Saturday afternoon at 1PM Eastern Daylight Time SPEED will carry live coverage of the qualifying for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series at Talladega.
Hosting the broadcast will be Steve Byrnes. He will be joined by Larry McReynolds and Jeff Hammond as analysts. Reporting down on pit road and in the garage area will be Wendy Venturini and Bob Dillner.
SPEED hosts selected practice and qualifying coverage for both the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series throughout the season. This arrangement was made during the new NASCAR TV contract, which started in 2007.
This page will host your comments about SPEED's coverage. You may post before, during, or after the telecast. Please keep your comments about the telecast, and review the rules for posting on the right hand side of the main page.
To post, simply click on the COMMENTS button below and then follow the simple instructions. There is nothing to join, and you do not need to leave your email address. Thanks again for taking the time to leave your opinion on The Daly Planet.
66 comments:
I don't like the fact that SPEED is breaking into a live race(Petit Lemans)to show qualifying from Dega. It has got to be the most boring qualifying on the circuit. Qualifying vs real racing does not make sense to a race fan, so saying that I understand showing the Truck race during the Petit, but don't agree.
I can understand your frustration but as a NASCAR fan Cup qualifying is very important to me. ESPN bailed on covering the Friday and Saturday action at Talladega because of college football so Speed was the only option left to provide qualifying coverage. I personally would have been furious if Speed didn't cover qualifying because of the first few hours of an ALMS race that doesn't end until 10 PM.
While I feel for other race fans, NASCAR should be the number 1 priority on Speed Channel, whether it's practice, qualifying, or Truck racing. I'm sure the ratings reflect this as well.
Anonymous said...
I don't like the fact that SPEED is breaking into a live race(Petit Lemans)to show qualifying from Dega.
We are getting 5 1/2 hours of Lemans coverage out of a 10 hour race. We get to see the begining and the last 3 hours of racing. Not bad to me. I have to believe that more people are interested in the NASCAR coverage than the Petit. I appreciate you love of racing but 10 hours of ALS would be a little too much IMO.
Breaking into a live race for tape delayed Cup qualifying?
Brilliant. Pick one or the other.
Qualifying as speed goes to coverage:
Pos Sched
Qual
Pos Actual
Qual
Pos Car# Driver Manu Qual
Speed Qual
Time
(secs) Last
Prac
Speed Prac
Speed
Rank Diff
Qual vs
Prac Owners
Point
Rank
1 10 10 49 John Andretti Dodge 187.798 50.991 187.291 31 0.507 47
2 1 1 44 Dale Jarrett Toyota 187.658 51.029 188.123 27 -0.465 41
3 13 13 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge 187.284 51.131 187.108 33 0.176 19
4 6 6 36 Jeremy Mayfield Toyota 187.130 51.173 186.169 39 0.961 45
5 9 9 18 J.J. Yeley Chevy 186.467 51.355 186.380 37 0.087 20
6 7 7 16 Greg Biffle Ford 186.014 51.480 192.200 15 -6.186 15
7 3 3 4 Ward Burton Chevy 185.963 51.494 185.758 43 0.205 43
8 11 11 42 Juan Pablo Montoya # Dodge 185.938 51.501 185.733 44 0.205 21
9 5 5 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 185.783 51.444 192.154 16 -6.371 11
10 12 12 8 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevy 185.783 51.544 193.240 13 -7.457 13
11 14 14 37 Kevin Lepage Dodge 185.765 51.549 187.243 32 -1.478 49
12 8 8 40 David Stremme Dodge 185.061 51.745 190.639 21 -5.578 28
13 2 2 5 Kyle Busch Chevy 184.890 51.793 193.854 3 -8.964 6
14 4 4 70 Johnny Sauter Chevy 184.580 51.880 193.462 10 -8.882
And it will still be 2-1/2 hours of single cars going out!!!! Or we could see 4 different class races at once with ALMS.
