The weather forecast is looking good for Saturday. The chance of rain is now listed at only 20% and the temperature is rising. It is expected to reach 77 degrees by the afternoon.
The NASCAR TV day will begin at 10AM with Dr. Jerry Punch, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree calling Nationwide Series qualifying. The Sprint Cup session was rained-out on Friday, so this is the first qualifying session of the weekend.
Handling the interviews on pit road and the garage area will be Mike Massaro, Dave Burns, Jamie Little and Shannon Spake. ESPN is still working on the TV presentation of qualifying and often seems to be more focused on doing interviews, features and promos than the action on the track.
In the ESPN format, Punch and company call these sessions alone. This eliminates Allen Bestwick, Brad Daugherty and Rusty Wallace on these telecasts. In this case, there will be 49 cars trying for 43 positions, so this session may be a long one. Currently, it is scheduled for two hours and the cars will be out on the track in a staggered format.
This post will host your comments about the Nationwide Series qualifying on ESPN2. 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. Thanks again for taking the time to drop by The Daly Planet.
24 comments:
It is early but the announce crew seems charged and ready to go.
Looks like the guys are up in the booth and the reporters are Shannon Spake and Mike Massaro.
Everyone seems to have lots of energy. European qualifying so its something different. Should be interesting.
Hopefully ESPN will decrease the use of those stat boxes it really makes the view of the car small 8x10 on my TV (literally) with 3 inches of wasted space on each side. I realize they are centering for non HD sets and I'm OK with that but don't keep it up for so long.
nrf,
I wish they would drop the boxes and chase the cars. Lots going-on out there.
Did you guys hear? Kyle Petty stepped aside and Boris Said got his ride for the Cup race.
JD
Good God - how about just a FEW MORE graphics !!!
2 tickers and all those graphics, what am i supposed to look at ?
I kind of like the boxes I think. Some times it is cool to see all the information about the drivers. And I really like when they show where they are on the grid at the bottom. It's different.
I am really having difficulties posting the last few days. I guess there are lots of comments today. Boris Said is very happy about being in the race. Looks like a nice day in NY today too. Hopefully, the PXP man won't nod off today.
All the junk on the screen is very distracting. For a few mins. they actually focused on the cars.Then they remembered they are espn.
Why is Stephanie on screen? OH I forgot anything but cars on the track.
This is making me wish my client hadn't cancelled.
So,
It seems like the TV problem with this coverage is that all of the drivers in each session are using the same lap as their pole run.
ESPN is having a tough time keeping track of all the cars in the group trying to "hot lap" on the same circuit.
JD
And NA$CAR is sending them out in 10 sec intervals as opposed to 15 sec which is causing "traffic". They are already to group 5.
Good to see NA$CAR helping the TV partner again this week
Dale Jarrett certainly does make a big difference on these sessions. He just jumps right in with great info about how the teams did yesterday and what they are doing now. Petree and Jarrett might be better off alone.
JD
wow: espn ticker across the bottom, qualifying times across the top, race course map, driver image and race history, throttle and brake graphics, intervals, n'wide logo in top left AND lower right screens and, oh yeah, the qualifying effort in a box. wayyy too much "stuff" on-screen.
add to that the necessity of quickly-changing shots to cover all the qualifiers on the course and replays for what was missed real-time and it's feeling choppy to me this morning.
i think i'll pass on the rest of the coverage and catch up later during the actual race.
I agree JD DJ and AP could do practice alone or if JP needs to be there just have him do the bumpers
JD you are right.
Dale & Andy are really on it today.
Lots of good background info, the "junk" on the screen is really awful today. It would be such great coverage if they'd drop the box format.
jo,
It is amazing that ESPN has put themselves in this position.
A beautiful road course on a clear day with HD cameras and all we get is a tiny pic shoved in a window with tons of computer graphics mixed with the deadly ESPN2 lower third ticker.
The fact that the top ticker and the bottom ESPN2 sports ticker do not crawl in sequence is the key. The viewer's eye is constantly distracted every time the lower ticker changes and eventually it tires out the fan who wants to watch the event.
It kind of looks like Bloomberg TV when they show all the stock markets and business news in the AM. Just a big screen to read with a little video insert of a talking head.
JD
Do we know who did NOT make the race. Granted they are prob start and park cars but still
Ok there they are but shouldn't that have been told earlier I guess it was no one important to ESPN
Does anyone find it strange that ESPN is talking to JJ about starting Cup practice which ESPN has denied existed for the past 2 days (it's on Speed) well at least JP has stopped saying that the only time the cup cars will see the track will be Happy Hour practice.
ESPN will simply not acknowledge SPEED. SPEED has the Cup practice coming up and to ESPN it's as if it's not taking place.
Mike,
I have emailed them several times and they say the promos are sent out by another department at ESPN and all the NASCAR guys do is read them.
Talk about avoiding the issue!
JD
JD
WOW thats real corporate speak!
And buck passing of the highest order.
Diane said:
Busy day, so I was listening to qualifying this am and only taking a peek at TV if favorite drivers were being discussed. I couldn't take Dr. Punch. So frustrating. Offers nothing interesting. Very pedestrian in his comments. Tongue tied as well. I'm sorry, but they have to do something else with the good Dr. It is painful. DJ and AP are all that is needed. Get the garbage off the screen!! Watching Cup practice on Speed (west coast on TIVO). What a difference. Easy to "listen" to. Clean screen (when watching) good comments, good voices. Love Wendy.
Re — JD @12:07 today:
"We were only following orders".
Testimony at the Nuremberg War Crimes trial.
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