On Thursday evening ESPN2 will telecast live the NEXTEL Cup qualifying from Charlotte. Prior to this program there will be a Busch practice show and the thirty minute edition of NASCAR Now beginning at 5:30PM Eastern Daylight Time.
The regular telecast crew of Dr. Jerry Punch, Rusty Wallace, and Andy Petree will handle the commentary. Down on pit road will be Allen Bestwick, Mike Massaro, Dave Burns and Jamie Little.
This page will host the live comments about this Thursday night of NASCAR programming on ESPN2. Please feel free to comment on any program, or any of the TV issues or personalities involved in presenting this event to you.
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90 comments:
Qualifying bumps up against a live event (soccer game) at 9pm Eastern. We'll see what happens if qualifying runs long.
Charlotte isn't a very large track, so the qualifying run for each car shouldn't be more than a minute or so. I doubt it will be an issue with 50 cars.
NASCAR Now was supposed to air at 9pm Pacific. where is it?
Everything on the ESPN schedule was the same, except NASCAR Now did not air at its expected time. This is interesting.
I can't even check to see if NNow was on here at midnight in Ohio. TW digital is doing "Maintenance" over night and I can watch Tv but no digital guide working at the moment.
Stinks for those that watch Nascar Now they need a compass, a map and a search warrant to locate the show.
Interesting NASCAR story:
Homeland Security has aides immunized before attending NASCAR events (link: http://portal.tds.net/news.php?story=35088 )
Saw this on FOX news this morning and found the story online. Seems they (DHS) were doing research at Dega last week and again this week at Lowes and they have told all the researchers: "Staff who organized the trips advised the NASCAR-bound aides to get a range of vaccines before attending - hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, diphtheria and influenza."
BillWebz
Is there a vaccine for draft lock?
We can only hope.
While waiting for qualifying I just realized (though have known all along but never put 2 and 2 together) that Speed is going to be re-running last weekends Cup Race at Dega. I never stopped to think about it before, but is Speed paying ESPN/ABC for the rights to broadcast it or NASCAR?
Billwebz
As of a couple hours ago, this has been a story in RED at the top of the Drudge Report story links.
Good grief. It's not like it's doctors going to check out the healthcare centers...THAT I could understand..but most in that profession have to get shots updated anyway. But members of congress?
What are they trying to say with this story exactly? Several ways to look at this, mostly negative.
Forgot to say it's being called:
REDNECK RASH
????
Speed does it every Thur. ie: showing the Busch race and Cup race from past weekend. Nothing new. Somewhere they acquired rights to it.
Anonymous said...
Speed does it every Thur. ie: showing the Busch race and Cup race from past weekend. Nothing new. Somewhere they acquired rights to it.
October 11, 2007 4:02 PM
Yeah I knew they were on just never thought about the fact that ESPN carried the race live, now a competitor is carrying the re-run.
BillWebz
P.S. give me strength, Nascar Now just started.
Rumor has it that Jimmie Johnson was the fastest car in pre-qualifying practice. I say rumor because this race falls in the ESPN portion of the Cup schedule, which means we can't watch any practice session other than Happy Hour on TV and have to rely on the Internet to find out what happened during all the other practice sessions. Thanks again ESPN for doing the right thing for NASCAR fans!
I always complain about missing the go-or-go home cars during the true live qualifying sessions on ESPN. I'm going to play producer and show how the commercial breaks should be spaced out in order to catch all potential pole runs and all of the go-or-go-homers:
----
This assumes 9 commercial breaks from the time the first car runs to the time the last car completes its run, and that commercial breaks last around 2 minutes, which would miss one driver's full 3 lap run (counting warm-up) and end just in time to show the next car begin its first "hot lap"
-----
10
42
** 45 (30th in practice, 34th in points)
17
4
70
24
2
01
07
49
40
99
00
** 96 (38th in practice, 25th in points)
38
** 41 (24th in practice, 24th in points)
83
31
08
55
** 6 (33rd in practice, 23rd in points)
22
** 21 (41st in practice, only driver eligible for past champion's provisional so no go-or-go home drama involved)
44
20
19
06
** 7 (46th in practice, 28th in points)
8
** 15 (45th in practice, 30th in points)
16
25
43
84
5
9
78
26
** 88 (31st in practice, 33rd in points)
1
48
36
11
12
** 66 (35th in practice, 29th in points)
27
29
18
If the 11 car block near the beginning is too much time without a commercial than you would have to risk skipping the 40 or 70 cars, who were top 10 in practice but realistically probably won't win the pole or start near the front based on their low draw.
