Sunday, February 17, 2008

In-Progress At Daytona: 50th Daytona 500 On Fox Sports


The build-up to this race on Fox has been supported by the hard work of both the SPEED and Fox crews for the last several weeks. Beginning with pre-season testing, SPEED has filled the role of hosting almost all of the on and off-track NASCAR TV programming including the Sprint Cup qualifying.

Now, the torch is passed once again to the most experienced NASCAR TV crew in the history of the sport. No group has been deeper in experience and the understanding of the inner-workings of NASCAR. The intensity of Larry McReynolds, the enthusiasm of Darrell Waltrip and the calm leadership of Mike Joy have formed an on-air team that provides NASCAR fans all the information needed to enjoy a race.

On pit road, Fox uses the low-key but very effective group of Matt Yocum, Steve Byrnes, Dick Berggren and Krista Voda to follow-up the on-going stories of the race. This group has quietly provided the information that allows the announcers in the booth to be fearless in asking questions and expecting answers.

Jeff Hammond continues to provide the counterpoint to Larry McReynolds. His style is so very different that he often points out the aspects of competition and mechanical issues that require a little different perspective than McReynolds. During the 500, especially with the tire and engine issues waiting in the wings, Hammond may wind-up providing some key information.

This telecast will provide the foundation for a season of live Sprint Cup coverage. The importance of this race on TV to set the tone for the year cannot be understated. Last season, this TV package went downhill once Fox departed, and never recovered. This season, there is a renewed sense of optimism on the part of the NASCAR TV partners. Hopefully, this one telecast will start the ball rolling in the right direction.

This post will serve to host your comments about the Daytona 500 on Fox Sports. I would stress to you that this is not a racing board, it is a blog that focuses on the TV coverage of the sport. Please keep the focus of your comments on the TV coverage aspects of the race today.

To add your opinion, just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. We do not need your email, and there is nothing to join. We would just like to know what you think about the Daytona 500 coverage from Fox Sports. Thank you for taking the time to stop by.

312 comments:

1 – 200 of 312   Newer›   Newest»
Anonymous said...

John,

Please oh please, could you tell Speed to leave that annoying, not-needed, stupid music while we are trying to get the facts?

Why in the heck do these producers think that we aren't amped up and this distracting music will make us fired up?

I don't get it.

Unknown said...

All you Diretv people, the Hotpass is free this weekend. I am gonna see how it works, flip back and forth between Fox and it.

So the race is on, we get a nice country video intro, much better than the Aerosmith, cept it appears the song was written for DW :(

BillWebz

bevo said...

I have now discovered a song worse than Achy Breaky Heart...

Sophia said...

I wonder if this is a FOX THEME?

Sigh.

It's annoying but I must say IMHO, it's not as weird as that B Shelton Choir deal (NO OFFENSE to his fans) This melody is easier on the ears..and it's more racing oriented. But who is the singer?

But they do waste air time but I think IRL does the same thing...remember that horrible song that did not last too long by KISS singer. Ugh

5 letter word very! BINGO

Anonymous said...

OMG....

They made a song about DW's ridiculous intro??????

Cripes....

I think I'd rather hear Aerosmith.....

(Like DW would have ever followed the online poll results about if or if not to 'boggity boggity' if it had not been hijacked)

That song was horrid....
As well as Brian Frances mug to start the broadcast.

Sophia said...

bevo

the song ain't that bad is it.

It looks cloudy in parts of the sky.
Anybody know the weather forecast for the race?

some sky is blue with white clouds.

Makes me nervous

Unknown said...

I just read on nascar.com, green flag at 3:40 pm ET? I have an 1 and forty minutes to wait? Everyone has been counting down (Nascar.com, jatski, speed) to 2 pm. I feel jipped!

BillWebz

bevo said...

Sound not synched on HotPass national feed (794)

Sophia said...

I take it since it has the Boogity in it it's going to be around awhile.

My room mate just asked if Brian France is a camera hog as he has been on tv so much already, lol.

It is the DAYTONA.

Anonymous said...

Its like everyone all of a sudden hates all music videos!! why is that? Its a nice addition to the broadcast written for DW or not.

ESPN made the mistake of overusing the areosmith video. Now it seems because of that, everyone hates ALL music videos.

Sophia said...

OMG! Gopher cam cartoon GRAPHIC?? What a waste of tv screen time if we have to see THAT everytime they use the "Gopher cam"

SHEESH...fox gonna be just like ESPN?

The truth will be in the FINISH LINE...will we see more than 1-2 cars FINISH????

Unknown said...

Bevo you had to point out that channel 794, flipped over to it just in time to see Jeff Hammond singing Greased Lightning. How will I sleep tonight?

BillWebz

Sophia said...

OUCH! I will take the opening video over that noise we heard from Jeff going to commercial..LOL is this commercial FOX version of 'draft tracker'????

