Obviously it's awesome to have a race in the off season with most of the big guns squaring off. That said, after watching the first Monster Cup race of the night, I'm more puzzled than ever that some people still seem to think Ralph is a decent announcer. I'm going to leave Jeff out of it here, he "sets in second" when it comes to the announcing issue.
Once everyone's through the first turn, there are two main things that need highlighting: PASSES and CRASHES. If there's a pass for the lead or in the front pack, stop what you're saying and bloody announce it! The closest anyone got to noting a major pass while it was happening in that first race was Fro's patented "Uh-Oh!" when Marv passed Savatgy, while Ralph was talking about, as usual, pointless stuff.
Year after year almost everyone seems to hate on the announcing, and nothing changes. I get some of the reasons they keep bringing Ralph back, like trying to bring in fans from all the other events he calls. But at some point, casual fans who are actually watching already are just going to turn it off after hearing too much of Ralph's low-rent Troy McClure act. Hardcore fans will of course always watch and just cringe through it.
At the end of the day I suppose it's not that big of a deal, and to be fair to Ralph the second race was much better than the first. I'm just sick of being stoked to watch an event and then hearing that voice and thinking, damn, now I've got to listen to this frickin guy for the next 3 hours...
