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173 comments:
John,
I am a relatively new (a little over 3 years) "non-sterotypical" NASCAR fan. If you ask your average ESPN executive producer, they wouldn't be able to pick me out of a lineup.
I don't necessarly agree with everything you write, though I'd like to thank you for providing this forum for all of us to sound off on what we think of the media coverage of the sport all of us are so passionate about. I've made a few anonymous comments over the past few weeks.
Hopefully the powers that be in both the media outlets and NASCAR will listen to all of the fans and can make some changes for the better.
Now at a little over 2 hours before the race, I predict at least 4 missed restarts!
Txsooner
Only 4!!! :-) Long race on a short track.
Man, I don't even WANT to predict...but I am trying to use my mantra.
"We could be watching Highlights on Wild World of Sports" or that guy from Back in the Day's show.
From what long time vets in the sport tell me, TV time was about 30 minutes maybe in the 60's and 70's.
So, I shall try to not whine so much tonight. (Yea, RIGHT Sophia...we will remember this post!)
Will be watching in the Lroom with no computer nearby. My room mate said he would watch the race.
So if something big happens, will have to run into back room where there is a computer and small tv.
:)
I also heard MRN is NOT covering the race tonight so I am bummed! I was counting on the nearby FM station to cover the race but read it was PRN....I have no clue where on the dial to find that, or if I even have an option. BUMMER.
Sure is HOT for those drivers...just heard on Raceday it's 102 or 104? YIKES.
I hope they hydrate like hell.
I would like to thank Mr. Carrier for inventing A/C!!
:-)
Most of the stations that carry MRN also carry PRN. PRN just carries the races at SMI tracks and MRN does the ISC ones.
Thanks, Bevo!
Oh and thanks John for doing the work to open up your page during the RACE.
Oh no, not Aerosmith again!!!
I bet that's Rusty's favorite band - A-E-R-O-smith!
That was a nice explanation of the variable banking by Mike Massaro. Much better than what was said about it on NN this morning. In fact, NN said the banking in the corners was 36 degrees, while Mike M. just said it varied from 24 to 30 degrees. I think Mike M. was correct, as those are the same numbers the SPEED guys were using on Friday.
cwebs
Oh no! DJ just told Rusty they were having aero loose problems on the track last night. Please don't mention anything about aero to Rusty, it only encourages him!!!
Hey guys guess what!!!!!
Last night was the first time we got to see how the new banking works at bristol!!!
Ummm yeah ok.... Drink the kool-aid and say it with me Craftsman Truck Series doesn't exist.
At what point will someone from NASCAR step up and have something to say about the continual ignoring of the third most popular series of racing in America? Heck I'm not a truck watcher by any means, but come on ESPN.
BTW txsooner must have been referring to the first hour of the race in number of missed restarts. :)
A-E-R-O-smith LOL at cwebs
Oh my sweet Lord. The Busch race at Bristol was one big nasty train wreck. And now, at least the fans are now talking about the fourth class coverage ESPN is handing us. What is with that network? They miss every single event on the track. The minute the yellow flies, they cut to their way-too-many commercials. They missed so many on track incidents that I began to wonder if they only had one camera at the track. They go to their "experts" and the cut away car just as incidents are happening on the track. And, they have wayyyy too many reporters. At times, you felt like a lotto ball because they were bouncing around from reporter to reporter far too much. Their people are so busy trying to impress and one-up each other that I don't think any of them are actually watching the race. I mean, there's a wreck and no one seems to notice it until someone yells, "crash on the track". ESPN is pathetic and I cannot believe that Nascar isn't getting flack from sponsors.
I wondered who would be watching ESPN Countdown.
I am watching Race Day. I like watching FUN even if they should've left it an hour instead of TWO.
I refuse to watch ESPN until I HAVE to for the race. In the living room, I have the radio tuned, hopefully to the race if ESPN drives me nuts...not sure what my room mate will feel if I do the radio deal...the off sync timing can drive you nuts bit I would still rather listen to those guys then ESPN, any day.
:-)
sophia -
What can I say? I guess I'm feeling masochistic tonight! I'm actually recording the second half of RaceDay for later viewing. I just felt like I had to stay on top of ESPN tonight. I don't want them to get away with any BS after what happened last night...
cwebs
ESPN blacks out again!!!