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
bevo said...

Please tell me we aren't going to see those two singing and dancing!

sophiaz-

anything with boogity in the lyrics is automatically that bad ;)

Anonymous said...

????greased Lightning? Get a rope!!

Anonymous said...

OK, the "Greased Lightening" segment was one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. And one of the funniest.

Don't give up your day jobs, guys. :-)

--KarenB

Anonymous said...

SophiaZ123 said...
OUCH! I will take the opening video over that noise we heard from Jeff going to commercial..LOL is this commercial FOX version of 'draft tracker'????

February 17, 2008 2:11 PM

FOX did silly stuff like that last year, and no one said anything. That's what makes FOX different.

Newracefan said...

I hope they paid Hammond and company lots of money to do that Grease take off snd please never repeat it except at the Christmas party bloopers reel OMG I didn't know weather to laugh my A off or hold my ears

bevo said...

13 driver audio feeds on HotPass this year... nice!


Bill h-

Sorry Buddy!

bevo said...

Audio problem seems to be getting worse on HotPass. Kind of like watching an old Godzilla movie :)

Anonymous said...

There is 90 more minutes before green flag, including a concert presented by Spring. You better eat, that's what we're about to do!

That DW song is definitely the new FOX on NASCAR music for this season. I read about it twice in USA Today. It's called "NASCAR Lovin'".

I don't have a problem with the music videos personally, as long as its not during green flag racing, we're flexible.

But then I don't get hyped up about the music that much. I ignored Aerosmith after a while and thought using Rhianna's Shut Up and Drive was clever, it sounded just like an 1980s song sung by the Go-Gos. She was even kind of dressed like the Go-Gos.

Greased Lightening was funny.

Anonymous said...

Philadelphia FOX is not broadcasting in HD after the intro for some reason

Anonymous said...

(Like DW would have ever followed the online poll results about if or if not to 'boggity boggity' if it had not been hijacked)

The exec producer of FOX sports David Hill said that even if the poll had really said no, he would have overrulled anyway. He said BBB is staying as long as he's in charge - and he is in charge.

Sophia said...

bevo

BUMMER about that GODZILLA effect...I notice that all over tv nowadays on different shows and at random...because video and audio downloads at different speeds and more complex things than I can explain.

i have sometimes had to turn of the NCTS pre race because Krista because the audio is so bad. GODZILLA effect indeed.

Hope it gets better for you

great seeing Cale on the tv and Ken S again

Anonymous said...

It just goes to show you that you can't please everybody all the time.

If the broadcast crews actually depended on these blogs to produce their shows they would be so schizophrenic none of us would watch.

Anonymous said...

OK folks, What does this have to do with racing? Most of what we are seeing is not race information, not reporting, not news, and damn sure not entertaining. It is just stupid.

The price for any actual race information is too high. I am off to do some things around the place and I will listen on the radio. I can't sit through another season of ESPN/FOX "racetainment".

Unknown said...

I wonder if Fox is going to be doing this all year, taking their pre-race show and listing it as the race, instead of have it listed seperatly?

I just watched 3 hours of Prerace on Speed, really dont want to see another 1 1/2 of it.

BillWebz

Anonymous said...

If ESPN ever debuted something like "Gopher Cam" with an actual cartoon gopher, you guys would go nuts talking about how out of touch and ridiculous ESPN is. The fact is, the cameras aren't a bad idea, but like Fox does with everything else, they have to have a ridiculous angle with it. In this case it's the gopher. For football, it's the ridiculous robot that does nothing but jump up and down and point, and with baseball it's the talking ball that tells you how a pitch moves. There's a reason everything Rupert Murdoch touches becomes the laughing stock of its industry. Fox is the worst of the major broadcast networks, always going for shock and skin over substance. Their news channel is unfair and unbalanced, and their major newspaper, the NY Post, is at best just one step above a tabloid.

Furthermore, if the ESPN crew ever started singing "Greased Lightning," people would lose their lunch. Luckily, I ate about an hour ago.

Finally, their reporters have been awful. They look like they're trying to recite a rehearsed script. Can't wait for "boogity boogity boogity."

Newracefan said...

It's Daytona, lets wait till next week before we start complaining. Rememeber there are some who do not watch as many different shows as we do.

bevo said...

HotPass audio is now synched!

Anonymous said...

I'm watching Philly Fox in HD terrestrial right now.

Are you comcast? or what?

Anonymous said...

No HD for WTXF fox philly

Unknown said...

I have noticed that on sound on some channels also on DirecTv. One thing I have never understood about Directv, The Fox broadcast out NYC always seems muffled, versus the same exact broadcast out of LA. It is almost as if DirecTV is taking the NYC broadcast off of an antenna and then shooting it up to their satelite.

