SPEED Channel’s Loudon Schedule Misses The Boat

Speed Channel’s scheduling of the NASCAR weekend coverage at New Hampshire Motor Speedway left me a little unsatisfied. Being from New England originally, I am well aware of how big of a deal the track’s two Sprint Cup weekends are.

I remember the site in Loudon where the track now sits being the home of a small road course and a small paved oval in the mid-1980s. I also remember the chain of events leading up to the award of a coveted Cup Series date. The old site was plowed under and the track was constructed with no dates scheduled. A nice facility was built and an annual Busch Series race was held. The speedway kept busy with Busch North and Modified contests on the new one-mile oval and motorcycle events on the refurbished road course. After showing the racing world for years the speedway could hold weekends for quality racing tours, a Cup race was earned. It was very exciting for the region.

Track management did not forget the racers that had supported the speedway and helped bring it to this level. The NASCAR Modified and Busch North divisions, both New England staples, were booked as undercards for the now mammoth Cup weekends.

The Busch North Series has evolved into the current Camping World East Series. Modified cars are still the cornerstone of many a northeast racetrack. Both of these NASCAR regional tours had two of their biggest races of the year this past weekend at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. But you wouldn’t know it looking at the Speed Channel broadcast schedule.

Last Friday’s Loudon televised action consisted of Cup Series practice, Nationwide practice, Cup qualifying, and a NASCAR Live show. Without the rain problems there were five and one-half hours scheduled to be shown of live on track action. And not one moment of it was actual racing.

When Friday’s track schedule was ready for the East Series race, actual cars in competition, at 5PM eastern Speed went to a two-hour program of… taped coverage of the NASCAR All Star pit crew challenge from Charlotte, NC. Recorded on May twenty first.

Friday evening’s scheduled broadcast continued with Trackside, a Cup practice rerun, Cup qualifying rerun, a Trackside rerun, and an overnight second rerun of Cup qualifying. Again I realize the rain altered the schedule. It caused practice to be repeated to the point I lost track.

I cannot be the only one who sees the glaring snub directed towards the East Series here.

Saturday brought an opportunity for the Modified Tour to be ignored. The morning had another two and one-half hours of more Cup practice broadcast and Nationwide series qualifying. Following all of that, the Modifieds were up for their event before the Nationwide green flag. The Speed network cues up sixty minutes of NASCAR Live and NASCAR Smarts. Ugh.

For anyone who has never been to New Hampshire Motor Speedway, there is something said by those people that have been there. The Modified race at NHMS is one of the best races you will ever see.

The horsepower, wide tires, and body styles provide a recipe for exciting racing that is hard to match. NASCAR mandates restrictor plates for these events and the cars respond superbly. The racing harkens back to Talladega Cup events in their heyday before restrictor plates. Cars can draft and pass. And they do it a lot.

Grassroots and local hometracks are absolutely the backbone of this sport. If they were to die so would Cup racing. Kill anything at the root and watch what happens. If Cup racing were to die, the short tracks would still go on and flourish.

Here was a chance for a small population of the grassroots world to bask in the spotlight in which it could be nothing but healthy. The two series are even under NASCAR sanction and now was the time to help strengthen both divisions. This fine opportunity was not afforded to them.

No network had to go out of their way to broadcast these missed races. The television trucks were already there. They were already sending out a signal. Somebody just chose to point the cameras in another direction.

Four hours of Cup practice was to be aired live going into the weekend, before any repeated shows. Two and one-half hours were devoted to time trials, cars running one at a time. What REAL race fan would rather tune into that instead of an actual race?

Is it that important we watch the Cup superstars practice than watch another, albeit lower, division run in side by side competition?

Who wants to see Rutledge on a game show with an audience member when we could see Ted Christopher come from a lap down, slice his way through the pack, and challenge for the win?

The East Series 125 miler will be broadcast Thursday afternoon, which is better than nothing at all. The September Modified date also had a tape delay broadcast scheduled. But, to me, a grand opportunity was missed by all involved.

I am not sure who to blame, the suits at Speed Channel or the suits at NASCAR. I’m pretty sure it was someone in a suit. And not a racer.

My last rhetorical question to pose is: Do the broadcast people air all the non racing NASCAR fluff shows because that is what they think fans want to see? Or do fans think they want to see the non racing NASCAR fluff shows because that is what broadcast people air?