The entire SPEED gang will be on-site in Bristol, TN as the network steps-up to the plate for an all-day NASCAR TV marathon. Only two days after televising an exciting Craftsman Truck Series race, SPEED will handle all the on-track NASCAR action on Friday leading-up to the Nationwide Series event.
It will be veteran host John Roberts who lights-up the SPEED Stage at 10AM Eastern Time with an edition of NASCAR Live. Reporting for Roberts from the garage area will be Randy Pemberton and Hermie Sadler. Pemberton has been hosting NASCAR in a Hurry for SPEED and along with Sadler has been handling driver channel duties for DirecTV's Hot Pass.
The action on the track begins at 10:30AM with Nationwide Series practice. The hard-working trio of Steve Byrnes, Jeff Hammond and Larry McReynolds will call the action on the track from upstairs in the announce booth. Reporting for this session from the garage will be Wendy Venturini and Bob Dillner. With all the happenings of the past week, it may be this series where the news is really being made.
Up next at Noon will be Sprint Cup practice. The same entire TV crew, including announcers, will continue for this session. Since many of the drivers will be doing double-duty, somehow it makes sense for the TV crew to do the same. This is a ninety minute practice session that has been known to result in some incidents and some hot tempers.
After a quick lunch, Byrnes, Hammond and McReynolds will put on their Trackside hats and be joined by Elliot Sadler for that program at 2:30PM. This one hour show from the SPEED Stage usually features two guests but with the schedule at Bristol there should be a wide variety of people stopping-by and a diverse group of topics being discussed.
At 3:30PM, the qualifying begins for the Sprint Cup Series and guess who will be handling the action for SPEED? That's right, the same crew from the earlier practice sessions will return including Venturini and Dillner for qualifying. One note is that TV favorite Kenny Schrader has replaced young Brad Coleman in the #96 car for this weekend and Schrader is a pretty crafty veteran at getting around Bristol.
Rather than take a break, NASCAR will roll-out the Nationwide Series cars as the Sprint Cup session is in-progress and crank-up Nationwide qualifying when the "big boys" are done. Once again, the same TV crew will handle the entire session. This should result in some frantic driver-hopping as several Cup drivers are running both races. This Nationwide session should begin around 5PM.
The final order of business for SPEED on this busy Friday is the Happy Hour for the Cup Series. With all of the previous sessions running back-to-back, SPEED has set aside ninety minutes to cover this session whenever it starts. The coverage will begin at 6PM and end a very long day for the same team of announcers in the booth and downstairs in the garage. John Roberts and the NASCAR Live gang will fill any time as needed during the day between on-track sessions.
Friday is going to be another challenging day for all the TV folks from the technical crew to the production folks and all of the engineering gang. SPEED did a great job last week with the same challenge. Bristol should offer another opportunity for NASCAR fans to stay with one channel all day-long for everything leading-up to the Nationwide Series race at 7:30PM over on ESPN.
This post will serve to host your TV-related comments about SPEED's all-day coverage of the Friday activities from Bristol, TN. To add your 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.
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36 comments:
Speed usually does a great job... Its too bad my cable provider (Mediacom) does not get SPEED-HD.
Talk about a busy day. They should be ready to drop by nightfall. I hope they do the usual good job, should be interesting. And more I hope the audio gremlins stay way!
I agree that Speed did an awesome job with the truck race last night and look for them to do the same great job tomorrow like they did last week. I still say it is a shame that they do not cover all of the races all season long because their announcers tend to do the best job save Allen Bestwick.
I will enjoy the afternoon with the SPEED boys and practice and quals. I am skipping the race as I will be out and do not plan on taping it.
ESPN is just too annoying...and I can read about what happens here.
AND I have more fun watching practice and quals with SPEED than the race with ESPN. That kind of speaks volumes.
The boys do have a long day and I also hope the audio gremlins stay away or the ON AIR guys are aware of the issues should the return. :) But they are always in good moods and have great chemistry.
I'll be working all day tomorrow. However, thanks to JD and the TDP posters I can read what I missed.
@ Sophia,
You should at least tape the race and buzz through it later. Maybe ESPN will have a lapse in judgement and accidently show something good live and not on replay. Of course this could only happen if that "truck guy" is in the bathroom. Anybody got any Ex-lax?
