 | | The ESPN broadcast team is a mix of those formerly involved with NASCAR and newcomers. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images |
By Josh Pate, NASCAR.COM
December 27, 2006
05:09 PM EST (22:09 GMT)
When the NAPA 500 ended at Atlanta on Nov. 20, 2000, Jerry Nadeau was the winner. Bobby Labonte was crowned champion that day, defeating a top five in the standings that looked like this: Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Burton, Dale Jarrett and Ricky Rudd. And ESPN signed off on its final telecast of the old television contract. A lot has changed in NASCAR since that day, and perhaps even more has changed with ESPN in the six years since bringing the sport to a national audience. Now the Worldwide Leader in Sports is back behind the wheel. Sort of. "I don't look at it as ESPN coming back to NASCAR because the network is a heckuva lot different now than it was in 2000," said Dick Glover, NASCAR's vice president of broadcasting and new media. In 2000, it was Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett and Benny Parsons in the booth for play-by-play and analysis. The broadcast was packed with explanations of racing-specific terminology -- a staple of ESPN during its 19-year history of broadcasting races. And the network's air time that final season was few and far between. Six networks shared rights to broadcast the 2000 season -- CBS, ABC, NBC, TNN, TBS and ESPN -- without a consistent schedule. Four different networks aired the final six races. Thirteen races were shown on ESPN (five on ABC), and the network held the longest stretch of consistency during the whole season -- five consecutive races were shown on ESPN between late August and early September. The game has changed since ESPN's last lap at Atlanta, as FOX, TNT and former broadcaster NBC have all incorporated a consistency of when and where the races will be shown, as well as the birth of entertainment into the formula. "Just because we haven't been around for six years doesn't mean we won't quit educating our viewers," said Rich Feinberg, senior coordinating producer for ESPN. "We're here to serve the NASCAR fans but also try and bring on new viewers." That's what NASCAR is banking on. "The huge thing is it will expose NASCAR to the casual fan, and that's a sweet spot of growth for us," said Glover, who worked for ESPN from 1992-2001. "It's the same thing as 2000, when new networks came in. They brought a new way of looking at things, and the things that were good, everybody started doing them. By having that jolt, I think it will spur everybody on how we can do our job a little bit better." Feinberg said the network has three goals for broadcasting each race: 1. Documentation of the race from start to finish. 2. Storytelling, or creating emotion -- "While we're there to document the event, we're also there to create emotion, whether it's rooting for somebody, laughing or arguing," he said. 3. Entertainment through technology, graphics, music and directorial approach. Said Feinberg: "If we keep that approach, we have a chance to be successful and pick up where we left off." The other networks admit they may have some work to do, too, but most say they're going to stick to what works.  |  | MORE THAN A BROADCAST | ESPN plans to have more than just flag-to-flag NASCAR coverage when it begins the first of eight years covering the sport under the new television contract.
"NASCAR Countdown" will lead viewers into live coverage of each Nextel Cup and Busch Series race, and "NASCAR Now" will debut in February as the network's first daily show devoted to NASCAR coverage. "NASCAR Now" will be aired on ESPN2.
Dick Glover, NASCAR's vice president of broadcasting and new media, reminded that television is just one component of the deal.
"We work out media deals," he said. "There's so much more than television."
According to Neilsen Netratings, ESPN.com, which expanded its motorsports staff in the offseason to prepare for 2007, averages more than 16 million unique users per month, tops among sports Web sites.
ESPN Deportes will be broadcasting every Busch race in Spanish next season and significantly increasing its NASCAR coverage on the weekly auto racing show, RPM Semanal.
ESPN Deportes Radio, in cooperation with MRN Radio, will have live Spanish broadcasts of 14 races next season along with the Nextel All-Star Challenge. ESPN Deportes Radio has already begun a daily two-minute NASCAR update in the mornings and afternoons, called "Una Vuelta Con NASCAR."
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"ESPN is not going to come out halfway," said Steve Byrnes, FOX pit reporter and SPEED Channel's host for Trackside. "They're going to use a lot of platforms and a lot of resources, and I think that's great. If a fan watches ESPN and likes what they do, it makes us work that much harder. "We had a big meeting a week ago, and that was precisely part of our discussion. We respect the resources that ESPN will bring in, but we don't feel threatened or look at it as competition. Our plan is to stick to what we do best." "Probably not," said Rich O'Connor, TNT's NASCAR producer, when asked if his network will change its approach. "ESPN broadcasting the races is no different to us than FOX having the first half of the season. It really doesn't matter because they're going to do the same thing we are doing. And you just try to do it the best." "We recognize our reputation," Feinberg said, "but we don't sit and wallow in that. Our brand is one of the most powerful in sports, but it's because we have earned that. We don't just sit and talk about how good we are. We have to work hard to make people feel that way." All signs say that will continue. From 1981-2000, ESPN aired 262 races (including some on ABC) and improved the coverage from casual play-by-play banter to a full-bore explanation of racing-specific terminology. "ESPN was the first network to introduce specifics with the car -- explaining what a track bar was and what teams were doing when they made wedge adjustments," said Byrnes, who was involved in NASCAR coverage for TBS and TNN in the mid-1980s. "ESPN, as I'm sure the people there already know, is going to have to change their coverage from the way it was back in 1985." The network will provide a meeting place for the Busch Series. The ESPN networks will be the sole home of the Busch series, with 29 races scheduled for ESPN2 and six for ABC. It has not been released which six Busch races will be on ABC. | "We recognize our reputation, but we don't sit and wallow in that. Our brand is one of the most powerful in sports, but it's because we have earned that. We don't just sit and talk about how good we are. We have to work hard to make people feel that way."
