Repaved Darlington Shows Importance Of TV

(Originally published on May 14, 2008)

DARLINGTON, S.C.--In all honesty, my first visit to Darlington Raceway reminded me of my first time covering a North Carolina basketball game. It was Bill Guthridge's first year as coach, and you couldn't help but feel like you barely missed something and lamented not getting there sooner.

Unlike Dean Smith, Darlington's new pavement has a chance to regain its past glory. But until then, we may have to deal with some less-than-thrilling moments at "The Lady in Black, "The Track Too Tough to Tame," etc.

From the press box, the race was, frankly, a little boring. Sure, as a veteran scribe told me before the green flag, it has always been a one-groove track. But there's a difference between a one-groove track where passing can take place and one that mirrors the Pied Piper's procession. Carl Edwards may have been joking in the postrace press conference about letting John Q.

Citizen take his sedan onto the track to put some wear back into the damn thing, but for both promotional and practical reasons it seems like an idea worth exploring.

After a caution around lap 140, it seemed like a good idea to head back down to the media center close to pit road. That allowed me to take a gander at the folks camping out and enjoying the race in the infield. From the Dodge aficionado with outside furniture more pricey than that in most of our living rooms, to the camper that on one side of the front windshield had a magazine-photo mural extolling Martin Truex Jr.'s virtues and on the other simple white cardboard exclaiming "Tony Stewart Sucks," one thing was apparent: A lot of people came all the way to the track to watch the race on TV.

This was noteworthy because of all the caterwauling I hear every time I go watch a race live by writers who feel that the television bunch does a poor job of bringing the event to viewers at home.

Sometimes, they have a point. Especially with Fox Sports properties, there is a tendency to try to shoehorn in techno-fluff without gauging whether or not the action stands on its own merit. But on a night like Saturday, with so many single-file laps, a computer-generated gopher and some babbling by D.W and Larry Mac do a lot for the presentation. Otherwise, for laps on end the only news is an AJ Allmendinger stop-and-go penalty.

I would never suggest that someone stay home when they have a chance to go to the track. The atmosphere is what gets a lot of people hooked after not "getting it" from TV. But the television presentation does edit out a lot of minutiae and focus on the important stuff, especially when there isn't much of that to start with. Even people sitting 300 feet from Turn 3 seemed to agree.

And for that matter, so do I.

* Motorsports Authentics wasn't lying about having less merchandise around the track. After taking a bath in a former life by overproducing products (seemed like there were 15 different Paul Menard T-shirts at one point), the company may have gone too far in the opposite direction. It shouldn't have been impossible to find Greg Biffle/Juan Pablo Montoya car decals for friends. But it was.