Bank of America 500, A Real Quick Take: ABC and Tires

CONCORD, NC - OCTOBER 11: Jeff Burton, driver of the #31 AT&T Mobility Chevrolet, heads for Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Bank of America 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway on October 11, 2008 in Concord, North Carolina. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR) Jerry Markland 2008 Getty Images

Congrats to a very popular win when Jeff Burton powered his ride across the line first after a grueling 500 mile race.

Do you realize it only takes them roughly 3+ hours to pump out 500 miles? That would be like an 18 hour drive to go from coast to coast! Just thinking out loud.

The news of the night for me was

ABC showing a football game that ended early enough, but then switching over to another game that was drawn out and overlapped the beginning of the pre-race show. For just one quick moment, I thought we'd see timely coverage, but naw! ABC took care of that.

It was also reported over on the Daly Planet that many ABC markets, for whatever reason, didn't show some of all of the pre-race show.

They saw local news, inserted local programming, a local charity telethon, college football highlights of local teams.

When I first heard back when ABC /ESPN got the NASCAR TV contract, I thought awesome! I could not imagine them treating NASCAR today, like they used to in the past when all other sports overlapped and took precedence to the race event. True, NASCAR is not the only sport out there, but at least give NASCAR it's due coverage like you do other sports. Is that not the case of a good request?

This coverage they're producing just reminds me of the coverage of yesteryear of ESPN and ABC. As JD says over on The Daly Planet, "These ABC stations have proven to be a cagey bunch over the last two seasons where NASCAR coverage is concerned."

Then the wrecks started.

The first one was Jessica Simpson, screeching out a country drawl that is not her own, and getting the words wrong to the National Anthem. Smooth move girl.

Then tires were taking people out, like last week. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was one lap shy of pitting when he was just cruising around and the tire went.

I know the economy is getting thin, but is Goodyear's rubber getting thin too?

But as it stood, the top 10 finishers, or survivors were:

Jeff Burton
Kasey Kahne
Kurt Busch
Kyle Busch
Jamie McMurray
Jimmie Johnson
Greg Biffle
Jeff Gordon
Mark Martin
David Ragan

Check out the official results at NASCAR: Official Results