New qualifying procedure could mean less TV coverage

NASCAR's new qualifying procedures could leave some fans wanting more.  If you're a NASCAR fanatic, like I am, you just might be frustrated with the changes.  While the changes may help the teams save money on qualifying setups verses race setups, it gives the fans watching from home less TV coverage of on track activities.  Now the Nextel Cup Series will do just as the Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series does, practice  (not sure if there will be just one or two sessions), qualify and then NASCAR impounds the cars until the race.

I don't know about the other fans out there, but this doesn't make me that happy, instead of giving us more TV coverage, we are getting less.  How will all of this really affect fans like me?  Let me explain...

Friday - I usually start checking early on any and every site I can for any new NASCAR news and any tidbits on how practice is going for the teams.  NASCAR doesn't post speeds until after the session is over and unless you subscribe to their Trackpass, you have to wait for times.  Then in the afternoon is qualifying and when I take over the TV, the kids can either watch it with me or watch something else on one of the other TV's.  Later the truck race usually comes on, although the first few are usually held on Saturdays.  This may change because at most of the tracks, qualifying might be held on Saturday instead.  I think practice may be moved to Saturday too, so we could be stuck with just the truck race on Friday's instead of qualifying and then the truck race.

Saturday - Start checking the news early on, watch Happy Hour and then the Busch race.  With Happy Hour gone now, that leaves us with the Busch race and any Cup qualifying that has been pushed to Saturdays.

Sunday - The Cup race.  Nothing will change here.

As you can see, from my point of view, we will have less TV coverage than before over the whole weekend.  I really disagree with them eliminating Happy Hour, not only for the fans, but some of the teams really benefited from that last practice session, now we may see more teams having to adjust a lot more during a race.

Honestly, I think they need to add more on track coverage.  Since they're getting rid of Happy Hour, why not show the practice session, that is before qualifying, on the Speed Channel?  I think it's only fair since Happy Hour was taken away.  Another idea is that I think the Speed Channel should expand their coverage of the truck series by showing qualifying on TV.  They have done a great job of promoting the truck series, but I think more needs to be done and showing qualifying is a start, at least to us fans. 

Don't get me wrong, all the NASCAR shows that are on are great, but what fans like to see most of all, is the cars on the track, at least this fan does!