Saturday, February 23, 2008

In-Progress At Fontana: "NASCAR Live," Nationwide Qualifying and Cup Practice


After the rainy disaster of Friday, SPEED opens the Saturday TV coverage from the California Speedway with a thirty minute edition of NASCAR Live at Noon Eastern Time.

This is followed directly by Nationwide Series qualifying on SPEED, and not ESPN2. Steve Byrnes, Larry McReynolds and Jeff Hammond will be along for that action as ESPN is tied-up with college basketball action right up until the Nationwide race itself.

SPEED takes a break for the Truck Series race which will be seen on Fox Sports, and then comes back on at 5PM Eastern Time to cover Sprint Cup practice.

This page will serve to host your comments about these shows on SPEED. There will be new posts up shortly for the Craftsman Truck Series race on Fox and tonight's Nationwide Series race on ESPN2.

To add a comment, just click on the COMMENTS button below and then follow the easy instructions. Thanks again for stopping by The Daly Planet.

14 comments:

stricklinfan82 said...

Just to give everyone a heads-up NASCAR cancelled Nationwide qualifying and will instead hold final practice for the Nationwide cars at 12:30. Let's hope Speed sticks around to cover it.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Thanks for beating me to the update, I think practice is a much better idea for the series at this point.

JD

Newracefan said...

This is Speed so as long as there was't a conflict we didn't know about we would get to see the cars. Looks like Speed even gave us their cup practice guys. Has Reutimann become the go to guy for Speed. They seem to intervieew him alot (I like Reut so I don't mind but last year unless it was cup qualifying it was like he was invisible). Rutledge's interview of Carl was pretty funny, good thing his mom taught him well, always your hand after using the facilities.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Nice job by SPEED changing over on the fly to Nationwide practice as if they did not miss a beat.

Krista does not sound to good, hope she feels better.

JD

Sophia said...

Personally, I think poor Krista needs to go home. Trying to YELL to be heard in the pits is not going to help her vocal cords.

Maybe Rutledge could step up...:-) The girl needs a break.

stricklinfan82 said...

Yeah I admire poor Krista for working ill today. Soph, are you trying to make me scream by suggesting putting Rutledge on the air in her place? LOL :)

I could think of roughly a thousand people I would rather have fill-in for Krista should her condition get any worse. If you're looking for a name I don't think one needs to go any further than 'Wendy'.

Anonymous said...

I'm getting a pixelated picture when SPEED goes to a garage cam. They need to fix this.

Geeze said...

I know that filling in during a rain delay is tough, but did anyone notice the back to back and almost identical Mike Wallace interview by two different reporters yesterday?

stricklinfan82 said...

I was very happy with Speed's Nationwide practice coverage.

First of all, a major thank you goes out to the Speed guys for televising this practice session on such short notice. It's certainly nice to have Speed pick up the slack for ESPN, who had no intention of airing any Nationwide practice or qualifying sessions this weekend.

The cameras and the talk of the announcers never left the race track. Please take notes on how it's done ESPN. We only saw cars ON THE TRACK. No fancy video packages, no pre-taped interviews, no pre-taped 5 minute features on the Dish Tech Center, ESPN Pit Studio, or Draft Tracks machine. This coverage was not all about the TV network covering it, it was about the on-track action and I'm very thankfully for Speed's excellent coverage. It was also great to see most of the cars appear on camera at some point during the session, even the lesser teams like Mike Harmon.

It's also very nice to see Rutledge doing something productive for a change. I very much prefer seeing him doing interviews instead of riding around on a scooter yelling "Weeee!" or playing in a kiddie pool or something completely ridiculous and unnecessary. I'm glad he's actually adding something to the broadcast for a change.

Anonymous said...

I was impressed by Rutledge's interview skills today. Nice job.


Makiki

Sophia said...

Glad somebody else noticed SPEED's technical issues...last week it seemed random with different viewers at different times.

It's annoying.

Stricklanfan,

Now see, I thought Rutledge did GREAT with the drivers...his humor came off as well as opposed to some stupid stunt the producers want him to do.

Hope my suggestion didn't up your B/Pressure. ;-)

I thought the race to interview the most was kinda funny.


Glad to see some T Cup winners Interviewed (Short of Nationwide, I refuse to type out three syllables..and it's not the BIG CUP so it's the "T" Cup...no offense to any drivers. But I saw names I was barely familiar with get some mic time, it was nice.

"N" cup does not have the same ring to it, lol. Actually, my room mate thought up the nik.

He thought the blending of CHAMP and INDY should be CHIMP cars but I digress.

stricklinfan82 said...

I also enjoyed the interview contest at the end of NASCAR Live. The more exposure guys like Michael McDowell, Kelly Bires, and Jon Wood can get, the better.

Sophia said...

Indeed, the media needs to focus more on the guys in the series and not the CUPwhackers.

:-)

Newracefan said...

The end of today kind of reminded me of Wendy's walking the grid, impromptu and alot of fun. Nice to see the truck guy playing along. I also think Rutledge did a good job today, much prefer this type of silliness to the make a total fool of yourseld stuff he has done in the past. Raceday are you listening. Off to watch the trucks.

PS Soph I like the T cup