Happy Hour: Turning in the right direction
Throughout the week you can send us your best questions, jokes, rants and just plain miscellaneous thoughts to [email protected] or @NickBromberg. We’ll post them here and have a good time.
Y’all enjoy the off weekend?
Sonoma has always been a sign of summer for us. It’s got to be the late-June date. Or maybe because it’s seemingly always run under sunny skies. Similarly, the Bristol night race has always been a sign that school was starting and football season was near. Granted, we don’t have to worry about school any longer, but we can’t be alone in thinking about the dread of going back to school when the end of August hits.
But hell, it’s not even the 4th of July yet. We’ve still got the summer stretch to go.
ISC is in the process of negotiations to operate Laguna Seca, a historic road course about three hours or so from Sonoma. It’s fun to think that NASCAR would have races at both Laguna Seca and Sonoma if the deal went through. But our guess is that it’s to make sure IMSA keeps racing at the track. The sports car series races at Laguna Seca every year.
If you’re not familiar with Laguna Seca, it has the corkscrew.
Side note: We bought the game Project Cars and have been playing it fairly often since it arrived last weekend. It’s the only game we know of where you can race at Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Spa, the Nurburgring Nordschleife, Monaco and more. You can race 1990s-era Cup cars too, and we don’t recommend doing it at Monaco at night in the rain. It’s a disaster.
Let’s get to it, shall we?
@NickBromberg There’s always been talk of putting a road course in The Chase. Does Brian France pull the trigger on that anytime soon?
— Zack (@monon43) June 25, 2015
@NickBromberg PUTTING YOU ON THE SPOT, BIG GUY. SHOULD THERE BE A ROAD COURSE IN THE CHASE? IF SO, WHICH ONE?
— ANNOYING RACE FAN (@annoyingracefan) June 25, 2015
We could ramble about where road courses belong in modern NASCAR for a long time. We’re going to try to be succinct.
If there was a road course in the Chase, Sonoma seems to be the best bet. If Watkins Glen was added to the Chase, New Hampshire may have to leave. Would NASCAR really want two races in the northeast within weeks of each other? It’s not like you can race up there in November (Yes, 2001 was an extremely rare case).
Races in Sonoma and Phoenix would give NASCAR two Chase races in the Pacific Time Zone. That means later start times against NFL games and more lead in opportunities for Sunday Night on Football on NBC.
Or what if NASCAR went to Laguna Seca for the Chase and kept Sonoma in June? We can dream, right?
The wild card in all of this of course is what track loses a Chase date. And that’s what I think keeps this from being an incredibly realistic idea unless NASCAR finally decides it’s time to tweak the Chase schedule. If we were ranking tracks that were candidates for losing a Chase race date, Dover would be No. 1 and we’re not sure what No. 2 would be.
It’s nothing against Dover, but ISC isn’t giving up a Chase race. NASCAR isn’t leaving Charlotte or Texas. New Hampshire is an important market. Perhaps it’s No. 2 only by process of elimination.
@NickBromberg What do you think it will take for NASCAR to start a Sunday Ticket like service? Rain, 5 channels, 3 series- hard to follow
— thedopp (@thedopp) June 25, 2015
@NickBromberg And Raceview would be fine if it was still 2005. It needs all the camera feeds and international broadcast feed for today.
— thedopp (@thedopp) June 25, 2015
How many of you use Raceview on a regular basis? Do you find that it enhances the experience of watching a race? If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s what NASCAR.com has to track the race. Many of the features are paid. Here’s a list of features from NASCAR’s site
- 3-D virtual rendering of every car and track with multiple viewing angles
- REAL TIME DRIVER STATS including MPH, RPM, throttle/brake, lap times, time off lead, turn by turn performance, fuel estimates and points
- CHOOSE YOUR DRIVER: Select your favorite driver and watch for the entire race
- CUSTOMIZE YOUR EXPERIENCE: Listen and watch different drivers at the same time
- LIVE LEADERBOARDS: Unique Leaderboards for Race and Driver Stats Modes
- LEAD PREDICTION for all drivers on lead lap
- PIT MODE: Virtual video of each driver’s pit stops, complete with performance data such as driver/crew times, total time and number of tires
- LIVE IN-CAR AUDIO for all 43 drivers, plus NASCAR Officials channel
- LIVE RADIO broadcast
- SCAN function for all audio channels
- SCANNER ACCESS included with subscription to RaceView Premium
NASCAR tried the Sunday Ticket-style viewing experience with the Directv experience a few years ago. It was called HotPass and was freaking awesome. In its infancy it had four dedicated driver channels all with a broadcasting crew and it was a subscription similar to Sunday Ticket. However, it was apparently not profitable as the announcers quickly went away and it became a free option with broadcast audio and scanner radio available.
It was pretty awesome if you had Directv. And if you were a Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan. He was one of the four drivers every week. Before we covered NASCAR full time we watched a Pocono race on a driver channel for the full 500 miles. It was awesome with just scanner and car sounds and was perfect napping material.
So that leads us into this. Is there a market for a paid television package? It didn’t seem like there was one five years ago. Is there one now? What would it entail over what’s available now online and on TV? Most practices are on television and if you’re really itching to watch an untelevised Truck practice, we applaud your addiction. And advise you to seek help.
The addition of Fox Sports 1 and 2 have meant a plethora of NASCAR programming. More next week as we, uh, celebrate the end of Fox’s 2015 coverage.
@NickBromberg Will Ky bet the only “test” race with rule changes? Best ballot stuffing fandoms, Danica, Junior, Dogecoin, or Royals ?
— Brian Cullather (@Briancullather) June 25, 2015
We’re betting it’s not. Because can you really have one race different from all the rest? While we disagree with NASCAR’s plans from time to time, we do think there’s a plan in this case. This can’t be simply a one-and-done thing.
It also leads us into not worrying about what a “successful” Kentucky race is with the new aerodynamic specifications. Because, really, success is simply whatever NASCAR wants it to be. We’re thinking it’ll be tried before the Chase again, or possibly even used for the Chase. There’s opportunities at Indianapolis, Pocono, Michigan and Atlanta before the Chase begins for the Kentucky specifications to be utilized. And hell, y’all are probably hoping anything is done for Indianapolis, right?
And the Royals have to be the option on this. Yeah, Josh Wise got himself into the freaking All-Star Race last year on the back of Reddit, but Royals fans had gotten eight of the teams nine offensive starters into the All-Star game until Miguel Cabrera passed Eric Hosmer this week. Eight!
Yes, we’re biased because of our location, but we think it’s hilarious and would think it’d be hilarious if it was the Seattle Mariners’ fans doing the same thing. Open internet votes are begging to be manipulated. Major League Baseball knew what it was getting into even if it didn’t think something like this was actually feasible.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
