Last time ESPN covered NASCAR it was terrible. I seem to remember them constantly missing restarts and ending the broadcast without even interviewing the winner. The reason their F1 coverage is successful is because there are no commercials and it's just a rebroadcast of the Sky Sports broadcast.
I remember years ago when Brad was still at Penske another team got caught cheating and Brad said something like Penske is too professional to cheat. Then, a few weeks later they got caught cheating.