Putting all personal bias aside (i.e. being a fan of one of the skipped drivers), doesn't this seem like a sensible way of inserting the commercials if some runs HAVE TO be skipped (which I still hate by the way, I would prefer the TiVo style broadcast)?
Johnson was fastest in the first practice, according to NASCAR.com's live leaderboard. But I'm not sure how much faith we can put into the new version of the leaderboard.
It showed Kenseth with an average speed of 400+ MPH, and Newman with an average speed of 900+ mph. And many others in the same way that I don't remember the details now.
I heard Dale Jarret would have a press conference about his future next year. I thought this was supposed to happen yesterday. Does anyone know what happened to the press conference or did I just miss it? I say this here because this could have implications on ESPN.
Busch series pratice comment: Enough about the Chase drivers running in the Busch race already cRusty!!!! We get it, you're against it.
Too bad no one else cares about your opinion.
I think Jarrett's press conference is today, but I haven't heard anything yet.
Hey Everybody,
What's up with the TV schedule today?
JD
What do you mean John? We had Nascar Now, followed by Busch practice (now), supposedly followed by Cup qualifying.
Do you know something we don't?
Regarding DJ's press conference, both Jayski and SportsIllustrated (si.com) now state that it is tomorrow. SI speculates that DJ will run 6 races and Jeremy Mayfield will run the rest.
John
I am confused about your schedule question as well. So far, it's what you posted it would be on EST.
:-)
OK, so things are just running a little late...got ya. Thanks guys.
As a follow-up to my "if I was the producer" post, the first indication of how bad ESPN will do tonight will come after Juan Pablo Montoya's run. If they don't go to commercial after his run they're obviously showing the slow run of locked-in Kyle Petty and skipping go-or-go-homer Ward Burton.
Apparently that cameraman didn't get the memo that Dave Burns was interviewing Kurt Busch. haha.
Alright, so far so good! They're following my "if I was the producer" plan. If they still skip Ward Burton though I take back my praise.
Hey,
I did a long interview with Rowdy.com today and they may use it in their Friday podcast.
Those guys are something else. If you get a chance, listen and let me know what you think.
I need to make some decisions about a podcast choices for next season. Thanks.
What's this? Are they using the TiVo style qualifying format or did Kyle just hesitate to start his run to make sure he got some TV time?
Looks like they're TIVO'ing quals or there was a delay in Petty going out, on eor the other.
NASCAR.com's live leaderboard is ahead of the TV, so they must be TIVO'ing.
Well I'm very happy then. Now there is NO EXCUSE for missing any anyone (especially the go-or-go homers) making their entire qualifying runs.
I also don't like the announcers describing Ward Burton's lap as "great" and saying he would be thrilled with that. He's 2nd of the 2 go-or-go homers and we know the Charlotte more than any other track benefits drivers with late draws. We'll have to wait and see but I don't see that time holding up to make the show.
Did they skip Sauter or did I miss his run while feeding the cat?
Well we missed the first 1 3/4 of Johnny Sauter's 2 laps so if this is TiVo style it's being very poorly done.
OMG!!! Did I just see what thought I did???
ESPN2 just promoted a football game on ESPN starting...in 5 MINUTES! They're inviting people to tune AWAY from NASCAR...
...unbelievable...
Allan
Dr. Punch kidded with J.J. Yeley about people jokingly calling him a Rockies fan because his new owners also own the Diamondbacks. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't J.J. from Phoenix? Maybe he was getting ribbed about baseball in the garage area because he's actually a fan of the hometown Diamondbacks and not because the new owners of the 96 car happen to be the same guys that own the Dimaondbacks. Just a thought.
When speed covers qualifying I don;t even need to look at the TV because they describe what is happening on the track. I have to watch espn and follow on trackpass and fox news qualifying blog to find out how each car did. Show and talk about the cars...isn't that the point.
Well the announcers just completely ignored Carl Edwards. They spent his entire 3-lap run interviewing Jeff Gordon and never followed up on his lap afterwards. They just continued talking about Gordon and then moved on to the next car on the track.
They skipped Raines.
Despite the TiVo style qualifying format we've still missed two drivers' entire runs. I thought the point of this format was to be able to show us every car run. They could have shown Tony Raines's run in the time they reserved for showing David Reutimann deliver pizzas.
Show us what's going on on the track!!!!!
