NASCAR Takes Broadcasters To Task, Answers Criticism

Two days after Talladega, the criticism of NASCAR is still thick. We thought you might be interested in NASCAR's response. Here's an excerpt from a blog post written Monday night by NASCAR Managing Director of Corporate Communications Ramsey Poston:

The ABC broadcasters certainly weren't happy with the race and they felt compelled to remind viewers of that virtually every lap. They seemed to blame NASCAR's enforcement of the rule prohibiting bump-drafting in the corners for every moment they didn't like. Along the way ABC missed a lot of very good racing. That's not to say that every lap was a barn-burner, but there was some seriously intense racing as well. Interestingly, a caller on Sirius NASCAR Satellite Radio this morning said that he first watched the race on ABC then listened to the MRN rebroadcast and said, "It was like two different races," referring to the excitement and action portrayed on the radio broadcast.

A number of myths quickly sprouted out of this race; so let's address them:

Was there a conspiracy among the drivers not to race as suggested by Dale Jarrett on ABC?

• No. As Jeff Burton said on Sirius, "I think that's complete nonsense…"

Did NASCAR force the no bump-drafting rule on the drivers?

• The drivers asked NASCAR to enforce the rule. From the time we pulled into Talladega on Thursday, several well-respected veteran drivers came to the hauler and said "we need to address the bump-drafting in the corners." So that's what we did.
• Tony Stewart during the pre-race said, "I think NASCAR made the right decision. Like NASCAR said, we can police it best by not doing it but it's still hard to convince yourself that you're not doing the right thing. NASCAR told us not to push in the corners, so I'm all in favor of it."
• And Burton weighed in here too: "Think about how much conversation we had about bump-drafting: 'We got to take bump-drafting out', I mean how many people said that? Tons of people were saying bump-drafting is the problem. So NASCAR takes bump-drafting out - and now they say not bump-drafting in the corners is the problem. You can't win."

(h/t Dustin Long)

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