Between NASCAR and Indy Racing, there are quite a few races over Memorial Day weekend. I spent most of Sunday in front of the TV.
BACK HOME AGAIN: Almost missed the start of the Indianapolis 500 race for some reason. As it turns out, I did miss most of the pre-race show. I got to see the National Anthem, Taps, and Jim Nabors sing. I have to wonder what the drivers think when they hear Taps played right before they get ready to risk their lives.
WOMEN DRIVERS: Because of the way the Indy 500 qualifying is structured, I really didn’t know who’d made the field. So I was surprised to see there were three women who did make the field. It’s a shame all three ended up not finishing the race.
THE 500: The actual race was a little on the boring side. The track turned out to be pretty much a one-groove track, so there wasn’t much passing. The first two hours were pretty frustrating. Here I am trying to watch it in High Def, and the local ABC affiliate is having trouble with their High Def signal. The audio kept dropping out, there was major pixelation, and the video would just stop. I had to watch most of the first two hours on the regular channel. They finally got it working.
THE 600: I wish Fox wouldn’t list the start time of the race so early. What they do is actually tell you the start time of their pre-race show. I don’t really watch that stuff. Just tell me when the green flag is supposed to start (thanks to Jayski, I knew when to tune in).
A TALE OF TWO RACES: The 600 is so long that it’s really more like two races. Cars that work great in the daylight seem to go away at night, and vice versa. Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte were nowhere to be found during the daylight, but when the night fell, they started moving to the front.
FOX’S SURROUND SOUND: i don’t know who the audio engineer is on Fox’s broadcasts, but he needs to get a better setup. When I put my receiver in Dolby Surround Sound mode, all I can hear are the cars, with the announcers way in the background. I had to go to basic sterio to even hear what the announceers were saying. It’s not my setup, since I don’t have that problem with other shows.
ANTHEM CRITIQUES: The National Anthem is not a song you’re supposed to “make your own”. It should be sung the same way by everyone. Unfortunately, the folks who sung it before both races didn’t seem to know that. While the version sung by Daryl Worley before the 600 was ok, the one sung before the 500 seemed like a completely different tune. Please singers, don’t improvise the melody.
THE PETTY EFFECT: There’s a problem in NASCAR with drivers continuing to drive way past the point when they should have retired. Richard Petty did this back through the 80’s and the early 90’s. Then, my favorite driver, Darrell Waltrip did it through the late 90’s. Now Richard’s son Kyle is doing it. Kyle hasn’t really been competitive for a long time. Kyle’s flirting with a TV career; perhaps it’s time he stayed in the booth.
GANASSI: I guess it’s pretty obvious where Chip Ganassi’s major effort is going, and it’s not NASCAR. His NASCAR teams seem to be lacking speed or maybe the resources needed to get them to the front. Sterling Marlin’s substituting for Dario Franchitti should have been a good opportunity to get his career back on track. But he’s had bad runs in both outings. And after Juan Montoya’s complaints about having three different crew chiefs in almost as many races, you have to wonder what’s going on at Ganassi’s team.
SPEAK ENGLISH: NASCAR’S misguided “diversity” project took another turn during the broadcast. They acatually ran a commercail for NASCAR in Spanish! Can you believe it?
DOVER: I’ll be avoiding the Dover races next week. That’s always been a boring track, ever since they converted it to concrete. You’d think they’d have figured that out by now.