Friday, November 7, 2008

NASCAR.com In The Spotlight


Over the past nineteen months, TDP has received tons of email about the various NASCAR websites available to Internet users for all kinds of purposes. From the streaming of live races to online video games, no website has generated more email than NASCAR.com, the official Internet home of the sport.

Some fans are surprised to learn that NASCAR is not in the Internet business. However, most fans do know that NASCAR is in the business of making money. With that in mind, NASCAR licensed the online rights to the sport. NASCAR.com is operated by a company in Atlanta, GA called Turner Interactive. Here are some official facts:

Turner Sports Interactive, a Time Warner Company, acquired all of NASCAR's interactive rights in October 2000 and became the exclusive producer of NASCAR.COM, the official site of NASCAR, in January 2001. Turner Sports Interactive bases its NASCAR.COM staff in Atlanta, with additional personnel in Charlotte and Daytona.

NASCAR.com is a tremendously popular website for a variety of reasons. Each year, it attracts over one billion visitors. The Turner Interactive group also runs additional websites for both in-house interests like TNT and clients like the PGA Tour. Turner was recently awarded the NBA.com website and is continuing to gear-up for that project.

The NASCAR.com frontpage has changed over the years and now seems to be trying to serve far too many masters. There are over 100 icons and words on the homepage that invite fans to click on them for everything from watching live races to shopping for T-shirts. Users can find a local garage for car service or start their own NASCAR blog. Rather than nudge users toward an ultimate destination, this homepage presents a menu with an almost overwhelming number of choices.

Turner Interactive and NASCAR have been working toward expanding the video choices on the website. The "video control room" is easy to access and has lots of content from SPEED TV programs, including This Week in NASCAR, Tradin' Paint and NASCAR Performance. Ultimately, this large selection of video will have to be given a larger presence among the text-based content now dominating the site.

Fans who have tried the race streaming or other live information services from this website have found that the interruptions in service and the problems with slow delivery of information have been fixed. This summer, TNT used NASCAR.com to offer RaceBuddy, an interactive broadband companion to six Sprint Cup Series races. It was a big hit and hopefully NASCAR and Turner may expand that service to other races and series.

This weekly opportunity for users to comment on various NASCAR-related websites should be taken seriously. It is a good opportunity to address three questions.

What NASCAR.com features are difficult to use or make information hard to find?

What are the best NASCAR.com features and what should be done to expand them?

What should be added to NASCAR.com that would upgrade your user experience?

The Turner folks have been very cooperative with TDP and worked directly with us to offer the best information about RaceBuddy, NASCAR.com and the TNT race package. No doubt your comments will be reviewed and discussed during the off-season by the NASCAR.com group.

To add a comment about your experiences with NASCAR.com, just click on the COMMENTS button below. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thank you for taking the time to help us with this new feature on The Daly Planet.

53 comments:

Unknown said...

One thing I would like put back on Nascar.com - in their Pitcommand, scanner, they have begin censoring what the drivers say, blocking out words I guess they feel are not "family friendly". They never did this before, but it seems after Jr & Tony's ESPN/scanner gat they have started doing it. Interesting thing is, would not have know it if I wasn't hearing everything being said by my driver (JG) on HotPass, and about 30 seconds latter, hearing the "edited" version on Pit command.

Another thing - I wish they would get rid of the mouse over a drivers name and get a popup bio/ ad about them. It is agravating as all heck.

Bill H

Anonymous said...

I like the fact that live races are offered on NASCAR.com I don't know if this problem has been fixed, but the screen for the streaming is cut off the top, so instead of 2 lines --one for drivers name and the second for the range/starting position/number of laps down/etc-- you only see the second line. You see a band of numbers like .560 or 1st, 2nd, or minus 1 lap or out or off. But since the top line is cut off, the info on the second line is worthless. Since we already know that the team does not go thru the field and the cameras don't go thru the field, or have very close shots, much of the pleasure and advantage of watching online is severly diminished. Worthless for me.

Bruce E Simmons said...

The NASCAR site is a very busy site to try and take in as a new visitor. As a regular visitor, it took me a bit of time to acclimate to what I was looking for and happily finding it.

