Mutterings while Meandering through the Marbles!

• Humpy Wheeler has declared Carl Edwards to be his pick for the All-Star. I am fine with that. However, he also declared Tony Stewart to be the Dark Horse pick. What? In what universe would Tony ever be a dark horse? Sheesh!

• The All-star Fan Vote is driving me nuts! We saw, a few years ago, Martin Truex, Jr win the vote, and at the time, he was not a regular cup driver. He made it in purely on the strength of his relationship to his team mate and friend, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. We saw Kyle Petty be voted in, due to a sponsor offering a 'bribe' to the driver's charity. (A worthy charity! Yet, the sponsor received a ton of collateral publicity from this effort, including the several hundred of thousands of dollars worth of extra television impressions from having the car in both of the event's races.) We saw SpeedTV hawking votes for their own 'talking head', Kenny Wallace.
  
  And NOW, we have Dale Earnhardt, JR giving his personal endorsement to Elliott Sadler. Most prefer to think that he is doing this out of pure friendship for that funny talking Virginian. However, one has to wonder if the business association of the VLPClub is more of a factor. I also have to wonder why Tony Stewart has not endorsed Elliott. Surely those fans would vote in Sadler too?
  
  (BUT, what if Sadler does not make it in on the voting? Would that mean that not even the power of JR can get him in the race?)
  
  My main gripe is that drivers who are hovering in the bottom of the points are making it into the All STAR race. And frankly, they do not deserve to be there! While I would love to see my favorites, David Gilliland or Travis Kvapil, make it in, there is another deserving driver...David Ragan, who is certainly one of the most improved drivers of the season. Will any of those three have a chance when the Junior Nation follows the directions of their idol? I keep thinking that the drivers should EARN their way in, by driving their way in. I guess we will see!

• Boos! Kyle Bush has certainly polarized NASCAR fans into a Love-Hate relationship. There are not many who actually seem to reside in the middle. Fans appear to either adore him or despise him! At best, you will hear the statements that start out with "I think he is a great, talented driver, BUT......" followed by all of the reasons to NOT like him. I don't think we have had this kind of response to a driver since Darrell Waltrip first arrived on the NASCAR scene.

• Booze! Richmond and Darlington both resulted in a rain of beer cans being lobbed onto the track. At Darlinton, a whole cooler actually was tossed out. If fans keep this up, then all of the tracks will become the same as Las Vegas Motor Speedway...no coolers, no beer brought in!

• Speaking of David Ragan...How about that kid, eh? The driver formerly known as a 'dart without feathers' is now in the Chase points. Good job David!

• And speaking of surprises to the points....David Gilliland is sitting at 21st, and look at Travis Kvapil in 18th! Those Yates drivers are still showing the world how to get it done without major sponsors. There are quite a few Big Dollar sponsors (Best Buy) who are on cars (McDonald's) that are much further down the points scale ( Stanley). Hmmmm! That is a GEM of a thought! I might have to grab a Bud to think about it some more! Of course, I will only grab that Bud after I get home from visiting my local Napa store after shipping my package via UPS!

• And what in the world is THIS about? Jon Wood is not eligible for the Sprint Showdown, and yet Chat McCumbee is eligible? As badly as NASCAR gets 'dissed' for its lack of consistency, this one is just astonishing!
  

Until the next post...tune in to the Burn-out Challenge on Speed, before the All-star! I predict that Kevin Harvick will win!

ESPN - It Was Pretty Ugly!

ESPN has stepped on my last nerve!

A few weeks ago, August 18th, 2007, I was sitting in my local Goodyear store while my car was being prepared. (Yes, I am a NASCAR fan, and choose to use NASCAR sponsors whenever possible. Fortunately, I find this particular Goodyear store to be excellent!) This Goodyear store happens to have a flat screen tv set up, and I was able to watch the Busch race while work commenced on my car!

Watching that race was challenging. I had to change channels several times to follow the channel switches, while ESPN was waiting for the tennis match to finish. Trying to follow the directions on the scroll bar was a struggle, as I had to figure out what channel was where. Thankfully, the other Goodyear patrons were patient! I was willing to forgive it happening once. I do remember at least one time in the past, with the former broadcast package, where it happened and the start of the race was held up. So, I shrugged it off, and resigned myself to not having a TiVo recording of that race.

But then last night, it happened again! This time the scroller directed the watcher to ESPN360. I searched my channel guide frantically to find that channel. When I could not find it,I 'googled' it, and discovered it was internet content only! I clicked on it, and received the message:

Sorry, your internet service provider does not carry ESPN360.com. Please contact your service provider to add ESPN360.com as part of your service.

At this point, I was pounding my keyboard in frustration! I quickly went over to NASCAR.com, and started up their pre-race coverage. Well now, I received more content from TURNER than I received from ESPN. Then to add insult to injury, I instant-messaged a friend in Canada, to vent about the situation. She had no idea that there were any problems. You see, TSN had the whole feed! She even got to see OUR Anthem sung!

Last night was a travesty. I can forgive quite a few of the perceived errors with broadcasting. I understand the need for commercials. I understand that we can't predict when the cautions will happen, and that they can happen during commercials. I do understand that it is especially challenging to get the commercials done during a caution period at a short track. I even understand that sometimes some one pushes a wrong button. I can even forgive that I don't like the folks in the booth. I get ALL of that, and forgive it, as long as it looks like a effort is being made to improve the product. I don't see that effort being made here!

I see this as being a huge negative for the Busch series. In fact, it is probably it's death knell! There are commercial purchasers who did not get their value of having commercials during the countdown. NASCAR is already stressed about finding a series sponsor, and they are running a 'blue-light special' to try and attract one. With constant snafu's from ESPN, what potential series sponsor would want their name attached to something so negative? If the broadcaster does not care enough about the series to schedule it properly, why would any sponsor care?

In fact, if ESPN does not care enough about the Busch series, why should I care?

NASCAR, you have a problem here!