Wow, I didn't know qualifying was tape-delayed. Anonymous, you could have just told us it was already underway instead of spoiling the outcome of the first part of qualifying for all of us, thanks a lot. I guess I better bail from this site then so nothing else gets spoiled for me. What's with all the tape-delay on Speed Channel this week? First the ARCA race and now Cup qualifying? I'll check back at 4 for the Truck race then (is that at least going to be live?)
I don't like it that they are tape-delaying qualifying at Talladaga for some fureign race that goes on for days and days....
Qualifying with over fifty cars in the field, including some pointy-car hotshots who don't know how to handle two tons of real car, is critical.
But, trying to spoil things for us was the whole point. I’m going to guess that all of these anons are the same ones that pitch fits on the SPEED forums because they don’t like NASCAR and don’t want it on television. They don’t understand the logic that SPEED is a for-profit company and broadcasts whatever gets the highest ratings and, in turn, the highest advertising revenue.
They seem to have decided that if they can’t have their fun, then they will just go where NASCAR fans gather, to give opinions during coverage, and ruin the fun of those awful NASCAR fans.
Pathetic, absolutely pathetic.
The go-or-go home cars will be in qualifying trim and be upfront while the locked in will be in race set-up, since this is an impound race.
Ther was lots of space to just pass over the post with the times:
Anonymous said...
Qualifying as speed goes to coverage:
Pos Sched
Qual
Pos Actual
Qual
Pos Car# Driver Manu Qual
Speed Qual
Time
(secs) Last
Prac
Speed Prac
Speed
Rank Diff
Qual vs
Prac Owners
Point
Rank
Then the speeds showed.
is anyone else's signal out? I'm getting every channel but Speed right now.
To make things worse their taping it and still not showing everyone doing their qualifying attempt!!!!!
Catherine-
Everything is fine with SPEED here in central Florida.
Yes, but it's back on now @ 2:02. We missed most of Villeneuve, darn it.
We're now back, we came back just after Vickers' run
I live in CA and qualifying disappeared for a while. I wonder what happened.
Well, I hope SPEED explains to their viewers what happened and apologize on air, we all know how much ESPN got ripped for their mistake.
What the HELL?? SPEED Loses signal and does not explain.
THey come back from commercial and I don't get to see WALTRIP OR SCHRADER QUALIFY?? THis stinks SPEED.
THey are acting like ESPN. What happened to the TIVO style qualifying??
This is IRKSOME...I put off going to the grocery for this???
SOPHIAZ
The problem is it isn't over 50 cars trying to qualify. 35 are guaranteed, therefore already qualified. It's actually 15 or 16 cars trying to qualify. They could show the go or go home cars (if NASCAR fixed the qualfying order)and then get off the air. The other 35 are a waste of time, especially at this track.
I live in western MI and we never lost signal here, so don't blame SPEED. Maybe it's your local cable company?
Those who don't like to watch qualifying at 'dega need to get over it. If you don't like to watch it, don't! Don't come crying on here. True Nascar fans like to watch qualifying no matter where it is.
Maybe it's your local cable company?
Wow, nobody brought that up when ESPN was getting trashed for dropped coverage. Why all the love and excuses for SPEED?
Top 10 so far all GO OR GO HOME..Somebody is going to qualify in the top 10 of 50 cars and not get to race...This is racing right?!!
I think the signal loss had to be a localized event (or one specific cable company) ... I've got Comcast and did NOT lose my signal ... Whereas ESPN's problem hit those who got the West Coast feed ...
I think SPEED taped the qualifying so that they could air the first two hours of the Petit Le Mans ...
The "Big One" will happen in the front of the field ... Way too many cars will start the race looser than a goose in qualifying trim ... This was gonna be the problem back in July with the Pepsi 400, but since they DQ'D qualifying, there were fewer GoGHers in the field and they started in the back ...
Gotta say _this_ is Compelling TV right now!
Top 10 so far all GO OR GO HOME..Somebody is going to qualify in the top 10 of 50 cars and not get to race...This is racing right?!!
October 6, 2007 2:40 PM
That's what happens with an impound race. Cars locked in are all in race trim, while those that need to qualify on time are in qualifying trim. Which means all those cars not in race trim up front at the start.
