Wednesday, August 20, 2008

In-Progress At Bristol: NCTS On SPEED (7:30PM ET)


This is a big night for SPEED as they get one shot to present a Truck race in prime-time on a Wednesday. There should be quite a different audience tonight as casual viewers surf the dial for new TV shows to watch. Wait until they see Bristol.

Wednesday is going to be a great opportunity for Krista Voda to introduce this series to new viewers as she hosts the pre-race show called The Set-Up at 7:30PM. Voda handles this duty alone and is usually standing at the head of the starting grid. It is always up-close and personal.

Stories tonight include Sprint Cup Series Champ Jimmie Johnson taking his first ride in a Craftsman Truck. Thanks to some behind-the-scenes help from Chevy, Johnson will be sitting in the Truck owned by Randy Moss, the NFL player. Moss Motorsports recently made its debut and the story of how all that came about has still not been fully told. It should be interesting to see who is pitting the truck and what engine Johnson has under the hood.

NCTS veteran Johnny Benson is on-a-roll this season and his consistency has resulted in multiple wins. Benson grew-up on short tracks and for those of us lucky enough to see him during his ASA days know he will be a threat at Bristol as well.

The SPEED pit reporters Ray Dunlap and Adam Alexander will also be along to update the news of the week, including some interesting names in the race. ARCA's Norm Benning, Red Bull's Scott Speed, open-wheeler Patrick Carpentier and 19 year-old Tayler Malsam who is making his NCTS debut and hails from Seattle, WA. Malsam lists his favorite band as Slightly Stoopid and one of his hobbies as pyrotechnics. Both of those fit in perfectly with Bristol.

At 8PM, the action switches over to Rick Allen to call the play-by-play from the announce booth. He will be joined by Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip. The action at Bristol is so fast that it is a challenge to keep things organized on-the-air. Allen does a good job and has worked with Parsons for many years. On the other hand, the sole purpose of Waltrip is to pump excitement into the telecast and that is certainly what he does.

Since the repaving, the track has allowed two clear lanes of racing. It will be interesting to see if the Trucks will keep things clean and race, or if cautions will result from multiple accidents like the Bristol of old.

This post will serve to host your comments about the NCTS race at Bristol on SPEED. To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thank you for taking the time to drop by The Daly Planet.

122 comments:

Anonymous said...

up against the olympics????
no shot for speed
bray kroter

Daly Planet Editor said...

no shot at what bray?

Newracefan said...

Olympics vs Trucks on Speed. No contest. Go JJ, show me that yellow rookie stripe, seems a little silly but I bet he has one.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Should be interesting to see how JJ does tonight. Nice to see him have some fun with the SPEED crew.

Sophia said...

The boys in the booth look good in the black shirts but the real question is:

Why has everybody been wearing LONG SLEEVED shirts this summer?

Now there is a bonus bit for TWIN. I remember the boys wearing the beige long sleeved shirts that Waltrip called jammies.

:)

Interesting bit on the endurance of the athletes. So true...they are in hot environments and with many tracks, strong G Force.

Vicky D said...

Beforehand, I thought this show would be a Jim Johnson lovefest. Let's hope they don't show him at the expense of the other top truck drivers. Good show and Krista looks great on the track. I wonder which Slick Willie's FAMILY pool hall that Conway group were at.

Newracefan said...

Soph I think they always wear long sleeves in the booth, looks more professional I guess? Also thought the athletes piece was cool, I think Stremme looking pretty bad was from the Dover cup race when he had to get out half way thru (I can't remember who got in). Don't you just love 30 min prerace shows.

Anonymous said...

Very nice 1/2 hour pre race show, just enough.
Should be interesting to see a 2 time Cup champ as a "rookie"
New rookie has new name "Jim" LOL
did he change name so we won't know him? lol

Daly Planet Editor said...

Never thought I would see that Jerry Punch with Ricky Rudd footage again. Good piece on drivers as athletes.