I'd love to see an alphabetized menu on the left or right side, the most important issues at the top (Upcoming races), followed by standings, then the video control room somewhere in mid page along with the news.

Editing happens. I agree with Bill H. Pop up stuff can be annoying and I avoid it like the plague on my own sites.

One year I paid for the NASCAR in-car service and that was pretty heavily edited. I found out via a Jr incident at CA... (Hmm, Jr again?) where apparently he had to come back in to the pits to tighten a lug nut. A friend at the track told me the whole lap was nothing but expletives coming out of the 8 car scanner while the in-car coverage was silent. At least it was easy to edit!

Back on subject:
Albeit, I've gotten acclimated to how the web site is set up now, so exactly who are they looking to appease with a change, if change were to be had. New visitors?

That would make sense, but we would need a fresh set of eyes on the site to see what they might say about the site... but how can we bait them to come look?

NASCAR has a lot of supporting features and products and trying to simplify access to 20 or 30 different products isn't going to be that easy, period.

Maybe they need to hire some of us web hounds who actually use the site!

Good luck Turner / NASCAR

Bruce Simmons
brucesimmons.org

Lou said...

The one thing that I always use on the site during the race is the as is now current standings. I know many do not like it on TV race coverage. But as a #7 fan I watch to keep track of staying in the top 35 vs the top 12. Yes, I know driver and owner points are different. But he is one spot different in those points. Since ESPN coverage only has 12 cars in their race and NASCAR fields 43 cars, it is the only way I can keep track of where my driver stands.

Kenn Fong said...

J.D.,

I wish the audio level wasn't so high! If I forget and leave my volume on, this site blasts me.

The live results page chokes, and doesn't stay current. In order to get current race standings, I have to use FoxSports.com which only updates speeds and margins every lap.

I'd like to see television listings on the Home Page.

I will give them some credit for not censoring anti-NASCAR opinions. Junior's recent remarks that the season was 8 races too long and some races run too long were featured on the Home page as part of the rotating feature above the fold.

Pacific Time Zone Kenny
Alameda, California.

Anonymous said...

First of all, I am a website person myself, running my own NASCAR web-blog/news site. (Click my Name)...

But, I am a subscriber to NASCAR.com's Trackpass. I have noticed a lot of things with those products, that I will quickly touch on.

1) The Scanner Audio is extremely behind. When the RaceBuddy feature was out, it was synced perfectly, meaning that Trackpass -- Being a paid service -- should have the scanner feed synced closer the what we see on TV>

2) It needs to be more reliable. I know that its not going to be perfect 100% of the time, but because it is a paid service, then it should be at least 85-90%.

No, to the website itself. I find it harder to navigate then it should be. The need to have just a few different menu headings. Home, Video, Photos, Stats, Standings, Schedule, More. They need to make Owner's Points more prominent. On the front page, have the top 10 in points and owners points from 30-40th from each series on the front page. I like the content rotator like they have it. They need to remove some things as well...

1) The "Remember to Check out in the bottom right hand column.

2) Quick links to Trackpass, etc. in the left hand column. Having Trackpass links in the header, it serves little purpose. Everything in the quick links is in the nav bar.

3) cut the ads down a tad, from 5 to three on the homepage. Then on the other pages, have a leader board, and an ad on each side, with a set of sponsored links on the bottom.

4) Remove the photo gallery photos in the right hand column, and move the pole and official NASCAR links to the spot. This would make the front page smaller and more compact.

Anonymous said...

Almost forgot...sometimes there is an ad in the window of the video gallery thingie...make that mute by default. Sometimes my speakers are up kinda loud and it scares the __ out of me...

rich said...

Yes, this is a very busy site but it is still one that I check every day at least once.
As far as problems go I guess the race updates are not up to my expectations so I use FoxSports which updates every lap. I subscribed to Trackpass for a while but too much merchandising was being directed at me so I quit.
As far as wishes go I guess I would really like there to be a page which dealt with history of the sport and past stats are very hard to find. And a FAQ page would be good. When did power steering on the race car come into popularity ? How many races did Matt Kenseth win in his championship year ? What was Jeff Gordons first win ? These are some things that I have tried to find out and the official Nascar site hid those facts quite well.
I agree that the home page has just too much junk on it but I guess they are just trying to make a buck.
I have always been amazed that Nascar does not try to market the images from the past any better than it does. There is gold in them thar hills.

