The night race at Bristol is always great for TV. There are several reasons why. The time of the race makes for great pictures and the action on the track makes for great racing.
Allen Bestwick is up first with NASCAR Countdown at 7:30PM. He will be joined by Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty in the Infield Pit Center for this program.
The race coverage is up next with all the ESPN regulars. Dr. Jerry Punch will call the play-by-play with Lead Analyst Dale Jarrett and veteran crew chief Andy Petree alongside. Reporting from pit road will be Shannon Spake, Jamie Little, Dave Burns and Mike Massaro.
This racetrack has been a tough assignment for ESPN because the fast pace of the race does not fit-in with the network's tendency to rely on planned audio clips and features during the coverage. It is also tough to arrange the triple-splits on the pit stops and to try and squeeze-in replays during green flag racing.
It should be a challenging night for the crew with a lot of noise in the infield affecting the pit reporters and tempers getting a little tight as the race progresses.
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254 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 254 of 254How did Kesolowski win? Did they show the pass? The one to win the race?
@Alex - I give the post-race to the top of the hour max.
3 minutes of commercials can help them get to Sportscenter after the winner's interviews and maybe Bowyer and Busch.
Maybe on saturday night they won't allow the ESPN Interns in the production truck.
No... wait.... maybe they SHOULD allow the Interns... coverage couldn't be any worse.
We don;t need a Victory Lane celebration? We can see it in a small box while we get a SportsCenter update again, even though it will be on in a few minutes.
Notice the SC ad is bigger than the shot of VL?
Ken-Michigan said...
Maybe on saturday night they won't allow the ESPN Interns in the production truck.
No... wait.... maybe they SHOULD allow the Interns... coverage couldn't be any worse.
+1
"What about Cale Gale?!?!?!" He was in the top 5 all night Jerry.
Daly Planet Editor said...
I am really at a loss for words on this one....
August 22, 2008 9:48 PM
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Well I'm not this was by far the worst Nwide race espn has aired this year - if not for the radio I'd a lost my mind. Doc was awful, the pre conceived story lines are back ( & dam reality) & we will only follow the "story" we the espngod decide viewers will see.
Listen I'm a Gibbs fan, & I was sick to death of the overkill about Gibbs drivers.
Refusing to show side by side racing is inexcusable.
There has to be a way to "muffle" the ambient noise on those pit mics - yelling is awful & is hard to understand. The worldwide leader in sports needs to buy some.
We saw more commercials than racing, if I was a car sponsor I'd be livid.
Doc we are both at a point in our lives where most people driving race cars are younger than us - get over it. I did about 10 years ago.
So, Kyle gets a post-race interview too ??
How about an interview with Sam Hornish Jr???? Or Dario??
Where's the interview with Sliced Bread??
Had to put a piece of tape on the bottom of the Tv screen. I am recording the football came and did not want to see the score.
Why did car 40 Dario Franchitti finish 11th.
Will Espn go until the bottom of the hour, like scheduled?
Three mins to SC. I called it.
The director needs to be fired ...
Enough already ...
We're TIRED of Joe Gibbs Racing hogging ALL of the media coverage ...
@haus20--no worries..I watch everything (short of racing) off the DVR so FF commercials and never pay attention to them.
@alex--it's hard to tell with what ESPN calls coverage. If you're a fan of the 5 drivers they showed all night Yes...otherwise No
well it is nice to see that the post race show has as many commercials as the race...at least they are consistent
I too would like to know what happened to Dario. His crew chief said towards the end he is in perfect position and he fell a lot.
No mention of Wimmer once again even though he grabs ANOTHER Top 10.
i have a dvr and i do use it quite a bit, but i really prefer to watch my sports live.
This kind of stuff is exactly why SPEED needs to be rebranded as the Nascar Channel, and show Cup, NNS, Trucks, Camping World, and all of the practices and qualifying sessions. They seem to be the only crew that can do justice to the racing.
When is the TV contract over?
KRKO-AM actually stayed with the race until it ended and did a few post-race interviews ...
Utterately shocking !!
Dear ESPN,
Will you please complete your coverage of the race before moving on to other things? There are so many other stories to tell here. DO YOUR JOBS and don't wuss out on us.
Oops, I'm wrong. Will we go to 7:30?
Did she realize Bowyer wanted to leave? What is wrong with Shannon Spake? I loved Bowyer's short answer to how did you feel to get passed like that.
Bowyer should have said "I dunno, your network didn't show it"
Wow. Dale Jr gets an interview. No one else in the top 10 though. Stremme a 5th, Wimmer a 6th, and Vickers, even though he is a Cup guy, finished 9th without being mentioned once!
TV contract goes till 2014 I think w/espu
Brad won at Nashville, and Mark won in the 5 car earlier this year, so why the question to Jr. about what it is like to be in VL as an owner?
Jr & Reut. both got an interview
Does the pit reporter say 'fill us in on the Butler family for those who don't know? nope ask about respect. What a dumb bunny!!
So even if it improves (unlikely at this pace), we have 6+ more years of ESPN. Hooray!
haus20 said...