OK, now their Countdown feature had a technical glitch! Are ten year olds in the production truck?
Nice tape rewind....back to you Suzy....
Ha Ha!!! What was that??? Another "satellite issue"??? Actually, it looked more like a tape machine problem this time!!!
At least they didn't cut to the Warren Wallace commercial...
cwebs
cwebs
Understood! Besides you are great on details and filling everybody in. :)
I must confess, before Wendy started interviewing the drivers, I flipped to ESPN just in time to see Brad demonstrate briefly Ricky Rudd taped his eyes OPEN to do a race. Then I flipped BACK to Race Day.
Not to quibble but he taped the under eye area on his cheeks. This kept the swelling DOWN enough to see. But lest anybody think he taped his upper lids OPEN, impossible to do that for a long time for a race. Eyes need to blink.(unless you are having eye surgery)
Ok, there's my first beef with ESPU tonight.
It's a little thing I admit.
But I had to comment before heading to the Living Room tv shortly.
Ha
It looked like they tried to rewind a source while it was still on the air and then lost the signal. I hope this does not happen during the race.
OMG!! After I posted I just read about the ESPN Black out glitch.
Who there is sabotaging NASCAR???
=:-o
I am so sick of ESPN missing the flyover. It's not that hard.
Maybe a naive question, but why do the TV reporters barge in on other interviews to do their TV interview? Is TV the SUV on the highway next to the subcompact? (radio, etc.)
I love Wendy Venturini but she barged in on Kasey's other interview. I think he was irritated.
And my favorite part of the MRO kids is seeing the proud parents. Did they show any parents? No, Casey Mears and Carl Edwards, single guys.
I'll give kudos to ESPN for one thing, they did a pretty good job with the national anthem. That was a nice mix of shots showing the kids, some drivers, and the overhead view. They didn't do well with the flyover, however!
Was anyone else hoping that Jeff Gordon would say "I wanna kiss you" to SK during that interview???
;-)
Actually, that's a good point there, "anonymous". I didn't even think about the parents. I guess I'm not really as "family" oriented as many people are.
I agree - one of my fav things is seeing the drivers watching their kids sing. A few shots of that would have been awesome!!! Too bad they chose not to continue that tradition...
Anybody wanna keep count of Rusty saying "MAN"!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! They stayed on the leaders during the start of the race!!! No "whizzing by" the fixed trackside camera on the first lap. Nice job. Please keep it up!!!
Has anyone noticed that on qualifying on NASCAR's Pit Command thay never list the car make for Toyota just blank
Rusty is an idiot.
F1 cars are like cup cars because they have rear wings. I swear to god I just cant believe it. Mr AERO loose himself should know what the frick hes talking about.
BTW Rusty F1 cars have wheels and break pedals and gas pedals oh oh oh and they have seats so that should make Montoya feel more comfortable.
Petree at least called him an idiot for his comment in a nice way.
God why did they have to stop having the radio broadcast here!!!!
How in the heck watching NASCAR give a heck about Vick or baseball. ESPN still sucks. Isn't their crawl at the bottom of screen bad enough?
Elliot Sadler was on pit road. Would have been nice for them to tell us what happened..... or give a replay if it was due to contact.
Hey Carl, did the gods hear you, the crawl disappeared.
Except for the updates, the crawl does not usually air during races.
Funny about Rusty and the F1 cars vs. the COT. Andy seems to be challenging him on things more and more lately. That's a good thing, even though he's a bit passive-aggressive about it. He did something very similar when Rusty was trying to pin all the blame on Bobby Hamilton Jr. for Steven Wallace's wreck during the Busch race last night...
on ESPN only. not espn2
The commercial count should be interesting at the end of this race. ESPN only cares about what they have brodcasted not what happens when they're not on air.
Thx, just glad its not there. Wish they would show the cars thru the field, mine is not doing so good, but would be nice to even see that orange car on the screen.
Wow, they're really packing the commercials in! I hope they're doing this on purpose so they won't have to show as many later in the race, but I'll believe it when I see it!
OK they're talking about pit stops, must be time for more commercials.
1/4 of the way through the race and no major screw ups...
More crawl, not enough commercial presented by Boston Market. Probably time for a commercial break.
Gotcha, commercial break
Wow they're going to brodcast a restart!!!
