ESPN in the game

Did you guys like the ESPN coverage when they last had NASCAR?

My recollection was that they were not very good. Am I in the minority?
 
I think having ESPN involved would be a lot bigger for the sport than just the broadcasts. ESPN would promote the telecasts and and talk about them a lot more than they do on their sports shows now. Remember "RPM 2Night"? Now basically nothing from them in regards to nascar
 
RHRFan#1 said:
Did you guys like the ESPN coverage when they last had NASCAR?

My recollection was that they were not very good. Am I in the minority?
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Bestwick, Jarrett, Petree was a good booth. Punch and Rusty Wallace up there didn’t make for a good booth. Jerry Punch was much better as a pit reporter. And there was Marty Reid.

From 2011-2014 the Cup coverage honestly wasn’t bad, but 2007-2010 was pretty rough.
 
wi_racefan said:
I think having ESPN involved would be a lot bigger for the sport than just the broadcasts. ESPN would promote the telecasts and and talk about them a lot more than they do on their sports shows now. Remember "RPM 2Night"? Now basically nothing from them in regards to nascar
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That tells me how much respect ESPN really has for NASCAR as a sport, if they can only be bothered to talk about it when they have a contract.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
That tells me how much respect ESPN really has for NASCAR as a sport, if they can only be bothered to talk about it when they have a contract.
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I don't blame them I mean why are you talking and promoting a sport that you have zero coverage of as a network? Might also be some bad blood as for a while nascar wasn't even allowing them onsite for postrace coverage if they didn't have the race. Anyone else remember those awkward post race driver interviews from the helipad?
 
wi_racefan said:
I think having ESPN involved would be a lot bigger for the sport than just the broadcasts. ESPN would promote the telecasts and and talk about them a lot more than they do on their sports shows now. Remember "RPM 2Night"? Now basically nothing from them in regards to nascar
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Doubt it. There was zero conversation of NASCAR on Sportscenter unless the race broadcast ran into it and maybe a 3 minute segment on it during the Chase.
 
If Allen Bestwick is in the booth I’m happy.

Please just no Jerry Punch, Andy Petree, or Kyle Petty in the booth. Give me Bestwick, Dale Jarrett and another color commentator in the booth and I’ll be happy.


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I feel like ESPN would be an improvement over Fox but they’ll still get the same treatment that Fox does and NBC does.
 
wi_racefan said:
I think having ESPN involved would be a lot bigger for the sport than just the broadcasts. ESPN would promote the telecasts and and talk about them a lot more than they do on their sports shows now. Remember "RPM 2Night"? Now basically nothing from them in regards to nascar
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I have to disagree, I don't want ESPN getting with a 100k miles of a NASCAR race, but the last few years of their last contract ESPN did the bare minimum and really, outside of NASCAR Now , ESPN didnt cover NASCAR like they do the NFL/NBA.

ESPN has moved away from motorsports as it no longer fits their brand image, and the only reason they do F1 is because of the hell of rights deal they got, They have no overhead as well so its not costing them much to carry F1 right now. It sounds like F1 is going to ask for more money when the current deal is up after this year.
 
Speedbowl14 said:
Doubt it. There was zero conversation of NASCAR on Sportscenter unless the race broadcast ran into it and maybe a 3 minute segment on it during the Chase.
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Yeah, even in the 90's when NASCAR was getting really popular, Sportscenter would have 30 seconds of highlights from the race, then they would only show the top 5 results and mention where a couple other notables finished (Dick Trickle was always one they mentioned).

And that's back when Sportscenter was great. It has been garbage for years IMO. I can't even remember the last time I watched Sportscenter. It has probably been 15 years or so.
 
2 Sweet said:
Yeah, even in the 90's when NASCAR was getting really popular, Sportscenter would have 30 seconds of highlights from the race, then they would only show the top 5 results and mention where a couple other notables finished (Dick Trickle was always one they mentioned).

And that's back when Sportscenter was great. It has been garbage for years IMO. I can't even remember the last time I watched Sportscenter. It has probably been 15 years or so.
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With twitter and other avenues of social media, finding scores and highlights is so much easier/faster than sitting through an hour of Sports Center. I probably haven’t watched Sports Center in about the same time frame as you. I don’t care if Sports Center would support nascar because I think many people think like us and don’t watch it anymore. I do care if their on air race day coverage would be good. A good 1 hr pre race show with a competent anchor (pick anybody not named Chris Myers) with maybe a former driver (Kyle Petty, Dale Jarrett, Jamie Mac, Bobby Labonte) and a former crew chief that can lead us into race day with driver/grid interviews and a feel for the race day storylines. Oh and it has to be on location. As for our booth, I also pray for any play by play guy not named Rick Allen and then Dale Jr with Steve Letarte who have undergone shock therapy to get the NBC out of them. The problem with this scenario is I’m sure this perfect world I set up would suffer once college football and the NFL start.
 
I really dislike how ESPN presents most of their sports. There's too much talk about things other than what's on the screen. I thought that what pre-game and mid-week shows were for. If you want to see a sharp contrast in their presentation, watch a few of their college basketball games. It's like listening to a talk show with a game going on in the background. Then watch a game on CBS, especially during the NCAA Tournament. They call the game. The only time they talk about something other than the game is when a graphic comes up about top 25, player of the year candidates, etc. But they do that for all of their sports.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Why? On location shows waste too much time catering to the crowds and not enough on informative content. A studio pre-race would also prevent grid walks, which would be a good thing.
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ESPN is still good at bringing the big game feel to the viewer at home. An example of that is College Game Day and Monday Night Countdown (which they do half in studio and half at the game). My thoughts were to try to replicate the race day show on Speed Channel that had a successful run for those years.
 
