Nascar's Nextel Cup Year in Review

Rating:
Summary: Great Extras - Lame Coverage
Review: The coverage of the 2004 Nextel Nextel Cup Season focuses almost solely on the Chase For The Championship contenders, missing out on many important and entertaining events that happened both on the track and off. They mention Rusty Wallace's retirement announcement, but ignore Terry LaBonte's and Mark Martin's completely. Nothing about Ward Burton or Ricky Craven losing their rides either. Nothing about Harvick and Kennseth's highly entertaining rivalry. Nothing about Tony and Vickers at Sonoma. Hell, they didn't even show Elliot's Victory V after he managed, by the skin of his teeth, to cross the finish line at Talladega with all four wheels on the ground. ;) I mean nothing man. Instead of a week by week coverage of all the races, they give this fuzzy "overview" of each Chase contender's year. And overview, not an in-depth look. In short: the coverage sucks.

It doesn't help matters that the narrator referrs to Mark Martin's car as "the 16". Three times.

But the extras are pretty cool. There's a great interview with Ray Evenham talking about rule changes, an in-depth look at Ryan Newman's pit box (which I can tell you from personal experience is one kick-butt stereo system), a short piece going 4-wheelin' with Dale Jr. and one with several Crew Chiefs talking about what makes a good Crew Chief. The extras, while each one is pretty short, are packed with information and are very interesting.