TNT blows up

Chicago was the last race of the year for TNT, and it couldn't come fast enough. Their coverage of Nascar is excruciating.

The prodcution of the race is often bad, as it was with the partner NBC. My favorite moments of any race would be when they would have the camera trained on one car for 5 minutes, showing no action, and I'd hear Wally Dallenbach talking about how he was watching some great racing action out the window of the booth. Action that I wish I could see too.

Kyle Petty sounds really good in the booth. He has the perfect mix of being informative, telling interesting stories, and knowing when to speak. Wally also does a good job.

The main problem with TNT is Bill Weber. I have no idea how this guy ever got a broadcasting job. He was reason enough to never watch "Countdown to Green", and then they promoted him to the main guy in the booth.

He sounds like he knows nothing about racing. He has horrible canned, pre-planned topics that he forces on the viewer at the worst possible moment. The most annoying aspect of Weber is how he forces a phony laugh at inapporpriate times. For example, they will show a replay of a car breaking loose around a corner, turning sideways, almost crashing and causing a horrific wreck, and then the driver miraculously saving it. Wally will say something like, "Whoa! That car was sideways coming off of turn 2!" And then you'll hear Bill Weber let out a crazy giggling cackle, as if it was really humorous that the car almost crashed into the wall at 180 mph.

Mercifully, ESPN/ABC have jumped back into Nascar, taking races away from NBC/TNT. Hopefully the next contract will pull the plug on TNT once and for all, or at least move Bill Weber on to something else.