Something ESPN\ABC dosn't want you to know

Due to ESPN's various sports commitments, there have been several interferences with NASCAR broadcasts. This is especially true once college football season starts, where Nationwide Series races often follow an early college football game. The broadcast start has also been delayed by Little League Baseball and ATP tennis. Many times (at least 15 as of 2010), NASCAR Countdown and even the start of the race have been moved to ESPN Classic or ESPNEWS. Due to contractual agreements with Turner, ESPN cannot put broadcasts with ESPN3.com, another fact that has angered fans. However, in 2011 an agreement was reached letting ESPN put all NASCAR programming on WatchESPN.

In 2010, because of the movement of Chase races to ESPN and the earlier standardized 1:00 PM ET start time, ESPN moved NASCAR Countdown to ESPN2 for all Chase races starting at 1:00 PM ET to avoid shortening or moving its Sunday NFL Countdown program. Viewers had to switch to the race at 1:00 PM ET from ESPN2 to ESPN. The next year, NASCAR moved the Chase races to later times (2:00 ET, then 3:00 ET for the final three races).

[edit]Network pre-emptions and relocations

• On September 30, 2007, the end of the LifeLock 400, part of that season's Chase, was moved to ESPN2 when a rain delay went past 6 p.m. ET, the end of the allotted broadcast window. This was in contrast to Fox and NBC coverage, which typically stayed on those stations even if the races ran long past the expected time.
• On March 15, 2008, the Sharpie Mini 300 moved from ABC to ESPN Classic at 6:15 p.m. so that ABC could show World News Saturday in the Eastern and Central time zones. The race was in a rain delay at the time and it was not resumed.
• On May 2, 2008, the Lipton Tea 250 was moved from ESPN2 to ESPN Classic due to ESPN2's commitment to cover game 6 of the Cleveland Cavaliers-Washington Wizardsfirst-round NBA playoff series. Because ESPN Classic has a much more limited potential audience than ESPN or ESPN2, NASCAR asked Speed Channel to simulcast the race, and it agreed. ESPN2 then rebroadcast the race in its entirety after the basketball game.^[4] A similar arrangement was reached for the Kroger On Track for the Cure 250, scheduled for October 2008 at Memphis Motorsports Park, due to conflicts with college football and the Breeders' Cup.^[5]
• On November 9, 2008, the conclusion of the Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 aired on ESPN2 because the race exceeded the allowable broadcast window due to two red-flag delays. ABC affiliates in the Eastern and Central time zones aired America's Funniest Home Videos instead, while those in the Mountain and Pacific time zones stayed with race coverage, with ESPN2 serving as a simulcast.^[6]
• On August 22, 2009 at the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, both the invocation and the national anthem were preempted because the Little League World Series game ran long.
• On July 31, 2010, the first 23 laps of the Nationwide Series U.S. Cellular 250 at the Iowa Speedway, as well as all pre-race programming, were moved to ESPN Classic because of a semifinal match at the ATP Legg Mason Classic that ran long. This came shortly after the channel was upgraded to more expensive channel tiers on DirecTV and Dish Network, among other providers.
• The following day, August 1, the final round of the Women's British Open ran a few minutes past 1 p.m. ET, meaning that the pre-race ceremonies of the Pennsylvania 500 were pre-empted. ESPN2, which picked up NASCAR Countdown from ESPN due to the conflict, had to start its coverage of the X Games at that time. However, the race itself was not affected.
• On October 2, 2010, NASCAR Countdown and the first several laps of the Kansas Lottery 300 were aired on ESPN Classic due to the Clemson-Miami football game running longer than anticipated.
• On November 1, 2010, due to technical difficulties, the last 45 minutes of Sunday NFL Countdown and the first 57 laps of the 2010 AMP Energy Juice 500 were preempted on some providers.
• The 2011 Bubba Burger 250, scheduled for April 29 was moved from ESPN to Speed due to anticipated conflicts on both ESPN (with the second night of the 2011 NFL Draft) and ESPN2 (one or more NBA playoff games). Unlike past conflicts, this broadcast was produced entirely by SPEED combining their Truck & FOX's Sprint Cup broadcasting teams.