If I get my lazy butt up I'll be thee with the marathon with the Speed Boyz and Gal :) and late into the night
Yeah, SPEED did such an awesome job covering Truck practice and qualifying on wednesday....
This is the in-progress thread for Friday's coverage of practice and qualifying on SPEED.
The marathon has begun. Nice interview w/ the man who designed the pace car & Jamie. Nice to see the weather is good today.
Really nice that Sterling & Ken Schrader got interviews, and good to hear they're racing this weekend
To Anon @ 9:38 am - He who is without knowledge shouldn't throw stones. Truck final practice was at noon then qualifying at 4:15 and then race at 8 pm. Those guys would have had to be FULLY set up - cables run everything working perfectly on Tuesday night. Which mean the crew would have to be there on Monday morning BUT most of the guys who work the truck races also work the cup/nationwide races and they were flying home on Monday and then fly to Bristol on Tuesday. Having a mid week race makes for a short week and trying to put all of that on the air on Wednesday would have been very hard. In years past Speed hasn't shown the practice or qualifying for Bristol for this reason. It allows the crew Wednesday morning to finish getting everything ready. Speed does a good job in showing the practices and qualifying sessions when the trucks are a stand alone event.
Oh, boy
Oh, boy
Oh, boy
I get to spend most of the day with SPEED. Always fun and informative.
Good to see Sterling and Kenny!
Earlier, SPEED graphic had the NW race on ESPN2. Don't know if that has been corrected.
Thank you SPEED Team!
Hi Guys,
Before I go to work, I just want to mention that the the guys in the booth did talk about magnetgate. Also, I know practice speeds don't mean too much, but did you notice where Joey L and KyB are running? Late teens and early 20s. Interesting.
I have found that the Speed guys have the better chemistry and really do try to give us the best information that they can. It is such a shame that they cannot televise all of the events instead of this package crap that NASCAR has handed us.
Dot said...
Hi Guys,
Before I go to work, I just want to mention that the the guys in the booth did talk about magnetgate. Also, I know practice speeds don't mean too much, but did you notice where Joey L and KyB are running? Late teens and early 20s. Interesting.
August 22, 2008 11:18 AM
Larry Mc gave a good explanation of magnetgate, & kudos to Speed for showing the other team members who are suspended too.
The running slow could be new engine tuners (from Cup teams)& crew, car chiefs. I wouldn't give it too much thought, when the race comes we'll see then whats up.
I agree majors, I wish NA$CAR would let Speed have the espn part of the season.
And 1st audio gremlin appeared.
Being an old biker, maybe someone should get a few small bells & hang 1 under each of the Speed trucks!
It keeps gremlins away, hubby claims. I think Speed should be on the look out for "rogue" other network employees. New Conspiracy Alert ;)
I am really looking forward to today. This is the first friday in quite a while where, with the exception of 1 hour of nascar confidential, there is literally live nascar program from 10 AM to 10 PM...I may not be around for all of it, but at least I know there is something on all day long...kudos to SPEED!
WOW the guys are in short sleeve & cammo. And now Hammonds daughters cammo prom dress ( which was cute & different). Gonna be different today.
I didn't get up so I missed the early shows but how'd I miss that Sterling was racing this weekend <3. I love him! I wish I had kept that interview (well several really) when he was helping the then Fitz-Bradshaw out and Steadman was in a race. SPEED did an interview with them and their accents are so cute especially together!
What an interesting day!
dang! Sorry I missed the AM show and missed Sterling and Kenny interviews.
Enjoying the SPEED gang. Glad I missed another audio glitch.
;-0
Sophia said...
Enjoying the SPEED gang. Glad I missed another audio glitch.
;-0
August 22, 2008 3:48 PM
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Heres hoping I don't jinx them - but only 1 small mini gremlin. Maybe some one got a bell. ;)
I like when Mr. Childress drops by Trackside :) always a fun time!