FWIW the NHL going from NBC Sports to ESPN and TNT have improved the viewer experience by quite a lot. Rights to live sports are a huge deal and I think if Nascar returned to ESPN they'd do well with it. ESPN presentation has an "it" factor that NBC doesn't. NBC works for like the Tour de France or Horse races.
 
LJ7201 said:
FWIW the NHL going from NBC Sports to ESPN and TNT have improved the viewer experience by quite a lot. Rights to live sports are a huge deal and I think if Nascar returned to ESPN they'd do well with it. ESPN presentation has an "it" factor that NBC doesn't. NBC works for like the Tour de France or Horse races.
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Gods, if ESPN replaces anyone, it should be Fox and not NBC. NBC's only problem is the booth gerbils.

Fox has so many production issues, starting with their terrible camera selection - too close so only one car is visible; shots that may look cool but don't actually let you see what's going on, like across the S/F line and from the infield at ground level; and their obsession with in-car cameras. There's also Michael Waltrip, the gimmicks they unsuccessfully introduce, the crappy scripted segments in their pre-race, Michael Waltrip, the creepy comic book driver profiles, reliance on replay to cover action missed while they were showing the replay of the stuff they missed before that, the stupid stuff they have drivers doing in the pre-commercial bumpers when they could just keep showing the race for a few more seconds, Michael Waltrip, the lost ability to show pit stop timers (NBC manages to do this for IndyCar), ...
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Gods, if ESPN replaces anyone, it should be Fox and not NBC. NBC's only problem is the booth gerbils.

Fox has so many production issues, starting with their terrible camera selection - too close so only one car is visible; shots that may look cool but don't actually let you see what's going on, like across the S/F line and from the infield at ground level; and their obsession with in-car cameras. There's also Michael Waltrip, the gimmicks they unsuccessfully introduce, the crappy scripted segments in their pre-race, Michael Waltrip, the creepy comic book driver profiles, reliance on replay to cover action missed while they were showing the replay of the stuff they missed before that, the stupid stuff they have drivers doing in the pre-commercial bumpers when they could just keep showing the race for a few more seconds, Michael Waltrip, the lost ability to show pit stop timers (NBC manages to do this for IndyCar), ...
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I agree that Fox is way too proud of their in car and one car cameras. I also think they must have a music video producer producing them because they jump around way to much. Just about the time you get zoned in they switch to another camera. I think this is a case where more cameras is not necessarily producing a better product.
 
On second thought,

Since their last NASCAR contract ended, I've looked at ESPN exactly two days every year. Those would the first two rounds of the Masters tournament every April. That coverage is pretty good, since it's the same crew CBS has been using since Marconi invented the radio.

So I don't know how well they cover other sports. I don't know how they'd do compared to Fox or NBC. The Masters ain't the Super Bowl but it's close in terms of beiing able to dictate how they're covered. ESPN's coverage of that event may not reflect how they do on other events.

Still, maybe I owe them the benefit of the doubt after ... however many years. On the other hand, if they hadn't screwed up Jayski's page so badly, I never would have looked for a new source of NASCAR info, and I wouldn't have found this joint. Y'all can blame the World Wide Leader for my presence here.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
On second thought,

Since their last NASCAR contract ended, I've looked at ESPN exactly two days every year. Those would the first two rounds of the Masters tournament every April. That coverage is pretty good, since it's the same crew CBS has been using since Marconi invented the radio.

So I don't know how well they cover other sports. I don't know how they'd do compared to Fox or NBC. The Masters ain't the Super Bowl but it's close in terms of beiing able to dictate how they're covered. ESPN's coverage of that event may not reflect how they do on other events.

Still, maybe I owe them the benefit of the doubt after ... however many years. On the other hand, if they hadn't screwed up Jayski's page so badly, I never would have looked for a new source of NASCAR info, and I wouldn't have found this joint. Y'all can blame the World Wide Leader for my presence here.
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That's my deal, I don't watch any of them unless there is a race on, and ESPN was so long ago who knows what they will come up with IF they even get the contract.
 
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.
 
Jorge De Guzman said:
ESPN is still good at bringing the big game feel to the viewer at home. An example of that is College Game Day and Monday Night Countdown (which they do half in studio and half at the game). My thoughts were to try to replicate the race day show on Speed Channel that had a successful run for those years.
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College GameDay and live sports are the only things that are worth watching on ESPN anymore. Who knows what they would do with NASCAR these days but it probably wouldn't be good. The positives would be the attention they'd bring plus it would be great to see Ryan McGee and Marty Smith covering NASCAR full-time again.
 
MikeInIllinois said:
I think if ESPN got into the mix it would be to put the Cup races on ABC and give it some Sunday afternoon programming, especially in the fall to complement their college football coverage that takes place on Saturdays. Besides, NASCAR has let it be known they'd like to have more races on a main broadcast network.
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I cannot even guess the last time I watched ABC. Does Jim McKay still host Wide World?
 
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