Voda is smooth, I just miss her jumping-in as a pit reporter. That is a big mess.

Sophia said...

I LOVE 30 minute pre-race shows. Should be mandatory. :)

I remember when Tony first won the Brickyard and was so lightheaded, he had to lie down when AB interviewed him! Poor boy was dehydrated..as have been many drivers on a super hot day. Ricky Rudd another tough cookie.

The young girl had a good voice and did well for such a huge crowd...

Daly Planet Editor said...

Somebody just hit the wrong button......

Newracefan said...

Lost all the mikes?? Have sound (music) but no voices. OOPS

Sophia said...

What happened to the audio?

I just hear dreadful music (Ugh, turn it down) but the talking stopped?

There is Phil calling PC Patreek...French pronouncement. :)

Sophia said...

I really like Ray Dunlap. No offense but I wish he could stay put for the Dilner spot on SPEED. Just a fun, happy guy to listen to, imo.

Nothing personal against Dilner. I hope he is ok, by the way or just odd timing for vacation.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Too funny to hear Waltrip talk about Chad!

Daly Planet Editor said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lisa Hogan said...

So far, so good. I have cable!
JD-who picks the annoying music that competes with the announcers?
At least they could have played Rocky Top. :)

Sean said...

5 laps in and trucks are already going 3 wide and banging into each other. Wish the Cup series was like this!

Sophia said...

Agree, I gotta kick out of Mikey talking about Chad. :)

Lisa, that music was DREADFUL wasn't it? Ugh.

Ok,, we are having intermittent mic issues...sigh...tech gremlins at SPEED again.

Can't blame this on "Fay"

Newracefan said...

Well we missed the first spin while looking at Darnells pit stop full screen, hopefully it's not a trend although it was a stop to watch since it didn't go that well. I'm torn

Jessica said...

sound issues with speed again, that's too bad.

Anonymous said...

Blogger Sean said...

5 laps in and trucks are already going 3 wide and banging into each other. Wish the Cup series was like this!

August 20, 2008 8:21 PM
Amen to that! Did you hear Jim aka JJ mention the trucks are like the cars LOL

Sophia said...

Ok..WHAT is the deal in the booth..they have NO IDEA the sound is cutting in and out?

Newracefan said...

Somebody keeps pushing the wrong botton, I wanted to hear what JJ said to Mikey. Bummer Speed find the gremlins

Sophia said...

I know this might get deleted but when is somebody gonna take Kyle Busch out?

Sigh...where is an old school driver when you need one. :)

Or so many tell me, lol

Vicky D said...

And I thought it was interesting that Mikey mentioned that instead of watching the monitors like most truck races, tonight he's watching the track. I wonder if he reads this blog.

Newracefan said...

Soph KB will get punted on day. I'm a firm believer in karma

Daly Planet Editor said...

Vicky,

The person two seats to his left does.

JD

Jessica said...

knaus keeps jim out. wonder if espn will mention this "practice" the entire 48 crew is getting in this series?

Newracefan said...

If Mikey and the Speed guys watch the monitors to call a race I wonder if the problem is that that cameras for ESPN do not show the right action for the booth guys to call.

On a side note I wonder if we will get to see the "Welding Chad" commercial I haven't seen it in a while and it always it makes me smile.

Sophia said...

NRF

I am also a believe in karma.

It's patience and the TIMING of karma I gotta problem with, lol.

Go kenny!

Sophia said...

Nice call staying out of commercial break. Thanks, SPEED!

Newracefan said...

Way to go Speed, wreck happens commercial postponed.

Jessica said...

JD, If speed can call off a commercial break on the fly for an incident on track is there any reason the major networks don't cut into a break when something happens in the cup series?

Daly Planet Editor said...

jess,

They stay unless it is deemed to be something major.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Too funny!

Jessica said...

omg! that hit list (both of them) rock.

Jessica said...

my kingdom for some scanner chatter....

Anonymous said...

What a stupid comment. Kyle will pass Jimmy in another couple of laps.