Anonymous said...

Remember that spinning billboard thingy when they last did a major revamp of the site? that lasted all of a month. The thing NASCAR.com lacks is a stable of powerful journalists. The site is great for schedules and finding links to the official track sites, but they don't even get first dibs on NASCAR corporate news and are light years behind driver and team news.

The site looks good, but has very little substance.

Dot said...

I'm not as computer savvy as some who post here.

Here are my thoughts on NASCAR.com.

Let us decide if we want to hear the site. I agree with Kenn Fong. If you're cheating at work and forget to turn down/off your speakers, busted.

As we have said about the race broadcasts, less is more. Either the first page is too cluttered or it's not laid out right.

Why is the leaderboard 2-5 laps behind? I have it on during the race to track cautions if they happen during those long comm'l breaks. Is it my computer or them?

The reason I go to NASCAR.com is to get the points. I do find them easier to read compared to other sites.

Bruce E Simmons said...

Dot: It's not your computer. The Leaderboard is off by several laps.

I've always suspected it's our penalty for not paying for a service or product or not being there.

Phathead said...

Honestly I have jayski set as my homepage and only get over to NASCAR.com every other day or so. There is way way too much clutter and things moving on the front page.

The story's do not need to rotate like they do, it's just distracting and hard to read.

Cut down on the ads some, part of the reason I hardly go there is that I'm inundated with ads and they're all over the place. Maybe do as ESPN.com does and place the ads in their own column.

Make the point standings and last race results higher and prominent on the page. It's very very strange to have to scroll all the way to the bottom to make note of the standings. Also add the Top 35 owner points as an quick option to view. I know, for many of us, that was often the most exciting part of the points battle.

Put all those 'Remember to check out' links on their own page, or have them rotate per visit to the site.

Race time/info list is perfect where it is. That is by far the part I use the most (although the addition of when the green flag is would be nice).

Redo the polls. Often the fans laugh at how ridiculous some of the polls on the site are. Either rethink the questions or simply get rid of it.

Video Control Room is almost perfect, having more options to sort videos would be beneficial.

New color scheme. The current color scheme leaves your eyes darting all around the place as it contributes to the lack of flow.

When I click to read a story, give me the whole story. I really really really dislike having to go to Page 2, then Page 3. There doesn't seem to be any logic behind it and it's actually one of the reasons I stopped reading Track Smack.

Speaking of Track Smack, bring a driver into it. I honestly have no idea who the current contributers are and, no offense to them, I don't know why I should care what they think. Having an actual face that the fans know (hint hint, Ricky Craven) in the debate would greatly liven it up.

Change the main toolbar menu's to drop down menus. It's a real pain when you go to 'Race' and accidentally hit 'Video'.

Trackpass is embarrassingly out of date. When PitCommand is using driver bubbles from three years ago, that is sad. I can personally update number logos on a daily basis (as I do for other sites) and the TV coverage does it on a weekly basis. It makes it look like you really don't care about the site. Also the free html leaderboard is nice, but very very laggy. I actually preferred the older version compared to this new one.

The standings themselves are nice, but perhaps it is time for more info on them. Maybe add the race rating (if NASCAR is still pushing that stat) the results page. Add how many laps have been completed or lead, or how many DNFs a driver has to the standings page. And bring the 'Related Information' links to the top. No reason for them to be hiding on the bottom.

Whew I think that's the majority of them. I've got more, so if any of the higher ups feel the need shoot me an email.

frankp316 said...

I rarely go to nascar.com. It's way too busy and as a news aggregator, Jayski is simpler and more useful. One thing they could do is make the video clips embeddable for use on blogs. There is a workaround that will let you do that but making the clips embeddable would allow NASCAR to brand them.

Newracefan said...

Way to busy, it can be difficult to find things at times.

