Well, the weekend is officially a nightmare for both NASCAR and the TV networks. RaceDay on SPEED showed us that the rain is continuing to fall, even as Fox is about to take the air for the scheduled live coverage of the Cup race.
It should be interesting to see how long Fox decides to remain on-scene live, and if they choose to use last week's Daytona 500 as filler programming.
Chris Myers hosts the coverage from the Hollywood Hotel, with Jeff Hammond alongside. In the booth, Mike Joy will handle the play-by-play with analysts Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds. Down on pit road Fox has some reporters playing injured today. Krista Voda and Matt Yocum have both been under the weather, they will be joined by Steve Byrnes and Dick Berggren on the telecast.
After the long fill from ESPN yesterday, and the two hour RaceDay program today, it will be tough for Fox to find a whole lot to talk about. Even after the track was dry earlier this week, some "weepers" caused water to leak from cracks in the track for several hours. The high-speed nature of this track will not allow cars to operate at speed unless the track is completely dry.
It should be fun to watch this veteran TV crew from Fox deal with the issues associated with the weather and scheduling. Hopefully, things will work out for both Fox and ESPN2. That network will show the Nationwide Series race when the Sprint Cup event has concluded.
This story will serve to host your comments about the Sprint Cup coverage from Fontana on Fox. To add your opinion, just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the simple instructions. The rules for posting are on the right side of the main page.
Thanks again for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.
459 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 401 – 459 of 459Anon I saw your 1:11
OMG! You gotta be exhausted. I DO appreciate all involved in this racing lifestyle. Yes, it is a rough job being away from the families so much. my late father was a manufacturers rep and gone mon - friday until he retired.
But this late night call and delay, after delay must be taking it's toll. One can only drink so much coffee or sit and rest or even recline. Making folks stay up 24 hours puts a whole new slant on this decision.
AND we keep hearing of delays. GOODNESS.
Take care of yourself.
This is starting to be quite the education reading this blog. . .
@ anonymous at 1:09 AM
You have my appreciation. I imagine you're running on fumes if you've been at work since 7am.
I promise that if you guys screw something up really badly, I'll cut you some major slack. :-)
I know I'm having trouble focussing my eyes and concentrating on simple things like typing. I can't imagine attempting to produce a TV show now, with the prospect of having to do it for what may be several more hours.
You guys rock!
--KarenB
Anonymous said...
All the folks who insist the race will continue tonight and that NASCAR will not call this race:
Please go look at the radar for Fontana California. (FOX didn't show it to us; poor call on their part). Rain is and has been over the area for the past 50 minutes or so. And it's not letting up yet (about halfway through).
It took three hours to dry the track this afternoon, not two, and that's not including the one hour break later on in red flag to repair the "weepers".
sorry but this race is over. Let's just hope everything is dry and repaired by early AM, when they need to start this race to fit both races in for broadcast.
February 24, 2008 9:58 PM
Ding ding ding! I believe we have a winner. And from 3 and a half hours ago, no less.
(Woke up for a minute and couldn't resist checking here.) I can't believe NASCAR is trying to make the wettest track on earth at the moment dry after all the treatment said track required earlier.
And making these teams and officials at the track stay up out there to try to get a race in and also the people covering it both on TV and print media is ridiculous. (Though I sincerely admire their dedication in sticking it out at NASCAR's direction.) They're still going to be exhausted tomorrow morning when this all resumes.
I need to go back to sleep. Hopefully ESPN News will scroll starting times of the races both on Fox and on ESPN in the AM.
Posted on nascar.com -
> Red Flag: Race scheduled to resume at 2 a.m. ET
Update from MRN -
30 minutes till cars on track
The Seattle Fox affiliate, during news signoff, said that they would be switching back to NASCAR at the top of the hour.
Yay!
--KarenB (doing the happy dance in B.C.)
Good thing, I work nights and am off tonight so I can watch this mess. I will stay to the end.
Lou
Kingston, NY
BTW Nationwide race at 1 pm Eastern
Helton is riding around in an SUV looking at the track. Maybe they'll make a decision soon.
Anybody at the track heard anything about a local noise ordinance that someone mentioned earlier? Taking effect at midnight Pacific - if so would it affect the race?
From NASCAR -
The Stater Bros. 300 is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. ET. Television coverage is still being determined.
Can anybody read the comments from 200 something to 400 something? I can only see the first 200 and then after 408?
I might have missed some comments.
Just wondered if it was my Mozilla browser...or if the comments are lost to anybody else?
If the N-wide race is at 1pm, that's gonna be difficult for the 12 drivers pulling double duty. They'll be racing until at least 1am, then they'll have to race again at 10am.
--KarenB
Last I heard our Fox affiliate here in Grand Rapids, Michigan is sticking with the race once it restarts. But they're showing a movie now ( Species II, ugh!).
