Espn/abc

[NickFalzone]

Does anyone do a worse job of broadcasting races than these fools? Speed Trucks and Fox/TNT Cup get it done right. Watching the nationwide on ESPN tonight consists of a few short segments of racing broken up by endless commercials at inopportune times and live baseball promotions. Commentary, when they're not talking about baseball, is utilitarian at best, the whole broadcast is just going through the motions.

[harvick#1]

I've said this once and say it again. ESPN doesnt give a crap about anysport except for Baseball, Basketball, and Football. sure they broadcast all sorts of events, but in the end, they give two s for any of them outside of the big three. they put on horrible announcers and entry level camera production teams so they can put on a boring show.

[NickFalzone]

That's the impression I get, and with their IRL races as well. That the audience should be happy they're airing the race at all, and the fact that it's done with the bare minimum of effort shouldn't matter because no one else wants to air it. You watch any kind of ball game on ESPN and it's got all sorts of graphics, expensive montages, and announcers that seem excited and actually cut to commercials when it makes sense as opposed to every few moments when they run out of something to say. Their NASCAR coverage is totally second rate, both on nationwide and cup. ABC's been putting on crappy racing coverage for a long time, so it's not like this surprises me, but you'd think after all these years they'd take a hint from their competitors and get the production quality up a notch.

[harvick#1]

the IRL the same, Vs. does a better job than ABC with their eyes closed.

so far I've only liked TNT because we dont here that kiss ass Waltrip blabbing his mouth, at least Kyle tells it like he sees it

[The instant classic]

the IRL the same, Vs. does a better job than ABC with their eyes closed.

so far I've only liked TNT because we dont here that kiss ass Waltrip blabbing his mouth, at least Kyle tells it like he sees it
you like Kyle Petty? i find him boring :s i find DJ not bad

[Sparky1329]

I think Kyle Petty does a great job in the booth. Same goes for Dale Jarrett. Jerry Punch was much better on pit road and Allen Bestwick is phenominal wherever they assign him. TNT has done a very good job overall IMO and I DO NOT miss Weber. I hope he gets permanently benched. Any Waltrip-free broadcast is music to my ears. Rick Allen and Phil Parsons can handle the truck broadcasts just fine and are both very professional.

Matt Yocum, Marty Snider and Lindsay Czarniak are very good. Lindsay's voice is grating but she does a good job. Steve Byrnes, Dr Dick and Dave Burns are all excellent as well. Krista Voda is another pit reporter who does a great job wherever she's assigned and Ray Dunlap gets the job done in the pits. Chris Meyers and Digger are both as useless as DW.

[wedge]

Thank God they rid of Bill Weber.

Not sure about Kyle Petty. He sounds more like a race school instructor. Same with DJ too.

[call_me_andrew]

They did such a good job 10 years ago. What changed?

[Mark in Oshawa]

What changed is ESPN's broadcasts are done by the same people who have been doing the IRL for ABC all these years. The old ESPN team were the guys who went to SPEED and Fox. Not to mention NBC. When ESPN was doing NASCAR in the "Buffet Benny" Days, most of those guys were out of jobs when the contract was lost and they all migrated to FOX/SPEED and TNT.

The ABC way of doing things, alive and well since the days of shilling for a joke of an IRL is still around.

The only thing saving their broadcasts is that the on air guys are not bad, but the production and writing of the broadcast is putting them in straight jackets. That, and they allow Rusty Wallace air time.....

[jslone]

for me Lindsay is from the dc area our nbc affiliate I think,she is also easy on the eyes.

[jslone]

Kyle and DW are both kiss asses,I mean what Kyle did at the start of the race mentioning the sponsors like he was still racing pissed me off.I like DW but he is also very very annoying after a while.His ramblings need to stop.Mine is.

[BobbyC]

Also, Disney has put a "franchise tag" on "Desperate Housewives," which has hurt NASCAR. Last year, ESPN yanked the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500k from the ESPN Broadcast Network to the ESPN2 with 35 laps remaining in the race, pulling off a "Heidi Game" rule to appease the five raunchy women on a show created by a sexual deviant.

NASCAR fans complained, but it was no use. The race was pushed to protect one show. Go figure.

[tstran17_88]

One down, one to go....would love to see Fox dump Mike Joy.

[wedge]

One down, one to go....would love to see Fox dump Mike Joy.

Controversial!

I'd like to see Alan Bestwick back in the booth calling races.

[Sparky1329]

Controversial!

I'd like to see Alan Bestwick back in the booth calling races.

I'll second that re: Allen Bestwick.

[harvick#1]

after watching alot of european/world racing, they are so much better than everyone on ABC/ESPN/Fox/NBC/TNT whatever. they make the racing sound very exciting, they guys that do the MotoGP racing are fantastic

[e2mtt]

after watching alot of european/world racing, they are so much better than everyone on ABC/ESPN/Fox/NBC/TNT whatever. they make the racing sound very exciting, they guys that do the MotoGP racing are fantastic

I agree.

Formula 1 on ITV from the UK is consistently the best motorsports announcing ever. MotoGP from the UK is good too, I think a different crew did the MotoGP USGP West on Fox, but they were still very good. (It was on Fox, but MotoGP clearly provided the graphics & production)

Both crews are passionately excited about the racing, while being extremely knowledgeable.

Quite frankly, I think I could do a better job announcing than ABC, just by watching their broadcast on mute along with online live timing.

All of the current American networks & broadcasters are hopeless on road courses, they babble on about strategy & chess, and then prove they know very little about either OR racing.