"Top 10 so far all GO OR GO HOME..Somebody is going to qualify in the top 10 of 50 cars and not get to race...This is racing right?!!"
It's an impound race, the top 35 in points are in race trim.
Guess I type too slow...
Hey Guys,
SPEED has said they had no loss of signal in today's qualifying.
The SPEED schedule was out for many months, and the Petit LeMans folks understood the NASCAR issue.
Randy Pemberton has done a good job on pit road, and Wendy is on top of her game as usual.
Larry McReynolds has been a standout, he seems to know everything about this sport and his level of knowledge and passion is what I miss on the ESPN/ABC telecasts.
As this is a blog site to TV issues, please drop me an email before you post any kind of results or a link please. Thanks.
I'm interested to know if the top-35 guys are worried about starting behind all of these cars in qualifying trim? Are the ESPN people smart enough to ask?
R. H. said...
"Top 10 so far all GO OR GO HOME..Somebody is going to qualify in the top 10 of 50 cars and not get to race...This is racing right?!!"
It's an impound race, the top 35 in points are in race trim.
Yes, but name another series where if you had 9th or 10th fastest time out off 51 cars you would not make the race? Not even Nationwide or ARCA provisionals would let that happen to any car in top 10. It just makes a scripeted top 35, Racing should be for the fastest at the current event.
Jason - I think JJ Yeley's interview pretty much summed up what the top 35 are thinking (but they just don't want to admit it) ... Chaos will ensue tomorrow ...
Bud Pole winner is fishy ... Did some corporation make a generous donation to the Brian France Foundation??
I don't disagree that the top 35 rule is bad, but this shows the difference between race trim and qualifying trim. If they were all in qualifying trim, it would not turn out like this. That is why it isn't true qualifying, and why telivising the top 35 is a joke.
If any problems in the beginning, it will be NASCAR's fault for making this an impound race, Why make an impound with so many unknowns with COT, Plates and Talladega. NASCAR seems to want something big to happen during Football season.
I'd like to know who in Nascar land makes the decision on which races are impound races. Having a super speedway race an impound race is stupid. There are too many changes the crews make between race trim and qualifying trim. Now we have a bunch of guys qualified up front that are going to be racing in qualifying trim. Big wreck waiting to happen tomorrow. If Nascar insists on having impound races, they should limit it to the short tracks where the difference between qualifying trim and race trim is slight.
But then if I knew how Brian thought, I'd either have his job or a headache.......
Good Job MWR
Mikey will get to race in the Bud shootout in February.
What an amazing qualifying session. There will be a column shortly about this mess at Talladega. What a crazy day.
This was by far the worst coverage of qualifying by any network this year. First of all it was inexplicably tape-delayed, and since they had to get it finished before the Truck Series pre-race show, they had to edit out a ton of qualifying runs to fit their 2 1/2 window. There were several points where they obviously skipped 8-9 minute chunks, skipping 2 cars' full 3 lap runs (including the warm-up laps) and then the warm up and first qualifying lap of the next car. Plus, just like ESPN, they skipped several go-or-go home cars. This is especially inexcusable at Talladega, because not only are go-or-go homers the most important story because of the go-or-go-home drama, but because of the impound we knew one those cars would end up occupying the pole and the other top 8 qualifying positions. Kevin Lepage was completely ingored during a break and they missed the provisional pole run of Brian Vickers AND THE POLE RUN of Michael Waltrip. Completely ridiculous and poor coverage.
The guys in the booth did a pretty good job following the go-or-go homes situation as each go-or-go homer ran. The only issue I had was seeing them go crazy when Carl Edwards ran on the apron in the tri-oval during his lap. Tons of cars did that very thing throughout the day, but when Edwards did it right at the end of the session they went nuts saying how they have never seen anything like that before.