I wish they would full screen the cars instead of putting them in that box. It's ok for the start of the lap but not the entire thing I don't need to see the drivers stats throughout the entire run. I feel sorry for those people with smaller TV's
Even when the Doc did the verbal rundown of the top few, they didn't mention Edwards. What's the deal, is ESPN pissed at Edwards for some reason?
Jamie Little- If you can't speak NASCAR, back away from the microphone.
I agree with others. Show the cars on the track, show the cars on the track. Dang it, show the cars on the track!
o.k.
I feel better now. :)
The reason they didn't say anything about Carl Edwards, probably, is The Chase Is On will be on in a few minutes.
Wow, this is a little weird tonight.
Weird is being kind. I usually watch qualifying via fox blog at work. I still need to use the blog to tell what is going on. This is nuts. If they wanted to have a show talking to drivers then great a show don't use qualifying like a backdrop....
It does appear that the announce team is having more fun with each other tonight.
But they are wasting too much time chatting and showing other production features instead of showing the cars on the track.
Well, I lied. I'm not o.k.
Waaaaaaaaah
I want SPEED back to cover qualifying.
Nuts, these people are nuts.
ESPN wants "branded" announcers. I'm heating up my branding iron!
LOL Lisa!!!
I love the TiVo style format because we've seen almost every car (should be EVERY CAR but at least we haven't missed a go-or-go-homer). I am surprised the announcers are completely ignoring a lot of the drivers and despite the TiVo format ESPN is missing some runs because they are showing Reutimann deliver pizzas, Mark Martin winning here in 1992, and Rusty Wallace's 'fro while the cars are running.
I stand corrected on Ward Burton mising the show but I still stand by my initial statement that it's way too premature to say someone is locked into the race after only 2 go-or-go-homers have run. At Talladega in the spring Dr. Bergerren congratulated Brian Vickers for making the show after he was the first car on the track and improved on his practice speed (and of course he ended up DNQ'ing) and I said the same thing then.
Yet another driver (Robby Gordon) completely ignored by the announcers while they were chatting it up with Mark Martin. At least we can watch those guys run on TV this time, unlike Indianapolis for example when ESPN never followed up on the guys that ran during commercials (visually or verbally) and their during updates from Busch qualifying at ORP.
I wonder if TV will pick up on the fact that Bobby Labonte is not eligible for the Bud Pole Award and Budweiser Shootout because The King doesn't carry the Bud Pole decal on his car.
They showed Robby's run, had the tracker working...Why can't they be interviewing somebody else if we can see everything on the screen
don't count on it
Good point stricklinfan, I forgot about that myself.
Yea, no beer but you can say Fu.. to the world. I think the Petty's must have gotten passed over in some sponsorship deal in the past!
The "fun" seemed a little forced to me. I think they were told to yuck it up.
I have now hit the mute button!
This isn't "Trackside", this is coverage of a live NASCAR event so that should be the focus of the announcers.
The "no beer" is because Richard Petty promised his Mother. End of story.
It's like they have some sort of comedy script_ In busch practice they asked Rusty if he had gotton in Steven's car at tests to shake it down like Jr was doing for the 88. He didn't answer and all three went off talking about sitting in the car while in the garage making engine sounds..it was all just really weird!!
Why doesn't the King carry the Bud Pole decal on his car?
It kind of reminds me of a poor Nascar live. But Speed only did Live when there was nothing actually on the track or something they were not allowed to film. This is crazy yet another guest, maybe ESPN is afraid to leave them alone in the booth
stricklinfan82 said...
This isn't "Trackside", this is coverage of a live NASCAR event so that should be the focus of the announcers.
So True..it really sounds like they might have done some film study of Trackside or had some coaching from Kenny Wallace.
Because his mother didn't approve of Richard having alcohol sponsors on his cars. Since they made the decal mandatory to win the Bud Pole award, none of the Petty cars have ever been able to accept the Pole awards or participate in the Bud Shootout. Bobby Hamilton won a lot of poles in the 43 car but never got the pole award or got to be in the Shootout. John Andretti won a pole in another car in 1997 and moved to the #43 car in 1998 but had to find another car to drive in the '98 Shootout (he ended up driving Rick Hendrick's #25 Budweiser car). Jeff Gordon would actually win the Bud Pole award if qualifying ended like this.
Words fail me.
Well,not really.
They must have hired Chris Long.
Disgustingly awful!
During Kirk Shelmerdine's qualifying run the graphics said:
Team: Bill Davis Racing
Owner: Kirk Shelmerdine
So...... which one is it? LOL.