Have started to keep the volumn off on my laptop to prevent getting blasted.

The articles listing use to change color after you clicked on it now it doesn't so I can't tell if I read it or not so I either get frustrated clicking on the saame one or skip it totally.

STOP EDITING THE SCANNERS, we know they talk like that, it's not Pit Commands responsibility to keep me from hearing foul language. Heck I got the S bomb from Chad on TV and not on the scanner, what's up with that?

Love the video clips, especially the one's from the Speed shows, the media center, and Tony's radio show.

The Lap by lap/practice doesn't let you highlight a few drivers so I don't use it. I can look at Racetrax on the Fox websight and know immediately where my drivers are running.

Rockin Rich said...

The only thing I use NASCAR.com for is Qualifying Order, Starting Lineup, and Finishing Order grids.

And, I don't access those by first going to the site's home page. I key in the path to each grid I want, and go to it directly. Between the greatly cluttered pages, and the really annoying advertising with loud audio, (that I can't seem to find the button to turn off), I got annoyed enough to find a reliable way to get to just what I want, and only what I want.

Even then, it an be frustrating. Sometimes they don't post the Qualifying Order until shortly before qualifying is to begin.

I go to Jayski for the Practice Times grids because he does a much more complete job.

I stopped using the site for any kind of information, outside of that mentioned above, years ago.

Unknown said...

I generally like the website with 2 complaints.

1 Popups are pointless in this day and age.

2 Auto play video is so darn annoying I cant even describe how much I hate it. Most people multi task on computers. From watching a TV show or movie to listening to music. To have some pointless video auto play when you go to a website is a big turn off for me.

Anonymous said...

in their Pitcommand, scanner, they have begin censoring what the drivers say, blocking out words I guess they feel are not "family friendly".

I use Pitcommand every week and have never heard them censor anything. Last week in Texas, Junior used lots of colorful language. As does Mikey Waltrip, on a regular basis.

Frankly, unless they assigned 43 people just to listen to the radios, there's no way they could censor the conversations in the first place.

It may be that you're eharign the signald rop out, which happens frequently, and not only when they're using "bad words."

Anonymous said...

About the site:

My #1 complaint is that someone needs to tell the people running it that you should never, ever have homepage video players autostart with the sound up.

All that does is make users angry and then they go elsewhere, like to Jayski's site.

Anonymous said...

I agree with most of you about the loud video when you go to nascar.com. If you don't think to turn the volume down. I go to Jayski several times a day for news, because Nascar .com is way behind on news. I check point standings there, but they are sometimes several days behind on owner points. I like the qualifying there because its completed most of the time before tv time.
Can't afford roadrunner, but have dsl, but could never get Race Buddy, tried just before race, and during every race several times. After all I read here, it would have been nice.
bryanh

bevo said...

Needs to be much cleaner, less cluttered. Navigation doesn't make any sense. Too many scripts running. The overall appearance is very cheap looking. I don't find the content to be very compelling.

3KillerBs said...

A tip for using Nascar.com,

Skip the home page completely and set your link to the News page instead. You get all the same stories with considerably less clutter and have ready access to the video, etc. via the buttons across the top.

I'm another that hates the auto-play videos. Nascar.com is one of the main reasons I gave up on having speakers at all -- just headphones I can put on when I WANT to listen to sometime.

I'm also another who uses the more reliable and more timely FoxTrax timing and scoring. I would use the radio scanner if my driver were on the free section (good marketing strategy would be to rotate the lineup of free drivers through the season so everyone would get a taste), but I don't want it enough to pay all that money for Trackpass just to use one feature.

I used to use the Nascar.com message boards heavily but they screwed them up with a software "upgrade" last year that made them very difficult to track since you can no longer go to the first unread message.

Bruce E Simmons said...

For the folks who, like me, hate the video that's shoved down our throat, FireFox users have an option:

It's called NoScript and when it's installed, lets you pick and choose what can or cannot play on a website.

I had been visiting one website for years with no clue it was ad and video populated until one day I was playing around with the add-on turned off.

I was shocked!! Check it out.

Bruce Simmons (BruSimm)

Anonymous said...