On the Hotpass channels, waiting for them to start, I wish they could just put a camera and feed of the infield on there, let us see what is happening on the stage (ie intros, kudos to past drivers etc). We never see that broadcast except for the All star race.

BillWebz

Anonymous said...

Bill H said...
I wonder if Fox is going to be doing this all year, taking their pre-race show and listing it as the race, instead of have it listed seperatly?

I just watched 3 hours of Prerace on Speed, really dont want to see another 1 1/2 of it.

BillWebz

February 17, 2008 2:24 PM

That's why we skipped prerace on SPEED and whatever has been on Fox until now. Just got home and booting up and getting settled around the TV.

And ESPN is guilty of it too, many times on NASCAR Now on Sunday AM they would say the "race coverage" was starting at 1:30 or 2, when it was really an hour prerace show at that time. They won't specify it's separate unless they have to though NASCAR Countdown has a separate name from the race and they could have called it by its proper name.

bevo said...

anonymous 2:25 -

I don't recall seeing any comments praising Fox for the stupid singing or the gopher cam.

Unknown said...

Mike joy and disco - what can I say...

BillWebz

Unknown said...

This prerace show, they should be showing the driver intros, more interviews, talk to the crew chiefs. Why all this canned stuff, most of it seems to have come from Speed last week?

BillWebz

Anonymous said...

I, for one, am excited about the long pre-race. In Chicago we have thunderstorms and if Directv goes out for a while, it should be back up before they go racing!! :-)

bevo said...

bill h-

Just noticed on the guide that HotPass cuts off at 7:00 pm Central. We might have a problem at the end of the race.

Anonymous said...

So your saying WTFXDT Ch 29-1 is not HD?

Or is it just portions of the pre-race show are not all HD?

Sophia said...

I am enjoying DW with the old vet racers! :)

Anonymous said...

We liked the Grease singing. We also liked it when DW and Hammond dressed up and did a pretend used-car salesman commercial last year.

No prob, it's all in fun.

You guys have never seen Terry Bradshaw, eh?

Anonymous said...

My point wasn't that people were praising the "gopher cam." My point was that had it been on ESPN, there'd be 54 messages talking about how ridiculous it is.

Sean said...

Did the race start this late last year?








srv1002007

Anonymous said...

So your saying WTFXDT Ch 29-1 is not HD?

Or is it just portions of the pre-race show are not all HD?

The whole thing is not in HD on WTXF HD on Comcast Reading,PA

Sean said...

Good segment with the old school guys

Anonymous said...

That must be a Comcast issue then because over-air-signal is definitely HD

PS Is there really any need to discuss ESPN in the first race of the year?

Newracefan said...

Just lost the HD feed on Comcast Fox for a few minutes, black screen, but regular feed was ok. Of course I'm DVR the HD feed this could be really bad if it happens during the race

Anonymous said...

Either Fox or local affiliate is having problems too as they just went to color bars during Franchitti's interview and then came back during Steve Burns interview.

bevo said...

I'm tuning out until the race starts, thought they would be showing the stuff going on at the track for the 50th anniversary.

Anonymous said...

Does Fox keep screwing up and showing the same Mike Joy recaps of the decades?

Unprofessional.

Unknown said...

I was hoping they would be showing the infield stuff also.

Now what is this "Ask Junior"?

BillWebz

Newracefan said...

DW were with you

Anonymous said...

How many times are we going to see that same 1979 fight, DW's winning interview or Brian France not saying anything of substance. It's driving me crazy!

Unknown said...

On Hotpass, they say race starts in 29 (3:25) minutes, so when is the official start your engines?

BillWebz

Newracefan said...

Fox say 3:40

Unknown said...

Now we see some of the pre-race infield stuff. Chubby is lipsyncing :(

BillWebz

Newracefan said...

Chubby can you say lip sync

Anonymous said...

Can Chubby find any tighter jeans??????

Unknown said...

At least Colonel Sanders isn't lipsyncincing.

Like the older cars on the track.

BillWebz

Anonymous said...

Not only is he lip syncing, he is doing it absolutely horribly.

To be fair though, this crap happens at every big TV event. I'm not sure why the networks are all afraid of live performances, but they all appear to feel the same way about it.

Newracefan said...

old cars on the track is cool. At least now I unserstand why the old musical acts
Chubby 60s Mcdo... 70s etc

Sophia said...

too bad Chubby lip synched but maybe he doesn't feel he is still in good voice...I love all the old music and seeing the old cars though...I love music of all types including Big Band and classical..it's the head banging noise/gangsta rap junk that gets to me.

I think they will hit all decades for most of us :) and I always heard Brooks and Dunn were friends with Dale Sr..and he was in a couple of their videos.

so should be something for everybody today.

Unless you are a curmudgeon or under 20 yrs old ;-)

Anonymous said...

