First Nascar race I ever watched from start to finish (last time I tried I fell asleep).
All in all it wasn't that bad. There definately is an element of exitement when so many cars are so close to each other, with only a handful of laps remaining. Also some drama in there with P1 and P2 taking each other off after several hours of racing. I think I might be watching some more races this year but I can't imagine watching all 58 or however many there are.
It's kind of the same as with NBA. I used to watch it a lot but after a while I got a tired of the concept: everything that happens in the first three quarters is pretty much meaningless because the game usually gets decided in the timeout/tactical-foul/free-throw orgy right at the end. Not pretty.
In Nascar the equivalent would be the stint from the last caution to the finish. Drivers that had been as far behind as P40 during the race were actual contenders at the end. But then the finish itself was of course as Hollywood as can be: sun gone down, unexpected winner, burning car crossing the line upside down...
So, as I said, not as bad as I was expecting and I can see myself tuning in a few times in future, at least for the start and the finish.
One thing I have to say though is that Nascar is head and shoulders above F1 in terms of coverage quality. The cameras never seem to miss anything, you get all the different views you could dream of, usually while the commentators are still talking about an incident, not sometime later, they have technology that allows them to overlay the live speed of any car at any time, they can show you incidents in a 3D rendered enviroment based on GPS data of each car etc. Compare that to F1 which keeps on missing important on-track situations because they had to switch to Zsolt Baumgartner making a pitstop. Then you have to wait till after the race hoping that you might get to see some of the things you missed or maybe even some new camera angles of other incidents.
And I haven't even mentioned the fact that Nascar has been in HDTV for years (which of course I can't watch in TV challenged Germany), which on it's own already makes F1 coverage look very dated.
The pitstops in Nascar on the other hand a way to messy IMO. When I saw them all rush in during the first caution I was already thinking that it just doesn't look right to have so many cars threading (or spinning) their way between all the mechanics, who are running around and are trying to concentrate on performing a pitstop. This isn't 1950, there's no reason to put these, undoubtedly hard working people, in such a dangerous situation. Needless to say later in the race one man was run over by a car exiting the pits. Anyone know how he came out of it?
Having said that, at least the caution system actually works, in F1 it has always been a complete joke, with leading drivers going from first to last if they were unlucky with the timing of the safety car dispatchment. I think they changed something about this recently in F1 but I can't remember when or what.
PS: does anyone have any idea where there might be some downloadable sample clips of HDTV Nascar on the net? You'd think that somebody must have uploaded something to rapidshare or a torrent site after several years of FTA availability.
PPS: What's a trackbar?
a friend told me that because i didnt see the race cuz my tv service is very bad.
I'll think about it when it happens again