I have been going back and forth with SBNation's Jeff Gluck (pictured on the left) over TV issues for several years now. Like many writers who travel to the track, Gluck's view of TV coverage is skewed by his ability to see the race and then interview the participants. TV viewers have no such luck. What they see is what they get.
Last weekend, Gluck did not travel to the race and instead simply watched on TV. The results were priceless. From the drop of the green flag, Gluck's frustration began to build. The same topics debated on TDP for four seasons eventually drove him over the edge.
This is the result. Click here for a link to his most recent SBNation column expressing for the first time what many of us have been repeating since 2007.
Here are some excerpts:
Many fans have yelled and screamed and jumped up and down, insisting you knew the answer all along: The TV broadcasts are unwatchable. I didn't believe you. I figured, "OK, there might be a lot of commercials and you might not like what some of the broadcasters say, but c'mon. It can't be that bad." It is. Saturday night's broadcast was that bad.
If you're a fan, you may be reading this and smacking your forehead while saying, "DUH!" Apparently from the comments I see every week, it's like this all the time.
Well, I apologize. I didn't get it before. Now I do.
Unless you're truly hardcore about NASCAR, you can't just sit there and watch the race from start to finish. Casual or even semi-interested fans would be turned off by the broadcasts.
But as I sat there on Saturday night, I thought, "If I didn't have to watch this, I'd turn it off."
Well, thanks to Gluck for sending a strong message in a timely fashion. This Sprint Cup Series off-week will mean lots of folks will read his column and this one. Maybe there can be some help brought to the table for the remainder of this season or the next.
As Gluck says, it just might be a good idea to get some top NASCAR officials, owners and drivers and make them watch in real time the final TV product that was delivered to the NASCAR fans at Chicagoland.
Who says some things never change? We welcome your opinion on this topic. To add your TV-related comment, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for stopping by.
