While the on-air types at ESPN insist a NASCAR race that looks boring might not be dull at all, the inability of TV to transfer the nuances of auto racing could be another problem for the sport this week.
After Fox Sports and TNT split coverage of the Sprint Cup Series season since February, ESPN takes over for the final 17 races of the season beginning Sunday with the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It's an historic venue for racing, but it's also a the type of place -- a big, flat and sweeping 2.5-mile oval -- that rarely produces side-by-side action that best defines NASCAR.
Still, ESPN broadcasters and officials insist (as they must) the race merits watching.
"The history and prestige of the event is enough to make it a great race regardless," analyst Andy Petree, a former NASCAR crew chief, said during a teleconference earlier this week. "But it's also a great watch because it's very tactical how these drivers have to run it -- how they make these passes and how it's tactical for the crews to keep that track position because it is so critical at that track because passing is difficult. It just puts more emphasis on different strategies and that's what I love about it."
Those strategies and tactics rarely transfer well to TV, though, and a wide audience of potential viewers does not love it as much as those who formerly worked in the sport.
At its best auto racing thrives in an action- and personality-driven atmosphere and the Brickyard 400 typically pulls any such emotional momentum down like, well, a ton of bricks. While how drivers set up passes and make the most of what little room exists on the track, it often winds up on TV as a line of cars, nose to tail. For many casual viewers (and NASCAR needs that group for its ratings to ever recover to where they were a few seasons ago), that parade translates to boring racing.
Fellow analyst and former driver Dale Jarrett appreciates the challenges of those on the track. He calls it "very rewarding whenever you can make a pass at a track that is that difficult" while he also admits that from the broadcast booth "what we'll hopefully show is that there is great racing that goes on."
In the midst of a season when dips in attendance and TV ratings have been a big part of the NASCAR story, Indy represents a challenging starting point for ESPN's return.
For years, ESPN was the standard bearer for quality auto racing coverage. Way back in the 1980s, as about the only consistent TV outlet for stock-car racing, whatever the channel tried usually met with a positive response.
As NASCAR's popularity grew more advertisers came to the sport, things such as finding a good time for commercial breaks in an effort to miss as little meaningful on-track action became more difficult. In addition, TV partners changed, and they changed in the middle of the season -- as has been the case for several years.
Fans have become a bit more demanding an cynical in recent years, and broadcast partners inevitably hear from those fans. To their credit, the braodcasters take what they hear into consideration, but balancing what older fans might want to see on TV with finding ways to appeal to 18- to 34-year-old males (a desired demographic because of their purchasing power) cannot always be done easily.
"What we talk about is serving the NASCAR fan as a whole, first and foremost," said Julie Sobieski, ESPN vice president for programming and acquisitions. "ESPN has a ton of events but we have news and information programming that tends to skew to that younger demographic, so there is an opportunity there. We think if we cover the race and cover the product as we think NASCAR fans in general do, regardless of their specific demographic, that demographic will continue to climb."
So far this year, that 18- to 34-year-old male demographic is down 30 percent for races on Fox Sports and TNT. It's hard to believe ESPN's approach will differ in any significant level that might change that trend.
In fact, ESPN's planned changes to NASCAR coverage hardly seem monumental. They include broadcasts of "SportsCenter" directly after races -- allowing for more race-related news coverage -- and a deal with driver Carl Edwards as a standing guest after each of the races on ESPN.
Combine those ho-hum changes with a race that has more going for it in terms of strategy than sheer speed, and it might be another tough week for viewership.
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