NASCAR.com has good technology available--I love RaceView--but that's about it.

The news content consists of press releases and columns. No real news. There's no reason for me to go to the site most of the time, since Jayski has more actual news on his site.

Lots of clutter, but not much useful content.

Anonymous said...

By the way, the scanner has always been "delayed"--it is a function of the technology, not for censoring the drivers. I have always used my DVR to delay the picture so it matches the scanner.

The Officials channel is very handy for this, because you can uwe the pre-race countdowns that David does to set it up right.

I don't get the people saying the swear words are cut, either...I hear a lot of drivers using them.

Anonymous said...

Too much clutter, too hard to navigate, too many steps to find the info you want. When I had dial-up, I gave up and didn't visit the site for months. It's better with DSL - no time for naps while it's loading. But way, way too much on their main page.

I visit the lap-by-lap coverage after the race - let's me see what happened to my guy while ESPN was napping... The rest of the site leaves me stressed just trying to navigate it.

Anonymous said...

I listen to Smoke's scanner on Trackpass every race and it is always censored.

They should just offer a censored and an uncensored version...

Daly Planet Editor said...

Hey guys,

How do they censor the scanners? Do you hear silence or a beep noise or a tone? I ask this because there are 43 cars on the track all with radios.

I just wondered if they censored all the channels or just selected drivers?

Thanks for answering my question.

JD

Anonymous said...

JD-

When they do decide to censor the scanners, you usually don't know, unless it is caught late in the game. Usually, you just don't hear what is being said. Sometimes, they will just cut the feed mid word or sentence, after the offending word was aired.

I've experienced the censored and un-censored. They are not consistent since all races are not censored. I've been to races and have come back and heard friends say, I can't believe that driver X didn't say anything when driver Y wrecked him. My response was, don't worry, he said a mouthful, it was just censored.

I wish they wouldn't bother censoring it at all. I could understand if it was free or if the feed was govererned by some laws. I pay for the service, and I want to hear everything. As long as there is a disclaimer that foul language may be used, I have no problem with it being run uncensored.

PammH said...

I don't like nascar.com's website. Very messy & cluttered. No website should have automatic videos when you log on, imo. I watch the videos at the library-it's all I go there for, except the scanner on Sundays. I listen to Jr. When he starts on a tirade, we get dead air. They just started doing that this yr & I DON'T like it. I pay for that service & expect to hear it all, the good & bad. We get some of it, because fingers aren't fast enough at times!! Nascar news & info comes from Jayski's site.

Nan S said...

3KillerBs said:
"Skip the home page completely and set your link to the News page instead. You get all the same stories with considerably less clutter"

That's exactly what I do. The home page is way too busy and hard to find info.

Anonymous said...

I usually just lurk on these posts but this one made me want to comment! I used to go to NASCAR.com all the time but rarely go there now. The page is too junky--way too many links, no control over the blaring audio/video link starting up, too much memory-hogging flash--by the time you click on one picture trying to get a feature story, another has cycled into its place. You can no longer sort the practice speeds for average times to get a sense of who's really running well vs who nailed one fast lap. The audio on TrackPass is as much as 30 seconds behind (which is exaggerated when one also has HotPass) and frequently cuts out, has other channels interfering, and is inconsistently censored. They've replaced solid reporters like Lee Montgomery and Marty Smith with idiots like Raygan Swan (can you say "stereotypical fluff?"). And the site is all shill, shill, shill for the NASCAR store. Face it--all of the info on that site except the semi-live audio can be accessed thru other Internet sites, many of which are a lot easier to use. So why go to NASCAR.com for trashy junk? Their site is as badly designed as SPEED TV's is--but at least SPEED has fired their web designers and is working on a major overhaul to be fan friendly. NASCAR.com needs to do the same thing.

Anonymous said...

JD--

I'd like it if you'd check into this alleged censoring issue.

I don't believe it's intentional, because I hear a quite a bit of stuff every week you'd expect would be censored.

On the other hand, I routinely experience technical issues on all drivers' channels like audio drop out even when I don't think the driver was swearing.

I also don't see how they'd monitor 43 channels for obscenities for four hours.

