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NASCAR is really getting screwed up!

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I'm on mountain time and we got to see pre race ceremonies here, but needless to say, you didn't miss much. The drivers were still getting introduced when they started the invocation, most weren't by their cars when the national anthem started. The whole prerace show was a bunch a drivel, useless uninteresting information. Interviews were boring, Tony Stewart even walked away after only one question put to him. I'm sure he thought it was just as pointless. Even Mr. PC himself Jimmie Johnson looked as if the question put to him was ridiculous. I don't know who was singing the national anthem but they did introduce them and showed mostly them and the crowd, not the drivers during the national anthem. I have been very disappointed with ABC/ESPN coverage of the whole series and I hope they read all the fans comments about how much they are sucking. I was really tired of the football interruptions with the small screen of the race. Who cares??? If I wanted to know about football, I'd turn to check it out. I want to see the race. It's bad enough with the scrolling along the bottom of the screen, do we really need to interrupt the race every 20-30 minutes with more updates?

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Well once again I am glad I am not the only one that looks forward to the pre race show and the American Anthem....
I also heard Wendy say something about drivers running to cars the anthem being done....I was very confused.
Very dissapointing because I jsut find that one of the highlights before the race and I am not even American....just an alien ....lol

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I didn't mind missing the pre-race Anthem - it's usually horrid and I hear about the first few bars and can't stand to hear more. It's not often that you hear a great Anthem unless it's the MRO kids at Bristol or the military bands. Occasionally, they will use a singer that knows it's not appropriate to do all of the crapahoola vocal acrobats during the Anthem and will do it right, but mostly, the Anthems are unlistenable and I do just that - "unlisten" - LOL.

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I don't mind the football updates, because I'm just as hardcore of a football fan as I am a Nascar fan - when Nascar is on, that comes first, but I like getting updates on football.

That being said, I do feel that ABC/ESPN has done a poor job with their broadcasts - and I've always been a fan of some of the people on the broadcasts. Maybe they'll do better next year.

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From what I know of programming, it sounds like the commercial thing was due to the local affiliate screwing up timing. They didn't get in all the commercials they were due to during the news broadcast, so they put them in at the end. (And I imagine they preempted the pre-race stuff because they decided that all of LA needed to hear the news and if they were getting preempted for a race, the race pre-race could get preempted for them. My suggestion - bombard the stations with emails to let them know. Either they'll provide an explanation why, or they'll realize that people outside of the South give a flying flip about NASCAR. I still have problems getting friends in CA to understand it's more than just me and other Southerners.)

The pre-race wasn't incredibly exciting from what I saw. The drivers lined up on the track is nothing new - Humpy always does that. (Or has for every race I've been to at LMS.) The timing got screwed up, but I'm not sure if it was Humpy taking too long with pre-race festivities and ABC dictating that green flag had to start at a certain time, or if Humpy actually felt the drivers didn't need to be in line for the invocation. Quite frankly, it's not like he hasn't done this before (the getting people ready on time).

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I didn't see the anthem or anything in S. Fl either. abc is dumb.

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I have to agree with many of you above. I am also a hardcore football fan, especially college ball, and watched it most of Saturday afternoon. LSU's loss to Kentucky in tripple over-time was very exciting, indeed. And Cal's loss was even better because now, my beloved Buckeyes are NUMBER ONE! Go Bucks! O-H-I-O! That being said, when I sit down to watch MY NASCAR race, I am no longer in the mood for college ball or any other sport for that matter. When I watch football, they don't tell me about what's going on in tennis, Nascar, golf, or anything else. I was infuriated each time they were back to green flag racing, yet I couldn't see it because they had it in a small square to the upper left hand side of my television set while they continuously talked about football and other crap. And if I have to see that stupid cut-away car one more time, I swear, I am going to SCREAM!

Oh well! It isn't going to make a difference bitching about it here. We all need to email ABC/ESPN's national web sites and flood them with email and phone-in complaints. Until we do that, no one is going to get the message!

Kim

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I am a very proud American, I also enjoy NASCAR, look forward to the National Anthem. But last night, I wish I had missed it. The group who performed it was beyond terrible. So feel lucky if you missed it

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oh and yes can we start a petition to bann football updates or the constant freaking mentioning of it during MY NASCAR RACE...it is soooo freaking annoying. Plus there is no racing or other updated during football...I bet.