I don't believe Fox is responsible for this show. Nascar is.

Fox is only covering it.

Sophia said...

Kool and the gang lipsynched as you could tell by the fade out. :)

Anonymous said...

disco will never die!

Sophia said...

or maybe they had enhance vocal backup...that's ok with me...no tech glitches that way...we KNOW these folks can perform.

Anonymous said...

Dale Jr. looked quite bored.

Sophia said...

Show more of the cars.

The 3 car just came out....:(

still hard to believe he is gone....Jr mentioned once in an article that these tributes trigger a memory of his dad...like a hunting trip or swimming deal..and then BOOM back to the reality of being at the race track. Wonder how Jr will feel on lap THREE. . .

Unknown said...

Sophia I agree. Meaning no disrepect, but they should let it go.

BillWebz

Newracefan said...

I think they put the 3 by the stage because they didn't want someone driving it on the track with the other old cars

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Dale Jr looked bored because it's not his kind of music. (I doubt it is for most of the drivers.) Plus he's probably ready to race.

I'm amazed that people say they hate rap yet love Junior's new show, which is full of rapping and "rap/rock" in the musical montages. Likely Junior's choice.

Naw, everybody is oldies this year. NASCAR/Daytona designed it that way to prevent people from complaining like last year.

I love old music, but think it's insulting that they're purposely leaving out newer music. The Super Bowl preshow had Willie Nelson AND Alicia Keys, somehow they managed OK with the 40 year generation gap. ;)

Newracefan said...

I enjoyed the music, guess I'm a Brooks and Dunn fan, who knew

PG_Harley said...

OK... kind of like the Superbowl, but not! Sure would be nice if we could have some more 50th anniversary musings rather than a show.

I must say that it was truly touching to see DW get choked up after the Dale Earnhart piece.

So far overall rating a C.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't the choice of music to reflect 50 yrs of races at Daytona?

Anonymous said...

How CUTE is Jeff and indrid's little girl!

Anonymous said...

That baby is as cute as a button and looks like him I think.

Anonymous said...

My silly wish is for Jeff's daughter to marry Juan Pablo Montoya's little son (around 2 yrs old I think.) Talk about gorgeous little toddlers, Montoya has two of 'em.

Unknown said...

Get off the shaky cam!

Is it that windy there??

Anonymous said...

I found the decade-by-decade show wonderful, especially the cars on the track.
There can never be too many tributes to Dale.

Makiki

Unknown said...

Nosound on the Hotpass - am I supposed to pick a source or something?

Anonymous said...

Bill - I'm not getting the hotpass audio either - only the network feed.

Anonymous said...

hotpass scanner is working, however!

Unknown said...

Got audio now - must have been a hiccup. Gonna give this a shot this week (HotPass), bounce back and forth between it and Fox, see if it is worth the money.

BillWebz

Sophia said...

Hope you guys with Hotpass get things working. BIG RACE.

On another note, these 'talking drivers' on my screen are kind of scary. :-)

Haus14 said...

only network audio for me as well on hotpass

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Man was that starting line up WEAK!

Bad audio, and I'm sure Mike Joy voiced over more than one of them.
PATHETIC FOX!!

Anonymous said...

Introducing the drivers AND their home towns was a nice innovation.

Makiki

Sophia said...

HUGE SIGH

Disappointed in the new stupid gopher cam Fox 'toy'.

USELESS. Another zoom zoom toy.

WIDE SHOTS

WIDE ANGLES

PERSPECTIVE OF CARS on the track.

My word. :(

Give us the old fashioned racing with just lots of cars on the tv screen.

Thank you

Gopher cam overused already.

Anonymous said...

Ok, can we get back to JD's point for this blog: to comment on TV coverage

I for one am glad to have experienced professionals back in the booth

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Daly Planet Editor said...

OK folks, with the race underway we are going to limit the comments to the TV coverage. Thanks!

JD

Sophia said...

Nice car sound....audio is nice and balanced

Unknown said...

Okthe Gopher cam is cute - please dont use it everytime they are in a turn fox!!!!!!!!!!!

Sophia said...

thank you BillH||gopher cam AN ESPN like gimmick and makes me have vertigo.

sorry they are announcing Harvick may be blowing up already

Give us above the car shots on the turns....headlights not tailights and CERTAINLY not the undercarriage.

Disappointing. takes away from perspective. Gonna have to check my FM station for MRN

Anonymous said...

I'd say in 10 laps we seen the gopher cam about a total of 30 seconds.

Jeez people give it a chance. If they never tried new things we wouldn't have in car cameras.

By the way, Mike Joy finally brought up Dale Jr's name in lap 9.

Unknown said...

So fare the Hotpass is a little too much, but it has its good points. Love the side by side when there is a commercial. Like flipping between it and Fox when Fox goes off on a tangent sticks to one driver for a lap or 2.