- Rich Feinberg, ESPN
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By providing continuity for the series, it signals an end to an inconsistent destination for viewers searching for Busch races. In 2006, 13 races were on TNT, 13 were on FX, four were on NBC and four were on FOX. "Consistency translates into viewers; they don't have to search around to find the race," Feinberg said. "That allows us to welcome the viewer, thank them for joining us, document the race and then invite them back to the party next week -- at the same place." And almost the same time. "The long-term goal is to develop a consistent time for each race," said Julie Sobieski, ESPN's senior director of programming and acquisitions. "The short-term goal is to work together so we can get as close to consistency as we can. It's a huge step in having the Busch races on one network." Sobieski said a majority of Busch races will start around the 3 p.m. ET time slot, but added that several factors weigh into the decision of when to wave the green flag. "We work very closely with NASCAR to determine race start times," she said. "Ultimately NASCAR has the final say on the start time, but we work to maximize what's best for both of us." "If the ratings from today do not improve, I for one will not be very satisfied," Feinberg added when asked about ESPN providing consistency with the Busch Series. ESPN, however, inherits a fan base mainly on the Cup side that has suddenly aired its displeasure of broadcast pitfalls after less than a decade of merely having each race shown on television. "I'm OK with people critiquing our work," Feinberg said to the recent scrutiny other networks have had in regard to commercial time and missing restarts, a reoccurring complaint among fans. Those complaints, however, nearly lost velocity during the Chase, when NBC and TNT missed only two restarts in the 10-race playoff. During that span, an average of 31 percent of airtime was commercials, according to cawsnjaws.com. |
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"The reality of it is this is a business, and part of that business is to air commercials," Feinberg said. "The unique thing about NASCAR is there are no timeouts. So when it's time to go to commercial, you have to have a keen sense of awareness of when it's safe to go. But we have to make our best educated guess, and certainly there are ways to do that." Feinberg said each network predetermines the number of commercials for every broadcast, and that the maxim amount of commercial time is part of the network's agreement with NASCAR, although he would not elaborate on ESPN's details. "Now if there's somebody out there who can accurately predict there will be no pass or no caution while we're on break, I'll hire them tomorrow and pay them a hefty salary," he joked, noting that ESPN does have the ability to break out of commercial and back into coverage should a race-changing incident occur. He said there is always a concern for missing action on the track, specifically restarts, but added that showing each restart in a timely fashion shouldn't be a problem for ESPN. "I understand it's a concern," he said. "I read the blogs on Monday morning. Nobody gets more frustrated when we miss a restart or a pass than the guys in the [production] truck, because ultimately that's our job. What we have to do is a better job explaining how that process works. There are only three sports -- racing, golf and soccer -- that have no stoppage time, and they all deal with the same problem." While football assigns an official to ensure the game is not in play until television returns from commercial, Feinberg said there have been no discussions between ESPN and NASCAR about dictating when the green flag would fly based on when the commercial breaks end. "I'm not sure how you do that and keep it fair, as fuel consumption and strategies are concerned," he said. "We would rather document the event than to dictate the event. We don't ask for things that could affect the race." What ESPN can do -- and what most NASCAR executives will admit they hope the network does -- is attract the casual sports fan to a die-hard niche sport. NASCAR coverage has increased on SportsCenter to where Sunday night's race highlights are routinely among the big three stories. An online presence has increased -- ESPN.com's offseason NASCAR coverage has moved to the fourth item on the Web site's menu list behind NFL, MLB and NBA while two slots ahead of NHL, college sports and golf coverage. And there's the commercial. An increasing whistle of racecars on a plate track with only a dark screen moves to a subtle reminder that the season begins in February. Never mind that ESPN's first Cup race isn't until July. When the green waves for ESPN's return, be it February for the Busch Series or summer for the Cup Series, its target is the casual sports fan who turns to the network seeking news while racing may not be a part of his or her viewing -- yet. "We're excited about the things ESPN will be doing," Glover said. "They have planned a lot of things by taking a look at what the next step is to explain information and bringing new media into that explanation." The existing networks in the television contract already provided a national platform from which to preach, but according to Glover, ESPN's arrival completes the picture. "If you look at the totality of our partners, we have the broadest networks in FOX, ABC and TNT that capture such a huge audience," Glover said. "ESPN is a huge machine in the sports world. And SPEED Channel is a sport-specific network for auto enthusiasts. "So I think we have filled in all the blanks. We've got it all." | 