Sure do wish SK would stop with the Jim Rome impersonation.
OH BROTHER! The race is restarting, and ESPN can't even be bothered to reset the field for us. Who gained spots on pit road? Who lost positions?
Can someone PLEASE tell ESPN that the viewers need this information?!?!? This is becoming a habit with them. I guess this kind of stuff just isn't important enough for them to talk about...
Took them 30 seconds to come back and bring up Hamlin's problem
Oh boy, Harvick and Montoya are fighting for 8th
More crawl presented by UNDER ARMOUR
Anyone heard about Bobbie Labonte, he's in 4th. Nobody on the broadcast team anyway
Rusty needs a lucky dog
they spoke in-depth about him when he was 2nd.
carl-
ESPN does the crawl every 20 minutes on everything.
Wow... Is Eric K out there writing the script to keep pumping the Montoya / Harvick dustup?? That is so lame..gp
Wow, two consecutive restarts
Thanks Bevo, just another irritant
Harvick just asked his guys if the 42 caused the wreck :)
I can't believe this, they restarted again without resetting the field! Ridiculous!
ESPN, here's a few tips, I won't even charge you money for them:
1. Before pit road opens up under a caution, you should be anticipating possible pitstops and giving the pro's and con's of pitting at that point in the race.
2. After the pits open up, you should have your camera right on the leaders as they come down toward the commit line. It's always interesting to see who pits, who doesn't, and who might do a fake-out move either way.
3. After pitstops are done, and preferably before the restart, you need to give us a rundown of who pitted, what they did, and who stayed out. This needs to be done for at least the top-10, and any contending cars that might be outside the top-10 at that point.
There, you see? It's really simple. Can someone convey this information to ESPN, please?!?!?!
cwebs
carl -
It's bugged me for years. I hate watching the Deuce because it runs all of the time...
bevo, Thankfully NASCAR is the only sport that interest me and I don't watch ESPN other than that.
Good points there cwebs
Half way. They've done a much better job so far.
I know that just about everybody pitted on that caution, (not the last one with the wreck, but the one with Hamlin's blown engine), but they didn't even tell us who gained spots and who lost spots. If they did, then I must have missed it. They didn't do it for the first set of stops under first caution either! AAAARRRRRGGGGGG!!!
I like the tech center explanations.
They are listening, they are listening!! How about that split screen for the tech center! So far so good tonight, I will have to admit!
Only 17 cars on the lead lap
Why during green flag racing do we have to have a hero promo look at Edwards going out to the break?...makes no sense...give Suzy freaking kolber two rounds and insert two spring rubbers
I feel glad to have Pit Command on NASCAR Track pass. At least I can follow the race during the (numerous) commercials.
Edwards ready to pit, see how they handle this
Not enough spring rubbers, she can still mumble
I don't want to jinx it, but decent broadcast to this point. Not great, but compared to the bush race this is going rather well.
I know it has a lot to do with the lack of cautions (at Bristol shocking) but I'm giving ESPN a C+ so far.
Sure wish they would have a run down of spots lost or gained on pit stops. Along with dropping that on the bubble crap. I could see running it now and then but I just find it silly to keep beating the dead horse.
They seem to do a better job of covering pitstops under the green than under the caution.
Have to agree, a much better effort so far for ESPN. Would be nice for them to show who moved up or down after the pit stops.
Lucky I'm using FoxTrax to keep up
You know it would be nice for SOMEONE on the ESPN broadcast to mention that this yellow could be a problem for some teams by leaving them a lap down. I mean, it would be kinda helpful.
Another restart televised, AMAZING
Great job on the 24 jackman pit cam....but please no promos coming back to the race... yellow flag or not....it's not needed , we know about the chase....
And I wish they would tell us what the actual lap is instead of telling us that there's 130 laps or whatever to go. I think they are doing a fair broadcast job.
Do they not know Jeff Gordon and others are a lap down?
Hey skeet, the better question is do they care?
I don't think so, they aren't thinking about describing things to us out here. Thank goodness I'm listening to PRN and the tv and the computer, I have no life....
Caution Out
Hey skeet, don't worry Im doin the same thing!
They just missed the wreck!
Glad to know I'm not the only one listing to trackpass too
Well, they finally figured out that some important cars got stuck a lap down. Shouldn't they have covered that before the restart???
