Nascar Racing Online

ESPN has released its broadcast schedule, and in a move that is certain to make a segment of NASCAR purists howl, will be airing nine of the 10 Chase races on cable’s ESPN rather than broadcast TV’s ABC. In other words, you want to watch NASCAR’s playoffs, you’re going to have to pay for it.

Now, this is absolutely certain to send some NASCAR fans screaming that the sport has abandoned them and this is another excuse to make a buck and things were so much better back in the olden days, when we could watch little bitty snippets of a race from six days ago on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. It may have only been two minutes, but it was a free two minutes, dammit, and plus you got to watch that agony-of-defeat skier guy cartwheeling every single week! 

In all seriousness, on one hand I get the complaint about the move — ESPN may be in 90 percent of homes or whatever, but it still costs money to get it. ABC, on the other hand, is in everybody’s home, and costs nothing to get. So there’s the populist argument.

On the other hand, if you’re reading this, then you’ve got access to the Internet, obviously. Which means you’ve paid for content in some form or fashion. (Or your boss has, and you should get back to work, pronto.) Now, bear in mind that this is coming from a guy who’s emailed/Twittered/Facebooked/Internetted up one side and down the other, but really — it’s 2010. Isn’t it time that everybody started, you know, moving toward cable? Am I missing something here?

On balance, ESPN is the right place for NASCAR. On ABC, it was lost between "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" promos, but on ESPN, it can get the consistent attention — and, more importantly, the consistent promotion — it deserves. Plus, fewer possible locations for a race means more repeat viewers.

Also, it’s ESPN’s take — and it’s a reasonable one — is that ESPN delivers more desirable numbers more consistently than ABC. Which is good; sports fans know what they’re doing and know where to find ESPN. After all, it’s also the home of Monday Night Football, and plenty of postseason action in other sports is already on cable.

With ESPN, complaints are more about production than scheduling, and the network will have to go a long way to convince some of its detractors that it deserves to host the sport’s marquee events. As NASCAR TV aficionado the Daly Planet puts it, "2010 is the last gasp of credibility for ESPN where producing live
Sprint Cup Series races is concerned. There is no other way to say it." 

Those of you upset about the changes, don’t fret too much. After all, you know it’s only a few years before all TV is 3D and we’re going to be buying new sets anyway. Might as well get used to the change now.

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