ESPN overdosing on NASCAR

A reader writes, ESPN is what I will call overdoing it on their NASCAR coverage. Watching Sports Center half of the program was all about Watkins Glen. They ramble on and on about it. Then they break away from it for a while and then it's back to Watkins Glen for more updates. Then they show a 10 minute segment on Bobby Allison and his accident at Pocono 20 years ago that they already showed this morning.

There are too many other good races this weekend to blab about the taxicabs looking like tanks on a storied race course that used to have good racing. Didn’t see a thing about Champ Car or ALMS or even IRL. Why am I not surprised? When it comes to motorsports ESPN is crap. Doug Ferguson

Dear Doug, You must understand that NASCAR controls large blocks of sponsor advertising dollars. When NASCAR sends their sponsors to ESPN to run ads on their various media outlets, ESPN is obliged to return the favor in the way of news coverage. In addition, ESPN has a very large bill to pay to NASCAR for the TV rights to broadcast their races. Therefore, they will do whatever they possibly can to play up NASCAR in an attempt to raise their TV ratings, which in turn generates more revenue for ESPN to pay off their large NASCAR nut. It must be frustrating to all the networks that broadcast NASCAR these past two years to see ratings down 20% since 2005 despite all their efforts. It's called over saturation and the customers have had enough. No matter where they turn it's NASCAR, NASCAR, NASCAR 24 hours per day 365 days a year. Most sports have a defined season. NASCAR's is pretty much January through December with a two week break from the news bombardment during the Christmas season. Mark C.