Finally, the leader in car cam/split screen and a look at the race track with the standings on the way out to the break....congrats ....oh we missed a yellow...
A full minute and two commercials including one for pumping ESPN before coming back
Ok..only ONE other person has commented a thing driving ME NUTS.
WHY NOT SHOW WHAT LAP THEY ARE ON as opposed to LAPS TO GO?????
BLOODY ANNOYING...been listening to the radio with the race some...guys are good but I like the MRN guys better..the PRN guys like to try to be comedians too much but they told me LOTS more than the TV.
But honestly, NASCAR likes to COUNT THE LAPS...this going backward is giving me a headache.
I could've done without the REPLAY Of HARVICK and Montoya fighting AGAIN?? why did ESPN find that WORTHY during a green flag? Thankfully we had the radio on then.
Great to see real racing and no crashfest and cautions every few laps!!!
Keeping my fingers crossed some of my guys finish well.
:-)
I'm watching HotPass. During commercials you still see the race and you can listen to the car audio.
They're going to miss the restart
One to go
Hey did you all know the cars at the back of the field came in? Not if you were watching ESPN. I'm really getting tired of just seeing "talking robots" that have no emotion and no interest in even finding out what is happening in the race.
Missed that one, knew ESPN couldn't do a race without at least one restart.
Loks like we just missed a restart so they could show us the Little League World Series highlights we've seen at least 2 times already tonight.
The freaking arrogance of a 30/30 to miss the restart....in MLB, NBA,NFL, College football...this never happens.....George Bodenheimer you should be ashamed.....
Thanks Sophia you noticed that ESPN is just showing the laps to go. I'm "watching" Live Leaderboard on nascar.com to keep track of what lap they are on and also a window pops up when there's a yellow. Unfortunately, hubby won't stop talking so I'm being annoyed by Rusty & hubby.
How many lead lap cars pitted on that caution, anyone know???
Once upon a time ESPN was the gold standard for NASACR on TV. Today rates about a 'C' or 'C-' against the gold standard of FOX.
As far as the laps go - I think they showed the lap number until half way then show how many are left until the end.
He would do better just back around this place...
I can't believe lead lap cars were on pit road, and ESPN is focusing on the 6 car and bungee cords. HELLO!!!
Were lead lap cars coming in? Doc said no one was coming in.
matt -
You are so right!!! The "talking robots" are simply watching the race. We need announcers who are interested in WORKING the race!!!
cwebs
matt -
I don't know about this caution, I was talking about the last one...
cwebs
Instead of a recap by Suzy and Brad, why not tell us about the cars that pitted or not.... what a waste
Oh no Brad said "he's got a strong strong HOT ROD"!!!
I'm sure this has been asked and answered somewhere, but I've looked all over and can't find it anywhere: why does ESPN not name the sponsor of the race? I know that most fans simply call the races by their location, but I can't imagine that Sharpie (or 3M, or whoever) is real pleased that they paid for their name to be associated with the race and then the broadcaster never mentions it. What gives?
Yes, aren't these broadcasters being paid to call the race not watch the race??? And Jr. talking to his crew chief sounded upset, didn't he?
I've completely lost track of who on the lead lap last pitted when, and I think they have too...
The reason they haven't mentioned the sponsor is because they didn't buy any advertising on the telecast. Pretty common these days with all networks
caution out
Missed another yellow
wow, they actually sort of cut from the commercial for the caution
Funny that they didn't mention that the points leader who happens to be one lap down, which they didn't mention, also pitted last round...
sort of
Wait Wait Wait ESPN just dumped out of a promo for football to show us a caution. Things just get curiouser and curiouser.
I think Dr. Punch should be a pit reporter and bring in Allen Bestwick to the broadcast booth.
Two ESPN promos out of green flag break and then they miss the caution,,,,come on Bristol...please get it together....
Anyone want to bet percentages on commercials versus televised race that be put out later. I'm down for 45/55.
I thought they cut out of commercial to show the accident, but I wasn't paying attention so I wasn't sure. If they did, good for them!
This is, by far, a vast improvement over last night to this point. Let's see how the end plays out.... Keep your fingers crossed for no commercials in the last 20 laps!
