According to the final 2005 Joyce Julius statistics the NHRA/ESPN TV show appeared to have hit bottom and had begun the turnaround from the 24 percent decline of the households watching the broadcast since 2002. The numbers were positive, up 8 percent in 2005 from 2004, but still a long way to go when you look at the salad days of 2002.
Then, even with Marty in the picture there's a drop in households watching the 2006 Winternationals, Phoenix and Houston races with Gainesville remaining about the same. Then throw newbie Paul Page into the mix.
My prediction: Marty leaves the NHRA show in 2007 to work with Rusty Wallace on the ESPN NASCAR show. Why not? I'll bet you a dollar if it has not been decided to add Marty to the NASCAR team in 2007 it has sure been discussed as an option at the ESPN
headquarters in Bristol, CT. Remember that, as it was explained to me by NHRA, they had no part of the decision as to who would be part of the team for hosting their television broadcasts; ESPN would pick from their roster of ESPN employees who were currently under contract.
While I fell asleep trying to watch the 2005 NHRA Gainesville show, and I really tried to watch it twice on TIVO before falling asleep both times with the drone from Paul Page. The bigger problem is that the NHRA TV show is
tired.
My 2 cents says speed up the show. All reporters and hosts are talking way too much! It's about the racing, stupid! We don't need to hear the
post-divorce report on Rod Fuller as we did earlier this year in the
Gainesville show. We also don't need to hear if Rod's tummy is still upset as we did from Atlanta -- save that for your asinine "Official" blog. If a fan is that interested in how a driver's post-divorce dating is doing, what better place than your official NHRA.com blog, but spare us the details on TV.
Why must I watch a qualifying show where we see every possible camera angle of tire-smoking qualifying runs? I don't care, it was an aborted run and multiple slow motion camera angles may help Goodyear or a savvy crew chief see a problem but they provide absolutely nothing for the average viewer except to take up valuable screen time. Cut the show to a half hour, give us more racing, turn off the host microphones, let Mike Dunn give us the first-person detailed analysis he's so good at. And lastly, keep Marty and give Paul Page is walking papers.
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On a personal note; I bagged on my column last month and I want to apologize to the many people who asked where the hell it was. A few e-mailers absolutely were convinced that Publisher Jeff Burk had finally silenced me after his edict to stay off of all Internet places - with threats to my very existence. . .which he has not done. The truth is that the launch of our two new online magazines MOPAR Max and Max CHEVY were at a crucial developmental stage and it made a lot more sense to bail from my monthly column to concentrate on our new advertising programs. Again, thanks for your concerns, but there's no gag order on me. I'm still here, just a lot busier as Director of Advertising Sales! 
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