Earlier start times and what Brian France said about the Chase

With NASCAR announcing earlier start times next season -- 21 of the 36 Cup races will begin at 1 p.m. Eastern -- a key question will be if the networks beef up their post-race show. (I'll get to France in a moment.)

 

One complaint I've heard from fans and seen in chats and so forth is that TV networks provide ample coverage before a race, telling fans of all the story lines, then the various story lines develop during the race but once the race ends, networks often have to cut away to other programming and have little time to do interviews. While Speed Channel does have a post-race show, sometimes it's just not enough for fans who either don't want to change the channel or don't have it. 

 

With so  many races set to start at 1 p.m. -- well, actually about 1:15-1:20 (NASCAR stated that the green flag likely will fall for all races about 15-20 minutes after the scheduled start time) -- even a four-hour race should provide a little time for networks to do some sort of post-race show. Admittedly as someone who chases down drivers and such after a race, some of these guys bolt after a race so even if networks chose to stay on an extra 10 minutes or so, it won't guarantee you would get to see your favorite driver or hear from all the key players. There have been times I've seen drivers climb from their car and bolt to a waiting vehicle to get out of a track. I once had a driver tell me he was nearly as proud of beating Dale Earnhardt to the airport after a Daytona 500 than finishing in the top 10 in that race.

 

Still, it will be worth seeing what happens next year with this schedule change.

 

In case you're wondering what the schedule change features, essentially, races will start just after 1 p.m. 3 p.m. (West Coast day races) or 7:30 p.m.  (all night races but the Coca-Cola 600).  It's standardized the start times like the NFL has. Even the Daytona 500, which has ended after the sun sets will start at a little after 1 p.m. next  year.

 

David Hill, chairman of Fox Sports, had said in the past he wanted that and other Fox races to end later so it could lead into network programming and carry NASCAR fans into Fox's shows. That won't happen now.

 

“The main thing about this sport, it’s 60 years old, but it’s got a tradition like it’s 500 years old and you don’t mess with that,’’ he said. “That’s my bad. That’s what we did. If we’re going to be true with the fans we’ve got to start somewhere.’’

 

For a list of start times for races, check out my previous blog entry.

 

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OK as for Brian France. A few things.

 

He was asked about the Chase and if there would be any changes in light of the TV ratings being down for each of the first three Chase races this season. Here's what  he said:

 

"We have been looking at it.  We're always looking to see if there is an enhancement.  But I actually think it's working better than it ever has from a competitive standpoint.  In terms of how many people are trying to get in it in Richmond?  How many drivers were at stake?  How it's unplayed every week? 

 

It's been a different sort of, you know, dominant or somebody that's driving and looks like they're going to go on a run.  Then the next week pops up, and now it's Tony Stewart as an example.  There's 100 points or less separating 1 through 6. 

 

So we've got to let this play out.  There is no question, that sports is different by story lines.  Interesting things that are going on with the action on the track.  We're pretty confident that we've got them. 

 

It can be difficult for us to get the perfect formula.  But we think we have a very good formula in terms of the racing, the balance of the racing action.  And we want to let that play out.'' 

 

In regards to TV, you might recall the incident last year where the end of the Phoenix Chase race was bumped by ABC to ESPN2 so ABC could show "America's Funniest Home Videos.'' The race was bumped because it went too long, hurt by a late start and two red flags. I asked France if he could offere assurances something like that won't happen this year.

 

Here's what France said:

 

"The last thing that our network partner wants to do is leave the network that they're on.  They know that's problematic.  And every once in a while there can be a set of extraordinary circumstances that might happen, and I won't speak for John Skipper who has the final events on ABC.

 

"But there certainly are scenarios that could happen, and I know it's the last thing that they want to happen.  But I guess it is possible. 

 

 

JOHN SKIPPER, Executive VP for content at ESPN also took the question. Here's what he said: " It is possible, but it's highly, highly unlikely.  We are sensitive to what happened last year.  We would not want to repeat that scenario.  We have some protocol going forward.  I'm not going to detail it here, but we do not want a repeat of that situation.  It didn't serve the fan well. 

 

Our partners at NASCAR were quite    were terrific in sort of understanding that we did what we thought we had to do at that point.  We don't expect it to happen again.''

 

As for moving more Chase races to Saturday night so NASCAR would only have to compete against college football rather than the NFL, this is what France said:

 

 

 

 

"Of course we talked about it.  There are lots of issues.  Saturday night from a level standpoint, I think it's the lowest night on television.  It comes with other issues and you would still have college football which is pretty strong programming.  So there's that. 

 

"Then you have the host track who may not want to run it at night.  So David Hill said traditions, and we have a lot of traditional things that happen in terms of Sunday afternoons that worked quite well.  So we're not, obviously, when the ratings go up or down, you're taking note of that.  We are, but we're not going to make any big, rash changes to try to chase that.  We'll just keep building our story lines and try to look at good racing.''

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