NASCAR On TV, Then and Now, Trekking Back in Time

     I was watching the recent Hall of Fame ceremonies and it got me thinking about why racing back in the day was seemingly more exciting to watch than it is today. NASCAR wasn't exactly new when I first became interested in it in the 60's. I was 17 years old in 1969 when ABC broke into an episode of Wild World of Sports and showed the terrible crash of Don McTavish that took his life at Daytona.  It was horrifying to watch, but what also caught my attention was the fact that the cars were flying around that track. Sportsman cars, with their flat mid-60's front ends and back ends, creating all kinds of drag, were racing over 180 miles an hour. Incredible!! Can you imagine what kind of a wake those cars made through the air, and what it must have felt like when they blasted past the slower cars? Describing how it felt was very important.

     Catching a NASCAR race on television back than was frustrating at best. I don't recall the frequency of the broadcasts, maybe four for the year at the most, but they were usually shortened and spliced, taped delayed broadcasts, split and squeezed somewhere into a segment of The Wild World of Sports, which also might of had figure skating intermingled with the racing. The saving grace of those races were the broadcasters. They would get as excited during the race as a fan sitting in the seats at the track. Why? Probably because a lot of them had also broadcasted the races on radio, where they had to describe the action on the track in a way that made the listener paint the race into their mind. They would suck you right into the screen. It caused you to grab the arms of your chair and drag it across the carpet to get you closer, not the television screen, but to the track.

     Back in the day, they might of had one announcer and a driver in the booth, and one pit report. What do they have nowadays? A talking head, a former driver and former crew chief in the booth, another former crew chief by a cut-away car, two or three pit reporters and three "hosts", all giving the viewer copious amounts of unnecessary and superfluous chatter. Throw in a scrolling list of drivers along the top of the screen, with the letters being of different colors and all meaning one thing or another, popups of promos for upcoming TV shows on the bottom, taking up space on the screen, and you kind of lose focus on the race itself. Throw it all together and you have information overload. They give us so much information all we have to do is sit back and put our minds in neutral, that is, if we even had it in gear to start with. Let us be part of the broadcast too. Help us keep our minds engaged in the race. 

     Want to get the viewer engaged in the race again? Just broadcast the race, focus on what drama there might be, and announce the race, just don't talk about it, describe it. Lose the crew chief in the booth and just use the crew chief by the cut-away car to explain that side of the story. And for heaven's sake, stop saying the same immature intro to the races over, and over, and over. It's run it's course and is worn out. Go back to having two drivers in the booth, who had different driving styles when they raced. Ken Squire could call a race like no other, but for combinations, Bob Jenkins, Benny Parsons and Ned Jarrett, in my opinion, were the best to come along. Benny and Ned would explain directly to Bob how a driver would handle a situation, and do it in way that would drag the viewer along with them. 

     If they feel the need to have hosts, use them for the opening and the ending only, the rest of the time it would just be keeping the viewer from the racing action. Heck, dump the hosts entirely. They really aren't needed. Don't have a continuous crawl across the top, and or bottom, and stop jamming those promos on the screen, if you think they're such a great idea, paste them right on the commercials instead. Leave a little mystery in the broadcast, don't tell me what the points would look like right at that moment. Really guys, it means "bupkiss" and is totally pointless, literally. The vast majority of people watching have computers, and if it's important to them than they can get that information at NASCAR.com during the race.

     I'm hoping someday there will be a button on my remote that will block out all the clutter on the screen and just leave the race, nothing but the race. If they got rid of the peripheral information, people would have to be glued to the television. I have a tape of a NASCAR race from back in the late 80's where the broadcasting homebase had issues, but the track feed was still working. It lasted nearly the whole race. Nothing but the action at the track, no commercials, and we got to witness how the broadcast was directed. It was great! Want to fill the seats at the tracks again? Get them interested in the races on the television first.

Tulsa Expo Raceway...The Chili Bowl

Every year since 1987 tons and tons of clay are trucked into the Tulsa Expo Center, also known as the Quick Trip Center, for a couple of exciting motor racing events. To bring in the new year, over 700 Modified Midgets, Mini Sprints, and ECOtec Midgets fill the massive building and run races from 9:00 in the morning to 6:30 at night, right through with no breaks, on both new years eve day and new year’s day. I certainly hope everyone is careful celebrating New Years; otherwise they’re going to have a helluva throbbing head the next morning when the races start cranking up.

Saturday Pit Action, Main Aisle

Then, a couple of weeks later the biggest midget race in the world takes place, The Chili Bowl Nationals. This years version brought in 260+ cars from around the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The cars, haulers, the 1/5th mile dirt track, grandstands for 10,000 fans and a trade show are packed into this surprisingly spacious building.

