What would Bob Saget do?

How far has NASCAR fallen? Apparently, interest has dropped so much that the nation would rather watch a monkey scratching its butt than Jimmie Johnson coasting to victory lane and a third-straight championship. That decision has been the talk of the town this week after ABC-TV cut away from the Phoenix race Sunday night in order to broadcast “America’s Funniest Home Videos” - a legendary show that continues to succeed as long as stupid people own camcorders. The network switched the race over to ESPN2 with 34 laps remaining, which shouldn’t have been much of a problem, unless you’re one of the 3 percent of American households that still uses rabbit ear antennas. (Don't forget to order your digital transformer box from the federal government by February 2009!)

At the track, each team has a satellite feed to their pit box, so it seems they could have switched to either broadcast. With the No. 48 on cruise control, Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, apparently settled on the silly little monkey, as an unnamed crewman pointed out in victory lane.

“I knew we were in trouble when I looked at the monitor and saw a monkey scratching its butt," he said.

A friend of mine – better known around the blogosphere as Death Beer – watched AFHV and was deflated over the important decision. Oh no, he wasn’t upset that ABC booted the race, but rather that the wrong video purportedly won the $25,000 prize at the end.

“I thought the cat sliding off the slippery table beat the kid hitting his dad with a wiffle ball this week,” Mr. Beer said.

What was ABC thinking when they made this decision? Well, obviously, they were thinking about ratings. It's no surprise that the National Football League rules the ratings war against NASCAR, but it’s kinda sickening that AFHV is also apparently banking a heckuva lot more viewers than Sprint Cup racing. I realize there's a new host on the show, but maybe ABC’s best option is to get Bob Saget in a stock car at Homestead. A right-hand turn into the wall and a few barrel rolls could be as funny as his video narration. We could even mail in that home video for a shot at the $25,000 ... or maybe not.