Announcers  

If the announcer is in the pits an hour before hot laps talking to drivers then you know he's good. If the announcer shows up and goes to the tower and turns on the local classic Rock station and hangs out up there before hot laps you know he's a hack.

I may have told this story before, but we were at a race a couple years back and our Race Director had to bring a sheet of paper with our drivers names, car numbers and home towns written down for the track announcer because he was too lazy to come down to our pit area and talk to our drivers beforehand All night long all you get is name and car number. Reason #473 why short tracking in the SE is dreadful