While names like Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards will be on the track, the Nationwide Series race from MIS on Saturday may lead ESPN to focus on a relatively new name to the sport.
It was Friday morning when Tony Stewart made it all official. Ryan Newman would join Stewart to campaign a two-car team for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2009. This announcement helped to finally make it sink-in that there could very well be an eighteen year old kid in the Home Depot Toyota next season. His name is Joey Logano.
Saturday afternoon shortly after 3PM, Logano will be in his Toyota trying to win the Nationwide Series race. This may be exactly the storyline ESPN needs to breath some excitement into this series that has been struggling all season long.
It will be Allen Bestwick hosting the pre-race NASCAR Countdown show on ESPN2 with Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty joining Bestwick in the ESPN Infield Pit Studio. This thirty minute show should catch viewers up-to-date with the happenings of the weekend including the Stewart and Logano scenarios. Wallace should be in good spirits with brothers Mike and Kenny racing alongside Rusty's son Steven.
Upstairs in the broadcast booth will be Dr. Jerry Punch, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. These three have been following this series all season long. Down on pit road will be Dave Burns, Mike Massaro, Jamie Little and Shannon Spake. In the Tech Center will be Tim Brewer.
After the success of Marcos Ambrose at Watkins Glen, it should be interesting to follow his progress on this superspeedway as his NASCAR learning curve continues. Also in the event with something to prove will be David Stremme and Dario Franchitti. Look for ESPN to track their progress as the race goes forward.
This telecast follows live tennis from the Washington DC area as the busy TV season on the ESPN family of networks begins to pick-up pace heading into mid-August. With college football on the horizon, the Nationwide Series will once again be the odd-man-out on Saturday afternoons. The Nationwide Series race is scheduled from 3:30PM to 6PM. It is followed by NHRA qualifying.
This post will serve to host your comments about the Nationwide Series race from MIS on ESPN2. To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. Thanks again for stopping by.
66 comments:
Logano will be in his Toyota trying to win the Nationwide Series race. This may be exactly the storyline ESPN needs to breath some excitement into this series that has been struggling all season long.
Not so fast. Logano still has to qualify. As we saw at Darlington, anything can happen. Last year you railed against ESPN for having pre-conceived story lines. Now you set one up.
Wallace should be in good spirits with brothers Mike and Kenny racing alongside Rusty's son Steven.
How is this weekend any different for Rusty than the previous 23 races (since Kenny did not make the season opening Daytona race)?
Re – Anon @7:29 AM today:
I think the issue that is complained about is not pre-conceived, or anticipated story lines. I think the issue is that the announcers, (booth, and studio), continue to talk about those story lines, (and practically nothing else), when the dynamics of the race are playing out in an entirely different direction.
There will usually be anticipated story lines. Today, one will be how M. Ambrose struggles, or doesn't, at a long oval. Another will be some Nationwide, (man I can't get this not being Busch anymore), regulars maybe catching the Cup interlopers in the point standings. Yet another would be watching the travails, and behavior of S. Wallace.
Three are probably several more that will develop as the race progresses. Hopefully the ESPN announcers will not follow their annoying pattern of ignoring them.
Last paragraph should start with There, not Three! I am great about hitting the Publish button before carefully proof reading.
And during the telecast we might only see Joey racing, wondering where all the other Nationwide regulars are. Of course, ESPN will show the cup guys that's a gimme.
Funny, I believe Logano is a candidate for the Home Depot Toyota - not the Home Depot Chevy...
Dr. Jerry made a better pit reporter, than anchor.
Rusty is just annoying. Would someone please tell him referring to people as "cats" went out in the 50's.
Demoting him was good, losing him altogether, would be better!
dawg
I think Logano might sneak his way into the field....
What I meant is that all has been forgiven since the Mike vs. Steven dust-up so all should be OK at the Wallace family reunion.
JD
JD- I think one of Massaro's flaws as a pit reporter is that he asks very bland questions. Usually they're not very specific at all
Sean,
Don't you wonder what he is hearing in his ear?
JD
Skippedthe prerace but did DVR anything worth watching?
Poor Rusty
Wonder what Rusty is going to have to say about that one? What a doggone nightmare.
This may be a long race did they even make it thru the first lap?
ESPN is really pushing the Edwards/Boyer feud, how about talking about the race instead of some created story
I really like Steven, he has a great personality I'm sure it is as hellish to have Rusty as a father and car owner as it is the opposit
Agreed nrf. Just shows that they can't follow all the stories, so they have to create them
It's bad luck to tell people what you wish for.. I knew that was gonna happen to the 66.
Anyone ever read anything about bad blood between Bowyer and Edwards this week?
