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Published Saturday, July 5, 2008 | 9:49 p.m.
Updated Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008 | 10:15 a.m.
OK, so now we know what a race at Bristol would look like at 200 mph. There was more beating and banging in Saturday night’s race on the storied 2.5-mile Daytona oval than at some short tracks. If that is a byproduct of the COT, I’m all for it because this was one of the most exciting Daytona races -- from start to finish -- in years. …
Once again, Kyle Busch overcomes adversity and drives from near the back of the pack to another victory. Love him or hate him, the boy can flat-out drive. …
And so can big brother Kurt, who wrecked his primary car on Thursday and drove his backup from the 36th starting position to a fourth-place finish. Despite his impressive finish, Kurt Busch remained 18th in points. …
Kyle Busch notched his sixth Sprint Cup victory of the season and the 10th of his career in 132 starts. He holds a 182-point lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished eighth Saturday. …
Jeff Burton got collected in a couple of wrecks Saturday night and limped home in 37th place -- his first finish out of the top 15 in 18 races this season. Burton slipped from second to third in points and trials front-running Kyle Busch by 202 points. …
Does TNT’s Bill Weber get paid by the word? His non-stop jabbering during the telecasts makes you appreciate how truly outstanding Mike Joy is as a play-by-play man. ...
Why can’t TNT and the other networks use the “wide-open coverage” during every race? Being able to watch the action on the track during commercials is a great feature and I’ll bet fans would be more than willing to support the sponsors who made it possible. …
A disturbing sign of the times: Have you ever seen so many empty seats for a race at Daytona? …
A disturbing sign of the times, part II: Booing is a part of sports, but throwing things on the field of play isn’t. Those ‘fans’ who throw bottles or cans onto the track when their favorite driver doesn’t win are idiots.
I have to say I disagree with your assessment of TNT's Wide Open Coverage.
Be sure to check out the forum boards at
http://forums.nascar.com/jive/nascar/for...
and
http://forums.tnt.tv/jive/tnt/forum.jspa...
The Wide Open Coverage (or Wide Open Commercials) was pretty much universally hated. It made watching the race more like an infomercial.
I've worked in television for 21 years and advertising pays my salary. I also know that the advertising climate is difficult.
But this format made watching the race unwatchable and I hope TNT and NASCAR got the message. The Viewer Comment phones at TNT have shut down because the mailboxes are full. I'm also curious how many people registered for the forum boards tonight to express their opinions.
These embedded commercials will only accomplish a continual erosion of the NASCAR audience.
I would love to see you write about what the viewers really thought of the coverage.
The constant shilling of products was much more intrusive than commercial breaks.
I went to the two links you provided and found it rather interesting that the ones complain the loudest about the new TNT "Wide open coverage", were mostly posters who had less than 5 post and with a lot of them only having one. Must be some kind of flute that all these "people" decided to make their voices heard by registering and posting all on the same night. What's even more weird is that they ALL agreed with each other, hmmmmm.
I LOVED the "Wide Open Coverage". :) Hope to see more of it and really hope other channels adopt it.
Liked the "Wide Open Coverage." But the very long ads do wear — my wife noticed on about the third break how long the ads were and how irritating they were getting (and she was not watching the race).
Love what Kyle Petty brings to the booth — he's not DW, but he's in the ballpark. He makes Weber much less irritating.
Didn't like the several veiled references to a feud between the Busch Brothers without anybody directly asking about it, or bringing up the irony that a Busch was pushing a R-FR car while a R-FR car was pushing a Busch in the other lane.
Also - if my cats had furballs as often as Tony Stewart seems to, my carpet would be a mess. Will someone keep an eye on what that boy's eating (hard as that may be?) First Watkins Glen, now this.. come on, guy. Lay off the sushi.
Hi Crazy20fan,
I think the main reason most of the people had so few posts was because they, like myself, have never posted to the boards before.
I went to the trouble of registering and posting tonight because I really couldn't believe what I was seeing.
That's what I would like to see explained, just how strong did people feel about this broadcast.
There seems to be a theory among some that people just kept re-registering to create new identities.
I'm new to forums and would find that odd. It may be the case, but I believe a lot of people decided to take action for the first time because they didn't like what they saw. It would be interesting to see if they all came from just a few IP addresses.
Truthfully that's what I did and after tonight, I doubt I post again.
I've found the tone is too hostile with people who disagree. (Not from anyone here, though.)
There is no respect for a difference of opinion.
But anway, sorry about Tony.
If by "Wide Open Coverage" you mean having that screen in the corner spewing out constant commercials.....I thought it was terrible. Seemed like the commercials were double the usual number of commercials, twice as long and very distracting. I started changing channels and looking for other things to watch and just coming back to the race once in a while to see if the lead had changed.
I agree with tbird64, I'm guessing that a lot of fans felt like I did and just signed on one time to voice their opinion about this one thing. I may even do the same thing myself after finishing here.
If you do it Oliver07, you would have to start a new thread. NASCAR.com doesn't like the criticism of TNT. It has locked the topic and said it plans of deleting it.
I know I've watched my last TNT race and after 20-some years maybe my last television race completely. The sport has left us old-time fans in the wind. I've seen it happening for years and now it is almost complete.
"but I believe a lot of people decided to take action for the first time because they didn't like what they saw."
Wow, I'm kind of dumbfounded that THIS is what made them all outraged enough to finally decide to post. Seems to me that NASCAR has done ALOT worse things in the past.
I am a big Dale Jr. fan, but I am having doubts about his driving abilities.
He is a very good driver but I am doubting that he has the skills of the top tier drivers, like his father, Jeff Gordon or K. B.
It seems that he does not have the ability to drive at 100% at the end of the race.
Blah, blah, blah............. the point, gentlemen, is that the 'Shrub' won his 6th race of the season! JGR rules!!
excuse me? gentlemen??? I'm a lady, bub.
Oh, and your right Rowdy really put on an amazing show, I love watching the kid race, I just hope Tony knows how much Gibbs rules. :/
My apologies, mam!
What is wrong with Tony this year? Judging by the names of some of the contributors on this blog has anyone got an idea? I am typing this wearing a Number 20 shirt myself, and I just don't get it.
I wish I knew I just know its been heartbreaking this year, after the Daytona 500 I thought I would cry, but I'm a big girl and so I just sucked it up but then when my brother made a smart@ss comment about it, I just went out when he was watching TV and let all the air out of his tires. I can't tell you how much better it made me feel.
Anyway, all I can do is hope and pray that Tony's luck will change, that one Sunday the clouds will part and the sun will shine down on Smoke and follow him all the way into victory lane (where his fans will have an occasion to celebrate once again) and hopefully it'll before Jeff or Jimmie does.
Hey 'Crazy', I hope for exactly the same thing. Maybe we should put out a contract on Jeff and Jimmie, gag, ....... and maybe your brother, come to think of it! Good luck to us, and thank goodness for Kyle, who is at least a team-mate, for keeping things going strong at JGR.
Yeah, I bet Rick is having nightmares (he can deny it all he wants but I bet he kicks himself almost every week) about his decision to letting Kyle go. Every win is like a slap in his face, and makes me smile to think about it that way, and the bow, man I wish I was there in person to feel and see the Jr Nations reaction. I bet its priceless.
Hendricks is an owner, Gibbs is a COACH!