It was nice to hear the familiar tones of Marty Reid back on the NASCAR trail this weekend in Nashville. With Jerry Punch on vacation, Marty stepped over from his NHRA duties and joined Rusty Wallace, Andy Petree, and the ESPN2 NASCAR gang.
Saturday morning, qualifying took place in frigid conditions for everyone involved. With Marty at the helm, things on ESPN2 were as comfortable as NHRA fans have come to enjoy over the last several seasons. The key for this type of single car qualifying is information, and this crew was amazing. Andy Petree has begun to take on many of the positive aspects of our late friend Benny Parsons. Petree seemingly talked to everyone in the garage before qualifying, and had information on so many different things from drivers to set-ups. His positive energy is infectious.
Rusty is really on-his-game, and with his son Steven driving fulltime in the Busch Series, Rusty knows the players. Throughout this normally boring session, Rusty delivered the kind of insight that we have come to expect, especially when young drivers are involved. This season, Rusty seems to be more comfortable with himself as a person, and not as judgemental as we have seen in the past. Even when the ESPN crew mistakenly inserted a graphic over his son's first qualifying lap, Rusty kept his cool and made it into a funny moment. One cool customer.
With Mike Massaro, Alan Bestwick, Vince Welch, and Jamie Little along covering pit road, one got the feel that this crew really liked and respected each other. This is the kind of vibe that ESPN has been looking for since they cranked up the racing coverage at Daytona. Without some of the characters that are featured on the Busch Series race broadcasts, this stripped-down version of NASCAR on ESPN worked...and worked well.
4 comments:
hey your all the time talking about how horrible NASCAR Now is.
i have the ULTIMATE fix for the show
call Allen Bestwick and Johnny Benson..let those two host the whole show..and if you need more drivers than i hear Craven is writing for Yahoo! Sports
bring back what that ass at SPEED channel ruined on Inside Nextel Cup
I agree that the coverage was better, however, I sure wish they would get Alan Bestwick in the booth. During the race, they seem to have a hard time going smoothly into commercials. Commercials just seemed to pop in with no warning. Rusy is doing okay, but I have been pleased with how Andy Petree is coming more at ease in the booth
Mart Reid? Well at least he's not as bad as Erik Kuselias, talk about the biggest MORON to put on a Nascar show, time to stop insulting race fans and send him packing to the local sandlots. Petree is getting better, and it was nice not to hear the Steven Wallace lovefest when he was laps down. Rusty is trying too hard to be another Darrell and were all sick of him too.
Marty Reid is a treasure for fans of racing on TV because he is passionate about the business in all its forms. I've known Marty professionally and as a friend since around 1970 and have enjoyed watching his career path grow from being the weekend sport guy on WLW-C TV in Columbus, Ohio. He a native of central Pennsylvania and grew up watching the dirt track races at classic places like Selinsgrove. He's also done some professional sports car racing and can hold his own. We should consider ourselves lucky to have him in the booth at any kind of racve.
Post a Comment