Worst coverage race ever?

[harvick#1]

ABC/ESPN should be ashamed, they missed nearly every restart, and cut out the Victory Celebration by Edwards.

here's one thing to fix coverage, DON'T HAVE A 50 MINUTE PRE-RACE SHOW

most pathetic coverage since NBC

[Jonesi]

They also had audio & video problems several times during the coverage.

[Jonesi]

Oops double post.

[djarumdudley]

it's network coverage of a Busch race, so the network news cutout i expected. but, yeah it was still quite awful. restarts should never be missed. in ESPN's previous coverage incarnation maybe five restarts a season were missed. seemed like at least that many were missed today. the full court press of Wallace coverage was ridiculous as well. if this is the coverage to be expected when Rusty Wallace is an announcer i hope Steve Wallace will be an incredible bust so i don't have to listen to this again. now i do like Mike Wallace, but having him as the "in race reporter" is overboard when Rusty is in the booth. i thought Rusty would be a quality announcer but this race was terrible. when the pit road miscommunication deal occured he kept talking over the inrace radios not even listening and adjusting his commentary. the team communication pretty well laid out what had happened.

on another note what has happened to the clean pass? it's as if with this race the bump and run is a full-fledged proper racing maneuver. am i the only put off by the extremely early race racing between Edwards and Steve Wallace. in the first 40-50 laps there werea about ten laps of actual green racing. in that span Edwards stated(through the team communications)
"that he had to go", basically saying if Wallace didn't move he'd be moved. what happened to patience? on top of that after seeing how Edwards made the pass the announce team applauded him basically saying it was a nice, clean move with little harm incurred, further commenting on how clean a driver Carl Edwards is. did they not notice how Steve Wallace almost lost it out of turn four after the bump?! with less than 50 laps into the race no less!! after watching and listening to all that, i've lost a lot of respect for Carl Edwards' driving style.

[jeffmr2]

Oh no why did i read this post before watching the race!!!

[tstran17_88]

ABC/ESPN should be ashamed, they missed nearly every restart, and cut out the Victory Celebration by Edwards.

here's one thing to fix coverage, DON'T HAVE A 50 MINUTE PRE-RACE SHOW

most pathetic coverage since NBCThey were running up against the clock just to show local news coverage? :rolleyes: You know what I saw after they broke coverage? Three minutes of commercials! They could have at least waited for Carl's back flip.

They really just out to leave the races on ESPN.

[dont_be_jack]

ESPN/ABC hasn't proven to me that they can compare to Fox's coverage. Right now, they're even below TNT's coverage, which at some points was better than NBC even though it was essentially the same crew on both broadcasts. As long as Rusty is in the booth for ESPN, it's going to suck. He cannot provide good commentary for anything. He was awful in the IRL booth and he's just as bad in the NASCAR booth. Sure, he's a retired driver, but he runs his mouth like none other.

[BobbyC]

Those of you unfamiliar -- Fox changed producers last year after Neil Goldberg left for ESPN.

Barry Landis is the new producer for Fox.

I didn't see any of the races because I was in Brentwood (TN) for a friend's wedding and listening to most of the Cup race by radio (I lost about 1 hour of it because I had to have my tire repaired!) while on 40 from Brentwood to Asheville before joining 26 from there to Columbia, so I can't judge anything.

The only reason the past three Busch races have been on ABC is to allow ESPN2 to show the Dick's Sporting Goods Championship Week* and now the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. All tags are ESPN under new Disney corporate policy.

Local news is probably the most valuable time for a broadcast network affiliate because it is a revenue maker and a community leader for viewers.

* Disclaimer: Bobby holds shares in the said company.