Can you find out for us if they're really clipping the sound?

Daly Planet Editor said...

Anon 11:11AM,

I have a feeling we will get an answer right here in the comments after a while. TDP readers have a way of providing good info at the right time.

Great tip on bookmarking the news page, wish I had thought of that one.

JD

Anonymous said...

And the site is all shill, shill, shill for the NASCAR store.

That's very true!

rb218 said...

One of my biggest concerns with NASCAR.com is the lack of attention paid to the series below the Cup series: NW, Trucks and regional.

In addition, the clutter has turned me to other sites such as Jayski and Race2win.net for the basics like driver/owner points, practice speeds, qualifying/race results, etc. Also, I miss the ability you used to have to sort the practice speeds by average time. Other than that there really aren't unique voices on NASCAR.com at this time.

Everything else I can think of right now has already being said.

Labbie said...

Add another vote to what everyone has said above. I only use the News page a couple of times a week.

boyd said...

I have dial up service and NASCAR.com has been moved down my list of favorites. When Marty was on the site, I visited every day. Then it got down to just on Thursday for Track Smack. Now that isn't thought provoking.
TDP is the first stop on my NASCAR list, then Jayski, and a few others.

The site loads slow and is way to cluttered to serve my needs. Besides I already know where to get merchandise.

Bruce E Simmons said...

In addition to all the previous comments, have you noticed that once a race finishes, you need to go to another site to get info on the finishing order if you want it right away?

They are incredibly slow to update results or post articles.

And what's with Live Leaderboard for CUP only? Don't the other series warrant us having the same info for them?

At least we can RSS the news, or we can RSS specific driver news so we don't have to tinker with this complicated, overtly sales driven web site.

I think part of the issue is that it's hosted and sub-hosted.

I run with NoScript turned on in FireFox and you have to allow the different scripts to run. It's amazing how many different websites you need to approve to run to see some of the content and web options. The two primary ones being NASCAR.com and Turner.com.

Fascinating, ... indeed.

Bruce Simmons

Anonymous said...

NASCAR ought to be embarrassed that this site carris its name.

It doesn't supply much info about Cup, but it supplies even less about NNS, less still about NCTS, and the regional seris? Forget it.

This site should be my first stop for NASCAR news and info, but it isn't. Except for the raceday interactive features, I have no reason to visit at all.

Even the Power Rankings, which used to be hilarious a couple of years ago--I looked forward to reading them--are just not even funny anymore.

And please, stop it with the the full-volume video that starts when you open the page. It's obnxious and keeps me from even going there.

JHD said...

Like others here, I used to go to the page everyday, because there was always something new or a weekly column that I wanted to read. (Part of the issue is that they've lost all the good talent. I'm not quite sure how some of these "writers" got hired, but none of them are worth reading anymore.)

Now I only visit on raceday to listen to the scanner. I'd use pit command more, but it rarely works for me. There are a few people in the world who use Mac. It would be nice if nascar.com would at least try to offer something that's somewhat compatible with our systems.

Dan said...

I'm with Boyd. About the only time I go to Nascar.com is Thurs. afternoons for Track Smack. That is becoming less often as that piece has really dropped off since Marty left.

For me, the Nascar.com home page just throws way too much information (pictures, video, ads, text, links) at you at once. Its easier to get my information from other sources than to wade through all the visual white noise. I also find that the writing is generally bland, whether its a race recap or the opinions. It just doesn't stand apart from all the other Nascar musings available, whether they are online postings from "legitimate" outlets like newspaper/TV sites or from the myriad online only sources.

Anonymous said...

The first time I checked NASCAR.com I found it cluttered, it impressed me as a giant pop-up ad, and I realized its primary purpose was just to sell me something. In particular, I found no way to provide any comment, unless it was about a product ordered. I know I can find much better information elsewhere, so I only go to it once or twice a season, as a last resort, when I cannot find a Truck or N-wide race on the radio. In my opinion NASCAR deserves to be soundly criticized for its short-sighted decision to sell part of its soul to Time Warner - both the website and the poor quality TNT coverage.

Unknown said...