[edit]Local station pre-emptions

• The Subway 500 from Martinsville Speedway was not shown on KABC in Los Angeles (the second largest media market in the United States) on October 21 due to theCalifornia wildfires of October 2007, specifically the Buckweed fire in Santa Clarita and the Canyon fire in Malibu. Instead, the broadcast was shown on digital subchannelABC7+, which is not available to all local residents.
• Several stations chose to pre-empt NASCAR Countdown for local news. KABC did so before every Saturday night race in 2007 and 2008, and also did it before the 2007 Ford 400, a Sunday-afternoon event, to show The Suite Life of Zack & Cody from the Disney Channel to fulfill an E/I programming requirement. WPLG in Miami, Florida and KSAT-TVin San Antonio, Texas also did so at least once in 2007. On November 1, 2009, the day of the 2009 AMP Energy 500, KXLY-TV in Spokane, Washington preempted NASCAR Countdown and instead aired Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody also to fulfill E/I.
• At the other end of the scale, KTKA in Topeka, Kansas left the 2007 Bank of America 500 on October 13 to launch its nightly late newscast at 10 p.m. Central time and did not return. Topeka is located about 60 miles from Emporia, Clint Bowyer's hometown. KSAT also aired a brief news update, which came during a red flag, but returned in time for the checkered flag.
• The 2008 Sharpie Mini 300 was not seen on several ABC stations for various reasons, ranging from weather bulletins (WSB in Atlanta and WSOC in Charlotte) to the Big 12 basketball tournament (KLKN in Lincoln, Nebraska and WOI in Des Moines, Iowa, among other stations in the conference's footprint). In addition, WABC in New York Citycarried the race, but pre-empted NASCAR Countdown and the rain delay to cover a construction accident at a high-rise building in Manhattan.^[7]
• The pre-race for the 2008 Bank of America 500 was not seen on at least seven stations: KABC, KSAT, WPVI in Philadelphia, WXYZ-TV in Detroit, WEWS in Cleveland, WFTSin the Tampa Bay area, and KXLY.^[8] All of them aired newscasts, except for WXYZ, which aired a charity fundraiser.
• The final eight laps of the 2008 Pep Boys Auto 500 were not shown on KOAT, the ABC affiliate in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The station cut away at 4 p.m. Mountain time to show a debate between the major party candidates for the election for the state's First District of the United States House of Representatives. The ending was shifted to ESPN2, but only those receiving KOAT on local cable (mostly Comcast) were able to see it; those who receive the station via satellite continued to get the national feed of ESPN2.^[9] On the same day, KXLY went off the air on the day of the race due to a transmitter problem, so obviously there was no telecast back to that area.^{[citation needed]}
• On August 21, 2010, eight ABC affiliates pre-empted the summer race at Bristol due to coverage of National Football League preseason games, and WXYZ joined the race in progress due to the Woodward Dream Cruise, a major civic event in Detroit. In Richmond, Virginia, the race was moved to a sister station, in six other cases the race was picked up by a digital subchannel, and in the other two it was not shown at all. One of those two was Jamie McMurray's hometown of Joplin, Missouri, meaning that fans there missed McMurray's third-place finish.^[10]
• WKRN Channel 2 in Nashville, TN showed a Tennessee Titans pre-season game instead of the 2011 Irwin Tools Night Race. The station scrolled on the screen that the race could be seen on ESPN2. But due to the failure of Local station communication with ABC/ESPN local residents who use Charter Cable did not receive the race, instead they were served Billiards, Worlds Strongest Man, and High School Football.
• Several east coast stations moved the 2011 Irwin Tools Night Race to ESPN2 as local ABC stations aired Hurricane Irene coverage. In those areas, the race was not available on DirecTV HD but instead, on an alternate, low-quality feed.

