Saturday, October 6, 2007

In-Progress At Talladega: NEXTEL Cup On ABC Sports


Sunday at 1PM Eastern Daylight Time ABC will carry the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series race from Talladega. NASCAR Countdown will begin the broadcast with a one hour pre-race show, and the actual race coverage begins at 2PM.

Suzy Kolber will host NASCAR Countdown and anchor the Infield Studio during the race. Alongside of Kolber will be Brad Daugherty and a possible guest who has not yet been named.

In the announce booth will be Dr. Jerry Punch, Rusty Wallace, and Andy Petree. Down on pit road will be Allen Bestwick, Mike Massaro, Jamie Little, and Dave Burns.

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Talladega In-Progress: RaceDay On SPEED


Sunday at noon Eastern Daylight Time SPEED will present RaceDay from Talladega. This will be a two hour program, and the second hour of this live show will be going head-to-head with NASCAR Countdown on ABC.

John Roberts hosts this series, with Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace alongside on the SPEED Stage. Wendy Venturini is the reporter for the program, and along with covering the happenings in the garage, she provides the Real Deal interview feature which is pre-produced during the week.

Contributors to this series include former driver Hermie Sadler, who provides track and race information along with driving laps in SPEED-1, the network's camera car that provides viewers an in-car track description. Former MTV host Ricky Rachtman also appears to participate in the weekly picks of the race winner.

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Talladega Qualifying "Drama" Unfolds On SPEED


The focus of the weekend at Talladega was clearly on the fact that forty-three drivers would be piloting a COT when the green flag fell. Stories in the media centered on drafting, passing, and even the dreaded restrictor plate.

What most of the print and Internet media failed to mention was the fact that qualifying for this race was going to be a sports moment to be remembered. The words "impound race" are universally hated around the garage, and totally embraced by the NASCAR administration. This simple procedure along with the "top 35" rule has worked to create two entirely different competitions on qualifying day.

With ESPN and ABC stepping aside for both the practice and qualifying at Talladega, the SPEED team of Steve Byrnes, Jeff Hammond, and Larry McReynolds made the most of this opportunity. These three in the booth for qualifying really show the key weakness of the ESPN broadcast team. The casual and personal approach of SPEED simply cannot be topped by the formal and impersonal format of the ESPN/ABC gang.

When SPEED throws in the experienced Randy Permberton and the very well-connected Wendy Venturini on pit road, viewers cannot help but think of Jamie Little and Dave Burns on ESPN. The tone and approach of Pemberton and Venturini allows the NASCAR personalities to have fun and talk plainly about what is actually going-on at the track.

This season, we have seen several episodes where various NASCAR drivers have felt that ESPN has "violated" the normally good rapport that the TV networks covering the sport have with the drivers, crew chiefs, and owners. SPEED does not have their reporters throw softballs, but they approach issues from an informative rather than tabloid perspective.

As the Talladega qualifying wound down, SPEED could have shown the faces of the drivers and the crew chiefs as their cars were bumped out of the field. They could have shoved the microphone in their faces and said "how do you feel about that?" They did not. What they did instead was keep the focus on the action on the track and interview the personalities involved in the on-going stories of this crazy day.

SPEED's Steve Byrnes has become a very versatile announcer, and his frustration about the qualifying procedures and the "go or go home" cars showed him to still be a fan. Suggestions on changes for next year included heat races and reducing the number of teams guaranteed to race. Byrnes has not been afraid to bring-up topics sensitive to the NASCAR executives, and the SPEED team did that several times.

As the "embarrassing" afternoon of qualifying came to an end, it was clear that this was a moment that needed a veteran perspective and a calm head to explain. Though not a language scholar, Larry McReynolds has proven this year that he is far and away the best NASCAR analyst in the TV business.

Fans watched McReynolds anchor the Fox package, and then single-handedly keep the struggling TNT NASCAR coverage on-track with his insightful comments from the spinning infield stage. Often on TNT, the announcers in the booth would literally seek out McReynolds to "interpret" what was happening in the race.

Saturday on SPEED, McReynolds carefully laid-out for viewers that these normally slow cars were only leading the speed charts because of the impound format and the fact that the top 35 teams were already locked-in. He kept the two different "races" in perspective, and organized for viewers who was on the bubble, even though that driver might be in the top ten in speed. When is the last time that happened?

SPEED deserves credit for calling it like it was, with the "go or go home" cars in qualifying trim and everyone else in their racing configuration. Several veteran teams seemed to purposefully be coasting their way through qualifying, giving further proof to the mistakes in this new system.

In wrapping things up with "pole-sitter" Micheal Waltrip, SPEED's Randy Pemberton kept things in perspective and let Waltrip choose his own words when trying to legitimize the fact that he was fastest on this day. There was no need to try and put Waltrip deeper into a situation that he was already going to be spending a lot of time explaining to the media.

Unfortunately, time constraints did not allow the run of every car to be show, and hopefully this is something that the NASCAR TV partners can address for the 2008 season. As this sport continually changes, it is clear that all of the competitors should be treated equally when it comes to showing NEXTEL Cup qualifying to a national TV audience.

With SPEED Channel now reaching slightly more than seventy million cable homes across the nation, there is a real feeling among fans that the disparity between the SPEED qualifying coverage and that of ESPN may need to be addressed down the road.

It is one of the most popular Internet topics on chat boards and in The Daly Planet email. How can things be so comfortable and casual one week, and so impersonal and over-blown just one week later?

NASCAR fans will have a chance to compare for themselves when qualifying and practice for the NEXTEL Cup and Busch Series returns to ESPN next weekend in Charlotte, NC.

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In-Progress At Talladega: Craftsman Trucks On SPEED


This afternoon at 3:30PM SPEED will carry the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series live from Talladega. The telecast will begin with The Set-Up pre-race show for thirty minutes, and the event coverage begins at 4PM Eastern Daylight Time.

Krista Voda will host the Set-up show as she has done all season. Rick Allen will call the play-by-play on the race, with Phil Parsons doing the color. On pit road for both the pre-race and the race itself will be Adam Alexander and Bob Dillner.

On Thursday of this week, The Daly Planet broke the news that SPEED veteran Ray Dunlap had again been suspended by the network. Dunlap will miss the next three Truck Series races, and return in November at Texas. SPEED will not comment on the reason for the suspension.

Earlier in his career, Dunlap was suspended for his comments on a live SPEED program for one week. The network did make clear that in this case, it was not for something that happened on-the-air. The said it was a personnel issue.

UPDATE: SPEED has said that Tony Stewart will be Krista Voda's guest on the pre-race show. That should be interesting.

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In-Progress At Talladega: NEXTEL Cup Qualifying On SPEED


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.