Last weekends race I was able to determine that they are censoring JG on trackpass. While listening to Hotpass, before the final caution, Letart asked JG what he wanted done to the car and JG's response was "F-Bomb I don't know". About 30 seconds later on Trackpass it was "I don't know". I thought I had heard wrong and rewound the DVR and listened again to Hotpass, yes they had censored it on Trackpass. Even Randy Pemberton commented that sometimes the drivers get frustrated after JG's outburst. After that I started noticing more was being cut from Trackpass.

So the 30 second + delay is not only internet related, but it is part of censoring. About a month ago Trackpass was only about 10 seconds behind Hotpass's scanner.

Unknown said...

Guess I can't comment on this subject. I stopped going to nascar.com about a year ago. I could not stand the video that started up automatically. The rest of the site just makes me dizzy!

Way too much..

Anonymous said...

I don't go to nascar.com either,but I was wondering if the scanners were as hard to understand as what they put on tv during the race. When I was into CB radios my s--- sounded a million times better than their radios. All that static is very hard on the ears.

Anonymous said...

My biggest beef with NASCAR.com, beyond the glut of ads, is the lack of support for the trucks. The series deserves a online lap tracker during the truck race events.

fbu

Anonymous said...

Too much useless CRAP on NASCAR.com!!!

You can't see the "content" because of ALL the ads, twice as many ads as there should be!!!

Anonymous said...

nascar.com's search is useless. I have better luck with Google.

Anonymous said...

They've replaced solid reporters like Lee Montgomery and Marty Smith with idiots like Raygan Swan (can you say "stereotypical fluff?").

Amen to that brother. The quality of the writing has fallen off dramatically over the last year or so.

Lisa Hogan said...

Like others have posted, I was once a heavy user of nascar.com. Since the redesign and loss of talent, I go to the site once a week to use the garage cams feature.

Anonymous said...

I used to go to NASCAR.com daily. Now its just too cluttered and busy. And not enough user info. How about the green flag time? Not the TV coverage time, the green flag.

And Stop Editing the Pit Command during the race! I pay to hear the driver not silence & beeps. I probably will renew monthly for Feb to see if they quit "saving the children & delicates" if not I'll cancel.
Spend time getting it sync'd closer to the race.

Back to the front page - if they would drop the instant on of whatever video clip is on, let me decide if I want to hear it. Thanks. Also the extra links on the right to link to race view, pit command are really a waste of space.

Put the articles on 1 page, 2 or 3 pages is silly.
And I have to keep resetting the text larger for each page.

Way too many ads, offers on main page its hard to locate stuff quickly, so my bookmark is set to the News page to avoid the main page all together.

The website has a ton of info - its a shame I have to hunt & peck & search for it.
The site needs cleaned up - not nearly as bad as Speeds does. And all the links always work at NASCAR.com.

Final grade = B+

Anonymous said...

Oh I forgot - its NASCAR right?

Could they add the other series there ?

JD when they censor Tonys channel on Pit Command its a series of beeps & clicks, sometimes they miss one or are late with the click. Not only do you get deafening silence for long periods half way thru a rant & then its back - next swear word garbled again.

No its not an accidental drop, its censorship.

Anonymous said...

two or three years ago, i had nascar.com as my home page but no longer.

* too much visual clutter on each and every page.
* weak reporting: track smack used to be my favorite but now, it's just silly
* behind in results posting: i should be able to turn off the race and immediately go to nascar.com to get result. i can't.
* no live coverage of n'wide and truck practices or qualifying speeds/runs
* little coverage of n'wide and almost no truck coverage at all: should be re-named nascarcupseries.com
* auto play video on home page is one of the reasons i don't bookmark the homepage on my laptop: if i'm interested, i'll key up a video but i detest going to the homepage and having a commercial blare at me.
* this would be the ideal place to turn for videos/articles that highlight the history of nascar. will we ever have a concerted effort to promote the history of the sport to the fans!?
* and what's with that big white block at the bottom of the page to the left of the "remember to check out" column and below the poll box?

all that being said: racebuddy was a gigantic positive for me and i miss it terribly.