For those of you emailing about the final lap of the ARCA race, please feel free to post your comments here. This was a tough one, as SPEED flubbed the last lap and Joey Logano won the race. They did not even show his burnout.
The telecast was fine, and it was great to see Rockingham serve up some good and fast-paced ARCA racing. There were only about four or five cars on the lead lap at the end, and the fact that SPEED got lost and even confused the announcers was a shame.
Update: For a good explanation of what actually happened, click below for the COMMENTS section. Thanks to our friends at SPEED for helping with the details.
To add your comment, click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the directions. the rules for posting are on the right side of the main page. Thanks for stopping by.
51 comments:
I just turned this on as I forgot but SPEED certainly did do a POOR JOB of the last few laps.
What's up with that???
Update: For those of you asking, Ken Schrader will NOT be on This Week in NASCAR on Monday.
The panel will only consist of Michael Waltrip and Chad Knaus. Steve Byrnes will be hosting.
JD
WTF happen on the last 3 laps? i saw Lagano side by side with Schrader then suddenly its the last lap then the checkers..its like someone hit fast forward and forgot to tell me
wow...that was rough...speed shows the restart and joey makes some nice moves, then all of a sudden he went from 4th to first and its the last lap..
the least they could have done was show the last five laps in order on a tape delay...
i really want to see how joey got around schrader.
maybe on speed report.
Thanks for posting my sentiments! I thought I missed something as I moved across the room into the recliner...I thought, how TINY is this track for the race to be over.
But NOBODY IN THE BOOTH was aware of this??
SPEED has had some tech glitches but this is the worst blunder YET.
Well the announcer was correct when he said "we will be back for the checkerd flag" before the last commercial break, that is what we got, tape delayed restart and then last turn of lap 4. Very bad decision to go to comercials with 6 laps left and a restart coming, after they just cam back from a commercial break with about 15 laps left.
One thing about this race, makes me realize why Nascar dropped rockingham from the circuit. At one point only 2 cars on the lead lap, if that was Cup it would have been about 5 or 6. Very boring racing then.
BillWebz
I watched the whole race. I was absolutely blown away by the terrible TV production at the end. I didn't count them but there were several commercial breaks during the last 15 or so laps.
I too watched in disbelief as Speed came back from commercial to show the green flag with "5 laps left". The NEXT lap I see Logano taking the checkers! Apparently, Speed took too long coming back from commercial, so they tape delayed the green flag, and immediately went live, (I assume live anyway; who really knows now?), for the finish. I did see the burnout,a and heard a comment on how impressive it was.
Also, I did see Speed go back to show the pass of Schader.
I noticed that toward the end, the announcers seemed to be making a lot of errors with names, and what was actually happening on the track.
I just can't believe how Speed handled the end of the race. I don't think I have seen a race finish handled like this ever before. Too bad. I can just imagine how much screaming there would be if this had been NASCAR event. Hopefully lessons will be learned, and changes implemented for the All Star race in two weeks.
I'm really curious what happened behind the scene's there. Rick allen and phil seemed to have no clue that the last 5 laps were mostly missed? why the obscure cut? and that implies the restart wasn't being shown live to begin with? I'm really confused
I am hoping that someone from SPEED stops by (unofficially) and can give us the scoop on what happened. It seems to be very confusing to me.
There was no time issue, as the race was running short. If it was being "time shifted" why not just continue that way through the finish?
This one has me puzzled.
JD
could they NOT GO BACK and find tape of the last few laps and at LEAST explain and let us see it on the SPEED report?
I am starting to wonder if the glitches in SPEED recently and now this, is a sign of changes in the background at the station..and what's that saying..."How we lookin'? NOT GOOD."
I mean look how they thing TWIN is a wonderful show and most disagree.
But were so FEW watching the ARCA race at home that SPEED can pretend this glitch did not happen?
Most bizarre race ending, ever. Even ESPN at least apologized when they lost the last 3 laps at Bristol last year but they got bloody hello for that as well.
It may have been NASCAR today but it COULD be the Truck race of the ALLSTAR race next time. :(
meant to say it was NOT NASCAR today but could be next time.
Yes, after having watched the whole race, Speed messed up the final 3 laps.
I watched the race on and off but was paying attention at the end. I thought I screwed something up with the DVR but when they replayed the pass of Schrader I knew it was them and not me. Wow that was not like SPeed at all someone really screwed up big time.
Oh my goodness, that was perhaps the biggest debacle in the history of racing on television!!
For those that didn't see it, Joey Logano was leading with 9 to go when a caution came out. He pitted for tires and the 3 guys behind him stayed out. After a commercial they showed the restart and just as Joey was passing for 2nd Speed Channel switched to a live shot of Logano coming off turn 4 to take the checkered flag all by himself 2-3 laps later!