I'm going to go make some coffee. Lucky I'm retired and can stay up all night. It's gonna be a long one......
Sof123, I guess I need to get a life. but I have read all 400 plus comments. Yes it can be done. Hang in there.
Lou
Kingston, NY
--KarenB -
Maybe we've discovered the cure for Buschwackers :)
Sophia, I get links that say
1 – 200 of 413 Newer› Newest»
with "Newer" being 201-400, and "Newest" being 401-the latest.
Of course, if I start at the other end, the links are "Older" and "Oldest". :-)
I'm using Omniweb on a Mac.
--KarenB
sophia -
They're all there for me and I use Firefox
I can't believe that they are delaying the race this long. They should have just called it off.
@ bevo
LOL!
But when you think about it, it can't be any more difficult than finishing Cup practice, then flying across the country for a Busch race.
--KarenB
If you're wondering why they want to get the race in tonight just hit the freeways in LA on a Monday morning ;)
48 minutes into the local newscast before one word of nascar is even mentioned.... (and then they gave the wrong info about the race)
Thats just wrong. Knowing that there must be hundreds if not thousands of people waiting for it.
Oh and now they are doing a Daytona wrap up.... WOW I must have been in a time machine for a week.
Fox in Dallas/Fort Worth just had an ad for the April race... at least we don't have a weeping track anymore.
really really bad news......
Cup race will run tomorrow at 10:00am...Nationwide race to follow....
Get some sleep.....
Do we all realize how amazing this bulletin board is. A mixture of fans, Nascar TV professionals and other media types are having a prolonged conversation about Nascar's decision making, intricacies of tv contracts, owned and operated station groups and a host of other topics.
Any further questions?
Rolling the cars to the garage. No race tonight
They're cancelling the race! No way!
--KarenB
Garage opens at 8am, race starts at 10.
--KarenB
Good night, be sure to tip your waitress!
By the way, I kid because I care
Oh for petes sake!! NASCAR ticked off alot of fans tonight. I understand them trying to get the race in, but telling us several times that it would start this late, then not going through with it.... Man I don't even know how they could pull this.
Nothing on nascar.com about it either. as of 2:00est.
Ok..I got disconnected from here with a page cannot be displayed button.
My laptop has a moody NIC card. Anyway, I believe that all the comments are here...I have been here too long but it's confusing the new, newest, oldest.
Why doesn't it just have the numbers on each page. I can figure out the rest...the higher the numbers, the newer the posts. :-)
Ugh. My local FOX is showing some creepy show WHACKED OUT SPORTS...I had to turn the station but was afraid i would fall asleep and I need to hit the tape button for this digital tv...they are showing midget wrestlers...as in little people...wow. I could've done without that.
WOW! Put off until tomorrow. Could they NOW have sent everybody home early.
I see a camera man in a blue jacket doing a happy dance!!
GOD BLESS ALL YOU GUYS. No need to set the VCR.
Hope those of you that made coffee can find something else to watch.
Hopefully, they will be able to fix the track problems by the Labor Day Weekend races.
"The weepers won out tonight" . . . we probably should've know that would come up again too!!
And now we have the conversation with the ESPN folks about the almost inevitable placement of the NW race on ESPN Classic. Bumping women's basketball won't work with the #1 team in the land involved.
OK, I stayed til the end. See you all this afternoon.
Lou
Kingston, NY
Just dumped the pot of coffee down the drain. I'm off to bed. See you all on here in the morning.
WOW.
thanks to all the anons that gave us inside scoop, insight into what their life is like and the first word that the race was canceled before NASCAR.com
THANKS JD for a great site.
You folks working on this deal, get a good nights sleep yourselves.
THANK YOU
P.S. I forgot the history f this track being one of the most difficult to dry. Looking back at that history, you'd think the poor folks WORKING this race could've been sent home hours ago.
Tough day for all involved.
This is the MOST AMAZING BLOG for sure.
props for trying. Sucks they couldnt get it in. Only going to get 3 hours of sleep tonight...and I have to miss the race tomorrow. Little disappointed about it, but thats life
And to all good morning. lol
Lou
Kingston, NY
And now we have the conversation with the ESPN folks about the almost inevitable placement of the NW race on ESPN Classic. Bumping women's basketball won't work with the #1 team in the land involved.
February 25, 2008 2:04 AM
Yup, and the other team going up against the #1 team is ranked #6 and has won 14 straight games. Very hyped game (for women's basketball anyway, they don't get that much hype) this past week and weekend on ESPN and the ".com".
NW race is going to be the Classic stepchild tomorrow (tape delay is the only other option), but it's understandable. Not the already scheduled basketball games' concern, really.