BillWebz

Vince said...

Well, the camera shots stink so far. Come on Director, just show us the race. Quit the artsy shots and the gopher cam. Just show the cars in a wide shot already. Geez this ain't rocket science!

Anonymous said...

I liked the drivers introducing themselves - very nice touch.

I wished they would have gotten a big camera shot of the former winners instead of concentrating on the Brooks and Dunn music. Did we even see a group shot of all the former winners? I saw them mostly from the back.

I guess Chris Myers' new deal is "The Hit List". Seemed OK.

That was a rude cameraperson who kept the camera on and was walking though people during the invocation, making them move though their heads were bowed.

One nice thing: I didn't see any celebrities on camera, if they were there I didn't see them. Remember in years past when whoever had a movie coming out was front and center at Daytona? Nicolas Cage, Ben Affleck, John Travolta. or they made a big deal of Britney Spears a few years back. Good move NASCAR to mimimize them if they're there.

Unknown said...

Commercial every 8 to 10 laps, very predictible on Fox's part.

BillWebz

Anonymous said...

Where are all the new commercials they were gonna do like they do with the superbowl?

So far I like Waltrip's napa commercial best.

All the other commercials have been in use for months if not years.

Anonymous said...

The drivers introducing themselves is a practice MRN Radio has used for a few years.

Also, I hope they don't use that gopher graphic everytime they use the gopher cam.

Anonymous said...

If this race stays under green for awhile, it's going to seem like the commercial breaks are occurring at a quicker rate. It also could be that they're front-loading the commercial breaks.

Sophia said...

Well they keep up the zooom and camera crap, I got the FM tuned to MRN

We want to see the cars in the race not stupid "ARTSY" shots and gopher cams as others mentioned.

I am glad it's not me

First ESPN does not get it and apparently FOX does not either.

SPEED is the only one to just show MORE racing and less zoom and UNDER the car shots.

Most disappointing.

FOX director has ESPN itis

But to be fair, FOX has junked up all the sports as another person mentioned.

bevo said...

On the HotPass drivers channels if you toggle to team audio during the commercials you don't get the audio of the commercial.

Also on 794 if you push the red button you can choose 13 other driver to crew channels for audio

Anonymous said...

What happened to Harvick? Did they ever followup? He is the defending champion!

Anonymous said...

I wonder about the commercials too I read that 25 drivers were going to be in different commercials today.

J.J. said...

Junior is in second.

Cue up the crowd noise for when he takes the lead

Sophia said...

anon about front loading commercials

From your mouths to God's ear back to FOX director/producer guys

Sophia said...

28 laps and another commercial!?!?

Newracefan said...

Now that toyota commercial was funny who knew Tony could run that fast

Anonymous said...

Can't complain about camera coverage so far. Seems pretty balanced at this point. I think you should give the producers some time to get their feet wet this year.

Of course maybe I got used to only seeing the front 2-3 cars on other networks last year.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the commercial break is going to be during laps on the 8s....lap 8, 18, 28, etc., at least until there's a caution.

Anonymous said...

I cannot believe that Fox missed a chance to pan down the winners group on the stage! What a let down!!! I hope there are some good photographers who got some shots. I would have liked to see more of the cars on the track and less of the music acts. This is a racing event. Missed opportunities by Fox. Too bad for the viewers.

By the way, I have heard Jr say many times that his favorite music is from the 70s.

Vince said...

Well I lasted until lap 34 until I turned MRN on. Fox is missing too much of what is going on. Amazing what you hear on MRN that you don't hear on FOX.

J.J. said...

"Cashey Mearsh ish taking a pit shtop."

God, stop letting Dick Bergeren speak.

Anonymous said...

Larry Mac is right on top of things again with Burton's pit stop.

Anonymous said...

We're not going to complain about the commercials, the sponsors paid half a million per commercial from what I understand. It's probably like the Super Bowl, you want your ad to be aired at the very beginning before people go home or lose interest in the middle part.

Anonymous said...
My silly wish is for Jeff's daughter to marry Juan Pablo Montoya's little son (around 2 yrs old I think.) Talk about gorgeous little toddlers, Montoya has two of 'em.

February 17, 2008 3:21 PM

Imagine the racing genes in those kids....That would be a combo!

Sophia said...

anybody hear updates on Harvicks engine? maybe on hotpass ?

Anonymous said...

Who's complaining about commercials? The impression from nascar/fox/speed was that new commercials would be debuted during the race but this doesn't seem to be the case so far.

Unknown said...

The more I watch the more I like the hot pass, even showing commercials. One thing I do miss is a shot of the whole field, but since they show the Fox broadcast at the same time I see I aint missing that (FOx isnt showing the whole field either).

BillWebz

Anonymous said...

