What EVER Happened to NASCAR?

For the first time in a long time I decided to tune into the NASCAR weekend taking place at Talladega Superspeedway. I had previously tuned out of the sport more than a year ago because of how they were getting "modernized" by the networks to be more like a stick and ball sport. Yea, a stick and ball sport.

So I DVRd the Xfinity and Monster Cup series races and tuned into them later.

First... I forgot that the networks had turned the sport into a bunch of trophy point dashes, or racing segments. Yea, I forgot about that.

But then there's this HUGE problem the Xfinity telecast had and that was the announcing. Holy crap... have you ever heard a math teacher instructing a class on the intricacies of geometry? Yea, the racing presentation could be a hell of a lot more exciting than the complete lack of energy the announcing crew was exuding. The ENTIRE telecast crew was on doggie downers and it was the worst presentation of a sporting event, ever.

Even during the wrecks, they couldn't be less excited than a warm, wet noodle.

I used to like the 2nd tier class of NASCAR because the races were just about two hours long so it was perfect to watch... no huge time sink.

But I'm pretty sure I'm done with the Xfinity sponsored NASCAR league.

Then we got to Sunday... again, trophy dashes, I mean three stages of racing. At least the announcing was better. Unless you're not an old-school fan, then Darrell Waltrip might get on your nerves with his 'old boy' approach to announcing.

Then there's the 'big one,' or at least they're pretty on edge about calling the big one. At one moment, a car dodged down to the bottom line and the announcer started getting all out of whack about here comes the 'big one!' But it was just a car pulling down to the low line to pit.

The 'big one' is what Talladega is famous for... one car gets out of sorts and takes 10 to 20 cars with him. It's what the networks all market to to sell the sport. The accidents, especially this one. If you watch, just about every ad about NASCAR has wrecks in it. It's not what the sport is about, but it's what the networks want you to think because apparently carnage sells.

But when a reasonable wreck happens, meaning a simple wall slap and flat tire or what not, sit back and enjoy the show. It's a huge delay so the networks loves showing the wreck from every single angle they can. Right after a wreck, we got see it from at least 10 different angles. Yes, 10 different replays...

Again... they have to kill time any way since the track needs to clean up the wreck and all. But dang, the network sure does take advantage of that time. In one race, they replayed a wreck around 25 times.

Any way...  I thought I would tune in for old time's sake and was properly disappointed by how NASCAR has totally bent over for the networks for the big sponsor bucks they're paying them. You can't blame them. It kept the sport flourishing as it has so far. But sooner or later... meh, who knows. Maybe they'll add figure-8 racing to the schedule. Or more trophy dashes to the day.

Sigh.

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