This guy is one of us.

C

chromehorn

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Found this on Yahoo Sports a few minutes ago and this kind of stuff is exactly what pisses me off about nascar on TV.

"Martinsville on TV: Split-screen now, split-screen forever!
By Nick Bromberg

Fox is having absolutely terrible luck this season when it comes to caution flags. Without fail over these first six races, multiple cautions a race have come out while Fox is at commercial.

I'm not blaming Fox for this, as many cautions come out of nowhere. (On the other hand, a pass was inevitable at Vegas, when Fox cut to commercial as Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon were dueling for the lead in the waning laps.)

The only real solution to the problem is side-by-side like the IRL and ESPN/Versus have done, and while the idea has been pitched, NASCAR isn't too keen on the idea. (My guess is that executives feel that advertising rates would decrease, and if that's the case, my counterpoint is that more people may stay engaged during the commercial break if there was a side-by-side feature.)

But Fox missed something else entirely Monday, something that's made for TV. Fox loved showing Marcos Ambrose use seemingly every other car in the field as braking assistance in the corners. After Ambrose did that to Biffle, spinning Biffle out, Biffle came over his radio and demanded that Ambrose let him by on one of the next cautions, or he was going to do the same to Ambrose.

Perfect for television, no? Instead, we never heard anything about it from the television broadcast. (And yes, Ambrose did give the position to Biffle.)

The Good: The mugshots of drivers in the order they finish the race returned, however that was before the green-white-checker finish, not as Hamlin crossed the finish line. Digger was nonexistent. Was there even a Digger cam? Rain-delayed broadcasts are usually frill free, and sometimes that's a good thing. In this case, it certainly was.

The Bad: The pattern of missing cautions. Other drivers were threatening payback as well, but we never heard a peep about it. We never got a replay of Scott Speed's incident. It looked like he slammed into the back of someone/something, but we never found out who or what that was.

Overall Grade: C+. Like I said, there's not much you can do at times to make sure cautions happen while not at commercial, but if Fox would have interspersed a little radio chatter of all the drivers mad at each other (and thus, creating some fun short-track story lines) this would have been a very solid broadcast."

http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/blog...q3lLJUJwwOr3X.3E2ARGxbov7YF?urn=nascar,231317
 
How are you supposed to predict a caution at Martinsville? :D
 
Bologna that they would miss revenue from advertising during a split screen deal. Most of the same commercials featuring Michael Waltrip acting himself or Junior posing in wranglers are overplayed during these broadcast. World Cup soccer is played in it's entiraty commercial free, you think they loose money during those events. No, they ask advertisers to pony up and help pay for commercial free kick ball games. NASCAR could do the same and get us flag to flag coverage, atleast split screen action for most of the race. They did it a couple of years ago at the July Daytona race and it was awesome.
 
I understand what that guy is feeling, but as PettyBlue said, how can you predict what will happen. As for the split screen, all I can say is that it's a corporate decision, good or bad. Remember, without those advertising dollars, the sport wouldn't even be on TV and we wouldn't be able to gripe about the coverage. I do remember those times.

I usually have the leaderboard going during the race so I can see where others are during the race and I can see if a caution comes out during a commercial. No, it isn't instantaneous but you will know when a caution comes out.

I don't think any of the networks will satisfy some fans, maybe the majority.
 
No you can't predict it but split screen would be so nice. But I do like what he said about letting the viewers know whats going on elswhere on the track. I myself wondered why Speed was driving around with a smashed up front end. Even though not my favorite driver, I like to know whats going on when something happens.

Or how about instead of wasting time and going into a detailed segment about how important brakes are at a short track, which they do way too much at every short track, fill that time with commercials. They waste our time and do that crap during a yellow. I'd rather see a commercial than Jeff Hammond's mug telling me why the brakes get hot and wear out. Please don't say its to inform the new viewers because if someone doesn't understand what friction does to a piece of metal then they need to be doing something other than watching TV.

Another little pet peeve of mine that I have and I understand that they have to do it but it's when they come back from commercial they have to tell us that "todays broadcast is brought to you by Sprint, blah, blah, blah". For crying out loud its called the Sprint Cup. We get it already. How could we not realize that Sprint had something to do with it?

Sorry for the rant.

How about we get stuff off our chests. I know I'm not the only one that gets aggravated at nascar. What gets you guys going?
 
How about we get stuff off our chests. I know I'm not the only one that gets aggravated at nascar. What gets you guys going?


Well, since you asked, I would like to see them come up with a better way of handleing the speeding on pit road penalties. A drive through penalty can be awfully tough to rebound from.


I would also like to see them do a better job of supporting local short tracks.
 
Well, since you asked, I would like to see them come up with a better way of handleing the speeding on pit road penalties. A drive through penalty can be awfully tough to rebound from.
yup, that's why it's called a penalty. the drivers and crew are aware of the consequences of speeding on pit road. they screw up, they pay for it. seems pretty straight forward to me.
 
Is it up to NASCAR to decide to televise in a split screen mode? I doubt it. The television networks purchased the right to televise the races from NASCAR. The networks are the ones that sell the advertisements, not NASCAR. The guy says in his blog that 'NASCAR isn't too keen on the idea'. I've never heard that before about this subject. Maybe someone can post a link to that statement? For the past couple of years TNT has been broadcasting their 'Wide Open' coverage of the summer Daytona race and it's been great IMO. I agree, it'd be great if that could be done every week. I'd bet that the only reason that it's not is because the sponsors don't feel that they'd be getting their moneys worth with everyone's attention focused on the other half of the screen. I think that the only reason that it isn't done is because it's not cost effective for anyone involved. I think the only time that we may every see it on a consistent basis is under some sort of a NASCAR package through cable or satellite.

A better way of handling speeding on pit road penalties..... Like other posts have said, IT'S A PENALTY. There's a reason that they make it tough to recover from. They're trying to discourage speeding on pit road. That's a good thing.
 
Is it up to NASCAR to decide to televise in a split screen mode? I doubt it. The television networks purchased the right to televise the races from NASCAR. The networks are the ones that sell the advertisements, not NASCAR. The guy says in his blog that 'NASCAR isn't too keen on the idea'. I've never heard that before about this subject. Maybe someone can post a link to that statement? For the past couple of years TNT has been broadcasting their 'Wide Open' coverage of the summer Daytona race and it's been great IMO. I agree, it'd be great if that could be done every week. I'd bet that the only reason that it's not is because the sponsors don't feel that they'd be getting their moneys worth with everyone's attention focused on the other half of the screen. I think that the only reason that it isn't done is because it's not cost effective for anyone involved. I think the only time that we may every see it on a consistent basis is under some sort of a NASCAR package through cable or satellite.
Gosh, I mean that the sponsors who put up a gazillion dollars should be heard? What gives them the right? :sarcasm:
 
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