Yes very curious that Larry Mac hasn't followed up on Harvick... just checked yahoo and he was 13th as of lap 39

Ok now the scroll has him in 23rd at lap 46.

J.J. said...

Who cares about Harvick?

Junior is one second behind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm tempted to go to Fox News to see if they're giving him a "Fox News Alert."

Anonymous said...

billh, does hotpass have commercials??

I know when the indemand package was available there were no commercials ever

Haus14 said...

it looks as if Fox has implemented some of our suggestions from the Speed broadcast.

They have added the replay label to the split screen replay to show which is which.

bevo said...

One thing I miss on HotPass this year is no leaderboard option.

BTW on Harvick's channel all is well.

Anonymous said...

great in car shots- caught Kyle Busch "waving" at Hamlin and then caught Gibbs? on the radio cautioning busch to relax

Unknown said...

Anon

Yes hotpass has commercials same time as fox, but they do side by side and you can switch audio to hear the scanner.

BillWebz

Newracefan said...

Junior is very tight as per JJ who's behind him and they are all just "logging laps" till next pit stop, this is a loooonnnnnngggggg race

Anonymous said...

That's what I meant - sponsors paid half a million to debut NEW commercials, which is why we're not complaining. Doesn't seem like as many as last year, though.

Coverage is not bad at all so far IMO, but we're TV viewers not radio listeners, so I may not know what we're missing. I don't understand the lack of Harvick coverage followup however.

(Jr likes 70s music like Barry manilow - but he also likes current rock, alt rock, and hiphop. Very open minded. He flew to Monaco to be in hiphop artist Jay-Z's awesome video last year, where Jr was racing Danica Patrick through the streets of Monaco. Danica won, but Jr didn't seem to mind!)

bevo said...

HotPass does have commercials but it's a split screen so you can still watch the racing. If you select team audio you don't get the sound from the commercial

Anonymous said...

thanks billh... seems strange to play commercials but allow viewer to switch audio. Kinda misses the point doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

I honestly think the only new commercial I've seen is waltrip's napa commercial

Anybody else??

Anonymous said...

quote:this is a loooonnnnnngggggg race
---------------
If you ever go Daytona 500 in person you find out how long it really is. I was there in 2004 (Year the 8 won) sitting on backstretch just after turn two and there were long stretches of green flag racing and it almost puts you to sleep.

Now long is getting there at 6:30 and leaving after 8PM then bumper to bumper traffic on I-4.

Will likely go again next year.

Anonymous said...

new commercial = Toyota remote control car w/20 car and others

other than NAPA and Toyota thoink thats it.

Anonymous said...

why did nemechek go to the garage? why is stewart not running with the 11 & 18?

Ok finally they report on the 20. What about Harvick? was he just hearing things at the start?

What about Waltrip who started on outside pole? What about Jarrett who is in his last Daytona 500?

Erik said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

I am really liking the graphics and overall presentation of the Hotpass. They are doing it in letterbox, the words are very easy to read, no action is being covered by graphics. Very well done. Just wisth they would split the over the hood cam into 2 screens and give us one longshot camera of the whole field and this would be the prefect experience for watching the race.

BillWebz

Anonymous said...

or maybe just watch the race and perhaps LISTEN

J.J. said...

Let Bergeren cover Jeff Gordon. Just take him off the Mears watch. Don't give him a guy with "essshes" in his name.

Anonymous said...

MRN is great but i'm watching Fox and so far this year they really seem to only want to focus on the top 5 or 6 cars (except for pit stops)

You would think will all these laps under green they could have talked about some other teams once in awhile. Does it really matter who's in front at this point in the race?

bevo said...

erik-

No MRN doesn't do a rundown every 10 minutes, they do it around 30 minutes.

Glad you picked up where you left off last year.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

And the reason for the caution was what Chris Myers?? Did I miss his explanation or was it just a television timeout??

We know the 48 had a problem in the pits... did the jack break? did the jackman screwup? Seems like in the past the pit reporter would have done a followup?

I guess we should just watch the cars go round and round on the track.

Haus14 said...

I am watching the Tony HD channel and I have seen two commercials promoting Night Rider on NBC...very odd.

Anonymous said...

believe it was debris

48 - don't know

what happened tpo the 1 to make up all of those spots - no explanation of either.

J.J. said...

Claritin "Clear to Go" Restart

(rolls eyes)

Sophia said...

SPELL CHECK Jr's in car cam

AMP ENERGY drink

ON ENGERY

lol

Sophia said...

Even my room mate who never gripes says the gopher cam is way over done.

He doesn't have these gimmicks on F1 or IRL...course NASCAR is more fun to watch imo

Sophia said...

They are making a new movie knight rider...don't know if it's based on the old tv show or what.

Or is it odd to see NBC commercial on HOTPASS

Unknown said...

