Brian France on Sunday's Cup race channel shift: 'We didn't like it'
Like many fans, NASCAR Chairman Brian France wasn’t happy with ESPN’s decision to move the final 34 minutes of Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway from ABC to ESPN2.
ABC opted to keep its prime-time lineup intact in the East and Central time zones, where it televised “America’s Funniest Home Videos” instead of the end of the race.
“We didn’t like it,” France said Tuesday during a national teleconference with news media. “That was not what we had anticipated. But we have talked to them repeatedly in the last couple of days.
“There were lots of circumstances that they had to consider. I don’t have to agree with each one of those, but they had their own issues that they had to manage around. We, unfortunately, got the short end of that. We are working with them to hopefully eliminate that happening in the future.”
ABC/ESPN spokesman George McNeilly said Sunday that “ABC's entertainment viewers and NASCAR fans were both well served in a tough spot” after the race ran longer than expected, partially because of a 24-minute rain delay and an 18-minute red-flag period after an accident.
ABC, according to the network, earned a 4.6 overnight Nielsen rating during the 7 to 7:30 p.m. EST window for the race before switching to ESPN2. ABC earned a 3.8 overnight rating combined for "America's Funniest Home Videos" in the Eastern and Central time zones and the race in the Mountain and Pacific time zones.
ESPN2, which aired the conclusion of the race nationally instead of a replay of World Series of Poker, had a 3.3 cable rating, equivalent to a 2.9 network rating.
ABC is available in 112.8 million homes, while ESPN2 is in 97.6 million homes, according to ESPN.
“What’s important is ABC’s and ESPN’s and NASCAR’s – our interests are aligned,” France said. “That doesn’t mean that we always see eye to eye on every issue. They want to do what’s in the best interest of the NASCAR race fan, which they serve week in and week out in lots of different ways.
“They did not like the idea of having to pull off of ABC and operate the way they did on Sunday.”
Typically, NASCAR and the networks work with the tracks to find a starting time, and then the network attempts to build in some flex time at the end of the race for a postrace show or in case the race runs longer than usual.
“It is imperative that we work closely together with them for scheduling and to have other considerations in certain [situations], in this case, a red flag which took the event another 30 minutes or more out of a window that they had planned,” France said. “That [rain] is a very unusual thing in Arizona at this time of year, so that probably wasn’t anticipated.
“But the most important thing is, while we are not pleased with what happened on Sunday, our interests are very much aligned, and they do not want to do anything but the best coverage for our race fan.”