They'd have a very legitimate beef if the NW race "bleeded over" 30 minutes or more into the game. Based on estimated scheduling for Cup and NW tomorrow (even generously predicting no red flags), that bleeding over would be pretty likely if it was on ESPN2 (or ESPN which also has basketball tomorrow).
NASCAR.com has the NW race scheduled for 5 PM ET on ESPN2. This leaves them with a two-hour broadcast window, and there's no guarantee when the race will even get started. So, folks, don't just have your DVRs ready, but also be ready to change networks when they shift coverage over to Classic. What a nightmare!
@darbar and person they were responding to--yes in years past with Busch (now N'wide of course) they'd meet in TX and swap out. They would use the same cars from Cali at Vegas so they'd get what they needed to get it set up for Vegas while they guys were in Mexico. Cup would go back for the week and then come out the next week for the race. I forget how many driving days it is but in the end if they drove back to NC they'd literally have to turn right back around to get back to Vegas. I didn't catch NRD as I slept in but I figured they'd at least drive (or fly) out what they needed but I wasn't sure if they'd bring different cars.
@brrrn rubber--I agree! I know that NA$CAR feels that they "owe" it to the fans who have been at the track literally all day to try to get the race in or the goal of half way, but not if they're going to get torn up race cars in what turns out to be a demolition derby! Lights or not, they really should have just said we'll try Monday from the gate. Every time we *thought* we'd see the finish we were told to come back in an hour. I work from home so I get to sleep in...about to finally head to bed here in a bit. But I know what it's like to have to get up and to work beyond EARLY!
@kbaskins--they've done it before with just a few hours inbetween. One famous incident was from a few years ago. TNT *thought* they were being smart by filming the Busch race and then showing it the next day TAPE DELAYED! I forget what was on--some movie or TV show that people have seen a zillion times--well Mother Nature had other ideas! It RAINED in Charlotte (technically Concord) so they had to show the race live the next day! And then they had to rest up a few hours for the Cup race later that night :).
Well I wenttobed at 11 last night, pretty confident that they would push the race to today, or if they didnt they would squeeze in 40 some laps and call it official. I am glad it was postponed to today so we can see the whole race at a reasonable time. Nascar should have realized when Hamlin and then Mears wrecked due to weepers that there was no fixing the track and called it earlier.
BillWebz
What a day/night! Went to bed at 11:00 PM ET. I randomly woke up t 1:45 and turned it to FOX and saw local programming. I just figured they postponed the race and went back to bed. I guess they didn't postpone it yntil 2:00.
I am actually glad they did. Now I can actually watch the races. What a day for everyone at California. Reminds me of the old days of when NASCAR would wait until the ee hours of the morning to postpone a race.
FOX was almost on the air for 12 hours! lol
Todays schedule is going to be hectic, JD maybe you can post it on the main page.
Speed has the Truck replay at 12pm (EST), wonder if they will drop that and do a shortened raceday?
Fox has rest of race at 1pm (EST). Can't tivo it cause it aint on the list, just a bunch of 1/2 court shows.
Speed has victory lane right after the race
ESPN has the Nationwide race at 5pm EST (on what channel? 2, classic? unsure).
Speed has TWIN at 8pm EST, wonder how that will work with everyone in CA? Will they do it from the Speed set? What if the BUsch race is still going?
What a mess!
BillWebz
AWESOME COMMENTS FROM AWESOME FANS!
If DW gets any more into Kyle Busch, they're going to meet to get a room. My gosh, DW, shile you're busy fawning over him, other drivers are publicly saying they think he's reckless and a sloppy driver.
Also, I counted no fewr than six Chris Myers "kid because we care" instances. Come on. You're upposed to be a professional broadcaster--develop your repertoir a bit! Even DW only says "Boogity, boogity, boogity" one time per race.
Bumping women's basketball won't work with the #1 team in the land involved.
No? Most sports fans can't even tell you the name of that team. let alone name one player.
NASCAR racing is a far, far bigger deal and ought to be treated as such.
"NASCAR racing is a far, far bigger deal and ought to be treated as such."
NASCAR Cup racing? Sure.
NASCAR Nationwide Racing? Please. Not even.
But it's inevitable that all day today some fans will moan that NASCAR takes priority over all other ESPN live sporting events...even though those same fans raise holy "you know what" if a live sporting event runs into a NASCAR Nationwide prerace show.
You can't have it both ways... even if you think you can.
Anon 8:30AM,
If the Nationwide events were on another network, we would not have this problem. Just because ESPN has college sports, they should utilize their networks so that multi-hour races have the window they need to air. It would also help to televise the first Cup practice, or give it to SPEED.
There is a new post up for Monday comments about the rain-out.
JD
NASCAR Nationwide Racing? Please. Not even.
No? Take a look at the ratings (NNS vs. women's basketball) and get back to us.
