It was a beautiful night in Richmond, VA. However, the weather did not help the racing or the television coverage on FOX.
Chris Myers presented a pre-race show that was more notable for what it omitted than what it contained.
No story on the disabled veteran Heath Calhoun, pictured above with winner Kyle Busch, who was selected to have the race named in his honor by Crown Royal. ESPN profiled Calhoun on the morning edition of NASCAR Now and then aired another feature on him repeatedly on SportsCenter and ESPNEWS.
Slice of Pizzi was also missing this week. Instead, Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond filled the time with a scripted agenda that focused on stories like the friction between two of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers.
Philadelphia, a major TV market, was another story early on in the telecast. The local FOX TV station in Philly chose to air a political debate from 7 to 8PM ET. The station never provided a graphic that informed NASCAR fans what was happening. At 8PM, viewers joined the NASCAR telecast. Unfortunately, the NASCAR on FOX team never welcomed the Philly fans or provided a highlights package of the first thirty laps which had been missed.
Once underway, Mike Joy began to call the action with Waltrip and Larry McReynolds. Joy has been quite different this season on the air. Perhaps, the lower profile of Joy has been caused by the extended conversations between Waltrip and McReynolds.
The start of the race saw FOX use a wide variety of cameras and show a wide variety of cars. Things looked to be rather disjointed, but it became clear this was the director's pattern for this race. Eventually, things settled down but it was an interesting first half of the race for fans.
The short track action did not translate well to the small screen for whatever reason. Talladega memories perhaps were still in the minds of many. It began to be a grind and fans showed up online to object to how the race was being covered. It was not a pleasant experience for many.
FOX has three more Sprint Cup Series races remaining in 2010. What we would like from you is an honest opinion on the TV coverage of the Richmond race. Just click the comments button below to add your comments. It's important to get the opinion of the fans immediately after the race.
As always, this is a family-friendly website. Please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking the time to add your comments.