The result of last weekend’s rain-shortened Daytona 500 left me feeling somewhat dissatisfied. No disrespect to Matt Kenneth, who is a good steady driver, but the whole thing felt like an anti-climax.

I love watching racing in the rain. Racing in the rain levels the field and puts driver skill ahead of car set-up. Races like the Italian GP at Monza last year when Sebastian Vettel drove to an outstanding victory in the little rated Toro Rosso car.

But it’s not just on TV, some of my favorite track side memories are of rain soaked days watching the best drivers in the world practice their craft. Watching a race car at speed down a straight throwing up a massive roster tail of spray is one of life’s primal experiences for any true race fan.

Now I’m not suggesting that NASCAR race in the rain at Daytona, but they could consider it at the road race circuits they visit. But what I’d like to see is that when a race is red flagged for rain it is for RAIN, and not for a few sprinkles on the track. Contrast the finish of the Daytona 500 with the Indy 500 in 2007. – Now that’s what I call rain.

And when a race is red-flagged for rain, and is beyond the halfway point, that the result stands immediately. No waiting around to see if the track will dry and you can squeeze the extra laps in. It’s not fair to the drivers, its not fair to the fans. If a race is “official” and is then stopped, the places at the time of the stoppage count. A red flag means the race is over. The person who passed the finish line on the lap before the flag was waved is declared the winner.

We were delighted that The Speed Blog’s associated Twitter account http://twitter.com/thespeedblog was recently named by RaceDrive TV as one of the 99 Motorsports Twitter Accounts To Follow.

Race Drive listed all the accounts in a couple of videos which you can find below:

Just a few days after my post about how race commentators can impact TV ratings comes news that the Indy Racing League has signed a new TV deal.

According to the announcment the series new TV partner  “will produce extended coverage, including pre and post-race shows and, potentially, programmes between races.”

All this sounds great, except for one point.

That new TV partner? – the cable channel Versus

Who?

I’ve never heard of it before. Apparently Versus is not included in most basic satellite packages, as ESPN is, and reaches 20 million fewer homes.  (OK a little research shows that Versus is the new brand for OLN best known for its hunting and fishing shows.)

I’m one of those 20 million fewer homes. I have Direct TV and whenever I’ve looked at a cable or satellite deal I’ve always stipulated that whichever package I get includes SPEED TV and ESPN.

Apparently the IRL also renewed its deal with ABC to screen five races each season, including the Indianapolis 500. So instead of watching a full season of 17 races, I’ll only be watching the occasional event.

So this makes sense how?

As part of another writing project I’ve recently been rewatching the Disney-Pixar classic animated movie CARS. Watching the accompanying 16 minute documentary on the DVD abut the inspiration for, and making of, the movie, I was struck by one sentence.

The movie makers remarked that the essence of racing on the screen (be it the large cinema one, or the smaller TV one), is best projected by having not only great camera shots, but a knowledgeable and enthusiastic commentary team with great personalities. For this reason they enrolled FOX TV NASCAR commentator and ex-driver Darrell Waltrip to call their animated race sequences. Whatever you say or think about DW, no-one can argue that he simply loves racing and is one of the most enthusiastic broadcasters there is.

The more I thought about what the movie makers had said, the more I had to agree.

For me growing up Formula One was defined by what consider to be the best commentary team the sport has ever known, Murray Walker and James Hunt. Now I watch F1 coverage here in the US, I get as much entertainment from the banter, wit and sheer fun of Bob Varsha, David Hobbs and Steve Matchett.

What of NASCAR? Looking back I realized that I watch far more races in the half of the season when FOX is covering the races. DW, Jeff Hammond, Mike Joy and crew make the whole experience a fun four hour show – without them the races drag.

Then there’s IndyCar. A series I watch purely for the racing, in spite of the commentary team. Now that CART and IRL are back as one series, the racing is better and the series is poised to return to the glory days of American open wheel racing. But a keystone of that is a network that understands the sport (i.e. doesn’t move it around from channel to channel, often seemingly on a whim), knows how to build entertaining programming around it and has an enthusiastic, knowledgeable commentary team with personality. Would it be too much to suggest that ABC bring back Paul Page from covering NHRA drag racing to where he belongs, with IndyCars, and have Jerry Punch and a opinionated ex-driver (Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta?) in the box alongside? – Seems like sense to me.

After a dominant Busch win on Saturday, Matt Kenseth continued to show that he knows his way around the Fontana Speedway with a victory in Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup race. A smart and fast pit stop put him in the lead and for a while it looked like that advantage would be short lived as Kevin Harvick was fast appproaching. However the Daytona 500 winner’s luck deserted him this time as he was slowed by a puncture.

Like last week’s Daytona race this one was red-flaged with just 7 laps left to run. This time due to the after effects of Greg Biffle turning David Reutimann into the wall. The result was a massive impact that left the car torn apart and on fire. Also for the second week in sucession we were witness to a driver sitting in a burning car for what seemed a long time. In this case made all the more worrying by the in-car camera shot that showed that Reutimann was clearly stunned by the impact and unable to extricate himself. Although the safety team did arrive in time to douse the flames and help the driver out, the delay between the car stopping spinning and the arrival of any help was too long (despite the positive spin put on by the TV commentary team) and would be unacceptable in open wheel racing.

Once the race restarted Kennseth cruised to a relaxed victory ahead of team-mates Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson.

The Top 10 finishers were:

1. Matt Kenseth
2. Jeff Gordon
3. Jimmie Johnson
4. Jeff Burton
5. Mark Martin
6. Clint Bowyer
7. Kurt Busch
8. Tony Stewart
9. Kyle Busch
10. Brian Vickers.

Our “Speed Blog Racer To Watch,” Juan Pablo Motoya finished 26th after another steady race,