My nephew works for the Fox Sports Network maybe he should be hired by ESPN he surely could do the job, although it is a lot more difficult than it looks.
I guess that makes some sense, but it shouldn't have anything to do with advertising. Will ESPN not name Lowe's Motor Speedway by name if Lowe's doesn't buy ad time for the fall race?
It just seems that the name of the race is a factual statement rather than an advertisement, so I can't figure out why ESPN is the only network that makes an issue out of it. (I probably just answered my own question right there.)
I second the notion that Suzy and Brad WASTE TIME.
Too many talking heads.
I knoew they counted the laps and then started counting backwards when there were like 205 laps TO GO.
I have a major headache between listening to the radio 7 seconds off, and muting and watching this race...my word.
Many giving ESPN a high grade....they just STARTED a comemrcial and came back to the race AFTER A face wtih R Gordon...was that an accidental commercial? I was busy typing here.
AaAArrgh...Sorry to sound GRUMPY but my headache is making me bitchy and I shall spare you my gripes...tho they have been covered here mostly.
I finally went on the patio to watch a racoon eat from our railroad train squirrel feeder!! SO CUTE..and I watched him for about 3 minutes during a commercial.
(We are having a drought here so I let the poor guy eat the sunflower seeds)
Oh, OH, yes, the RADIO GUYS TALK with excitment. They appear to LOVE RACING!!!
And they give you run downs constantly about racing in the back of the pack.
I am back in my room and have no good radio in here to pick up the station. But they are way better than the tv guys...so I am glad to have NASCAR radio this year...we only had it intermittently last year on some AM channels.
Rusty says the drivers are not in the mood to play nice...me neither.
MEOW HISS!!
:-)
matt -
They did. Something that they couldn't do under any circumstance according to someone from ESPN who was on here arguing with us last night.
Probably at least one set of commercials in the final 10 laps. Ouch, a wreck, more commercials. Yeah!!!
Rats! Rudd hits the wall...
and others...crap!!
Oh, if they broke BACK from the commercial to try and catch the ACTION on the track, KUDOS to ESPN for TRYING!!
:-)
WOW..HUGE DEBRIS over Mikey's car...think they will call a caution for that??
:-)
Starting to shape up more like the normal Bristol race we all love to see and and curse, huh?
Fox started doing that (not mentioning the race sponsor) a few years ago.
And it looks like Matt needs a radiator change but I guess the booth guys don't notice that.
psst... ESPN
bump and run isn't as big of a deal with the COT. Splitter gets screwed up and doesn't hook up with the rear bumper
OK, execs at ESPN get this through your heads: We don't want pre-produced garbage during a race!! We want the RACE!! You know, that thing with all cars going really fast around the track? So how bout y'all actually tell us what is happening in the RACE??
The managed another green flag start
They did talk about mat
Suspense!!! Will they make the restart?
Bummer Matt is out!
good one.
We pause this commercial for a race... NOT!! This sucks...
it looks like they are going to make it back.
Why are the two down in the PRE-race studio even talking during the race?
They're going to make another one. Who was susposed to put the spring rubbers in Suzy's mouth. They fell out!
Matt said...
OK, execs at ESPN get this through your heads: We don't want pre-produced garbage during a race!! We want the RACE!! You know, that thing with all cars going really fast around the track? So how bout y'all actually tell us what is happening in the RACE??
August 25, 2007 11:06 PM
~~~~~~~
So TRUE!
AND I could NOT BELIEVE how long they replayed that OLD NEWS Happy and JPM fight> (rolls eyes)
They don't get it..
SHOW THE DAMN RACE.qkrzqib
Double box view. Nice touch.
I could use some Cheerios to snack on.
Makes note to self.
LOVE THE DOUBLE VIEW BOX as mentioned here.
:-)
They were following Stewart with his battle with the 12, then he passes two cars and no mention of that..
psst...ESPN
20 has the fastest laps on the track
wide shot at the finish. that should make some of you happier.
Did ESPN just show all the cars finishing? I may have to give them a 'C" rather than 'C-'. By the way my middle name is Edward.
Are there people who that does not make happier? Speak now...
Hello, HELLO@
IS this thing on?
I just saw the end of the race!!
YAY!!! IMPROVEMENT Over last night.
Ooh..hot night to make a back flip.