Anonymous said...

@bray--that's what dual TiVo/DVRs are for. The only thing I'm taping it for is the gymnastics expos. If other stuff looks interesting I might stop and watch. Besides they replay it overnight..at least in these parts they do. But yes not much will keep me from the TV for the August Bristol races...I miss the ambulance abuse and bootie throwing :(

@sophia--agreed. I love DillPickle but it Ray did a great job!

Nice of them to stay with the wreck and let us know what was happening instead of going to commercial and doing an "oh by the way".

Hi person 2 seats away from Mikey, Mikey, Phil and Rick! *waves* :)

Newracefan said...

Amen to the scanner chatter. It's nice to see JJ having some fun like he did at the NW Watkins Glen race not to mention the burnout contest. I'm just having problems with the Jim thing, I can't think of any other Jim's as Nascar drivers, it just sounds wrong all the way around.

Vicky D said...

JD, I always thought these guys in the broadcast booth watched out the window not the monitors. It's like the weathermen, I always wonder if they ever look out the window here in Houston before they do the weather. I sure hope a regular Truck Series driver wins this race.

Anonymous said...

nrf - the only thing worse than "Jim" is James then we could do the James, James Johnson like Bond
He's not a Jim hes a Jimmie.
Love the top 10 list too

Anonymous said...

Nice crowd tonight for trucks

PammH said...

hated the sound problems in the beginning, but applaud the staying w/programming when the caution came out. Loving "Jim" Johnson!

Anonymous said...

And there he goes...Chad's in disbelief! He clipped that baby good!

Sophia said...

ZOWEE!!!

Tough break for "jim" That looks a mess.

Get out the duct tape.

Newracefan said...

Wow OOPS but he really tried to save that truck, I wonder if they'll fix it or park it.

Anonymous said...

Great camera shot shown & nice to hear appropriate enthusiasm from the entire booth! Jimmie almost saved it.

Newracefan said...

Rats I was really hoping he was going to get to the bottom of that hit list. Spin kind of reminded me of the one at Dover during qualifying, to bad for Jeff Green, he still might have saved it.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Have to give MW credit tonight. He has come a long way and is kind of fitting-in with this group like he is fitting-in with Knaus and Byrnes on Monday.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Like to hear a little more about the tire trouble....

Newracefan said...

What happened to Schrader?

Jessica said...

unfortunate. really.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Maybe they will fix Ray's mic before the night is over...

Anonymous said...

WOW more audio problems w/Jim interview Dang it

Vicky D said...

Speed is really having a lot of issues with the audio tonight.

Sophia said...

I WANTED TO HEAR Jimmie.

Would somebody alert SPEED they are having sound issues??

I am done..this was a critical interview and it's all messed up. I get dizzy watching this track anyway.

wish a sound engineer or somebody was paying more attention...or reading here.

Newracefan said...

OK now I'm annoyed no sound with JJ and Ray. Was it me or them

Anonymous said...

No apology for crappy audio?

Newracefan said...

Hey JD you got that guy in the booth on Speed Dial? They need a heads up and to replay that interview

Anonymous said...

What a shame they missed the interview with Jim. I know there are a lot of people watching tonight because of him...

Oh well, I guess that's par for the course for SPEED. They do give it their best shot but they are still not quite a big-time network.

Great race so far. I sure hope Kyle wins to somewhat make up for the ridiculous penalties given to JGR today.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Thank you!!

alex said...

Good job SPEED for replaying the interview.

Anonymous said...

joined in around 8:45 and was confused: i had no idea who "jim johnson" and was wondering why he didn't have a rookie stripe. then it suddenly made sense -- sorta!

typical outstanding camera work, something the truck races always seem to excel at providing.
jj nearly saved that beast and i am quite impressed with is driving right there.
nice to see a big crowd at bristol for the trucks and to hear that saturday night's race is sold out.

boy! i love truck racing! "we have action all over the track!" -- something we never hear in cup racing

huh. just lost the audio on the jj post-wreck interview. that's a shame. from the comments so far, it appears it isn't the first time, either. too bad to have a glitch like that in what seems to be solid coverage otherwise.

anyway! i'm enjoying the trucks as always and it's a great solid, professional, interesting and fun job being done by everyone!

wow! they're actually apologizing AND playing back that interview. THANKS, GUYS!!