[call_me_andrew]

ITV doesn't carry F1 anymore. It's on BBC now.

And ITV's commentary was mostly James Allen acting as a cheerleader for British drivers.

[wedge]

Funny how time flies. 10 years ago I used to think the Americans were best and that was when ABC/ESPN was supreme: Paul Page and Garry Gerould; Bob Varsha, Benny Parsons, Ned Jarret, Dr Jerry Punch calliing from the pits.

[BobbyC]

I agree.

Formula 1 on ITV from the UK is consistently the best motorsports announcing ever. MotoGP from the UK is good too, I think a different crew did the MotoGP USGP West on Fox, but they were still very good. (It was on Fox, but MotoGP clearly provided the graphics & production)

Both crews are passionately excited about the racing, while being extremely knowledgeable.

Quite frankly, I think I could do a better job announcing than ABC, just by watching their broadcast on mute along with online live timing.

All of the current American networks & broadcasters are hopeless on road courses, they babble on about strategy & chess, and then prove they know very little about either OR racing.

One reason I believe the push towards "strategy and chess" has taken place in US motorsport has been a push towards placing the men on top of the pit box in advertising campaigns. In the late 1990's, we saw that with Ray Evernham (Pepsi), Larry McReynolds (GM Goodwrench, Lowe's/Kobalt Tools), and in this decade, we've seen Greg Zippadelli and Chad Knaus in key roles in their respective sponsors' marketing campaigns.

Sometimes the booth men are always thinking "we're only in the first quarter of the race, but we have to crunch the numbers to look at all scenarios".

This decade, with the advent of the national unified television contract, we've seen a push by the broadcasters to add the pit boss in the booth. A three-man commentary position with one mechanic has become the de facto rule.

[e2mtt]

One reason I believe the push towards "strategy and chess" has taken place in US motorsport has been a push towards placing the men on top of the pit box in advertising campaigns. In the late 1990's, we saw that with Ray Evernham (Pepsi), Larry McReynolds (GM Goodwrench, Lowe's/Kobalt Tools), and in this decade, we've seen Greg Zippadelli and Chad Knaus in key roles in their respective sponsors' marketing campaigns.

Sometimes the booth men are always thinking "we're only in the first quarter of the race, but we have to crunch the numbers to look at all scenarios".

This decade, with the advent of the national unified television contract, we've seen a push by the broadcasters to add the pit boss in the booth. A three-man commentary position with one mechanic has become the de facto rule.

Don't misunderstand, I like hearing about the strategy involved. I just get very frustrated hearing about strategy from broadcasters that don't understand strategy at all.

On F1 broadcasts, strategy with pit stops & fuel loads is discussed all the time, and usually very knowledgeably. The announcers are always ahead of the game with who is about to pit, and time all of the fuel fills, etc. Often they successfully predict when a team is going to change their strategy to adapt to traffic or weather. Numerous times I've heard where teams would have done better to listen to them, rather then the misguided strategy they employed for a race. (Such as Ferrari right after Ross Brawn left.)

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have ABC at an Indycar road course. Usually they are completely lost... sometimes they totally miss pit stops. They best is when they get all giddy that Danica is leading and going to win, never mind that all the other drivers behind her are fueled to the finish and killing her lap time on fresh tires, and she has yet to make her final pit stop.

[Stu_H]

I agree.

Formula 1 on ITV from the UK is consistently the best motorsports announcing ever. MotoGP from the UK is good too, I think a different crew did the MotoGP USGP West on Fox, but they were still very good. (It was on Fox, but MotoGP clearly provided the graphics & production)

.

it's strage how different areas see it. James Allen (when ITV had the coverage) used to grate on me really bad, there were petitions for ITV to get rid of him, letters in the motorsport press etc!

MotoGP is excellent though, Eurosport's Toby Moody and Julian Rider are the best in the business and I like the little bits from Neil Spalding as well.

[nigelred5]

I'll second that re: Allen Bestwick.


I'd agree, as well as seeing him return to IWCR/ISCR on Speed. I really enjoy his coverage of the sport.

[nigelred5]

Don't misunderstand, I like hearing about the strategy involved. I just get very frustrated hearing about strategy from broadcasters that don't understand strategy at all.

On F1 broadcasts, strategy with pit stops & fuel loads is discussed all the time, and usually very knowledgeably. The announcers are always ahead of the game with who is about to pit, and time all of the fuel fills, etc. Often they successfully predict when a team is going to change their strategy to adapt to traffic or weather. Numerous times I've heard where teams would have done better to listen to them, rather then the misguided strategy they employed for a race. (Such as Ferrari right after Ross Brawn left.)

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have ABC at an Indycar road course. Usually they are completely lost... sometimes they totally miss pit stops. They best is when they get all giddy that Danica is leading and going to win, never mind that all the other drivers behind her are fueled to the finish and killing her lap time on fresh tires, and she has yet to make her final pit stop.
To be honest, I think the ESPN coverage went to hell when Disney took over.

I think Speed's F1 broadcast and especially the broadcast team of Varsha, Matchett, Hobbs and Windsor is the best racing coverage on US television, but they just screw the broadcast up totally when it is switched to FOX and cut to a tape delayed two hours. And could they PLEASE get rid of the guy that does the movie guy voice in the F1 Intros on FOX. Sam Posey's intros are inspiring, exciting and even chilling at times. I just turn the sound down for the Fox Intro it is so damn cheezy.