Scraping The Bottom of the Barrel

Twenty four hour generic sports networks work for one reason only. Sports occur year round. There is rarely a time in which no sporting event is taking place. Thus, because a sporting event is indeed taking place, that means there is something to talk about.

In auto racing there are discrepancies. There is no set off season. Sure, specific series do indeed have periods in which no track action is taking place. However there is never a time in which no semi-major auto race is taking place. The Race of Champions is soon approaching. Formula E is racing throughout the winter. The 2015 World Rally Championship season begins in January.

Clearly, there's no shortage of auto racing over the winter. Unless you live in North America. Almost every major racing series in North America that would ever see TV time has a set offseason. Normally during that offseason nothing happens. Drivers have already switched teams. Engineers have already left one team and taken a better position at another. The schedule has been released. There's really nothing to talk about.

Hold on now. Don't tell that to Fox and NBC! This blog as done its fair share of praise and criticism of the NASCAR oriented programming on sports networks. However, no matter what, Fox's NASCAR RaceHub and NBC's NASCAR America have been discussed with relative positivity. Until now.

For whatever reason what began as two comprehensive NASCAR news shows have fallen to Entertainment Tonight standards. In watching offseason productions of RaceHub and NASCAR America one thing has become clear. If a driver, crew member, wife, pet, alien or cell associated with NASCAR so much as breathes, it is news.

The NASCAR on Fox Twitter and Facebook pages have resorted to showing photoshopped photos of NASCAR drivers in ridiculous situations in order to generate traffic. Not stopping there it appears as though Fox and NBC have mistaken Danica Patrick and Ricky Stenhouse for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. NASCAR fans, let alone sports fans, have little to no interest in mindless entertainment and gossip. Why what once occupied the space of some of the best sports writing in the history of auto racing is now filled with mindless gossip is a sad representation of the levels dropped to in order to create news.

There doesn't need to be a NASCAR news show during the offseason. If you can't fill the program with comprehensive news stories, it's best to take a break. Resume the shows when the season resumes. I'm sure we'll all be more excited to welcome the program back rather than endue an offseason filled with news we could get out of People Magazine.

Editorial: Oh Fox...

Throughout the duration of this blog, Fox Sports and Formula E have been mainstays. There seems to always be an issue when it comes to these two entities.

When Fox Sports announced the contract between Fox and Formula E, times seemed simpler. Simply put, I was under the impression Formula E would be a heavily promoted ratings draw for the brand new Fox Sports 1.

Never have I been so wrong.

It seems as though I never know when or where the race will air live. There are never any promos on any Fox Sports channel. The only way to find out what time the race is scheduled to air is if you painstakingly dig throughout the Motors on Fox blog.

How did I find out when the Uruguay ePrix will air? I clicked on a news article about Formula E! It leads me to believe if news never broke surrounding Formula E, no one would ever know when to watch it. To make matters worse, the race is live on Fox Sports 2!

I understand college football is still the priority on Fox Sports 1. Yet the least Fox could do is tell us that!

Hit and Miss

It appears as though the last few months in sports have had one thing in common. Domestic abuse allegations seem to be running wild. There was a point in which every day it seemed another athlete was accused of some sort of domestic assault.

Some stories caught fire quickly. Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson have gone from being high profile NFL stars to social pariahs. Everywhere you look, someone is talking about domestic abuse. The public is becoming more aware. It is not going away.

However, there is one case that media outlets are trying to squash. It has been almost one month since Kurt Busch was accused of domestic assault. The Associated Press first broke the story early in November. NASCAR was racing in Phoenix that weekend. Kurt Busch was there. He was going to drive no matter what.

For roughly a week the story was kept warm. A few articles written here and there. A mention of the allegations on a news program every so often. Overall very few people were discussing this. NASCAR made a statement in which no action would be taken against Busch until any legal proceedings were finished.

After that, poof. No more. The story was gone. Talk concerning the case has been relatively minimal. The story itself never grew. There is simply no excuse for this.

Fox, NBC, and ESPN all own rights to the NFL. All three networks discussed domestic violence in the NFL until none of us could bear any more. Conveniently, all three networks also owned rights to NASCAR. Regardless of whether the case had any weight to it remains a massive question. Only slight mentions of the Kurt Busch case made their way onto SportsCenter, Fox Sports Live, and NASCAR America.

If these networks had no trouble at all exposing and slightly tarnishing the NFL, why can they not do the same to NASCAR? NFL fans grossly overpower NASCAR fans. Yet just as NFL fans will still watch the NFL no matter what, NASCAR fans will still watch NASCAR.

The purpose of journalism is to expose the truth. Even if the truth isn't interesting that shouldn't warrant ignoring the story.

The European Invasion

The Indianapolis 500 has long been looked upon as being one of the greatest sports traditions in America. Throughout the 1960's to the 1980's drivers racing on the American open wheel circuit were fast, brash, and American. It wasn't until the 1990's that drivers from Europe began to migrate overseas. None of these drivers were slouches.

Nigel Mansell shocked the world in late 1992 when he left the Willams F1 team. Mansell, the reigning Formula 1 World Champion, would not return to his seat at Williams. Instead opting to race alongside Mario Andretti at Newman-Haas Racing in the CART series.

Mansell wasted no time collecting five wins and the 1993 CART championship. Mansell boasted a solid third place at the 1993 Indianapolis 500 - his first oval race. It was most likely the most impressive run anyone had seen up until that point.