Obviously that's Kirk's own car (a Chevy) and not the same car Bill Davis entered at Talladega last week (a Toyota) that happened to have the same number on the side. Maybe someone should let ESPN know that.
Why does ESPN do qualifying from their "hollywood hotel" or whatever they call it - maybe the Bristol Brothel - instead of the booth? Oh yeah they want a entertainment type of programming - puts the the E in ESPN.
Obviously that's Kirk's own car (a Chevy) and not the same car Bill Davis entered at Talladega last week (a Toyota) that happened to have the same number on the side. Maybe someone should let ESPN know that.
So who got the owners points last week..Kirk or Davis??
Thanks for clearing that up I was confused about Shelmerdine.
Note to JJ Yeley. Don;t go in the booth before the run, you'll end up in the highlight reel
or the E in pathetic
I thought it was a disgrace that Jerry Punch called Ryan Newman Rocket Man - such a rip-off of FOX and Mike Joy who I believe coined the phrase. So much for branding.
Qualifying was not surprising one little bit ... We knew who would be on the front row before the qualifying even started ... We knew the show would be bad too ...
This is nuts ... Will someone please contact Robert Iger and make him bow down to Rupert Murdoch's power ??
Dr. Punch:
"John Andretti gets the final spot in the field based upon... uh.. the problems .... of .... Carl Long."
WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT???????????????????? LOL.
Anyway....
Overall, video-wise this was ESPN's best qualifying coverage of the year. We saw almost every car make its qualifying run thanks to the TiVo style format. There were a few small hiccups - missing Johnny Sauter's laps for some unknown reason, missing Tony Raines's run while watching a taped feature of David Reutimann delivering pizzas, and missing most of Bill Elliott's run while reliving Mark Martin's 1992 Charlotte win and seeing yet another picture of Rusty Wallace's early 1980's afro.
Audio-wise I didn't enjoy the coverage at all. This basically became an episode of Trackside with qualifying taking place in the background. There was very little focus by the announcers on what the viewers were watching on TV because they were busy having a good time chatting with their guests. If ESPN wants to create their own "Trackside" show that would be great but don't conduct this show with qualifying going as a backdrop. That's very distracting. As hard as it may be for ESPN to believe, NASCAR fans are actually tuning in to see qualifying... as in the stuff going on ON THE TRACK! Shocking, I know!
Again, the video production was very good but the lack of focus by the announcers was very distracting.
Andy Petree - I am sure he is a nice guy and has a knowledge about NASCAR but teamed with Rusty he comes across as weak.
Just my opinion.
Once again, we have the "TiVo" delayed technique being used, and yet, they STILL managed to not show all the cars.
I'd also like this a lot more if the guys in the booth would shut up. They have nothing worthwhile to say but still use lots of words to say it.
Talk about what is going on on the track and actually show it at the same time. Enough said.....
Time to change the channel for real Nascar with speed
Kirk Shelmerdine owns the number 27. Bill Davis wanted to use that number at Talladega and since Kirk wasn't entered he was allowed to use that number on his car. If you look at the results on NASCAR.com or the entry lists you'll notice that Jacques's car at Talladega was oficially #127, while Kirk's was #27.
Bill Davis was the second person to request #27 from NASCAR, so he has 2nd priority to the number (and is officially #127). Basically if Kirk doesn't use it, Bill Davis can. If both enter the same event, Kirk has the rights to that number. You'll notice in the Busch Series for example some teams have official numbers in the 200's, which means 3 different people have a claim on a particular number (usually all part-time teams). For example, if 3 teams have a claim on the number 54, one team would be #54, one would be #154, and the 3rd would be #254. Obviously in a race you can only have a maximum of a 2-digit car number so if multiple #54's in this example entered the same race, #154 and #254 would have to change to a different number.
I think that pretty much explains it, LOL.
As a follow-up to my last post, if you look at the Busch Series practice speeds on NASCAR.com, Jason Keller is listed as #211. That team has 3rd priority to use the number 11. DEI has the first option of that number, because they ran that number with Paul Menard all of last year and with Martin Truex Jr. this year at Daytona. I'm not sure who was second priority on the number 11 though. They really need to explain this on TV some time, LOL.
So the owners points went to a car 127 not the 27?
Well, I had the tv on for BACKGROUND noise as I did a couple other things.
!#!^#&^!&#!^# HORRIBLE so I am glad I did NOT give it my full attention.
WTH were these talking HEADS on the TV instead of the cars?????? HELLO.
And AMEN to TOO MUCH CRAP ON THE SCREEN when the cars ARE on the track.
