up and see what they have 'created')...the problem? The announcers won't shut up.
I don't have any negative feelings toward the announcing crew, as I think they add another dimension to the race, but when you watch the Talladega race next Sunday, when the race gets started, and the cars get up so speed, simply close your eyes, and listen to the race. Do this for a good five minutes or so. Hearing might be believing in this case...but the race is almost literally being drowned out by the constant drone of play-by-play action of the announcing crew. That might come in handy for radio broadcasts of races, where the constant 'WHAAAAAAAA!!!!' of the cars could be a bit confusing to the average listener, especially if there is very little indication from the announcers as to what the source of all that noise is...but on TV? That's a little different.
What is NASCAR? It's a racing experience. I have my complaints with NASCAR, but at the basic level, beyond any of the political nonsense that goes on behind the scenes, NASCAR racing is quite possibly one of the most pleasurable assaults on your peaceful well-being ever created. In person, at the track...when the cars fire off, and they begin to accelerate, at full throttle, after the green flag has been shown....My God, what music. It's not the same, later in the race, after a yellow flag....because you are used to it by then.
That's exactly the point of this opinion piece....the sounds of NASCAR racing. I think something terrible is being lost in transmission. You can't get the full experience of the race from a TV set, and it doesn't help that they tone down the actual cars themselves, and further drown out the sounds of racing, by having a team of people babble ad-nauseum about every possible bit of information they can dredge about a driver, broken car parts, or just how much some half-wit is in love with NASCAR administration. Just shut up every now and then, especially during pit stops. We don't need to always have someone droning on, background racing noise being drowned out.
As it is right now, at least in my opinion, we are being a bit anesthetized to the actual racing experience, sort of like there being two races; the one we see on TV, and the one we see in person...and the only thing joining the two together is the race results. TV can't relay the sounds, the smells, and sights of any racing event, but I think it might be possible to improve it a bit, with some moderation of the play-by-play.
I have been close to some smaller circle track pit stops, and the sounds are incredible. The car is right there, open exhaust obliterating your ear drums, the synchronized rattle of airguns going off, from men hurrying to get 4 fresh tires on the car, the screech of the car owner's girlfriend as she gets slapped by an errant air hose as a tire changer over-enthusiastically throws an air hose back over the pit wall, especially when it's joined by several other teams doing the same exact process...it's a bit of a mechanical musical symphony, when you think about it, and it detracts from the experience when you have pit reporters and race announcers drowning out a critical part of the race...geeze, we can see what's being done to the cars most of the time, and with the split windows, we can also see who's getting out first, while someone simply parrots what we can already see that is happening in the pits.
Another angle that may have not been considered here? This practice of having a team of people talk non-stop for three hours? It may be aiding NASCAR detractors, or people who refuse to watch a race, thinking it's too boring for them to sit there and watch the entire event....however, if they were there in person to watch...I don't know too many people who want to go home early, unless it's a disaster like this year's Brickyard 400, then I fully understand why someone wouldn't want to watch. I am speculating, of course...but it's something to think about, especially when some uninformed troglodyte calls NASCAR racing 'Two Bucket' races, stating that the racing is sooo boring, and so long, that one person has time to eat two buckets of chicken during a race.
In closing, I think that if you are a fairly devoted NASCAR fan....you need to go see a race, someway, somehow. Think about it: 800 horsepower, through open exhaust, at speeds pushing 200 mph, around 140 decibels of eardrum-vaporizing exhaust noise (of course, diminished at restrictor-plate races, but it's still almost as loud...).., and hey, who doesn't want to lose part of their hearing while doing something fun, right? This is something you have to do it at least once. Yes, I know that I might be wishing for a bit much with asking that they pipe down on the over-announcing just a bit....but hey, I can dream, right?
Now, if I could only somehow figure out how to go to a race without having to borrow $20 grand from a rich uncle...
Now, to some actual race notes....
1. Jimmie Johnson won of course...but that last-lap attempted pass by Carl Edwards was a thing of beauty....and I was actually wondering if he was going to somehow make it stick....but the best part? The post-race comments from Edwards; "I've played a lot of video games where you can run it into the wall and hold it wide open -- that's what I did but it didn't quite work out the way I wanted it to"..."....Uh, yeah, Oh, and by the way Carl, the video games don't do a real good job of imitating the physics of a 3500-pound car smacking a concrete guardrail, and the frictional forces associated with that same car digging into the concrete retaining wall at race speeds...but you get bonus points for being manly enough to go for it, and I like you that much more as a result...
2. On lap 95, poor Scott Riggs really got shafted....up to 12th place, I believe...and his driveshaft let go. He re-entered the race later on, several laps down, finishing in 42nd, 37 laps behind the leader. From what little I saw, my only thought is that he might have been coming in for a pit stop, gearing down and braking while trying to get slowed down for the pit lane, causing wheelhop and the resultant chattering breaking the driveshaft.
3. On lap 129, after battling Brian Vickers for several laps just to be able to get into his pit stall without the car being punted several hundred yards into the pit area, Tony Stewart received an urgent message from his sponsor telling him to immediately dart into the infield and remind viewers at home that Home Depot does indeed sell lawnmowers. After emptying the mower bags on the back of the Home Depot #20 Toyota Camry, and resharpening the mower blade up front, Tony was then chewed out by his sponsor for 'missing a spot', and sent back out onto the track. Stewart finished 40th.
4. So when did Rusty Wallace reveal his alter ego, 'Captain Combover'?
5. Martin Truex Jr. is going to be starring in a remake of the hit movie "Shiftless in Seattle"....
6. Michael Waltrip did not impress fans with his version of Patsy Cline's "I fall to pieces...on the backstretch"....
Commercial notes:
1. Allstate Insurance is REALLY desperate to get your business; why, they even now offer 'Stupidity Allowance'....oops, wait, that's 'Accident Forgiveness'.....sorry for the mixup...
2. Why does Nationwide endorse the imagery of Kevin Harvick doing highly-illegal smoky donuts on a city street, yet that same insurance company would almost gleefully add 10 points to our insurance premiums if any of us got busted doing the same highly-entertaining, yet pavement-endangering maneuver?
Tech notes:
Is there something I missed with the current COT car setup? Why did most, if not all of the COT cars running on Sunday appear to be 'dog-tracking'....with the rear-end tracking to the right? Is this a new set-up trick to combat some of the ill manners of the COT, or did they simply offset the car to the left? Don't tell me what it is, I will have more fun imagining instead that there is a secret government cover-up tying offset-COT cars and Roswell...
It was a pretty good race today, nevermind that I missed the first 67 laps of the event due to me not being able to find the blankety-blank race on ABC (I just moved, and the new cable company didn't have ABC listed in their TV guide, and they also had 'paid programming' listed instead of the 'NASCAR race'...and I sure as heck didn't want to see another juicer commercial...). Usually, at least for me, anyway, the mile-and-a-half tracks begin to run together after a while...which brings me to another question, as to why NASCAR doesn't have more road race events on the schedule...but that's for another time.
Thanks for reading.
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.
You can contact Larry Van Zandt at 
