This past week brought me the aforementioned enlightenment as well as a couple other insights I’ll share with you all tonight and see how many agree with me.
It took me watching a college football game last Thursday night to realize what my problem is with the coverage NASCAR provides us on television. I have realized, at least in part, that D.W. is not the total idiot I have believed him to be, and neither are the other talking heads that rattle on endlessly about subjects in which their knowledge is, at best, a calculated guess based on what they would have done five or ten years ago when they were crew chief or driver. And while there are good commentators working the booths as anchors most times, there are instances when I wonder where a certain individual came from and what knowledge does he or she actually have or stock car racing. Granted, most seem to know their way around the microphone, but sometimes I have to wonder if that same microphone had an on/off switch, would they actually know how to work it.
What I learned watching the football game and listening to those announcers, both former players from somewhere, relates perfectly to the NASCAR coverage we receive in television. Believe me, what I know about football is about as much as D.W. knows about physics. It never made sense to me that they have a rule in football for “pass interference”. I actually thought the entire object of the game was to keep the other team from getting their hands on the ball. Pass interference is a dumb rule in my opinion. But I digress. What I learned was the guys announcing that game were much more interested in BEING the entertainment than they were in providing a description of what was happening on the field. If we hadn’t been able to see what was going on there is no way in Hades we would have known with the cutesy descriptions we were getting from these announcers. As I watched this dog and pony show, I realized this is the problem I’ve been having trying to watch NASCAR races on TV. I then recalled what Bill McPeek told me a couple months ago about how the networks groom the announcers to become the entertainment. That is why D.W. is always telling us how HE would have done it rather than describing what is going on out on the track.
Point made very clear Saturday night, ok. The Nationwide race had one of those famous NASCAR “bunch the field” cautions in the last few laps because one of the drivers was really stinking up the show (Kevin Harvick). The network decided to pull out footage of a water bottle toss from Brad Keselowski from some time back and alleged that to be the reason for the caution. In fact, that WAS NOT the reason for the caution but it did almost cause Happy Harvick to jump Bad Brad when the race was over. Another effort by the network staff of commentators to BE the entertainment instead of provide an accurate report of the entertainment.
Ok, let’s move on to the Cup race Sunday. I had the opportunity to share viewing of that race with my 70 plus year old brother-in-law who had reluctantly accompanied his oldest son to Bristol for a race years ago, and my sister-in-law, whose total knowledge of race cars consists of knowing the cars have numbers on them. We would have been at a music festival in downtown Asheville but for the heavy rain that decided to deluge the place. The two of them, along with Ann, gathered around the TV in their den, which overlooks a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mountains but it was dark and raining so the mountains had it to themselves for the evening.
We watched in relative silence for quite some time before the brother-in-law began to ask very intelligent questions about the race and about the things the announcers were saying. As I have been accustomed to pretty much tuning out most of the announcers, I had to listen to what was going on so I could answer his questions. Frankly, I was amazed at the half-witted comments being made by the announcers for that event. Half-witted may even be complimentary but, nevertheless it gave me an opportunity to provide my in-laws with some deep insight into the world where I spend so much time. I truly thank my brother-in-law for watching with me and for giving me the chance to experience what it is like to have to depend on what you hear coming through to television to figure out what is going on.
If it is truly the networks causing this miscarriage of the true sport, then we should inundate them with letters or e-mails asking that they allow the talent they have to call it as it is. If it is the “talent” that accounts solely for the awful descriptive phrases and poor analytical outlooks we get, then the networks need to do something about that. Surely the arguments between Brad Daugherty and Rusty Wallace before the race about who is in and who is out of the Chase serve no useful purpose other than to boost the egos of those two. And speaking of “The Chase”, let’s not even get off on that trail tonight. The more I tried to explain that to my brother-in-law Sunday night, the more certain I was that the devil himself had derived that plan from the depths of Hell.
I remember listening to races I could not attend back in the sixties and seventies. I won’t try to list all the announcers who provided such descriptive coverage and painted such beautiful word pictures you could actually “see the action” as you lay back with your eyes closed. The entertainment of the announcers should have stopped with Benny Parsons as “Buffet Benny” and the weekly “Hat trick Benny”, both of which were included with class and totally for entertainment value by a true class act, Benny Parsons. That should be reserved for what it is, the entertainment for the fans that want a little more than the constant conversation about “side-bite and aero-push”. Wonder how many of the casual fans in today’s much ballyhooed demographic NASCAR worships actually have a clue about what side-bite is? Guess we’ll never know.
There are many folks out there, maybe some of you listening tonight, who have less than a flattering opinion of Ken Squier. But I will tell you this: Watch the last lap of the 1979 Daytona 500 and listen to the emotion in his voice as he talks about Cale and Donnie sliding down into the grass after the crash. “They know they have lost” he says. I’m glad I have gotten to see that replay so many times over the years because I didn’t get to hear him that day because I was on top of our Motor Home over by Victory Lane. Ken was, that day, and most days I remember, a class act and a first class representative of what everyone behind the microphone should be. That single statement by Ken summed up the result of that race which rocked the racing world with the coverage provided which many claim began the emergence of NASCAR as a major sport. Succinct, poignant, and memorable. Enough said.
You can e-mail me at: legendtim83@yahoo.com. I answer each e-mail personally and I appreciate hearing from you.
-Tim
Twitter: @legendtim83
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