Ok...this new habit of getting to the CC right away...I know many do it but it's annoying...I would rather see the cars finishing LONGER and the FINISHING order of the guys in the back.....
but still better than the ONE CAR FINISHES the race.
:-)
Now I wanna know how the rest of my boys did.
Give Carl about a 8.5 for the landing but it is Bristol. And yes more commercial.
Much better production by ESPN.
Carl,
Try being named John Daly for a while...
Sorry but ESPN continues to put me to sleep with these 3 in the booth. Even at Bristol I was getting bored. Because of Jerry Punch speaking in monotone like usual. He speaks like he's watching golf, not NASCAR.
It was about damn time we saw a wide angle finish.
LONG OVER DO.
Hey, I had the tv muted a lot for radio but only heard Rusty say "I am TELLING you what" once tonight but it was apropro when he used it.
But I forget now what it was...I wasn't taking nots. I bet cwebs remembers.
:-0
good production tonight
Hey JD, thanks for having us tonight, this was fun to speed an evening with dedicated race fans, fans who know what they want and what they enjoy hearing and watching. Its been a long day and time for an old broad like me to call it a night. Gotta protect and serve tomorrow....
Well, I guess they did a fair job all-in-all tonight. Then again, it wasn't particularly challenging to cover this one. It was a snoozefest as Bristol races go. Should be better next year with a softer tire. Maybe smaller fuel cells too?
They still can't figure out how to reset the field for us after yellow flag pitstops, but everything else tonight was generally good or at least tolerable. Rusty managed to keep himself under control for the most part. I'm sure stricklinfan will mention this too, but Jerry Punch needs to sound more excited when he calls the final lap!!!
cwebs
I work with Jeff Gordon but not THE Jeff Gordon, but people ask him all the time if he's related to the race car driver.
Why is there no Victory Lane Tonight? Do I have to wait till tomorrow?
John,
A better perfomance for ESPN but the commercials drive me crazy. Monitoring restarts has gotten better. Pit progress, people who haven't a clue talking and not mentioning the whole field still are problems. Maybe they have too many folks on mike.
Overall, I'd give ESPN a C+ for tonight's race coverage. The production, camera angles and knowing what to cover when was better, but not perfect. The two big problems with the coverage continue to be a lack of any interest by the announcers and the lack of any info on any driver not in the top 10 or named Jr or JPM and any review of pit stops/pit strategy.
Thanks, it was nice to have everyone stop by tonight and talk TV.
I do think someone was listening on the finish when they hung-in and tried to show the top twenty cross the line.
Tough to reset the field before those restarts. What a strange race for Bristol.
The race wrap column will be up in a while, thanks again for stopping by tonight.
JD
SPEED sucks!! No Victory Lane???!? Whats up with that?!!!
Watched the race on Hot Pass. Matt Yocum and Larry Mac had the 20. Two pro's that not only were on top of the 20 but every other car on the track. They were great! I'll be sticking w/Hot Pass.. I doubt I ever watch espn again.
Its only 7:30 here in Alaska. P. Poor on ESPN's part leaving any real coverage after the race to go to Sportscenter to listen to them bash NASCAR. Yuck still to ESPN. How long is 8 years? TOO Flipping LONG!!!
John -
Thanks for the forum. Folks up in Bristol should be commended for stepping up after last nights problems. Stuff to work on but they made a lot of progress. Bestwick and Punch need to change places. Need better rundowns on pit stops. Still don't think they need SK and Brad during the race.
Overall a much better job!
My new technique for watching the race:
1. Video from ESPN delayed 8 seconds w/DVR
2. Audio from MRN via AM radio
3. Telemetry and in-car radio from RaceView
Worked like a charm tonight. Which is good, because ESPN missed some critical information.
And their constant re-running of the "News Update" (which did not change all night) got in the way, too.
I'll be doing it this way from now on.
wow, they actually sort of cut from the commercial for the caution
What, and you were able to keep up? You didn't find that confusing?
Well, how about that. I guess only TV people find it confusing when you return to the race to show action happening.
Obviously, viewers don't have a problem with it.
Ok..I am new to ESPN and only watch NASCAR and years ago, watched Golf (in the days of Nicklaus, and Tom Watson and watch some Tiger today but not regularly)
Are their SPORTSCENTER guys always so arrogant?