Hey JD, I am one who agrees with you about Nationwide being on another network, but until most of the nation has ESPN Classic, (I do but many don't) there will be rants and raves about putting the races there too, even if it provides a cushion of no overlap with other events.
I don't know a hoot about ratings and who gets better ones, but I am going to agree with anonymous@8:30 and the others who said the b-ball game takes priority.
An already scheduled live event on ESPN or ESPN2 should NOT be "bumped" for any race. I don't care if it's MLS soccer or whatever. If it's live and they had the spot, they should get to keep the spot.
Just because another sporting event that some people think is more important has to be rescheduled because of weather, that shouldn't affect the original holder of the spot on the schedule.
Every sports fan thinks their sport is the most important to TV and should be broadcast live. That's just the way it is - but unless you are the NFL, all of that "priority to the network" stuff is up for debate.
Anonymous said...
NASCAR Nationwide Racing? Please. Not even.
No? Take a look at the ratings (NNS vs. women's basketball) and get back to us.
February 25, 2008 8:50 AM
---------------------
OK.
"The Nov. 17 Busch Series finale received a 1.2 rating on ESPN, down from a 1.9 a year ago on TNT."
--That's Racin.com, Nov. 27, 2007.
"ESPN2's ratings for its coverage of the Busch Series have suffered an even steeper decline compared with last year's cable ratings, which featured one race on TNT and the rest on FX. Through nine comparable Busch broadcasts, ESPN2's 1.5 rating is down 14 percent from the 1.8 on cable last year."
--nascar.com, June 26, 2007
"According to ESPN, the Rutgers-Tennessee epic produced a 67 percent jump for its Big Monday ratings. (Lady Vols vs. Lady Knights)
---nj.com, Feb. 13, 2008
One sport in present ratings decline, one on its way up. Thanks for playing. Gotta go to work.
"According to ESPN, the Rutgers-Tennessee epic produced a 67 percent jump for its Big Monday ratings. (Lady Vols vs. Lady Knights)
67% jump from what? That's the key you failed to mention. A 67% increase over ten viewers is still nothing.
So is the race going to be on ESPN2 or not? You guys are talking like its not going to be.
Can't they move the Basketball Game to ESPNU, a network devoted to college sports?
For what it's worth (Google is my friend and it's part of my job), looks like the NCAA Women's basketball championship on ESPN last April had a 1.8 Nielsen rating.
That would mean that their championship game outrated the Busch Series finale 1.8 to 1.2 (I confirmed the thatsracin.com stat above.)
The Busch series finale did decide the owner's championship, so perhaps it's a fair comparison, since there was a championship at stake for viewers to be vested in watching despite Carl winning the driver's trophy.
The championship game was Tennessee vs Rutgers, perhaps that's why a rematch listed above sounds like it had a nice ratings jump for ESPN2 a couple weeks back.
Its on ESPN2. If NASCAR is able to meet their schedule, with a 4pm EST start, then there shouldn't be a problem with BBall. ESPN should hold NASCAR to that schedule.
Anyway, other than a slight overrun from the previous timeslot, regularly scheduled live sporting events should not get bumped completely for any reason.
In this particular case, ESPN Classic would have been available if the race had a later start time. ESPNU has live basketball as well.
There really isn't a good answer to any of this. Unless you get a network completely devoted to a single sport, you'll have these situations come up.
ESPN deals with this in the best way possible with ESPN Classic mostly showing just taped stuff. But this can't always be guaranteed, as sometimes it does show live events as well.
Its not as well distributed as ESPN2, or available on all basic packages, but those are the breaks.
No way Fox would dump American Idol for racing if the situation presented itself.
Im guessing ESPN learned from last years issues when David R. won, and they left the airwaves when he crossed the line.
I think this time if the post-race heads into basketball they should switch the post-race to ESPN Classic and ESPNNEWS. Some fans still might be upset but we have learned that it is better than ESPN just leaving with no post-race coverage.
The single sport coverage networks have their problems, too. Like TW has YET to carry the BIG TEN NETWORK or NFL network. They claim it's the stations and the stations claim it's TW.
In the end, when the big games happened locally or nationally, TW started putting the games on LOCAL TV stations...I guess to stop rioting or losing customers to sattelite.
For BASIC TV packages, tw is still the better price around here (We don't get HBO or any of those things.).just two tiers of digital on a couple tv's so we get SPEED, along with 20 other channels or so)But we have 6 tv's in the house and satellite on each one would be a fortune for the converter box.
We are big on watching the races in whatever room possible including the kitchen great room if we are cooking.
Also if cable goes out a couple times in the same week, if you call up TW and give them grief, they give a discount on that months bill..and they come out to the house FREE when we had issues with our cable and nobody ELSE did. We have underground utilities here and finding a problem can be a true Sherlock Holmes event.
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