Brad won at Nashville, and Mark won in the 5 car earlier this year, so why the question to Jr. about what it is like to be in VL as an owner?
Lack of insight?
How did the video clip relat to Reut?
Well we're getting post race this week finally. So they got 1 small thing right. I never figured they'd stay past top of the hour!
Newracefan said...
How did the video clip relat to Reut?
Is that necessary? That would be so out of character for ESPN.
On the plus side, at least we're well aware of what's next on Sportscenter.
Reut can really beat up on himself but then Jaime asked him about the big picture for the championship. Too bad Reut didn't realize they never showed him or was mentioned during the race!
Daly Planet Editor said...
I am really at a loss for words on this one....
August 22, 2008 9:48 PM
Well I'm glad I'm here then because I'm certainly not. Quite simply this production truck did not broadcast this as a race. Instead of searching for a race on the track and reacting to how the race was unfolding, ESPN focused primarily on 5 pre-determined drivers of interest - the points contenders (Bowyer, Keselowski, & Edwards) and the two JGR cars that were in the news all week (Busch & Logano).
When Clint wasn't on camera, ESPN found Brad, Carl, or the JGR cars on the track, often times literally skipping right past two other cars racing side-by-side to pan back to the other title contender running by himself.
Very rarely ESPN did decide to "throw a bone" to another car that a pit reporter had a story about. Once they panned back to Denny Hamlin running by himself to tell a story, skipping past two cars running side-by-side in the process to get to him. Another time they focused on Dario Franchitti. Cars were running two-by-two-by-two just car lengths behind him but ESPN didn't care. Dario's story was told, his sponsor got some TV time, and it was time to move back to Clint, Brad, the JGR cars, or Carl running around 75 laps down.
This was very poor coverage today. The Speed Truck production truck put on a clinic on how to broadcast a race with limited racing at the front of the field. These ESPN folks despearately need to watch a Truck broadcast and take notes.
As I said yesterday, it is UNBELIEVABLE that the coverage actually worsens as the weekend goes on and the amount of people and money involved in the race production steadily ramps up from Truck to Nationwide to Cup.
NASCAR, I have one word for you as it relates to your relation with ESPN/ABC. - BUYOUT There must be one somewhere in your contract, use it!
Yippie for college football season arriving! Now we can add network shifts, pre-emptions, tape-delays, and Internet-only broadcasts on top of the already awful production of these ESPN races and qualifying/practice sessions.
All Gibbs all the time. Race teams pay attention. If you want excessive coverage get penalized by NASCAR.
so why the question to Jr. about what it is like to be in VL as an owner?
**************
Jr wasn't physically there in VL for the Nashville win. I think that is what they meant by asking that question.
I don't suppose any of the drivers are interested in dropping by the broadcast facilities there in the infield to chat with ESPN like some would do with Johnny and Jimmy and Kenny, huh. Do we wonder why that would be? Heh.
Wouldn't you like to know what Dave Burns was hearing in his ear during that interview?
Logano finishes 16th ... Two spots BEHIND Hornish ... and gets an interview with Gibbs ...
WHERE is the interview with Sam Hornish Jr ??? Sam had a top 10 run going and Gibbs' twice dumped driver takes him out ...
Daly Planet Editor said...
Wouldn't you like to know what Dave Burns was hearing in his ear during that interview?
Probably nothing I would care to ask anyone under any circumstances.
Biffle with a top 5 finish is interviewed AFTER Logano who was 16th?!?!?
It's starting to look like they might actually go until 10:30. That would be a pleasant surprise, though apparently not enough to make up for the previous 2 hours.
I have to conclude the Sportscenter guys on the set were caught completely by surprise, else we would be there already.
How come the NW race ends early and the post race goes to 7:30 (so far). But if CUP finishes early, we get SC?
At least with the longer post race, ESPN is replaying all that we missed.
alex said...
It's starting to look like they might actually go until 10:30. That would be a pleasant surprise, though apparently not enough to make up for the previous 2 hours.
Yes, we are learning more about what happened during the race from the driver's interviews than we did from the play-by-play man in the booth. WTH!
Vickers was in the race? Really? I honestly don't remember them mentioning his name during the broadcast.
--KarenB
I checked the listings for after the Cup race tomorrow. Guess what? Ding, ding, ding....Sports Center.
At this rate, they could interview all the drivers.
Hey JD,
What's the record for comments during a race?
On the bright side, tonight's hectic pace of commercials kept our exposure to Rusty to an absolute minimum.
Dot said...
Hey JD,
What's the record for comments during a race?
Dot were not even close have topped 400 this year at least once (last week to be exact)
Dot said...
At this rate, they could interview all the drivers.
August 22, 2008 10:25 PM
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They only missed a couple!
At least we are getting all the laps we missed - true they are out of sequence, but hey beggars ( viewers) can't be choosy. Nice post race show!
Now that was a post race show.
There is a new post up about the Nationwide Series race on ESPN.
We would appreciate your comments.
Thanks,
JD
Thanks nrf.
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