I just checked around and could not find a thing. Think they just made it up?
JD
A lot of silence....
bowyer sounded pretty ticked in that prerace interview. that didn't seem made up
I think maybe they are getting carl confuesed with brad?
Looks like ESPN is having problems with their scoring crawl (no real-time intervals).
Why is Rusty talking?
because he has won at this track so many times and knows how to race this track.
Ok I had to run to the store and got home in time for gflag.
What is going on with Bowyer and Edwards?
Poor Steven had nowhere to go did he? sheesh. hate when that kind of thing starts in lap one.
Way to go Doc told us who was in the garage/ out of the race after gf pit stops. Still need to reset the field so I do not have to read the ticker or look at Foxtrax.
I'd still like to see ESPN adopt the Fox philosophy of always keeping the leader or other on-track racing in a box split-screened with the green flag pit stops. There's no need to have to make an "either/or choice" of showing racing or pit stops when you can have both with a split-screen.
Now they really need to reset the fied
Were those little flags above the cars ESPNs idea of re setting the field? If so I'm unimpressed by the techno junk
Ok, time for Doc to shut up and DJ to get comfortable with jumping into the play by play; the fans need his help forget the booth!
The problems with ESPN’s NASCAR coverage has been well-documented by the posters on this site and others.
I am normally an upbeat and positive person. ESPN makes me tense and frustrated. Today I am watching the race with the mute button engaged. When the championship point standing was shown at lap 25, I just laughed.
When the aggravation level is higher than the enjoyment level, it is time to seek other avenues.
What happened to Logano? Started 6th now 16th?
It's always nice to have the TV networks immediately tell us who the Lucky Dog is on every caution during ARCA, Truck, and Nationwide races. It sure would be nice to get the same information on an ESPN Cup broadcast some day. I don't care if Aaron's doesn't pay for this feature during Cup races, the information about the free pass recipient should still be provided regardless of whether or not someone is paying to sponsor the "award".
I think they say it a lot on the Cup side. It just isn't as obvious because there isn't a graphic.
sean,
I was just thinking the same thing.
JD
Jamie and Shannon are unintelligable today.
Well there's our answer JD. Certainly took a while though
I wonder how long it will take before they tell us the 66 is back on the track
Poor David that sucks he had a great car
Here comes the inevitable mess of another late-race restart with a bunch of cars on the tail-end of the lead lap restarting in front of the leaders. I'd sure like to see NASCAR move those cars to the inside. I wonder if the booth or pit studio has any thoughts on the subject.
As I suspected, nothing good ever happens as a result of the "tail-end of the lead lap" rule on a restart. Thankfully none of the leaders got taken out when the lapped cars wrecked each other in this instance. Good call by Andy to sense trouble coming.
Well that we certainly underwhelming. I wonder how much of the post race we'll get with 20+ minutes left to kill.
agreed nwf--very underwhelming race
Congratulations to Cousin Carl and the Roush Brigade :)
After such an enjoyable two days of SPEED coverage, I just couldn't handle Punch and the pit reporters today.
Mute worked fine today. Tomorrow I will probably go to the radio.
Nice disregard of the Nationwide regulars at the finish line, ESPN.
Show race winner Carl Edwards (Cup), 2nd place Brian Vickers (Cup), 3rd place Tony Stewart (Cup), 4th place Mark Martin (Cup) and 5th place Greg Biffle (Cup) crossing the finish line.
Then skip 6th place Mike Bliss (Nationwide regular), 7th place Joey Logano (Nationwide regular), 8th place Jason Leffler (Nationwide regular), and 9th place finisher Kelly Bires (Nationwide regular).
Then pick up Clint Bowyer (Cup) crossing the finish line in 10th.
Espn today when the race was halfway decided to have the screen Lap xx of 125 laps. That was great but when it hit lap 100 they switched to laps to go. At least they did a good graphic change for 37 laps.
I was surprised they never discussed when Tony was in 2nd with 10 laps to go that Toyota took away horse power and that maybe it was a reason he could not get to first.
What was that announcer trying to do talking to Reutimann in his wrecked car. Did he want Reutimann to get mad about being tapped by Bowyer. That announcer should worry about the race not about trying to get two drivers mad at each other.
Underwhelming, that's a great word to summarize all these ESPN races
Overall it wasn't a bad day for ESPN. A relatively calm, spread out race at Michigan was probably just the thing they needed after the Watkins Glen mess. They probably won't get so lucky at Bristol next week though. After last year's ESPN Nationwide debacle at Bristol (and the hilarious Youtube video that followed before ESPN had it pulled), it will be interesting to see if the network is ready to redeem themselves.