PammH said...

and here we go!! thx Speed!

Anonymous said...

w00t! Thank you nice folks at SPEED!

Anonymous said...

Newracefan - The shot of Stremme being sick was from the Mexico City race in 2005 ... He hurled IN the car ...

Newracefan said...

JD??

Vicky D said...

So I guess it wasn't Ray's mic but good to hear and see the replay.

Newracefan said...

Thanks anon 919, I wasn't watching NW back then

Anonymous said...

Oh I'm so Haaaapppyyy, I love my SPEEEEEED!!!!!!!!!!!!

even managed to replay a lost interview in what? seconds? Hm who's sending the tape to ESPN to further their ramedial training?

Sophia said...

Wow....I turned the station for a few minutes and turned back to hear the end of Rick's comment 'here is the Interview" and saw the one with Jimmie!

GOOD JOB!!!!!

(Sophia no longer sucking her thumb, lol)

:)

(you gotta admit, the intermittent audio issues have been very annoying!?) At least they addressed it...unlike some stations that "pretend" things never happened.

Sophia said...

More tire issues?

Good thing Tony Stewart isn't in tonight's race. ;0

Anonymous said...

What happened to the interview with Tayler Malsam with the Hydroplane truck ??

What happened to the interview with Ken Schrader ??

Let alone what actually happened to them to put them out of the race ...

They never said what happened to Brian Scott early on in the race ...

Sophia said...

I would also love to know what happened to schrader?!?!

Daly Planet Editor said...

nrf,

When you ask....networks listen!

How does having all that power feel?

JD

Newracefan said...

Now if we could just get ESPN to listen

Sophia said...

nrf

You beat me to it with your pspn comment.

;-0

Vicky D said...

Anon at 9:30 - those drivers aren't cup guys in a truck race and they don't have the largest pitbox at the track either. Speed is ignoring them.

Anonymous said...

Tayler Malsam had the BEST looking truck out there ... with sponsorship for the Hydroplane museum ...

Too bad we didn't get to hear the kid throw Crafton under the bus ... Because it sure didn't look like a tire went down ...

Tayler's also got a good back story ...

Anonymous said...

best line of the night: "dover is bristol on steroids!" love him or hate him, mikey comes up with memorable quotes!

Anonymous said...

newracefan - In 05, it was still the Busch series ... LOL ;-) That MC race was hot & humid and Stremme had been sick all weeklong ... His replacement driver was NOT thrilled about getting into THAT car ... LOL

Newracefan said...

Red hate to burst your bubble but I've heard that one for a while now, but Mikey does come up with some winners and remembers the winners by others.

Sophia said...

Bummer for hornaday.

:(

Anonymous said...

Great! A red flag! This will give me time to check on my rhubarb pie.

Anonymous said...

nrf: thanks for the correction. i certainly have missed it before but it's still a great line! and i can guarantee: when i go to dover in september, it will be rattling around in my brain!

Anonymous said...

Looked like something was wrong with Sprague's left front tire ...

A half mile track & they still miss camera shots that show everything ...

Newracefan said...

September I'm jealous, already have tickets on order for June and if I can reschedule my usual vacation week in 2009, I'll add Sept.

Daly Planet Editor said...

You guys are pointing out exactly why we have been asking SPEED to pay for an extra pit reporter unit and let Krista interview these out of the race drivers.

Be nice to hear from more than just Jimmie.

JD

Newracefan said...

JD good point I forgot about the only 2 pit reporters guess it is at least one body short. Heck just have Krista hang around and of no one goes to the garage/infield care center she can sit with her feet up. Of course I would love to hear from her on pit road.

