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,

Both Autosport and SPEED TV are reporting that former NASCAR Champion and TV braodcaster Benny Parsons passed away on Tuesday at the Intensive Care Unit of the Carolinas Medial Center in Charlotte, N.C.

Parsons, who was 65, had entered the hospital shortly after Christmas as the result of complications arising from the lung cancer he had been diagnosed back on July 13 last year.

The 1973 Cup champion, whose 25-year career as a driver began in 1964, won 21 races in 526 starts in NASCAR’s top division and was named one of NASCAR’s 50 greatest drivers, becoming part of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1994. Parsons won the 1975 Daytona 500, and in 1982 he became the first driver to qualify a stock car at more than 200 mph for a Winston Cup race at Talledega. He also won the Coca Cola 600 in 1980.

I never got the opportunity to watch Benny Parsons race (other than in clips of races past), but  his incisive, homespun and informative manner when calling various NASCAR races played a major part in my growing appreciation and love for stock car racing after years of being an open-wheel purist.

In recent years Benny also adopted the internet as a way to communicate with racing fans, including his own blog.

Sunday afternoons without Benny’s voice will never seem the same.