Excuse me but the biggest tv I watch is a 31 inch tv and not the size of a bus!! SHOW US THE CAR AND TRACK.
Aaarrgh.
Oh, and the guys sounded "Suddenly chummy"
either they had martini's before the broadcast or somebody slipped them some 'browniers'.
FAKE, FAKE, FAKE.
Goodness. If they TIVO'd the **** show, how about showing the cars. Who wants to see YAPPING HEADS while the cars whiz in the background?
Then again, this IS ESPeeN whizzing on us, isn't it.
:(
At Talladega Bill Davis earned points for his #127 car with Jacques Villeneueve. Kirk's DNQ tonight will earn him owner's points for his own #27 car. They are not the same team even though they carried the same number on the side of them.
I agree with you guys, that was a bit tough to take. My only observation is that after the qualifying debacle at Talladega maybe the network chose to soften-up the format of qualifying and include more driver interviews and a couple of features.
Since they know who is in and the only races are for the pole and the "go or go home guys" maybe they just decided to push the actual qualifying into the background. It certainly was strange to see Punch and the guys on the set talking to a guest while cars ran.
Who knows what other things the weekend has in store? Its going to be fun tomorrow, with the guys calling Busch Qualifying, then the Cup Happy Hour, and then a live Busch Series race.
That is one tough triple-header for a broadcast crew. They go on-air at 4PM, possibly get a half hour break at 7:30 to eat, and then right back at it until the Busch race is over.
As we have suggested earlier this season, this type of long on-air exposure has not brought out the best in this trio, or the pit reporters. It should be interesting.
Thanks again for stopping-by, and for your comments. If you get a chance, download the Rowdy.com podcast or just click on the Rowdy site tomorrow. I would like to know what you think of that style of podcast. Thanks.
Jamie asked & made a lame "pink" car remark to Bobby-43, minutes after some kinds words in the booth about the whole purpose of the Breast Cancer emphasis for October.
She made my wife wonder if the ESPN pit folks listen to the booth at all, or if they are totally producer-in-the-trailer controlled.
(We pictured in our minds... Alan's eyes just a rolling, if he heard Jamie's interview.)
Maybe Jamie instead needs to chair an ESPN2 version of The View, with Krista, Shannon and Wendy carrying the water, with guest appearances by some NASCAR wives, as a pre-reace show inside one of the motor coaches.
It looks like I picked a good week to forget that qualifying was on Thursday!
I think it's pretty obvious that most NASCAR fans watch qualifying to focus on the laps and not the fluff, and would want the driver interviews and features to show up on broadcasts of practices instead. However, since the WWL in Sports hardly shows any practices, they wouldn't understand that.
Considering what MONTH this is and what the pink car stood for, Jamie is a total Jackass imo.
I am surprised she wouldn't be chastised for such an idiotic comment. Maybe if SHE had a mom with a bilateral radical mastectomy, she would do her HOMEWORK and know what it was about rather than try to 'chide' a guy about a pink car.
She has ALWAYS gotten on my nerves and flat out made me sick tonight with her being so cringeworthy, I TRULY wished I would've missed that brief interview.
She needs to go, along with the other slobs in the booth.
Except for Andy.
I think the network politics showed up again last night when Dr. Jerry kept hyping the MWR press conference on Fri. Do you remember the Saturday before the Dale Jr. press conference? ESPN could not wait to "break" the story, and tell everyone who the sponsors would be and what number would be run. Dale Jarret will make an announcement reguarding his future on Fri. and these guys already know he will be joining them next year. It’s a press conf. that concerns ESPN so the good Dr. had to be tight lipped. I did not like the small box around each car either. I noticed Dale Jr., Tony, Harvick, and others apparently snubbed post-qualifying interviews.
SophiaZ123 said...
Considering what MONTH this is and what the pink car stood for, Jamie is a total Jackass imo.
You're right. No doubt Jamie is a completely evil terrible human being. I'm sure she treats everyone in her life terrible and has no compassion for anyone. Oh wait, I don't know her, so I prefer not to rush to judgement.
question is whether T Stewart will EVER talk to ESPN other that he contractually has to or be invited to the oval office, or is it the phone booth? Oh I do miss DW and Larry - sigh.
AT least the NASCAR on Fox guys and gals know how to be silly without making a mockery out of qualifying.
I would swear that I saw the kitchen sink fly by. :)
Lisa - was it aero loose? Let's take a look at the Draft Track...
andypandy-
It was caught in the dreaded draft lock! :)
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