Fast Times

A NASCAR BLOG BY Kris Johnson

TEXT SIZE: Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size Reset Text Size
No Comments. Leave a Comment

Digg This
Add to Del.icio.us
RSS Feeds
Email
Print

Coming soon: In-car reporter

Mar 6

Not that I buy into most fan complaints about the TV networks and their coverage of NASCAR, but here is an outlandish idea to spice up the coverage that some of you think is so sorely lacking: in-car reporter.

The folks at Fox have been particularly innovative through the years, but this would take the gopher cam to an entirely new level. We’re talking about a valuable (and likely screaming) first-person perspective not available anywhere else.

All it will take is one crazy-as-a-loon broadcast type – NASCAR’s version of David Feherty – to ride shotgun for 500 miles and report on anything and everything. Perhaps it’s blinding sunshine coming off Turn 4, the car’s ill-handling ways or whether a person really does relieve himself on one’s self when the bathroom break is not an option.

This brave individual would, of course, receive hazardous-duty pay. And sorry, but he won’t be riding with Dale Earnhardt Jr. or any of NASCAR’s other frontrunners.

We’ll have to employ a backmarker, especially if the talking head is on the heavier side, thereby weighing down the team’s chances for a decent finish. But just think of the added exposure for that team’s sponsors!

With the memory of Kyle Petty’s verbal gaffe on TNT still lingering, you will be happy to know we’ll now be leaving the in-car reporting to a seasoned professional, one who knows there is no place for profanity in sport (gasp!). Still, we will have a 10-second delay in place … just in case.

In the name of good TV, this is something that Fox and ESPN should consider. And if you’ve read this far, consider yourself one very open-minded individual.