What the hell was that?????????? The biggest ARCA race in history, the return of The Rock, and it gets marred by the biggest blunder I have ever seen in my long history of watching racing on TV. If anyone can think of a more inexcusable error made by a production truck during a race please let me know because I certainly can't remember one.
My guess is they missed the restart during the commercial and decided to 'TiVo style' and go back and show the restart and finish in its entirety. That would have been a fantastic decision... if they stuck to it! But in the middle of the first lap after the restart someone pushed the button to go back to real time and spoiled everything.
UNBELIEVABLE. Someone better lose their job for allowing this to happen.
StricklanFan
Thanks for telling it like it is!!!
WE WANT ANSWERS SPEED.
I don't care if you come here as ANON or Jed Clampett. Please inform. We got screwed and the guy smoking a cigarette hit the wrong button or something??
StricklinFan, Speed probably only had a intern working the taping/recording of the race they didn't think to bring one or two of their best production crew members! We thought our satellite messed up and Rick & Phil didn't say a word about it.
Sophia and Stricklinfan,
Time for the decaf folks. Once we learn what happened, we can talk about it, but in the meantime we are just guessing.
What we think happened so far is that the network switched from the "time shifted" content to the live content.
Unfortunately, this happened at the end of the race. The production team did replay several times the end of the race so fans saw Logano pass Schrader and win the race.
I am waiting for one of my SPEED buddies to email me with what happened, and when I get that I will update the story and also post it in the comments section.
As usual in TV, when things happen it always seems to be the worst time. We saw that with Fox and baseball two weeks ago, and we saw that last season with ESPN yanking the Busch race off-the-air in the middle of the invocation.
Once I get the info, I will pass it along.
JD
Thank you Strklinfn.
good review as usual, thanks
Lou
Kingston,NY
although I do not think someone should lose there job over this
Lou
Kingston,NY
Kind of ironic that the ARCA highlights on SPEED Report were as messed up as the last couple of laps on the broadcast.
Andy Hillenburg and the ARCA folks just can't buy a break.
JD
And I thought I was the only one who thought that JD
Here I had an audio glitch 1 minute into the SPEED R with a loud voice over saying YOU'VE BEEN WATCHING as Krist was speaking?
And not a peep about the on air race glitch.
pathetic...did they think we didn't notice or so do few care about ARCA>
Shame for the big day the ROck wanted to have. :(
Few folks in the stands, too.
Usually with minor TV glitches such as that, there is no need to address them on air. With missing crucial event action, that may be different.
I'm not sure whether ARCA is a time-buy on Speed or whether Speed pays for the rights to the series.
My comment on S R not mentioning the on air glitch was about MISSING THE FINAL LAPS of the ARCA race.
just to clarify.
Hey guys it's Rick. This is the first time I have posted anything on this website, but felt compelled to answer any questions you may have about today's broadcast.
With regard to the end. It was a few different things that happened simultaneously to create the confusion with five laps to go. Our show was scheduled in a 4 hour time slot, and we have to get x amount of commercials in that period of time. We still had a few commercials left when the final caution came out.
During the race an ARCA official is in communication with our production truck giving us info on how long the caution will take to clean up. At the time we decided to go to break that official was discussing another issue off headsets.
The decision to replay the restart was so fans could see the finish in its entirety. From a technical standpoint that failed because of a lack of inputs into the machine that we were replaying.
The bottom line is that there was a breakdown in communication and I apologize that you were not able to see the finish of the race the way you deserved to. All those things I spoke of before and more happened in a period of about 30 seconds, which is less time than it took you to read this post. We screwed up and I'm sorry it happened, but please don't call for someone's job when you don't know all the factors or know how hard all these people work to give you the best show possible. We are very hard on ourselves when something bad happens.
I do appreciate your comments and pay attention to what you are asking for with our broadcasts.
Rick Allen
Good Evening Mr. Allen,
Thank you for taking the time to respond to the problems today. It only helps some of us understand the ongoings and problems that can happen on the spur of the moment. I understand that is no excuse, but I hope it helps avoid future problems when they are discussed in meetings.(You do have after action meetings don't you?) Mr. Daly, thank you also
This may just be a case of "live and learn" ..and dont do that again
srsly if TNT had FUBAR'd like this we would be ready for a Bill Weber bonfire but SPEED 9 times out of 10 doesnt mess up so id let them off the hook on this one since its safe to say this race will be re-aired SEVERAL times throughout the week
It actually raises an interesting proposition... would a network consider tape-delaying a restart so that no restart would ever be missed again? I'm sure there would be opportunities during the broadcast to go back to live action, but it was an interesting move by Speed to implement something like that today. I'd be willing to think that the NASCAR network partners should be looking at something like this technique. Obviously it didn't work out this time, but had it worked out, Speed would have come out as the hero by not missing a crucial restart late in the race.
Hi Mr. Allen!