Wendy normally does a good job but I thought she struggled today. She asked Villeneuve a question about how the bump-drafting felt in practice when we all knew he only practiced in single-car mock qualifying runs. Then she ended a question to Joe Nemechek saying "and unfortunately you knocked out Scott Riggs". How is Joe supposed to respond to that? I'm sure he didn't feel too bad about it.
As an aside, the impound rule is terrible. As Larry Mac said, it doesn't save the go-or-go homers any money because they still work on qualifying trim, and gives them a huge disadvantage in the race. Today, what was it, the top 11 qualifiers were go-or-go homers, and Dale Jarrett, who qualified 8th, has to start 43rd because that's where the 8th fastest go-or-go-homer has to start when the champion's provisional isn't used.
Ugh, I am completely disgusted with Speed and NASCAR right now.
I want to give a thank you to Steve Byrnes. I could tell by the pauses that he made a conscious effort to avoid saying “provisional pole”. It is much appreciated.
Either the SPEED folks have finally gotten around to reading their mail or they are reading John’s blog.
A big thank you, John.
I do NOT live on the West Coast (Midwest) and lost SPEED for several minutes...so if it is NOT a SPEED THING and not a LOCAL cable thing,
what was the problem?? Or does SPEED ACKNOWLEDGE Problems??
After today, they resemble ESPN. I finally left when they did not show Schrader and Waltrip and went to the grocery.
YAY! Go Mikey!!!!!!!!!!!
SOPHIA from second computer in da house :-)
How in the world do you tape qualifying and not show the polesitters run????? 2-1/2 hours of coverage to show runs, what not enough time!!!!
What a crazy qualifying! Even the Speed commentators were kind of speechless because the results will be so out of whack with the 9, 10, 11, 13 and 15 spots all being bumped. They even were speechless when talking about the beginning of the race tomorrow and what may happen with the top 8 positions in qualifying trim. I felt like everyone was in a bit of shock from the results!
Sophia-
I believe that the west coast feed was the problem with ESPN. SPEED says they didn’t have a signal problem. In central Florida, I have brighthouse cable and didn’t have any problems. It may come down to a specific cable provider having a problem.
This shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone. The same thing was going to happen in the last plate race at Daytona before the rain hit. The top 7 cars were go-or-go homers (Bill Elliott was going to use the champion's provisional so only the top 7 go-or-go homers mattered), and David Reutimann was on the bubble in 7th place overall before the rain came and cancelled the rest of the session. I knew Larry Mac was wrong when he predicted the fastest DNQ car would be 20th and apparently the guys in the Speed production truck that had to edit out 10 minute chunks of the session to fit their 2 1/2 hour timeslot didn't see it coming either because they willingly turned off the record button when Waltrip, Vickers, and several other go-or-go homers ran.
Lisa,
I too live in Central Florida with Brighthouse but had a signal problem.
Thanks Lisa.
Ok, let's try THIS.
How many that lost signal have TIME WARNER?
;-)
Soph
p.s. I agree the qual coverage STANK.
SLFan
I agree. SPEED REALLY MISSED THE MARK and to miss the pole sitter is LUDICROUS and BAD, horrible judgement call. >:-(
John,
What type of delay is needed to have something listed as Tape-Delayed coverage. Golf always seems to make clear on the braodcast if something being shown happened earlier ie. starting 2 hours early to beat the rain. Speed does list some programing as Same Day Tape Delayed, why not the ARCA or Cup broadcast's. Thanks
I think someone was trying to test us today to see how we would react to someone other than ESPN having a terrible day. Speed stuck us with tape-delayed coverage and skipped TONS of qualifying runs to edit it down into a 2 1/2 hour window. They also skipped several go-or-go home cars, including the cars that ended up qualifying 1st and 3rd overall. Apparently they also lost the signal in some parts of the country just like ESPN did a few times this year.
Well guess what, today proved that when the coverage is terrible on Speed Channel we bash them too! So all the ESPN sympathists can back off saying that we all have some sort of vendetta against the four letter network. We hate terrible coverage, that's it, no matter what channel it's on.
Karen-
The plot thickens :)
I have bright house basic/standard cable and nothing else through bright house.