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THERE USED TO BE A TIME WHEN AFTER EACH RACE WAS OVER, FOX,NBC,TNT AND ABC also, used too interview the TOP 5 FINISHING DRIVERS,for their comments.
SINCE THE ABC ON ESPN CRAP begun, i haven't seen anymore after race interview, other than JGORDON yesterday at lowes speedway.They usually show the new points standing in the chase and get off the air for the ABC NEWS NEXT. NO NATIONAL ANTHEM in east central FLA. yesterday either.I END THE COVERAGE usually listening to MRN RADIO and so i listen to most of the race.That keeps CRUSTEY WALLACE, JERRY FRUIT PUNCH, THE TOO TALL JONES BASKETBALL DUDE and the WANNA BE NASCAR BROADCASTER LADY OFF MY EARS.

YO TGIF: YOU GOT 113(last checked) ANTI ESPN/ABC BLOGS about their poor coverage plus more on this file when the comments are over.
WOULDN'T IT BE A GOOD IDEA TO MAIL ALL OF THEM TO ABC HEADQUARTERS??.

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Gee, having trouble coming up with new material? I, and others, wrote about the ABC coverage for two weeks before TGOM decided to write an article about it. Yes, over 100 blogs were written. Woo Woo. There was a race 24 hours ago and there is nothing to write about it? Here's a free one for ya, again. How about Tony Stewart once again wrecking two cars on pit road and then of course blaming THEM because they are not in the chase. Hey Tony, do you not have a spotter telling you the guy infront of YOUR pit stall is coming at the same time you are pulling out? Of course, once again, no wreck is ever your fault.

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Not at all ... but sometimes you gotta go with what inspires you at the moment. I had to get my thoughts about pre-race out before I could move on to the actual race. And I don't know what clock you use, but by my earthly clock, 24 hours hasn't actually passed since the end of the race ...

Where's your blog?

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all of the above!!!

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If you want, I will write it for you so you can cut and paste it under your name. Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, I am flattered. I do appreciate that you do read my posts and responded, thank you. Sorry, but being an internet junkie I prefer to read today's news today, not tomorrow. Maybe time just moves faster on the east coast. 20 1/2 hours I guess would be more accurate but it just does not have the same ring to it. I used an editorial license, or "puffing" as it is called in my line of work.
The offer still stands, you can take my headline on Stewart and run with it or I can write it for you.

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Now play nice children. The group singing the anthem was a country group called Whiskey Falls. Their microphones weren't balanced properly, so it sounded awful. Apparently Tony Stewart has a free pass from Nascar to do and say anything he wants until the end of the season. Shocking huh. Post all the complaints you want, but this late in the season, don't look for any changes from ABC/ESPN. Unless Nascar cleans up its act, and the tv coverage gets better, we are seeing the dying gasps of a once proud sport.

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The hot set-up for watching Nascar is to tune your radio to the Motor Racing Network, and mute your TV. Turn off the mute when Tim Brewer comes on the screen, cause he knows more than anyone on the broadcast. As for Tony Stewart, just wait until he has to drive a Toyota next year. No one really cares what the back markers have to say, and he and his Joe Gibbs teammates are going to see a lot of the back of the pack.

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I thought ESPN showed the correct portions of the race for MOST of the race. That was a major improvement IMO. I was listening to different drivers on Trackpass. I missed Tony blaming others. What did he say? We had the pre-race coverage in Ohio but I couldn't watch it. I still despise the football updates. Kim, I apologize for my tangent earlier. I am overly sensitive to some issues and I should have kept my mouth shut.

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Well, I was at the race!!! It was crazy! They couldn't figure out how to get the cars pulled out and in the correct lines to do the pace laps either! I got home today and turned on the TiVo to hear the comments made only to find out that the Prayer and National Anthem was NOT even showen on my coverage!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My coverage started with the command to start engines! It was CRAZY! There was NO fly over and NASCAR didn't call a caution after several drivers had said the 2 was leaking fluids on the track..........

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I was pretty disappointed in the coverage also. I'm on Central time so we were supposed to start at 6:30 here. Instead the first 15 minutes was the end of the NC vs. SC football game, then they showed another 10 minutes of commercials! When I finally got race coverage, it was for the first caution on lap one. Granted, a lot of the pre-race stuff I can live without, but there was absolutely no reason to decide that we needed commercials to fill in all that space when we were supposed to be getting the race! I've been less than happy with ESPN/ABC's coverage, and can't wait for Fox to come back. But who would have thought that we'd ever be missing NBC's coverage?

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