Thanks for stopping by!
The SPEED production is usually OUTSTANDING and there are very few complaints. In fact, many of us would have you, Phil and the SPEED production crew cover ALL the races if we had our choice.
It was weird to see the unexpected change in scenes at the end and no on air explanation. While I do understand that at the time y'all may not have known/realized the glitch. Thank you for stopping by and giving us an explanation.
We do have some "rough" posters, but most of us don't ask for heads on a plate when things go wrong :).
Thank you again for the wonderful job that you do! I hope you get a chance to drop by again (and Phil too!).
Take care!
Mr. Allen,
Thanks for clearing that up. I'm glad to hear it was a technical glitch and not human error so I sincerely apologize for jumping the gun and calling for the job of the individual(s) involved.
Clearly in the heat of the moment I was upset for investing 3 1/2 hours of time into watching a race, only to miss the final few laps (including the last lead change). The fact that you didn't panic and made such a seemless and smooth transition from the taped restart to the live call gave me the impression this was planned all along, so if anything that is a true testament to your professionalism in making a chaotic behind-the-scenes situation seem like status quo on the air.
Thank you very much and keep up the great work!
Thanks Mr. Allen for stopping by to explain.
I was not calling for anybody's job (But admit I thru a hissy fit) and I know mistakes happen.
What flummoxed me is if SPEED knew there was a problem (and isn't SOMEBODY watching a monitor for tv land air waves?) why couldn't they make up the missing 30 seconds and show us on SPEED REPORT what was missed in the ARCA race?
I mean it's on hours after the race, race is on SPEED, SR is on SPEED...that probably irked me.
But I will get over it. Like others I CERTAINLY hope it doesn't happen again, and that COMMUNICATION is better so you guys in the booth can apologize to the fans if there is a huge glitch. You guys do a great job in the Truck series and the rare times we see ARCA.
It was frustrating but also had to be disappointing for the owner of the Rock who was hoping for a larger turn out.
Thanks again for stopping by to explain. We love hearing from the horses mouth.
Thanks JD for a site that makes that possible for rabid fans.
We complain because we care!!!
xoxo
:-)
As well as the mess up at the end, how about the audio. Usually when you watch a race on TV, you can hear the cars as they drive by. Not today, I saw numerous instances when cars would drive by and not one sound was heard other than the announcers.
These were from cameras down low at trackside, not from the cameras on the roof. Every race I've been to, when your standing along the fence as these cameras were, you hear plenty of ambient noise from the cars. Not today. Maybe Arca is now running mufflers on their cars.
C'mon Chet Burkes Productions, Lets hear some car noise, not just announcers. CRANK IT UP.
mr allen, thank you for caring enough to answer the concerns and for doing so honestly and without doubletalk. i also appreciate you being frank in taking us to task about "rush to judgement", as 'twere!
see, this is why i enjoy this site! we received an intelligent, coherent explanation - AND an apology - from someone who was involved in the moment we've been discussing. i simply can't find that level of discourse anywhere else b/c most other sites are focused on the negatives and unwilling to learn how to ask for information politely and respond accordingly.
sometimes, in the heat of the moment, we may forget that we are partners in this venture of producing and watching racing on television. sometimes, we may even forget that there are real men and women working hard on our behalf. and sometimes, the production folks may forget that our angry words appear b/c we care about the job they're doing and we are certain there are aspects that can be enhanced if we just talk about it.
but i, for one, am immensely grateful to all parties involved: my fellow posters, the media folks who read what we write, and most of all, jd for keeping all of us honest and on track! thanks yet again, jd, for everything!
It's always fun and you never know who will show-up.
Thanks for all the comments and thanks to Rick and the gang for the explanation.
JD
I'm sorry, but somehow I knew people here would claim that SPEED always had great productions. I just don't understand those claims! They always have too many commercials and miss restarts in the truck series regularly. Michael Walrips completely ruins the truck broadcasts with his hyper talking all the time!
Yesterday's SNAFU was just inexcusable, and I speculated the time-shifting thing was the culprit. But I do appreciate Rick Allen giving the viewers an explanation.
We've been listening to MRN most of the season for Cup races and always try to sinc up the audio between that and Fox by pausing our Tivo. It's been quite clear that Fox time-shifts a lot because sometimes TV will be way ahead of internet MRN and then other times it will be way behind. I'm okay with that to a certain point and honestly wish they could shift more things so we don't miss so many restarts, passes for the lead or accidents, but what SPEED did yesterday was just sad and then to have no explanation before they went off the air is just disrespectful to the fans. It's like they thought we wouldn't notice.
Thanks Rick. Really appreciate your time. And don't worry about a couple of people here who call for people's heads and jobs. There are many here and many who don't post here that manage to put things in perspective and don't have their lives revolve around NASCAR/ARCA broadcasts 24/7.
