Goodbye Fox; It’s NBC’s turn to broadcast the Sprint Cup Series
Hello glory, goodbye strife. We now have NASCAR on NBC in our life.
Apologies for the trite adaptation of a line from NBC’s commercials promoting its NASCAR coverage. But given Fox’s coverage of NASCAR throughout the 2015 season, there’s perhaps no more appropriate way to describe the switch from Fox to NBC for NASCAR.
Starting with Sunday’s Coke Zero 400, the remainder of the 2015 Sprint Cup Series schedule will be on NBC and NBC Sports Network. The race at Sonoma was Fox’s final race of the season and capped a year that was incredibly disjointed and, frankly, embarrassing at times for the network that has had NASCAR rights since 2001.
Fox built its NASCAR brand on Larry McReynolds and Darrell Waltrip, its two race analysts who have been a staple since the beginning. But throughout Fox’s 15 years of broadcasting, it’s become clear that the two are further and further from their days in prominent race team roles.
Waltrip is back in the booth next season along with Jeff Gordon, who has provided some keen insight in his guest appearances on Xfinity races. McReynolds – while you can complain he was a shill for NASCAR, he was a regular sight in the Sprint Cup garage – isn’t. He’s being moved to a different role within Fox’s coverage. And his sendoff on Fox at Sonoma was a brilliant example of the network’s muddled coverage in 2015.
As McReynolds was fighting back tears and embraced Waltrip and play-by-play broadcaster Mike Joy following Sunday’s race, the production awkwardly and abuptly cut from the booth without much of an opportunity for McReynolds to reminisce on his time calling races with his two friends. The broadcast was seemingly unable to figure out how to address McReynolds’ move to a lesser role within the telecasts despite having months to prepare for the moment.
The seeming lack of production communication was nothing new. The abiliity to match up what Fox’s broadcasters were exclaiming about on screen with the pictures provided to viewers tailed off precipitously in 2015. Like at Sonoma when Fox cut to an in-track camera at the top of turn two that shows viewers very little while Waltrip exclaimed to fans to watch how close and intense the side-by-side racing would be on the restart.
Oh, and there’s the other Waltrip too. While we understand how Michael Waltrip’s faux-enthusiasm could make network executives’ hearts tingle, he provides nothing to the broadcast but embarrassment. The “grid walk” is an impotent exercise in stupidity. The contrived hokiness is neither informative or entertaining. Imagine trying to get to your non-NASCAR watching friends to watch NASCAR after they watched the grid walk. They’d laugh at you and go find something better to do.
But Fox apparently likes it. Why else would there be an official YouTube video of Waltrip spilling a taco on Denny Hamlin’s car?
And don’t get us started on the fake objectivity Michael Waltrip tries to maintain. A vast, vast majority of viewers know he owns two cars in the race. The broadcast’s effort to pretend that Waltrip is an unbiased observer is pathetic. Following Martin Truex Jr.’s win at Pocono, there was a golden opportunity for Chris Myers to ask Michael Waltrip some honest questions about his feelings seeing Truex go to victory lane for the first time since his awkward departure from Waltrip’s team in 2013.
Instead, Waltrip commented only indirectly as the broadcast mentioned the circumstances of his departure from Michael Waltrip Racing. If NBC has been paying attention throughout Fox’s segment of the season, we hope it has a lengthy list of what not to do when covering the sport for the remainder of the season.
NBC, broadcasting NASCAR for the first time since 2006, has done a fantastic job with its Formula 1 and IndyCar broadcasts. The race broadcasts are the magical combination of being entertaining and informative, mostly because you can tell the analysts are prepared. Plus, they’re showing legitimate enthusiasm while pointing out the exciting moments on track rather than trying to manufacture them.
Hopefully NBC’s NASCAR broadcasts hit the same notes. The network is following the the same formula Fox did with a former crew chief (Steve Letarte) and driver (Jeff Burton) in the booth. But it’s hard to see either person delve into kitschy analysis in lieu of researched thought. While we know there will undoubtedly be some kinks to work out early, there’s no reason NBC’s broadcast of the Coke Zero 400 shouldn’t immediately be a step up from the first 16 races.
We can’t decide what we have more excitement for on Sunday night; the race broadcast or the race itself. We enjoy being treated like adults and educated during sports telecasts; the entertainment should come mostly from the action by the sport’s participants. If NBC’s current motorsports coverage is the standard, it’s going to be a highly enjoyable cap to the July 4th weekend.
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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!
