Mexico Part II

By Keith Ott

  I’m sorry.  I know I’m not the greatest road course fan, and this race seemed about 3hrs too long.  But, it did have a few good parts so let me start with them.

  The anthems for both countries were well sung, with great pride.  And, I think NASCAR should be hiring the young lady who sang our anthem, for all their events.  I’m a little tired of every new “American Idol,” doing their “artist’s interpretation.”  No, joint flyby, but the flag ceremony was also an excellent example of how a country’s flag should be honored.  Ok, well that’s it for the good parts…

  The racing was average for a road course…a strung out strategy affair.  Some like that stuff, but not me.  I’m giving the racing a B.  Little dots going “roundy roundy” in an endless game of follow the leader, was my impression.  But, I guess I have to assume there was strategy and trickery underfoot.

  Not so for the broadcast…It was horrific.  I have naval terms for it, but I promised to not say them after the “new year,” dammit.  Ok, let’s start with the little things.  Why is a basketball player on a race broadcast team?  He has special info on what?  Tire bounce?  A three point play off of pit road?  Ok, and I know ESPN likes to show how classy it is, and I know a lot of us could do without the cut up car, but who in god’s name sent a guy to the cut up car wearing a suit most of us can’t afford.   He’s not supposed to sell it.  Mechanics should look like mechanics, and a polo shirt would have done fine.  Maybe the racing wasn’t so good, and they tried to make it exciting.  But, they could have shut up for maybe a breath of air once in a bit.  Only, Nicholas Cage, in “Lords of War” has done a more repetitious monologue.  But then things went horribly wrong…With 20 laps to go it became the Juan Pablo Montoya show.  Twenty laps; one quarter of the event, and they couldn’t stop saying his name.  I lost count at about 600.  He could have spit out the window and Wallace would have said it was to affect the slipstream or to lighten the car.  This is no bad on Montoya.  He was racing hard and even if his contact was a bit aggressive…That’s Racin’.  There were 42 other cars on the track. But, if you just tuned in for the last 20 you would know…Montoya’s name and that he had great tires.  Ugh, that’s it, rant over.

B for the event (I liked the anthems and ceremony)…F- for the broadcast.