Hotpass must have gotten a call to go to commercial - they went 2 wide said they would be right back but they are showing Fox in the commercial - there it goes - like FOx was a little slow on bringing up the commrcial.

BillWebz

Anonymous said...

I think we get your point on the gopher cam :>

That's hilarious... Nascar throws yellow for debris and as they go back to green Martin runs over debris and ends up with two flats

Anonymous said...

Whats wrong with gopher cam - NBC/TNT have had it for years - so has Fox - mostly at road races. Sonoma, Glenn - don't remember Montreal or Mexico. Whats wrong with new technology?

If TV networks didnt at least TRY new stuff we wouldnt have in-car camera and audio - audio was non-existant til Fox took over in 2001.

Newracefan said...

Jimmie-clutch problems so lurched a little fell off jack

Anonymous said...

I think gopher cam is cool.. but I hope they don't over-use it. Once every 30 minutes is good.

Anonymous said...

So Jimmy slipped and let the clutch out- according to Fox the pit crew was to blame.

Anon: those points have already been made about gopher cam but apparently some people just can't let it go.

J.J. said...

It's already been overstated earlier. It's not the "concept" of the Gopher Cam. It's the friggin gopher.

For everything they do to satisfy the hardcore fans, they do two things to piss them off.

Newracefan said...

How about a thru the field

Anonymous said...

It looks like the racing between laps 97-102 was pretty good... all we could see was the FRONT BUMBERS OF CARS BECASUE OF THE STUPID IN CAR CAMERAS EVERY TWO SECONDS.

C'mon FOX... please let us SEE the race!

Tripp said...

I love the gopher cam. I laugh a little every time the little guy freaks out. Yeah, it can get old, but I'm probably good for a couple more.

Tripp said...

Yes please. Thru the field would be good about now

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
bevo said...

Feels like the big one is about to happen.

Sophia said...

agree on the OVER USE of in car and bumper cams.

Nobody seems to get that LESS is more and we want MORE cars on the track. Daytona is gorgeous and i want to see the cars coming down the track towards the camera and loose all the Google earth shots.

This is a great track. SPEED did a better job for the Shootout and the DUELS.

HUGE deterioration with FOX imo...camera wise

If I see one more in car cam I may just scream.

Course room mate just went to get Chinese so maybe will be less cranky after I eat.

Everytime I check MRN they have a commercial so not sure what to do...with it being DAYTONA will just try the tv guys.

HOTPASS sounds confusing like I would not know which way to look, btw...and not many WIDE ANGLE shots there either.

Newracefan said...

NEWMAN LOL

Tripp said...

Nobody's mentioned that Hornish is up to 10th.

The crew's gotta cover more than just the lead pack.

Oops. Mike just mentioned Hornish. Good for him.

They go to commercial just as Kurt draws up next to Bowyer for the lead. Bad for them.

Anonymous said...

Normally I am the first to complain about too many ads, but this is supposed to be the Super Bowl of NASCAR complete with the ads! Where are they?

There's a bunch of repeated ads found on any show (I saw that Claritin ad with Carl Edwards during Lost the other day), no funny new Sprint/Nextel ads with drivers, just a serious ad with cars (budget cuts?).

The new Denny Hamlin Fed Ex and Dale Jr Amp ads are subpar compared to their ads last year. Plus they are replaying ads that were played during the actual Super Bowl!

It sounds like I'm making a big deal, but some NASCAR guy was quoted on the radio yesterday saying the ads for the race are watched slightly more than the ones in the Super Bowl and people don't fast forward.

Maybe last year, not this year.

And geez, you'd think Budweiser with all their ad millions would have two or three huge new ads with Kasey Kahne in them. They've shown two Bud commercials -one repeated from the Super Bowl, one older than that - instead. No Kasey. I would be mad if I was Kasey, they're supposed be promoting him and that's an almost impossible to take over from Junior. Maybe they don't want to be embarrassed if Junior wins by running Kasey ads? I can't figure a reason otherwise.

And the Gillette Young Guns ad that just aired. Meh compared the past. Budget cuts this year for sure.

Tripp said...

Oops, that was Newman... NEWMAN!

Newracefan said...

OK now I'm going to complain. Green flag pit stops and FOx is at commercial. HELLO. They better do a thru the field when the stops are done

Haus14 said...

It is odd that an NBC comercial is on a directv / fox commercial package.

Erik said...

Stupid comment by Larry. Edwards and Truex were already dropping way back BEFORE the pit stops. They were no where near the led pack. Wake up, or at least watch the ticker scrolling by.

E-Ticket said...

Somewhere about 5:10 they started going to commercial every 5 minutes. Show pit stops then commercial. What a joke been going on since 5:10 now 5:35 how many laps between commercials. Thanks FOX.. I didn't realize DW was the Daytona 500...

