It's Official: NASCAR TV Coverage Sucks

Well, well, well.

After a season that has proven in the past never to leave the TV set with only a few laps to go, fans began to tune in or continue watching the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Dover. Would there be a caution? Would Jeff Burton catch up the Jimmie Johnson? The answers to those questions were about to be answered.

And then.......

"I trust them, and you can too." ..... "Nationwide is on your side!"

Whew. That's a relief. For a second there, I thought that we wouldn't get to see another commercial with Dale Jr. and his family. I love those!

Yeah, that's right, a commercial. Perhaps you didn't know this however, as you may have turned off the TV with annoyance to the tremendous amount of commercials during the entire race before the ending. And, for the record, I wouldn't blame you.

Here's what some fans had to say on Twitter:

Thank God for MRN on Sirius and RaceView so a person can keep track of the race.

(DoriCRNP)

My favorite part was when I started to watch 20 to go and saw 6 laps on Knauss and JJ only with a feature #FAIL #ESPN

(davidevertsen)

And some from The Daly Planet

How are you going to go to commercial in the last 10 laps? ESPN went from trying to be the best at coverage to the worst! First time fans tune in to see the start and finish, not the middle of the race. Pick up your game! I'll be happy when NASCAR on Fox comes back.

(JJfan1993)

Thank goodness it's over! I thought this was a very boring race as presented made worse by retarded booth monkeys. I would have left and gone for a motorcycle ride except for the rain. If the racing and coverage continues like today, I will find something else to do.

(OSBORNK)

Others have said this--but having commercials during the last 10 laps of green flag racing is just a slap in the face of Nascar fans. It looked like they even had to cut the last one short to get back before the checkered flag. Who wouldn't want to see the Earnhardt's talking about their insurance company for the 1000th time rather than real racing? Who makes the decision when to go to commercials? Were their extra spots to show because there were fewer yellow flags than expected?

(Annonymous)

I was stunned they went to a commercial break as well. I am done. It's football season anyway.

(Annonymous)

These were just some of the comments made by the fans. There's no question that there is a problem here. Fans tune in everyweek to watch a race. And when it seems like they are tuning in to watch commercials with race breaks, it proves something needs to be changed.

Fans have suggested ESPN and INDY car style "side by side" commercial breaks, and others have just suggested fewer commercials. Some fans suggest that the announcers aren't bringing in excitement, or that the right people aren't in the right place.

The root of the problem is just about everything mentioned above. However, the commercial issues are in deep need of being solved.

No matter what happens on track, the ratings seem to constantly go down, while the complaints go up. As a fan of the sport, I have somewhat kept my mouth shut about issues with TV coverage, however within the past few weeks, it has seemed to bother me more and more.


The racing is better than ever, so something needs to be changed with the TV coverage.

I don't think there is much doubt about that anymore.

Now, just hope that something is changed by 2014. Because if nothing is changed by 2014, there won't be much to negotiate about as far as TV contracts are concerned.