The Official 2010 NASCAR thread

[JonInMiddleGA]

What a finish, absolutely loved McMurray's reaction to the win.

Awful day with delay after delay but the finish made up for a whole lot of that.

[cartman]

Agreed. Still don't know how Junior finished 2nd, when he was in the middle of the pack all day.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by cartman

Agreed. Still don't know how Junior finished 2nd, when he was in the middle of the pack all day.

First time I've seen him look like that in a long while, reminded me of the whole "seeing the air" legend about his dad.

I really feel bad for the guy in the post-race interview though, this should be a happy finish for him all things considered but there was no joy in it for him, just the disappointment. Even after all the talk about how happy he'd been all week, I just don't know how much enjoyment he really gets from all of it any more and that's sad.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I really feel bad for the guy in the post-race interview though, this should be a happy finish for him all things considered but there was no joy in it for him, just the disappointment. Even after all the talk about how happy he'd been all week, I just don't know how much enjoyment he really gets from all of it any more and that's sad.

I would not have been surprised at all to hear him say "Second place is just the first loser".

[RendeR]

Helluva race, sucked having the track issues but all in all it was an exciting race to watch. Kudos for NASCAR taking the reigns off the drivers. Junior blowing through the middle on that last lap ..I swear to god I saw a black and silver flash in there somewhere, that move was SO much like his dad.

Huge win for DEI/Ganassi, HUGE win for McMurray who was out of a job until 2 months ago.

Johnson and Gordon finishing in the 30+ range and none of the JGR drivers crashing, really makes for a positive 500 for me!

[k0ruptr]

good race, but man all the track issues were stupid and sucked, wonder how many viewers they lost?

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by k0ruptr

good race, but man all the track issues were stupid and sucked, wonder how many viewers they lost?

Im sure a lot.

Last year had the rain shortened Daytona and this year had track issues. Tough way to bring in new fans for the season when these problems come up in their most watched event of the year.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by k0ruptr

good race, but man all the track issues were stupid and sucked, wonder how many viewers they lost?

The delay will definitely hurt (and possibly quite a bit) but typically they hold up better even during long delays than we might think. Simple truth is that there often isn't much on to pull a fan away to watch instead, even though I caught a nap during it my son stuck with 'em throughout not even dumping the race to play 360.

[k0ruptr]

I kept switching back and forth between golf while it was on, after that though I left it on nascar.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I think the big deal for them in terms of ratings would be whether they could manage, in spite of the long delays, to top last year's awful outing which saw the race drop below a 20 share for the first time in 21 years.

[RendeR]

Not a lot of reason to drop this year, even with the delays the racing itself was MUCH more exciting

[path12]

I find myself getting bored. It's not all that fun to see three different permutations of the final three laps.

It reminds me of the Clue movie with all the different endings. It really seems the wrecks have ramped up over the past five years, and I don't think it helps the sport much.

[CU Tiger]

According to a good friend who was at the race listening in on the scanner, at the conclusion McGrew said "good run" and apparently Jr replied, "The bitch won a 500...if I got there he was going out"

gotta admit I LOL'd when I heard that

[JonInMiddleGA]

Ouch.

Media Life Magazine - Fox's Daytona 500 hits a speed bump

After two race stoppages to repair damaged asphalt on the track delayed the race by roughly two and a half hours, ratings for the NASCAR season opener on Fox plunged 16 percent.

The race earned a 7.7 Nielsen overnight household rating and 16 share, down from a 9.2/19 last year.

The delay certainly impacted ratings, evidenced by the number of viewers who tuned in for at least 6 minutes of the race on Sunday.

That number was up 14 percent over last year, from 26.2 million to 29.8 million, suggesting that people were turning on the race and then switching away during the delays.

All told, the race lasted just over six hours, extending well into Fox's primetime. Nielsen did not include ratings for the delayed portions in its numbers.

From a longer story there's this tidbit
Daytona 500 Hits Ratings Pothole: Delays Lead To Smallest Nielsen Average Audience Since 2000 - TV Ratings, Nielsen Ratings, Television Show Ratings | TVbytheNumbers.com

Despite the delays, there were substantial ratings gains in key NASCAR markets including Atlanta (+11%; 11.0 vs. 9.9), Charlotte (+8%, 16.8 vs. 15.6), Norfolk (+7%, 12.2 vs. 11.4) and Ft. Myers (+12%, 10.0 vs. 8.9). Greensboro (NC) led all local markets with a 16.9/28. Charlotte 16.8/30; Greenville (SC), 16.6/27; Indianapolis, 16.0/28; Orlando, 15.4/29; Louisville, 13.3/22; Nashville, 13.1/21; Knoxville, 13.0, 19; Jacksonville, 12.8/22 and Dayton, 12.7/23 round out the top 10 metered markets.

Those numbers have to be encouraging to NASCAR as some of the traditional strongholds seem to have responded to some of the changes. I know that we've probably watched close to as many hours already this year as we did all of last season.

[DataKing]

I'll admit to firing up the 360 during the delays, but I was keeping an eye on things online and turned it back on when the track issues had been fixed. They'd better have this figured out by the time July rolls around.