Steve L. said...

We need one of NASCARs famous 'phantom' cautions to bunch up the field for the big finish.

Anonymous said...

sponsors don't care where the drivers finish, all they want is airtime.

If sponsors worried about that Coke would never sponsor the 600 in charlotte lol

Anonymous said...

long ways to go before they need to bunch up the field

and of course we still are waiting for the big one to thin out the field

alex said...

The Atlanta affiliate keeps breaking into the race every 15 laps or so to update us on the weather situation here, which isn't really that bad. But it's annoying enough to not be able to hear the race, and when the race is on, they have a scrolling bar that lists the counties having a thunderstorm warning. Problem with this is that it covers up all of the race graphics on the bottom of the screen. I wouldn't be surprised if they cut away to update the weather radar and miss the checkered flag.

Unknown said...

One drawback to the Hotpass is you don't know what happens to other cars, but then, you don't always know when watching the broadcast either.

BillWebz

Anonymous said...

local stations love their weather updates - weather news is big business for locals

no local updates whatsoever here in philly

PammH said...

Why are they doing this during green flag racing?? And they just came back from commercial...grr.

IPingUPing said...

alex said: The Atlanta affiliate keeps breaking into the race every 15 laps or so to update us on the weather situation here, which isn't really that bad.

I just called the newsroom and the woman tried to tell me they were "required" to break in with updates as a public service. I was OK with the early ones that actually told of tornado warnings. I told her that the last one was BS, they were not "required" to interrupt the race and spend 3 or 4 minutes when there are no watches or warnings. They don't need to interrupt just to say the severe weather has passed. All they are trying to do is milk the big audience for ratings, and if it was such a big deal, seems like commercials would be OK to interrupt, curiously that occasion never occurred.

Steve L. said...

Alex, at the start of the race our Fox station out of Knoxville was having a lot of storm problems with the picture going in and out.
I also have locals in New York so I switched to 389 and all was well. Nice to have a back up!

Anonymous said...

steve byrnes was telling larry mac during break...huh?

I think this race is the least I ever heard pit reporters on Fox during a race. Wonder if they are having technical problems?

bevo said...

bill h-

That's why I flip around to the other drivers and the Fox feed. Check out the other team audio on 794.

Newracefan said...

GO DALE GO

Anonymous said...

I don't know what's going on, but it seems like the last 4 or 5 commercial breaks, Mike Joy hasn't sounded the smoothest leading into them. They've sounded a bit awkward.

Anonymous said...

JEEZ FOX!!!!
CAN WE PLEEZE HAVE A FEW MORE COMMERCIALS AND FEATURES????
HECK, WHY SHOW THE RACE AT ALL?
JUST KEEP THE ADS AND THAT IDIOTIC/COPYCAT GOPHER CAM ON THE SCREEN

THIS COVERAGE IS PATHETIC

alex said...

funny coke zero commercial

Erik said...

It takes a bunch of commercials to pay for the production costs and rights fees. The broadcast partners deserve ro make a buck too.

Steve L. said...

They heard me, phantom caution! lol

Anonymous said...

Commercial and caution comes out for debris. They'll probably show what it is coming out of the break.

Newracefan said...

I was worried that we were going to miss pit stops but Fox saved it at the end but coverage is still not what I remembered, Is it me or them

Sophia said...

My sympathies to you folks being held hostage by the weather TERRORISTS. Here if you try to watch a local affiliate, starting 48 hrs before the first snow flake hits, they have crawls and junk all over the bottom screen and interrupt for normal rain and thunderstorms.

CRIME they break in to Daytona.

I STILL remember having INDY 500 ruined a few years back for tornadoes that were 3 or more hours away.

IDIOTS.

Most of us went our whole lives without big brother to tell us about the 'weather' all the time.

Course some affiliates do a HORRIBLE stretch screen look with weather crawls and would distort the car racing big time.

Hope your bad weather passes.

The commercials seem to be getting more abundant at 5.55 or is it my imagination?

They really should do side by side for the major races like IRL

Newracefan said...

Did give us the free pass car, maybe everyone is just a little rusty

Anonymous said...

I think that's going to be NASCAR's trick to throw a phantom debris caution. Have television go to commercial, throw the caution, so they have an excuse not to show the debris.

Anonymous said...

We are watching Jr's HotPass station and Rick Allen & Phil Parson are doing super, except Jr's spotter talks constantly so there isn't much for them to say since they don't want to talk "over" either of them. Liked Jarrett's commercial hanging up the keys to the brown truck too. If I believed in conspiracy theories . . . . .

Sophia said...

Bummer about Gordon's car....hope the others are ok.

Anonymous said...

went thru 2 commercial breaks and now we hear about the problems for 24 car wth??

«Oldest ‹Older   1 – 200 of 312   Newer› Newest»