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Jimmie Johnson is on the verge of his third straight Cup title, and he told FOXSports.com he’s ready for the season to finish.
Fix NASCAR? Ed Hinton has a few ideas: Hire Darrell Waltrip as commissioner, shorten the season, trim the fat, overhaul the Chase and bring back the passion.
Red Bull Racing announced its No. 83 and No. 84 drivers will swap cars for this weekend’s Sprint Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Brian Vickers, who’s normally behind the wheel of the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota, will pilot Scott Speed’s No. 84, and Speed will pilot the No. 83.
Filed under: NASCAR Media Watch, Sprint Cup
“We love ya, NASCAR, but not that much.”
Dr. Jerry Punch made that sound so simple and so easy Sunday afternoon at Phoenix International Raceway when ABC, the network he was doing NASCAR play-by-play for, had some ‘other network obligations’ to get to.
The NASCAR race — one that still had an high possibility for drastic changes to the season championship standings — was to be trumped by ABC Sunday night prime-time programming. Maybe ABC was wanting to urgently get ‘World News’ on the air? Or maybe Charles Gibson couldn’t wait any longer for his post-show dinner?
Nah, ABC thought, Tom Bergeron and a monkey scratching his butt on “America’s Funniest Home Videos” were far more important than seeing Jimmie Johnson — who has now staked a claim with his soon-to-be third-straight NASCAR championship as one of the sport’s all-time greats — potentially win the championship (or lose it in dramatic fashion).
And so, NASCAR racing turned to monkey butt itching on ABC, forcing fans to catch the final segment of the race on ESPN2.
It was a horrible call on ABC’s part and down right slap in the face to NASCAR fans.
ABC’s NASCAR Dump Still Doesn’t Feel Right originally appeared on NASCAR FanHouse on Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:10:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.