IndyCar: Fan letter pretty much sums up Nashville sentiment

Dear AutoRacing1.com,

While the Nashville Indy car race today was one of the worst Indy car races I have ever watched, with so many crashes and half the race under pace car conditions, all on one of the worst street tracks ever used, by far the worst aspect was the terrible TV coverage on NBC, and after half the race, being streamed on Peacock.

Indy car coverage all season this year has seen terrible production  (not commentary) but the Nashville show was the worst ever.

From the delayed start through to the switch to Peacock and even past the finish, the number and length of the TV commercials together with the constant non coverage editorials must surely comprise the most ever in any single sporting event in all TV history.

The main adverts alone covered up  a large proportion of major track action, while the half screen adverts show extremely limited track action with no actual commentary. And then every return to track coverage saw additional adverts and more editorial promotions by the announcers.

I wonder if anyone at Indy car has added up all the time lost to these commercial distractions, both in total and as a percentage of the whole event production?

TV is crucial to the success of a modern sport, witness F1, so the terrible NBC coverage and tiny Peacock streaming audience will surely undermine all the positives provided by the quality of most of the actual racing as well as Roger Penske’s brilliant leadership.

Indy car, Please find another broadcast medium for our sport. Alan