it’s Daytona 500 day kids!
Yup… watching.
Apparently I’m desperate for racing.
Actually, I figured I would start watching at the start of the season and semi-follow it this year. I’m gonna hop on the Stewart/Newman bandwagon, with a little extra for Marcos Ambrose and Joey Lagano.
(I still can’t believe Carpentier isn’t in the field this year… bullshit)
I have my laptop and my spiffy new (loaned to me) monitor going. I’m telling you, it makes a huge difference. Especially when you’re watching via internet stream, blogging, following T&S, twittering (@whatimthinking), etc… This is good practice for our (openwheel) season coming up.
The “racing” itself is about as exciting as watching paint dry. (especially on ovals) at least until the last 20 or so laps, so I’m not doing a typical live blog like I do for Open Wheel. I’m concentrating on the broadcast itself. It’s quite eye opening to watch the PR/marketing machine in motion. NASCAR certainly is a Juggernaut when it comes to that.
Every commercial is related to NASCAR in some way. (driver/series/teams sponsors) Every commercial break has an ad that features one or two drivers via their sponors. Even the tracks are getting in on the act, showing vintage footage and promoting ticket discounts. (very smart)
IndyCar has got to up their game in this avenue on all levels. Each team/sponsor has got to up their game too. The ad buys for the races have got to be filled with more than Danica ad’s. NASCAR drivers can’t be the only drivers with personalities. Hell, if all it takes is a southern “good ol’boy” accent, then I’ll personally coach our boys to put one on! LOL!
Lap 80 my NASCAR pool pic for this race just got introduced to the safer barrier. He’s ok.
Awkwardly placed Big movie trailer premiere to kill off the yellow laps. (The Watchmen)
That NAPA commercial is funny. (Waltrip should stick to commercials hehe)
Rain is imminent. Race is now “official” at half way point. Folks are now racing for the best position in the pack should this thinkg get red flagged.
HUGE wreck on lap 124. Taking out a crap load of cars, including Kyle Busch who had lead the most laps and can’t seem to buy a break this weekend.
About that…Something I’ve noticed over the course of the last week: Kyle Busch has definitely done some PR/media training in the off season. He is a completely different person from the cocky, petulant child we saw throughout the season in 08. Maybe he didn’t like the moniker of NASCAR’S “bad boy” he was labeled with last year.
Well, rain & tv windows decided the race. Anti-climactic ending to a pretty anti-climactic race. meh. Congrats to Matt Kenseth. It matters not how you got there, but that you were at the front when the checkers waved.
So... here's what I'm thinking... 
Certainly shows that IndyCar and F1 are missing a few tricks in terms of promotion.
Although OTOH it’s now just after the race was declared over and they’ve just came back from extended commericals, showed one replay, then went back to more commercials…
I did my best to enjoy it but the dodgy stream didn’t help at all. On the whole I thought it was a very stop/start race which had a lot of of unfulfilled potential. Later on it started to get very interesting with pit strategy and I was really getting into it – until they threw a yellow for a car which spun out of harm’s way!
I had a fantastic stream for the most part. (http://www.justin.tv/badbeat1)
Had to refresh a few times, but crystal clear.
Agreed on the “tricks” and the cluster of commercials. (which seem to be worse on Fox than on SPEEDtv)
I didn’t think you’d be watching, but I thought of you when they went into the Gopher Cam cartoon. Did you see that shit, or is it missing in your feeds? I could hear your head exploding at the thought of an animated cartoon character and all his friends based on a TV camera. It makes me want to pull my eyeballs out.
RE: Kyle – he’ll fuck it up again. He’s like Tony Stewart: they can put on the song and dance for a while, until one day they just lose it and explode on camera. I am sure you’re right and he went through remedial training, but he’ll fall back off the wagon. And the BooBirds/Junior Nation won’t care anyway – it’s too late for that kid.
AJ was strong all day and finished 3rd. He could be strong this year if they can find the money to run it.
I don’t know what’s the more embarrassing FOX “do-it-for-the-kids” attempt: Digger or Scooter the Talking Baseball.
It seems like with every season, my interest in subsequent Cup events has waned. Perhaps I should go out more.
As for Motorsports, I suddenly find myself feeling like Clint Eastwood’s character in “Gran Torino”. NASCAR comes on and I just give a angry stare with a growl. IRL, same stare but with a back handed remark aimed squarely at the powers to be in this mess.
To make it even worse that NASCAR circus is coming to my town next week. “Those” people are going to make it impossible for me to go out and have a nice dinner over the weekend and I hope it pours down rain from Friday to the following Sunday. Besides we could really us the rain here.
I was on another stream until about 60 or 50 to go when I found the badbeat stream, that one was great! I’m imagining the commericals were only bad because this was the ‘Superbowl’ of NASCAR. Probably won’t be that bad again until this Chase business.
I read somewhere on Sunday night (can’t for the life of me remember where at this point as I was a crazy link clicker for a while there) that there were 170 commercials from pre-show to conclusion. That’s more commercials than laps run…. think about it.
And that’s only the actual commercials. Add to that the sponsor mentions by the booth, the sponsored segments and camera angles and quizzes, and the bumpers in and out of the commercials… and oy… insane.
I hear ya on the angry stare JC. I feel the gloves coming off the closer we get to the season starting…