Mansell began a trend. In 1996, Italian Alex Zanardi joined the CART series and promptly won back to back championships in 1997 and 1998. Fans seemed to buy in. Mansell and Zanardi quickly became fan favorites.

That trend continues to this day. IndyCar continues to see more and more European and South American drivers compete each season. For example, this year's Indianapolis 500 featured 11 Americans out of 33 drivers. Thirty years ago, the 1984 Indianapolis 500 featured 26 American drivers out of 33.

For 2015, rumors are swirling. Formula 1 drivers now see IndyCar as a far more practical option. European teams see IndyCar and Indy Lights as a cheaper option that will bring more chances of success. All of these aspects are great for the overall health of the series.

However, will fans buy in? Will television buy in? Most sports networks enjoy broadcasting NASCAR because of the logistics. Yet it also appears as though for networks, promoting an American born driver is also the easier option.

Telecasts of IndyCar seem to have a difficult time promoting drivers from European backgrounds, instead opting to focus on Americans and Brazilians.

That leads to the main question. With the exception of Jean-Eric Vergne, few fans and television networks will be familiar with these European drivers. Will ABC and NBC be able to promote these drivers as the future stars they are? Will IndyCar itself market these drivers properly? It remains to be seen. However the ball is in IndyCar's court. They have many options as towards how they can use these drivers to their advantage. Hopefully, pride and proper promotion turn out favorable.

Where's Our News Show??

For each traditional sport, no matter what channel, there exists a specific talk show. It's not enough that shows like SportsCenter and Fox Sports Live discuss all sports. Each sport must have its own talk show. To prove this point, here is a list:

ESPN sports specific talk shows:

• Baseball Tonight
• College Football Game Day
• College Basketball Game Day
• Sunday NFL Countdown
• NFL Insiders
• NFL Live
• ESPN FC
• MMA Live

Fox Sports 1 and 2 sports specific talk shows:

• MLB Whiparound
• UFC Tonight
• Fox Football Daily
• Fox Soccer Daily (no longer aired)

NBCSN sports specific talk shows:

• Pro Football Talk
• Premier League Live

Excluded from the above lists are programs related to NASCAR. Fox Sports 1 has NASCAR RaceHub and NBCSN has NASCAR America.

One thing that has never quite made sense is that generic motorsports does not have its own show. Sports networks would rather discuss Fantasy Football instead of auto racing. NASCAR RaceHub and NASCAR America are high quality programs, however they have become less like news programs and more like magazines on television. Instead of reporting and analyzing news, there appears to be an emphasis on feature stories.

RPM2Nite on ESPN2 and SPEED Center on the now defunct SPEED Channel reported the news of auto racing with favorable ratings. It was not ratings that killed those shows. It was management pulling the plug due to something beyond their control.

Many fans have been pleading to NBCSN which now holds rights to the big three racing series to create an auto racing centered program. NBC teases the fans many times by discussing and promoting IndyCar and Formula 1 during NASCAR America.

For cripes sakes, NBC. You have the least sports specific programs on your network. You have knowledgeable anchors. You have the rights. Just give in.

History Repeats Itself?

Fifteen years ago NASCAR signaled the first move of its visionary plan to grow in popularity. Fox Sports along with NBC/Turner stole television rights to NASCAR away from ESPN and CBS. Fox Sports at the time was showing signs of being a serious competitor to ESPN. Fox Sports Net regional sports channels were growing in viewership and adding NASCAR programming would only bring positive results.

ESPN and NASCAR however experienced the kind of mutual benefit seldom seen by any network and property. Without NASCAR, ESPN would most likely still be airing collegiate table tennis. In contrast, without ESPN NASCAR would still be a southern niche sport.

The very moment Fox aired the first NASCAR telecast it became clear Fox was more committed to NASCAR than ESPN ever was. Fox launched a daily NASCAR news program, Totally NASCAR, to compete with ESPN2's RPM2Nite. That wasn't enough however. Fox then went ahead and acquired a majority stake in the car and auto racing channel SpeedVision. Only a few months after the acquisition, Fox decided to buy SpeedVision entirely and use the network to air more hours of NASCAR than anyone had ever experienced.

One of the main factors to Fox's success was NASCAR's treatment of ESPN during the 2001 season. ESPN was all but banned from NASCAR events. ESPN was not allowed to show video of any NASCAR event on SportsCenter or RPM2Nite. Instead, any mention of NASCAR on either program was accompanied by still images. This treatment resulted in ESPN cancelling RPM2Nite in late 2003 and subsequently ignoring NASCAR completely outside of ESPN Classic from 2004-2006.

The 2015 season will see the return of the Fox/NBC partnership. This time however, both Fox and NBC now operate their own 24/7 cable sports networks. SPEED Channel has become Fox Sports 1 and OLN/Versus is now NBCSN. ESPN now is facing NASCAR on competing networks, something it has never experienced before.

ESPN has clearly realized the threat. Coverage of NASCAR on SportsCenter over the 2014 season has been more common than ever before. For the first time since 2001 ESPN dedicated more than five minutes to discuss NASCAR!

Hopefully, NASCAR will allow ESPN to continue to cover NASCAR. To have three major cable sports networks discussing NASCAR can only be beneficial. However, it's up to NASCAR to allow this to happen and ESPN must still be willing.