Lou,
That was out of line. All Rick did was explain what happened. That is why I put up this post in the hope that someone from SPEED would tell us.
Otherwise, we would be in the dark as to why the problem happened. No one here excused it, they just wanted to know what happened.
I created this forum to faciliate this kind of communication between those doing the motorsports TV for us and the fans.
If you can find this interaction happening anywhere else on the Internet, I invite you to go there.
JD
Mr. Allen
The truth is that your producer did a terrible job of pacing the placement of commercials during the preceeding 3 plus hours of air time. It matters not whether he or she "works hard". So do I, and when I invest 4 hours of my day to watch SPEED and suffer through interminable commercials breaks, I expect MY valuable time to be rewarded. Assuming I will see the conclusion of a race is hardly an extraordinary expectation. Which brings another ethical issue to the fore. If SPEED is claiming that its telecasts are LIVE, then show them LIVE! Recording and playing back any event content and representing that it is live is ethical fraud perpetrated under the false pretense that the network "got it right". If footage is NOT LIVE, then you have AN OBLIGATION TO SAY SO! That pertains to whether its delayed by 2 minutes or 2 hours.
It is also grounds for the dismissal of ANY SUBMISSION TO THE SPORTS EMMY AWARDS BY SPEED in the category of "live".
As a member of NATAS, I plan to bring this issue to their attention at once.
Anon 9:07AM,
I think it might be somewhat safe to assume that the ARCA race from Rockingham will not be an issue in the 2009 Sports Emmy Awards.
By the way, NASCAR on Fox did win for "Outstanding Live Sports Series." This might give the ARCA crew something to shoot for in the future.
JD
JD
You're response to my 9:07 is exactly the point.
If Speed producers are doing the "edge of deception" recorded content fraud, then chances are FOX has been doing it too. If true, then thier Emmy should be disallowed
Anon 10:34AM,
I don't know if you are new to auto racing, but what SPEED did was try to preserve all the content of the final segment for the viewers.
Apparently, if not for a machine problem, TV viewers would have been able to see the entire final segment from when the network left for commercial.
Over the last couple of seasons, several networks have used the available TiVo and DVR technology to time-shift content for the fan.
During qualifying, all of the cars are seen using this approach and none are missed while the network is in commercial. Often times, the network program finishes almost thirty minutes after the actual qualifying.
This is not NFL football or NBA basketball where a coordinated system of clock management insures that all commercials air on a pre-determined format.
This is a TV network trying to use the most up-to-date technology to insure that viewers see as much of the action on the track as possible.
I understand SPEED had a problem, and trust me, they are very embarrassed about it.
If I took the time to tell you how much sports content even back in the 1980's was pre-produced and then passed off as live, you would probably faint. Can you say Indy 500?
JD
thank you JD for letting the fans know that us on the inside don't try to fake anything. it was in the fans best interest I bet that SPEED made that decision.
as for your friend that is with NATAS. I have a few thoughts on the emmy's. these are paid for awards that the networks hold in high regard. the networks pay to put them together, they pay to send them in and if they win, they pay to get the trophy's. Let's not get into who judges these awards. the networks then flood the judging to hopefully have it come out in their favor. sports emmy's...a total joke! get real judges and don't just judge a broadcast on 20 minutes. one more thing...if you don't think the networks edit their submissions...your kidding yourself!!!!
indy 500 1992 al unser jr. edges scott goodyear..one of the best finishes in indy history....the director missed the finish of the race!!!! luckily they had time to go back and edit it in so YOU the fans wouldn't miss it! for years that race was always taped delayed!!!! how about the olympics...am I opening a can of worms here!!!
like JD said...SPEED made a huge blunder and they are embarrassed by it. they tried to do the right thing in a bad situation.
inside guy
JD, Thank Rick for us I for one appreciate his willingness to give us an explanation of what happened and to Speed for at least trying to give us the final laps. I hope they learn from their mistakes and the race coverage will be better for it. At least they are showing ARCA races on TV and I for one watched because of everything I heard about The Rock, since it was off the schedule by the time I started watching.
Thank you, Mr. Allen.
Yes, I know, I am repeating. Once again Mr. Allen thanks for stopping by.
@JD--Thank you for having this blog and allowing us to chat about various things *and* allowing the media to chime in and help us to understand from their POV :)
FYI to "inside guy"
I was in the production truck for the Indy 500 when the director missed the winner crossing the finish line.
The mistake was LIVE for all to see, and believe me, the director heard about it from Tony George for a looong time. In 1992, there was no dvr technology in the truck for time shifting. So you are dead wrong about the facts. It was fixed via edit for reply and history.
Inside inside guy
Anon 9:06PM,
How about that excellent live...oops..video right after "gentlemen start your engines." My fav....
JD
PS - You saw D.O. just picked up the Lifetime Achievement trophy?
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