Forgive me, I totally forget. What happened at Bristol last year?
Slightly off topic. After traveling up I-95 this week .I found more humor in Sadler's Sunoco Master of Disguise spot than normal. With his brother Hermie he owns several travel plazas in the NC VA area. They all sell Shell products only, kinda pegged my ironic meter.
Frank in Sebring
All in all, no issues with the broadcast today. Just a real snoozer of a race and they can't help that. Maybe tomorrow will be a more entertaining race?
Anonymous said...
Forgive me, I totally forget. What happened at Bristol last year?
August 16, 2008 5:58 PM
JD summed it up with this article:
http://dalyplanet.blogspot.com/2007/08/long-night-at-bristol-for-espn.html
In short everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. We missed nearly every lead change, accident, and restart. Then an unspecified "human error" (as ESPN put it several days after JD's article) caused the plug to be pulled and forced us all to miss the last 3 laps of the race.
oh WOW. thanks for the info.
Thanks for the comments, a bit underwhelming all around on this race. Not so sure what that means for tomorrow.
JD
underwhelming...yep.
I was NOT happy either with Massaro trying to start something with a very depressed Reutimann....gosh..why does ESPN love to stir the pot so much.
I remember Bristol. I may go listen to music next week and just read about the race...not big on Bristol but it is better since it's not a crash fest...but with the COT could be a parade.
I was NOT happy either with Massaro trying to start something with a very depressed Reutimann
Why?
Reutimann was clearly not being honest about how he felt until his last sentence, when he admitted he though bowyer wrecked him.
It's Massaro's job to get Reutimann to say that, not just throw him softballs, where he casn talk about how "good the Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota Camry was today."
I don't care if Aaron's doesn't pay for this feature during Cup races, the information about the free pass recipient should still be provided regardless of whether or not someone is paying to sponsor the "award".
This is true.
NASCAR usually calls the driver "The Benficiary," so maybe they could use that word if they're afraid to call him the Lucky Dog (a phrase NBC made up before Aaron's sponsored it, I believe).
Not so sure what that means for tomorrow.
It means many fans will be watching the Olympics (which are on three different networks tomorrow afternoon), watching the Little League World Series playoffs, or doing errands.
Until the last 10 laps of the race, anyway.
Mr. Anon,
Perhaps you can take a moment to get a blue name for the future.
Otherwise, we have no idea who is making Anon posts.
JD
JD, I'm not sure what you're assuming, but I made a post at 7 PM and no other anon posts at this site recently. I didn't make other posts above me. You likely have a lot of different anon posters who choose not to identify themselves.
A lot of us probably simply choose to use (and know how to use) the HTML tags offered in the comments field to bold or italicize a quote from someone else and then respond to it in regular text. It makes it more similar to what regular message boards do to distinguish between a post and a response.
Doesn't mean we're all the same poster, though.
Doesn't mean we're all the same poster, though.
True. We're not.
Heck, I could quote in italics if it would help.
I think using italics or bold is extra typing/handwork...I guess that's why I use all CAPS to emphasize some wording. Not that I am shouting, but all those little html sign thingies are extra typing on achy hands.:)
Would be nice if blogger just added a number to the different anons..like anon 12 or anon 88.
;-)
Anon 10:36PM,
That is the problem. It is impossible to take have an on-going conversation because of that problem.
Others just cannot tell who is doing the posting. Getting a blue Google nick is painless and the info is not shared with me or anyone else.
Thanks for talking about that topics.
JD
West Coast Diane said:
Always late with a post as we DVR race. I don't know how some of you guys watch the race live. Although the race itself was boring, which isn't ESPN's fault, ESPN does absolutely nothing to help the cause. There is just a total disconnect between the race and the announcing. I like AP and DJ..although DJ is at times too loud...but the good Doctor just throws the whole thing out of whack and can't take much more of Rusty. What is with everyone yelling...even AB seemed to be doing it. Whoever said Jaime and Shannon are having problems is so right. Jaime actually was doing much better, but now I can't listen to either of them. I know some can't stand DW, but with Fox and this year TNT, the announcing seems connected to the race. It is like conversation instead of disjointed bits of information. That's enough, if anyone even comes back to this post. But I vented some, so I feel better even if no one reads it....LOL. Actually not really...there are worst things happening in the world, but watching/listening to a race on ESPN is depressing!!!
I couldn't watch the race yesterday (caught the dvr this morning) and thought ESPN ignored most of the Nationwide regulars (again). Boring race like other posters said.
Others just cannot tell who is doing the posting. Getting a blue Google nick is painless and the info is not shared with me or anyone else.
All right, fine.
Now I have a name.
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