[edit]Missing race endings

• On August 24, 2007, the final five laps of the Food City 250 NBS race at Bristol Motor Speedway were not televised by ESPN2. The reason was that a satellite uplink path was somehow eliminated, preventing the master control at the network headquarters (ironically in Bristol, Connecticut; the track is in Bristol, Tennessee) from re-transmitting the event to cable and satellite providers. Instead, viewers saw a blank screen, then the ESPN2 logo "screensaver," then some commercials. By the time the problem was rectified, the race was over, with Kasey Kahne as the winner. Jerry Punch, the lap-by-lap announcer, apologized for the error immediately and the final two laps were shown on replay unedited. In addition, the first rebroadcast showed the same laps as they were intended to be broadcast - with on-screen ticker and GEICO sponsorship bug - just after 4:30 a.m. ET the next morning. An ESPN spokesman blamed a "human error" of an unspecified nature.^[11]
• With nine laps remaining in the 2008 Federated Auto Parts 300, one or more feeds of ESPN2 on DirecTV suddenly cut off and was replaced by a static screen of the provider's logo, with audio from XM Satellite Radio's Top Tracks channel. By the time the picture returned, the race was over and Brad Keselowski celebrated his first win in the series, by then renamed Nationwide Series. The exact cause of the failure is unknown. Blogger John M. Daly blamed the problem on an error in the routing system in which the picture is sent to master control, and that neither ESPN2HD nor cable companies were affected.^[12] However, on a message board dealing with TV auto racing, moderator Cheryl Lauer reported that the opposite had happened to her, that HD was out while SD was broadcasting normally. She thought the problem was due to a complication in testing signals from a new satellite, D11.^[13]

[edit]Other problems/issues

• Due to college football commitments - and an exceedingly long race which had 26 caution flags - coverage of the Busch Series Sam's Town 250 on October 27, 2007 ended the moment that David Reutimann took the checkered flag to win the race. There was no post-race interview with Reutimann, summary of the finishing order, or any other usual post-race programming. No interview aired on ESPNEWS or SportsCenter, either, another decision that rankled some long-time fans.^[14]
• Some drivers had testy relationships with ESPN reporters.
  • Tony Stewart was fined and docked 25 points after his win at the Allstate 400 in 2007, when he used an obscenity in his post-race interview. During it, he implied unfair treatment by the network in the past.
  • Also in 2007, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. looked very uneasy in his interview with Mike Massaro at the Chevy Rock and Roll 400; Massaro ran a lengthy talk after Earnhardt Jr. dropped out with engine failure.^[15]
  • In 2009, Juan Pablo Montoya walked out on an interview with Vince Welch after the Pennsylvania 500 due to a line of questioning he was not happy with.^[16]
• Most of the races broadcast on ESPN on ABC had minimal or no post-race coverage. Several times, ESPN only interviewed the winner and second place finisher. The most likely explanation is that the next program is, typically, ABC World News Sunday or a local newscast; the network wants to start the newscast as soon as possible.
• At the 2007 Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, the majority of the coverage was focused on Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. There was only one mention when Juan Pablo Montoya led the opening laps of the race and ESPN on ABC did not air several of the lead changes or mention them on air. In addition, during the Busch Series O'Reilly Challenge race at Texas, the final laps were broadcast from an in-car camera of points championship leader Carl Edwards. ESPN did not air the finish of the race where Kevin Harvick won and instead stayed with an in-car shot of Edwards through the finish.
• At the 2007 UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega, ESPN on ABC did not air the final lead change as they were covering a battle a little deeper in the field. Jeff Gordon made the race winning move without mention of the lead change on ESPN on ABC until well after it had happened. Gordon won the race.
• At the 2010 Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500, Kurt Busch and Elliott Sadler crashed violently on lap 165. ESPN could get multiple angles of Busch's crash, but due to this being a blind spot on the track, ESPN only had one angle showing Sadler's crash (even then, partially out of frame), leaving many fans angry about not knowing how Sadler crashed and hit the inside wall.
• Shortly after the 2011 DRIVE4COPD 300, ESPN lost audio just as race winner Tony Stewart was about to answer a question. Due to those technical problems, ESPN began its special edition of SportsCenter, from an infield studio at Daytona, early. The interviews with Stewart and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. were still recorded and played back 18 minutes later with the audio restored. However, the usual final tape montage and proper sign-off was not shown, at least not in the original live versions.
• At the 2011 Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville, ESPN did not show the final lead change because Brad Keselowski spun around, while Tony Stewart made the race winning move around Jimmie Johnson.

Thats why I dont like ESPN

Wikipedia article which has no copyright on it as of 10:37AM 2/16/2013