Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
Last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway NASCAR and fans were unfortunately subjected to two rain delayed races in a row. This was very inconvenient for not just NASCAR and the teams but also for those fans who wanted to watch the racing action live.
During the Cup race Fox chose to leave green flag racing to go to commercial even though they knew there was weather approaching. Sure enough while Fox was away a second line was formed and there was good side by side racing. There was a pass for the lead then a yellow flag for rain. We didn’t get to see it live.
Needless to say during the commercial NASCAR fans and media were incensed as it appeared that the race would be called when the pass for the win happened during commercial. I am not bringing this up to start a debate about commercials. Fox made a decision for reasons we as fans will never understand. I brought the subject up because it dawned on me why it matters.
Watching a NASCAR race at home is different today than it was in the past. With the availability to fans live leader boards, scanner feeds of drivers and yes even twitter, there is more of a reason now to watch a race live than recorded Yes, fans have gotten used to it and watching the race recorded is no longer the same. The fans were mad because some great racing and potentially a race win was taken from them live. In other words the full experience was missed.
At this point you might be wondering what does this have to do with 500 mile races. Since I have been syncing the TV, twitter, and all the other information together watching the races live, at the end I am mentally exhausted. It has been hard to focus the eyes from viewing the race from all these sources. The pattern has been that it mostly occurs after long Sprint Cup races.
Another point I would like to make is that since I have been doing the whole live NASCAR experience, I have realized that I recorded and watched more races than I thought. I am also sure if you look at your own viewing you will come to the same conclusion. It was a necessity so that work can be done around the house.
NASCAR should consider this new age of viewing and how it affects us. The bulk of the races need to be shorter. Sorry but the races at Texas, Talladega, Atlanta, Charlotte and yes even this week at Darlington need to be 400 miles or less. The Daytona 500 is a special day and the Coca-Cola 600 is as well but all others need to be shorter.
Brian Berg Jr. is a NASCAR writer for www.RantSports.com.
Follow him on Twitter @brian_jr1 during the race and throughout the week for more NASCAR news and commentary. On Facebook at NASCAR News and Commentary. On Pinterest at NASCARnews. Also add to your network on Google.