If you want to eat there you had better bring money. Although there is a wide variety of food items, Chicken Fingers, Quesadillas, Barbeques, Hamburgers, Domino Pizzas, and all of the other common sides that you’d find at a race track, you’ll be paying out of the nose for it. They do not allow food or beverages, except for one bottle of water, through the turnstiles and they’ll check inside any bag you take in.

Restrooms, they have three for the stands and two in the pits. Although there will be long lines for the men’s, mainly between races, it moves along at a steady pace. Actually, the women’s restrooms are relatively line free, at least on the outside anyway. They do a great job at keeping them clean for the week, and they have hot water.

If you get there well ahead of time you can stroll through the trade show, which was T-shirt city this year, check out the collectables, try out stockcar and sprint car race simulators, obtain free catalogs and trinkets, plus get to know the Hooters girls as you go through. Also, the Tulsa State Fair facility consists of many large buildings. The Ford Building holds a racing auction, which costs $10 to enter, and radio controlled cars are raced on dirt in a barn like building just west of the Ford Building.

When the races get started, be ready for action. Monday night through Friday night are taken up with qualifying heat races and features just to get three midgets a guaranteed starting spot for the A main on Saturday. But, rest assured, these are no ordinary qualifying races. Passing points are used for eight heat races in order to line up four qualifying races. Passing points are also used for those races with the top 16 in combined passing points going to the A main and the balance going to twin B mains. Through in twin C mains and it’s a full night of races, and they think NASCAR has a complicated points system. Not only that, but they also throw in a Race of Champions on Tuesday night.

You would think that coming in the top three in the A main of each night, which gets you a spot for Saturday night, is satisfying enough, but these guys know how important it is just to win on these nights. Wednesday’s A main was a fine example of the thrill of victory, and it will be talked about for years.

Donny Ray Crawford, Tulsa’s home town racing hero, started third and hung around the bottom as Damion Gardner and Cole Whitt battled it out at the front. Crawford began drifting back to about eighth place as cars zipped past him in the top groove. After a few well timed yellows, including one with a couple of laps left, Crawford had made it back up towards the top three, but Gardner and Whitt had been duking it out so much with each other that they had forgotten about Crawford.

Cole Whitt

On the last lap Gardner and Whitt were banging the mud off each other’s car so they’ll look pretty for the pictures in victory lane. Going into turn three Whitt hopped up on the cushion, Gardner jammed his car under him hard enough to make contact and they leaned on each other racing for glory. However, Crawford went for it and floored it down low, never lifting. As all three cars came out of the fourth they met at the same spot, squeezing Gardner in the middle. Rubber met rubber, Gardner went skywards and Whitt found the wall. Donny Ray Crawford shot past the mayhem for the win, Damion Gardner flipped across the line for second and Cole Whitt’s car stopped one foot short of a guaranteed starting spot for Saturday’s A main and allowing Thomas Meseraull to come in third. The crowd erupted like never before, it was chilling. They do not mess around on qualifying nights.

So, four nights of qualifying race probably means a few C or D mains for Saturday, right? Wrong. Everyone gets a chance again to make it into the A main, no matter how improbable. Talk about the “alphabet soup”, they start back with two K’s, two J’s, two I’s, and so forth until the final double B’s sets the lineup for the finally.

This years Chili Bowl will be talked about for some time too. For most of the 50 lap race it was a battle between Bryan Clauson, USAC National Midget and Overall Diver Champion for 2010, multi-Chili Bowl winner Sammy Swindell and New Zealander Michael Pickens at the front of the field. As they concentrated on what they were doing, the 2010 Chili Bowl winner Kevin Swindell started picking his way through the rest of the stars.

 

Chili Bowl 25th Anniversary Midget

As other drivers cut across turn four, K. Swindell caught a small spot high on the apron in four and would rocket past the car in front of him, especially on restarts. He finally made it to the point with his father on lap 34. By the time the last caution came out Sammy was in the also-ran spot while Kevin saw a clear track in front of him. Sammy made desperation slide job moves in both turns one and three, pulling up even if not slightly past the leader, but Kevin had the spot covered. It looked as though Sammy was going to get him coming out of turn four for the win. The 39 midget of Kevin Swindell jumped the cushion in four but found that magic spot of traction and roared back around to beat his father by fractions of a second. It was literally so close that replays and transponders were the only things they could use to determine the winner. This made it the first time in the 25 years of racing the Chili Bowl that someone won it two years in a row. Quite a race.

Buy your tickets early, reserve your motel room well ahead of time and mark your calendar for five wild nights of racing magic….The Chili Bowl!

http://www.chilibowl.com/
http://www.tulsashootout.com/