Did Cole really learn anything from watching Nascar on ESPN?

Good point that I have somehow never thought of in 26 years, which shames me as a self-professed expert. You're definitely right. Of course it might fit in line with Cole's initial cockiness, he just thinks he's learned a bunch, but from the way he talks, you'd definitely think he'd know what the car was doing. They had to get the ESPN mention in there, but they also had to have the version of the deal with Harry Hyde explaining the car to Tim Richmond that led them to set the world on fire once Tim really understood what the race car was doing from the driver's seat. As great as both scenes are, they ultimately clash as you pointed out.

As an aside. I loved that era of ESPN, the "Bob, Benny, and Ned" trio is still my favorite racing booth in my lifetime and you definitely learned a lot. They didn't inundate you with excessively technical information (sometimes Larry McReynolds goes a little far in this department with Fox Sports these days, it's interesting stuff but unless you're mechanically inclined - which I'm not - it sails over your head) but they taught you the basic stuff so when Doc Punch or John Kernan reported something from the pits, you knew what a driver's car was doing or what he was struggling with.

He's being facetious, isn't he? They're trying to make him look like a real noobie and he's just playing along saying "I watch ESPN" to make him sound even more wet behind the ears, and then Cole goes out and surprises them all by showing how good a driver he is when he takes out Rowdy's car for a test spin. That's how I viewed it, anyway.

Motown, get your Detroit jukebox jheri curl ass in this chicken sh!t chop-chop, ASAFP!

Just because you've heard the world loose or tight or they put a couple turn in the car and all that by commentators doesn't mean your gonna know what that means or as a driver know how the "feels"!!
I've been around racing all my life. My dad has done everything from racing, being on a crew and being the car owner. And something that he always said was if a driver can tell you what he's feeling in his ass while its in that car he's not gonna be very good and difficult to work with. Even if the driver doesn't know what it means or how to fix it as long as they can successfully communicate to their crew chief what their feeling, a crew chief at that level should be able to adjust the car to them.