Do you have a different level of service?
Lisa,
Yeah; a bunch of extra stuff with most of the premium channels, plus Roadrunner. Way expensive!
Thanks Karen-
O.K. all you tech guys/gals, maybe it was a problem with the higher levels of service on cable. Any ideas?
Sophia - IF you've got Time Warner cable, that might've been the problem ... I know others with that company & they've lost SPEED at other times ...
does anyone know if SPEED will re-air qualifying? I missed it.
Signal trouble.
South Florida.
Comcast digital cable.
Went out when JV was getting ready to make his run.
For the record, when SPEED's signal went away on my cable system, I immediately switched to DirecTV and continued watching the coverage. SPEED did NOT lose their signal. It appears to have been a Time Warner Cable problem, either locally in L.A. or nationally.
BTW, I "saw" Waltrip's lap on RaceView and Pit Command, but I agree that it would have been nice to see a replay.
Also "for the record", things like replaying MW's pole lap are not affected by the tape delay. At the venue, SPEED's production team treat the event as if it were live, covering and announcing as events unfold. It's not like they see things happen and decide what to air 10 minutes later.
It may not have been SPEED's best coverage, but it's still better than what little we might have seen on ESPN.
Allan
Deespite their TiVo-like coverage, which usually works well, SPEED managed to miss airing the run of the ultimate pole-sitter.
Good work, guys.
Thanks Allan Wells :)
Well, Hello, if MORE than TIME WARNER lost their signal, then it ain't a TW issue.
So if it isn't a SPEED ISSUE, who's issue is it? Maybe JD can explain that since it was ALL OVER THE COUNTRY from west coast, to Ohio to Florida and who knows where else.
Also, I have heard of folks losting stations ONLY on satellite so I think it's all a crapshoot.
Still, I thought SPEEDS Qual coverage STANK in general. Before one commercial they said, Schrader, Waltrip and Blaney came up next and we only saw Blaney.
SPEED must be learning from ESPee U how to annoy their fans.
I'm on Dishnetwork and did not have any transmission problems.
Anonymous October 6, 2007 5:13 PM
There's NO re-airing of qualifying because of the Petit Le Mans and F1 Shanghai coverage on SPEED ...
Hey guys,
Lots of big cable companies use central facilities to insert local commercials. They take down the network feed and then "turn it around" to the cable companies. Since the cable companies have fixed dishes, they get stuck with problems when their feed goes down.
SPEED did not have any problems nationally with their feed. Isn't cable TV fun?
Lisa: Steve Byrnes is a regular reader of this blog and emails me often with his reactions to both the columns and the comments...shhh..don't tell.
Anon: In the new world order of digital time shifting (TiVo and DVR hard drives) the events listed as tape delay or same day delay are the ones that are intended to be done that way. SPEED got caught in a bind and simply chose to wing-it on their qualifying. As you can see from the comments, that causes problems when you have to cut out content for time and format.
Great comments, good questions, smart fans...thanks for stopping-by.
JD
But it was in the MIDDLE of the show, not during a commercial when many across the country LOST SPEED on different cable providers?
I am totally confused.
Anyway to unconfuse me?
Sorry if I sound like the class dunce.
Sophia,
I have a message into the SPEED guys. Normally, when the people who watch directly off a satellite dish in their home have no problem, its a cable company problem.
The big cable operators are called MSO's (multi-system operators) and when one of them has a problem, it can affect millions of viewers. Right now, I belive that is the case. I had a bunch of friends from across the country review this program on their DVR's, and the had no interruption.
I'll chase it down eventually. Just know that when a Fox Cable Network has a problem, you would immediately see a network ID and then filler program or commercial. The tip that this is a cable company problem is...nothing happened. Did I mention cable is a lot of fun?
JD
Thanks for the MSO explanation. That helped me to see the connection. ;-)
One of the benefits of posting here is not just your passion for this thing we call NASCAR, but you know the technical side as well.
Thanks for always being so kind and open to questions here.
Much appreciated.
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