Jessica said...

I have comcast in Minneapolis so its not an option for me but I am curious as to whether or not this is in HD?

Sophia said...

I think they are one camera short tonight, considering how many live crashes we have missed.

I also think they should utilize Krista in the pits.

I don't know why these stupid Danger commercials still make me smile. :)

alex said...

ESPN, are you watching??

I'll bet the postrace show is longer than 3-5 mintues!

Newracefan said...

Man these guys are really racing hard. Guess the repave didn't ruin Bristol, what a wreck fest. Darn not KB again. Bummer

alex said...

I like the high camera angle over the finish line. Wonder if we'll see that same angle over the weekend?

Anonymous said...

Good gravy! Now he's "directing" the crowd! :p

Newracefan said...

OK Speed has 20 minutes to kill just like ESPN last week, want to bet they'll stay on the air all the way until 10:30

Anonymous said...

The announcers really needs STOP the comparisons between Michael Phelps and Kyle ...

Daly Planet Editor said...

Nice solid coverage from a TV crew that seems to like each other and what they do.

SPEED is up on Friday from 10AM all the way through 7:30PM with both Sprint Cup and Nationwide action.

Hope to see you here on Friday.

Thanks for stopping by,

JD

Sophia said...

Oh, boy

paging karma

Sophia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sophia said...

Sweet interview with Bodine.

Anonymous said...

Awesome! Toyota 1-2-3-4! Take that NASCAR!

Very nice of Kyle to mention JGR in his victory speech too after their difficult and unfair day.

Great race. Great coverage. Other than the minor sound problems SPEED really shined tonight.

Thanks, SPEED, for a great evening...

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, but 7 of the top 10 finishers being Toyota smells awfully fishy after "Dyno Gate" ...

Newracefan said...

Hey Soph if we have to wait to much longer for Karma it will have to hit really big.

Speed did a nice job except for the lack of interviews with the guys who dropped out and no info on Schrader, I still don't know why he was out, it happened shortly after JJ crashed. I know there is at least one poster tonight that has been slamming Speed and a few things are valid but, they will show us a race for 13th over follow the leadder top 5 and that beats ESPN any day. Get that 3rd pit reporter and I think all issues will be handled.

Anonymous said...

newracefan - SPEED (not to be confuse with Manteca's Speed) does a pretty good job ... Bristol always seems to have some weird problems with the audio / video ...

Since Krista's at the track, doing "The Setup" ... WHY don't they let her do the garage interviews ??



Yay - Engines getting put on the Dyno ... Too bad the 51 is already skewed ...

Newracefan said...

OK this engine dyno thing is getting really old. Just let them race for crying out loud. Hey look 1028 Speed is still at Bristol. ESPN are you watching

Sophia said...

NRF

Yea, I am not very patient about some things.

Nice hearing TJ mention adopting animals!! :)

Rick C had a decent finish.

Great seeing a longer post race show!

Personally I think all the Toyota's in the top 10 are kinda fitting after the past few days.

That's the rebel in me I guess.lol

Daly Planet Editor said...

SPEED would have to pay for all the hardware and RF (wireless) gear that a pit reporter uses.

I even suggested they just give her a radio hook-up...but no!

Such a waste of a resource on these races.

JD

Daly Planet Editor said...

There is a new post up for your comments on the Gibbs interview today and the "whodunit" that is still not solved.

Thanks again for everyone stopping by.

JD

Sophia said...

"Whodunit" lmao

:)

I love a good mystery..with humor.

Anonymous said...

IF SPEED has a "set" of gear for Krista for "The Setup" ... Adam & Ray are each using a set at the same time ...

What happens to Krista's set after the pre-race show??

Does SPEED have to pay extra "techie" charges to the truck / satellite??

Color me confuzzled on this ...



The truck was having issues when they were showing the highlights / lowlights ... and Adam was trying to conduct his interview with Hornaday ... Adam's mic was open whilst the caution videos were playing ...

