Another week, another slew of glaring mistakes during NBC’s coverage of The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. While this week’s mistakes weren’t as bad as what NASCAR fans were treated to last week, they are still very jarring and worth mentioning.
Kyle Busch trying to chase down Brad Keselowski Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
The first of these mistakes occurred when Alex Bowman’s tire caught on fire during a pit stop. This was a great opportunity for NBC to discuss the amount of pit road incidents that have been occurring this year, but they instead choose to just show one replay of Bowman’s car as it came to a rest at the exit of pit road, and then cut to a commercial break.
Things only became more cringe worthy for fans, as NBC kept struggling to fill dead air and cut to yet another commercial break. Even worse was the fact that NBC reporters didn’t even bother to check on Bowman to see if he was ok, or to interview him about escaping from the car after it caught fire.
While this might all sound like nitpicking, these are things that NBC should be doing a better job of. They need to follow up on things after accidents, instead of just forgetting they ever happened. They also need to actually update viewers about the frontrunners during a caution. Finally, they need to educate new fans about why certain situations occur, instead of just fumbling for words, showing an action shot once and cutting back to commercial break.
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Come on, even though some fans dislike Fox’s coverage of NASCAR in the spring, they can at still admit that they wouldn’t commit atrocities like the ones committed by NBC on Sunday. Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds would have at least had a good laugh about the Bowman accident and yelled in their southern accents for the boy to get out of there.
Fox would have at least shown an inside camera view of Bowman’s car during the fire, instead of just showing one side shot of the accident and cutting to break. Heck, fox reporters would have been standing outside the infield car center to make sure Bowman was ok and give him a chance to thank his sponsors. What does NBC do? Just keep cutting to break and fail to keep fans in the know about what’s going on!
Another problem for NBC had to be their radio communication throughout the race. Audio has seemingly been a problem from the get go with NBC, as every radio communication comes across as a jumbled mess that’s barely audible. Not to mention the absolutely ridiculous audio transmissions they choose to showcase throughout the race.
Finally, NBC seems to play favorites during their coverage of The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. The focus is always on the leaders and not on other names that deserve mentioning. NBC also seems extremely determined to follow every second of The Kyle Busch comeback story. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, NBC should still be focusing on other drivers trying to make The Chase as well.
Despite NBC’s shortcomings today, they did have a few high points worth mentioning during Sunday’s race as well. Especially with how they showcased Kyle Busch getting pushed past the leader and getting his lap back in the process. The in car camera views they showed during that moment were spectacular and the announcers really helped fans understand why that was an important moment of the race.
Kyle Busch burning rubber after his win at New Hampshire. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
NBC also does a great job of calling the action throughout the final laps of the race. The announcer’s voices just seem to come alive during the final laps and really makes fans sit on the edge of their seats with anticipation. If only they could do more of this during the rest of the race, instead of just cutting to commercial and looking like they have no idea what they’re doing.
NASCAR is an experience, and it needs to be treated as such. NBC isn’t treating it like an experience though and that’s what needs to change. They need to have more camera angles for accidents and interesting moments of the race. They need to do more than just cutting to break during cautions, they also need to get a handle on the technical difficulties that have been plaguing their first three broadcasts.
Fans new and old deserve better then what they are seeing on the screen right now. If you were someone who was watching NASCAR for the first time, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking it’s boring and unorganized. That’s not to say that NBC can’t still get their act together in the weeks to come, but they’re going to continue losing new fans in the process. What person experiencing NASCAR for the first time would want to be apart of this garbled mess?
What do you think of NBC’s coverage? Do you think they could of done a better job during race cautions? Were you satisfied with how they covered the race compared to how Fox Sport would? Let us know in the comments below!