The 2001 NASCAR season brings with it a new face to the NASCAR television coverage. Gone is the
excellent coverage of ESPN and TNN, in it's place is a network TV package that promises to bring
NASCAR to millions of people who don't have cable.
The first half of the 2001 season is going to be covered by Fox and it's affiliates FX and Fox Sports
Net while the second half of the season will be covered by NBC and TBS. Considering the significant
dollars that these networks have invested in getting the broadcast rights there is no reason to believe
that that the coverage will be anything but excellent. I'm looking forward to seeing what new
innovations these new networks will bring to NASCAR broadcasting.
The Down Side
However I do have one major concern about the proposed schedule. I don't get FX!
Currently FX is scheduled to broadcast 12 of the first 17 Busch Grand National Series races on the
2001 schedule as well as the spring Winston Cup races from Michigan, Richmond and "The Winston"
from Lowes Motor Speedway.
The new network television deal will bring NASCAR to millions of fans who have never otherwise
been exposed to it, but the FX network is going to deprive millions of existing NASCAR fans of much
of the BGN season, two Winston Cup races and the The Winston "All-Star" race.
The idea behind this new deal (they said it wasn't about the money) was to bring the excitement
of NASCAR out to the general American public and by doing so, catapult NASCAR into one of the
top sports in the country. That's a wonderful idea, but how does hiding The Winston on an obscure
cable network help?
Fox is clearly trying to use NASCAR to sell the FX network to subscribers. It knows that NASCAR
fans are the most loyal sports fans in the world and many of us will be calling our cable company
and asking them for FX. Although this makes perfect business sense for Fox it hurts NASCAR and
more importantly, it hurts NASCAR fans.
There is a bright side for me. Now I'll be able to spend my Saturdays with my family instead of
watching the Busch races and I also have three more completely free weekends (Michigan, Richmond
and The Winston) where I can go off and do other non-NASCAR activities since I can't watch the
race.
While I agree that in the long run this new television package will help NASCAR expand it's
overall popularity and reach, I can't help but feel that it's partially at my expense.