Anonymous said...

JD,

As a television student I have a technical question regarding the audio problems we heard today. It seemed as if the control room and the announcers did not realize the issue and the director continued each segment as if nothing was wrong. So you would think the audio transmission from the track was lost, but we also heard ambient noise from the track. So, the satellite signal was fine. What and where would this issue be that would cause the control room to continue hearing audio while the folks at home only heard the ambient sounds from the track?

Anonymous said...

I've just finished watching the Tivo. I know its too late for most of you in the east, but I have a question about Jimmy Johnson's #81.

The quarter panel ads are for the Lowe's owned tool brand Kobalt.

I would have thought that, at least until the end of the year, Sears and Craftsman would have category exclusivity in that department given what we know happens with insurance and telephone companies in the other big Nascar series.

stricklinfan82 said...

Much like the Michigan Cup race last week, the top 4-5 were single-file for much of the night (with the exception of the brief Busch-Johnson battle). Unlike ESPN's production truck last week, this Speed production truck knew how to handle this situation. When the leaders were spread out they panned back and found racing somewhere else in the pack, whether it was for 10th, 15th, or Tayler Malsam racing Patrick Carpentier for 27th. Those individuals made this a very enjoyable race to watch at home, despite the lack of racing at the front of the field. This is what the ESPN truck has badly lacked. When the front of the field is single-file, ESPN either follows the leaders running around by themselves or turns to full-screen stat packages about the leaders, those ridiculous pre-taped gigantic head shots of the in-focus driver talking, Dish Tech Center, Draft Tracks, or full-screen race recaps. ESPN doesn't know anyone outside the top 10 in the race or outside the Chase Bubble exists. Speed on the other hand made a great show out of focusing on "the rest of the field" that was putting on a great race. On top of that we had a great broadcast booth that was very much into the race and did a great job of staying on top of the action.

The bottom line is that this Speed Channel group "gets it". It's just a shame that this production truck, Rick, Phil, and the gang can't hang around and handle the Cup and Nationwide broadcasts this week as well.

Normally logic would dictate that the race coverage should improve as the weekend progresses and the amount of money, equipment, and personnel involved in the production of the "next higher-tiered series" race increases. This Speed group needs to be commended though, because despite having a smaller on-air crew (and I would assume less equipment, fewer cameras, fewer behind-the-scenes people, etc. available) they are vastly outperforming their counterparts that presumably have much more to work with.

Thanks Speed for an enjoyable night of coverage.

Anonymous said...

A couple of the comments on the race are due to it just being Bristol.
1. any network will have less infield interviews due to do the noise level in there.
2. Hard to work with many cameras and shot switches in a 16 sec lap, we would all be dizzy.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Anon 2:27AM,

That would seem to make the problem "downstream" from the truck itself.

This may involve the connection to the satellite truck, an internal uplink problem or perhaps an audio board problem with the output.

If I get the scoop, I will post it.

JD

Anonymous said...

Thank you, SPEED!! That's how it should be done. Thank you for showing the other networks how to air a race.

Mikey and the guys did a great job covering the trucks, the drivers and the yellow flags. And what a concept-instead of cutting to a commercial like that OTHER network does, you stayed and covered the whole incident first.

I loved Mikey's comment about how he doesn't like watching the race on the monitor inside the trailer. A little jab at the other network, maybe? :-) It was great! Keep it up, Mikey! Love ya!

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

So what WAS the reason we lept hearing about Jim Johnson? Or was it just run together, like Jimjohnson?

Newracefan said...

Jim Johnson was an inside joke, Jimmie's wife has started calling him Jim in the past few days/weeks, the team found out about it and put JIM on the truck instead of the usual Jimmie Johnson and it snowballed from there.
I was wondering about the Kobalt Tools thing too perhaps the Craftsman thing is so old they don't have exclusive or since they are leaving they don't care or Jimmie is just special ;)