NASCAR2Night
By Jay Carina

©1996 Jay Carina

Alas, my joy has turned to disappointment of late. I am a big fan of Indy Car and Formula 1 racing. When the track suits me, I watch NASCAR. I also love AMA SuperCross and FIM Moto GP. Yes! I am a bona fide motorsports nut! So in my certifiable state, when I tune in to RPM2Night, I fully expect to see news and coverage about my favorite series. What do I get? NASCAR, NASCAR, NASCAR.

At first, I thought it was just because their season had started earlier than the rest. The NASCAR season begins with the month of February at Daytona. A month later, Indy Car and Formula 1 debut. Much to my chagrin, the coverage didn't improve. Once in a while, they give a little tid bit here and there about F1 or Indy Car. Nothing terribly groundbreaking, as access to rec.autos.sport.* and the WWW is enough to spoil any race nut. Still, I found the NASCAR bias a bit disheartening. I thought this was supposed to be a show about all motorsports.

So what kind of bias am I talking about? 80% percent of the time, they are talking about NASCAR. Any fan who's watched the show on a regular basis will agree with that figure. Sure, they provide the mandatory "here's what happened" summary of whatever races were run the past weekend, but when it comes to in-depth coverage (which I thought was the point of the show) they fall very short when it comes to Indy Car and Formula 1.

Am I angry? No, just annoyed. After all, as an Indy Car and Formula 1 fan in the United States, I am very used to the lack of coverage. This doesn't excuse the folks at RPM2Night, though. Isn't this what the show was created for? They have missed a lot of opportunities to expand their coverage. The CART/IRL war is the most important thing going on right now and all we ever see is how the Unsers are going to cope with it. Come on! Formula 1 is being dominated by Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher is flaming him in public and all we ever see is the points standings. Just now, I saw a segment about Gerhard Berger and Benetton at Argentina - over 2 weeks after the fact! What, James Allen sent the videotape in a bottle? Sheesh!

I'll still watch the show, but unless it improves markedly, I will continue to call it NASCAR2Night. Actually, I wonder why they even bother trying to cover the other series. Case in point: SuperCross. Once in a while (when McGrath wins another race) they mention it. Why? I thought MotoWorld was supposed to take care of that? This show has absolutely no focus! Why pretend to cover anything else when all you really want to show is NASCAR?

I'm not just a complainer and I do have some ideas to make the show better. First, devote entire days to one series. Why waste everyone's time trying to split coverage? It's not like viewership will suffer because there are many who feel as I do. In fact, RPM2Night does this already! When Benny Parsons and Jerry Punch show up, 90% percent of the show is centered around NASCAR. The one segment that really cracks me up is the Fast Fact. More often than not, they actually show something relevant to Indy Car and Formula 1 here. Yeah, as if this is going to give me my fill of open wheel coverage.

I really do hope the show improves, but I'm not terribly optimistic. Part of the problem is that John Kernan (a pit reporter at NASCAR races) hosts the show and the thing is taped (I believe) in Charlotte, the home of stock car racing. How can they not be biased? Why not give Bob Varsha his own show? Are Jack Arute, Gary Gerould, Jan Beekhuis, Paul Page, or Marty Reid so busy they can't be bothered to appear on the show with their views on Indy Car and Formula 1? Does anyone over at ESPN2 care?