New faces in the booth, same bad coverage.

By Mark Young

I have been dreading this week on the NASCAR schedule for months, the boys from FOX have been replaced by NBC and I am far from excited about it.  Granted, I have grown extremely tired of Larry telling me to pull my belts tight and nearly vomit at hearing the word boogity, but I would rather have them calling the race than Wally, Benny, and whatever suit the network decides should be there with them.  And regardless of who is doing the talking the coverage we see each week, and forgive me for being blunt, just plain sucks.

As the season rambles along we will begin to hear even less than we already do about the guys fighting to make the race, make it into the top 35, or just plain having a great race.  Instead we are going to hear about the guys already in the top ten or those scratching and clawing to get into the Chase.  NBC strong armed NASCAR into creating the Chase in an effort to boost their rating during football season and since they were the ones paying millions and millions of dollars to Pope Brian and the rest of the France family the wish was granted.

The Chase for the Cup is unique and does sprinkle a bit of excitement upon the season but it is all smoke and mirrors in my opinion.  NBC calls it drama, I call it three steps short of scripting the season and the way these guys race each week has changed because of it.  I am not saying the sport has become wrestling but some of it is close.

For once I wish the TV network would go through the ENTIRE field and not just where the big names are.  The Travis Kvapils and Sterling Marlins of the sport have fans too and they would like to know a little bit about how their favorite drivers are doing.  And by the way, it sure would be nice to know why a certain driver, outside of the coveted few who are always on camera, are out of the race or are laps down to the leader.  Believe it or not some of us find that kind of stuff interesting and the sponsors of those teams would like a little TV time for the money they spend, but the media doesn't think so.  They want to spend time highlighting the cars that have sponsors who pay even more money to advertise their product during the race.

I am giving the NBC crew a few races to show me that things are equal or better than the FOX boys and then I will simply hit the mute button and listen to the coverage on the radio.  Does anyone out there listen to the race on XM satellite radio?  I am curious as to how that is.

There has got to be something better out there.....is it around the bend with ESPN/ABC coming aboard in 2007?  I sure hope so but my sanity can't wait a year and likely can't handle the reality that it won't be much better.