Well ... Everyone got their wish. I don't expect much to change here, instead of everyone belly-aching about ESPN they will just find a reason to belly-ache about FS1, starting with the same people belly-aching about how NHRA should leave ESPN are now going to start belly-aching about possibly having to pay more for FS1 since NHRA did leave ESPN.
I hope that doesn't mean the end of Dave Reiff and Mike Dunn in the booth (or the sportsman shows with Reinhart too).
I also hope there is no collateral damage to the teams/sponsors, because their viewing audience just cut in half, if not a third.
I don't care if it's ESPN/ABC, FOX. CBS, NBC, MAVTV...whatever, I get them all. My wish is for
better racing coverage, PERIOD.
More cars on the screen, more track time of those cars, less inane chatter while they're showing the cars
Mike Dunn is plenty in my mind. If they could get a tuner in the booth, it would be much like NBC's killer F1 coverage
(the gold standard of motorsports TV coverage if you ask me)
Remember when Nitro cars had shifters and you could actually hear them shift on Diamond P? Now they fill every second of on track time with talking.
High gear only also has a unique sound that one can hear as the varying clutch settings loads the engine during the run....if they let you hear it...
Less silly helmet cam stuff, more shots that show the racing instead of the WOW factor guard rail shots.
Less "remember last week?" replays and "remember last year" replays and more coverage of the current race.
Baptism by Nitro? twitter/facebook junk. Baptism by Nitro is when you drag your unaware friend to the race, not something you win online.
The key to longevity is the current fan base telling their uninitiated friends about how they CAN NOT MISS this stuff.
The racing sells itself. No need to dress it up. Just show an honest representation of this sport, and it pretty much does it's own recruiting.
Those folks that aren't really into auto racing aren't ever going to save this sport, so they better get busy making those that do love it, HAPPY.