Mr. Poston is, as usual, pretty heavy handed, possessing the subtlety of a tornado approaching a trailer park. What's he gonna say anyway, NASCAR is his employer and it's his job to defend them so he will never say "NASCAR screwed up." Also, I wouldn't be suprised if the caller to the sirius show was a NASCAR minion. Further, regarding MRN, doesn't NASCAR own MRN.

Last week's missive from Mr. Poston stated in the first paragraph "We've long believed in having an independent media. One of the things that makes NASCAR, or any sport great, is debate." Then, in the final paragraph he goes on the say in again, his typically heavy handed manner, "The real question here is what are their employers going to do? David Hill, the chairman of Fox Sports and Hunter Nickell, the president of SPEED (all three are on SPEED's payroll and McReynolds is on Fox's), are the ones who should be concerned. Fair or not, broadcasters essentially telling the fans to stop watching the races is not a good thing."

So, he calls Kyle, Larry, & Gentleman Jim Spencer's employers by name and essentially suggests that they should be reprimanded.

NASCAR ain't forgiving when it comes to dissent.

Since when does Burton rule Nascar? Appears JG, TS, JB, and JJ were the ones who talked to Nascar about bump drafting. Where are the real men?

How exciting? Let me put it this way. A little less than half way through the race, I got the clippers out, went into the bathroom and cut my hair. That was not even a race to me! It was a waste of time. The worst race I have ever seen. And I watch them all.

I know it was founded by the France family, so I doubt that it has become a completely independent entity. Kind of like ISC and NASCAR.

But I think it would be in NASCAR's best interest to let the commentators make their comments on the quality of the racing. Especially if they're seen as the voice of the fans, this could become such a losing issue for them. Plus, the networks pay NASCAR, not the other way around.

NASCAR is WAY off base with their criticism. I was at the race and the traffic on I-20 was more exciting to watch. ABC was merely pointing out the obvious as anyone watching the race could see it was a 190mph parade.

to begin with, the nascar officials should criticize themselves for calling talladega and daytona "racing"..this is not racing---it is follow the leader..even lots of the drivers dont like it; doesnt that tell them anything...i was not an earnhardt sr. fan, but he was the best at this type of "racing", and he didnt like it...they always talk about saving money..if they think this type of "racing" saves money, that explains why the sport is in some trouble...they need to look at themselves for criticism, not the announcers or broadcast channels...

It is literally two different mediums, of course its different. Remember the whole "Nixon won the debate on radio, Kennedy on TV" thing? Same here, MRN hires guys to be very near the action and they are hyped in their coverage. I like MRN, but they can makes a Pocono race sound good. I also like ABC's coverage, but we use cameras and blimps, etc, to look at it. In any case I didnt listen this weekend I watched on ABC, so I cant comment if they were really excited during the 50 plus laps of single file racing. But I doubt it.

Seems pretty silly to me to have NASCAR try to muzzle the broadcasters who are beholden to the viewers. Viewers are notoriously not happy with most of the changes NASCAR has made. While this isn't to say that I enjoy ESPN's broadcasts, voicing what the viewer's largely feel is still considered ok, right? Certainly having 43 cars in a row racing around a track that is 2.66 miles long with "daylight" in between isn't what NASCAR wants-- is it? I feel compelled to ask..

I also feel safe in saying that I hear a lot that NASCAR isn't hearing what the fans say, maybe having some advertising dollars behind the message will make a difference? Seems that pleasing most of the people some of the time should be NASCAR's new business plan.

The best summation of the race that I've heard yet is this: Today's race at Talladega was clearly just long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of terror. Don't ignore the warnings, Mr. Poston.

And I suspect they remember the racing of old & yearn for it, as I do. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. I really don't care what the talking heads say, I make up my own mind when it comes to, is this a good race or not. And it doesn't matter what kind of brush strokes you us to paint the picture, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I don't think we'll be seeing these guys very much longer if they keep getting called out. That's OK too, again, I'll turn the sound off if I don't like what they're saying.

ABC needs to remember that they are broadcast partners with NASCAR for these races. It does neither party any good to convey the impression to the viewers that they are watching a boring or substandard race, even if it might be true. Present the race objectively and professionally, and let the viewer determine if there's something missing from the broadcast. There is no legitimate story angle for the network to demean the race they are presenting. Besides, its bad for business. After the race has concluded, though, it's a different story.