A week or so ago their disdain towards NASCAR was PALPABLE..I missed their NASCAR rehash tonight as we were watching the back of the yard with some young raccoons feeding ( TOO CUTE!!! )..but between NASCAR NOW's insults and ESPN wise guys, why watch??
Oh, and SPEED will have VL on tomorrow I guess. They used to be live after Fox earlier in the season. But rarely after ESPN late night races...maybe somebody can explain that.
Yes, it's improved over last night with camera work production.
Oh, and Bevo or others said, Punch and Bestwick need to trade places. AGREED! But, How can they do that without Punch looking like he is being DEMOTED and save face??
Punch sounds like he's calling a golf tournament for sure. :-) though I remember the days when those guys talked in hushed tones and whispers...kind of miss that myself.
But yes, the guys in the BOOTH should LISTEN to the radio guys.
On Radio they need to pain the pictures for us and do a great job with their vocal inflections.
If you are talking over the TV show race, pretend to be ENTHUSED, ok?
And I am sorry, Rusty does not do it for me...he always talks like he knows it all and with an edge in his voice like he is annoyed.
You know, I think for all the griping we have some pretty fair critics of ESPN.
It's been fun reading what everybody said during the race.
G Night all.
Anonymous said...
Well, how about that. I guess only TV people find it confusing when you return to the race to show action happening.
Obviously, viewers don't have a problem with it.
August 25, 2007 11:44 PM
I think this comment has to do with what I said yesterday. I believe I heard it from DW that he prefers to be prepared to give an explanation rather than just to jump back in with no information. He never said its bad for the fans, just a little confusing at first.
ESPN did a good job. The only issue I remember off the top of my head was missing a restart because they waited until after the In-Race Reporter to run a commercial break. I still think that needs to go. Caution flags are for commercials, not "filler" like the In-Race Reporter.
Other than that I thought they did a solid job tonight. I didn't recall them missing any restarts besides the one I mentioned earlier, they showed all the cars cross the finish line, and they did a good job following battles throughout the pack. Best job of the year for ESPN.
By the way, Victory Lane is always on Sunday Nights right before Wind Tunnel, even if the race is on Saturday.
Two more quick shout-outs. Thanks to Speed Channel for airing a stand-alone ARCA race at Milwaukee on Sunday and, yes I know this isn't TV related but hopefully Mr. Daly won't mind one quick aside, major thanks to the folks at Bristol that re-did the track. That was the best side-by-side racing I've ever seen at Bristol.
-THE GOOD-
Only 1 missed restart(still no excuse though)
Good pit reporting most of the time.
Rusty didn't say aero loose 50 times.
No "draft crap"
No black out with 3 laps to go.
-THE BAD-
ESPN continues to have trouble updating what happens to cars who have wrecked.
Rusty continues to be Mr. Common Sense.
ESPN SHOWED THE FULL VIDEO CLIP OF HARVICK AND MONTOYA PUSHING, WHILE THERE WAS GREEN FLAG RACING.
-THE UGLY-
I felt like I was watching Golf the whole race. Does Dr. Jerry Punch ever get excited, ever? This guy never rose his voice once, even on the final lap. Good job Dr. on continuing to put fans to sleep, and for the ratings to drop.
COMMERCIAL TIMING. They went to a commercial twice while the caution had just come out. ESPN seems to be the only one having these problems out of all the networks.
INTERVIEW THE TOP 5 AFTE THE RACE. I want to hear Clint Bowyer after his 3rd place run speak. Or Tony Stewart after having a bad car all day, and then finishing up 4th.
ON AIR-CHEMISTRY. These guys don't fit with each other and it shows. NASCAR fans need some sort of excitement in the race. Switch Allen Bestwick with Punch, and the race would be 10x better broadcasted. Remember the St. Louis Busch Race anyone?
stricklinfan82 said...
"By the way, Victory Lane is always on Sunday Nights right before Wind Tunnel, even if the race is on Saturday."
I remember SPEED used to have Victory Line right after a saturday night race earlier in the year and all year last year.
I heard Dale Jr. say something about ESPN. Did anyone catch it?
Hey Everybody,
The Bristol NEXTEL Cup race column is up, so please switch your comments over to that page.
173 comments is a new Daly Planet record...thanks for stopping by!
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