I remember a few years ago before they had the Speed Stage, when Bobby literally drove up to the Trackside set in his IROC car. Poor Mark, was trying to talk and Bobby was making all that racket! That was at Chi-town IIRC when we had Muppet-gate! It was funny because Tony didn't even have a Muppet on his car and he was beyond pissed! It was a shame because a great promotion was spoiled by that mess :(. But it was nice of Mr. Henson's company, FOX, and some of the drivers to have fun in the end :).
This has been a fun day.
Thank you, SPEED team!
Schrader, Awesome Bill, and Sterling in the race! As I've said before, these drivers don't forget how to drive; they just aren't offered the good equipment that often. Bet the #96 team are walking tall.
I won't get to watch the NW race until tomorrow morning. The upside is that I can carry the "good" feeling till tomorrow. :)
I personally was disappointed in today's Trackside show. The normally fun hour-long show with 4 guys just sitting around having a great time talking racing with each other and the guests was unfortunately turned into a far less exciting "Chevrolet Outdoors Hour presented by Realtree". I personally did not enjoy the format of dressing the set and the hosts in Realtree outdoors clothing and decorations, having Realtree executives on the set talking about their company and unveiling their special paint schemes, and having a little bit of racing talk overshadowed by a bunch of hunting and fishing talk by the Team Realtree drivers, the Team Realtree owner, and Team Realtree-dressed hosts. I will be sure to find something else to watch the next time this "all corporate, sponsored by ____" theme returns to Trackside.
Cup practice was enjoyable. Cup qualifying wasn't perfect (we missed several laps for full-screen interviews, videos, advertisements, and commercials) but was still far better than anything ESPN has ever provided us on a Friday. ESPN covering Bristol's 15 second per lap qualifying with true-live coverage that would have missed 3-4 cars every commercial break and skipped almost every other car's run by filling the screen with video packages, stat displays, and studio guests would have truly been the dictionary definition of "debacle".
The one thing I would like to see the announcers correct is their champion's provisional talk during qualifying. When there is only one past champion in the go-or-go-home group, it doesn't matter if he uses the champion's provisional or not. Go-or-go-homers aren't "rooting for him to time in" because the same 8 go-or-go-homers make it regardless - the champion and the 7 fastest go-or-go-homers other than the champion. Whether Bill Elliott had won the pole today or qualified last and used the champion's provisional, the same 3 guys would have missed the race and the same 7 non-guaranteed drivers would have made the show. If anything the other go-or-go-homers would have actually been rooting FOR Bill to need the champion's provisional so he would get closer to reaching the 6 champion's provisional limit and become just another "normal" go-or-go-homer that would have to time in for all the races remaining in the season (like Dale Jarrett had happen last year).
SCHRADER! SCHRADER! My money (well in my case fantasy picks) are always on Schrader at short tracks. He darn near won at Martinsville in the BAM car a few years ago but a mistep in the pits at the end cost him :(.
Poor Patrick :(
Hmmmmmmmm....Yay Yay auditioning for a new gig? :).
Nice to see / hear Yeley at the track ...
But, I really wish he was racing in a Sprint CUP car ...
His friend/former boss should GIVE him a Cup ride ...
SPEED's main problem with the Truck race was NOT interviewing the drivers who fell out of the race ... and NOT telling us WHY said drivers fell out of the race ... I had to wait til a friend talked to the 36th place driver to find out exactly WHAT happened to him as SPEED chose him as a "SPEED Spotlight Driver" but didn't tell us WHY he fell out of the race ...
on the air for 8 hours and really, flawless all around. The race tonight? who wants to bet on a three hour confused shambles?
I have always liked JJ. I enjoy him in small doses and not in the booth.
too funny watching everyone run out...
told you those guys would be hustling.....
Yes they definitely got a workout in today! Then another hustle and a quick snack :)
I'd also like to echo Steve Byrnes's sentiments and thank everyone at Speed that has been working hard since 10AM this morning to bring this coverage to us.
It's great to have a network full of hard-woking people that genuinely care for this sport and work very hard for hours on end for the fans watching at home. Major thanks to Steve, Jeff, Larry Mac, Wendy, Bob, and all the unsung heroes working behind the scenes.
I think this day has really shown the positive side of NASCAR TV to this point.
Steve Byrnes role in this cannot be praised enough. He has been doing thea job of keeping things in line on the track and directing good traffic.
He also took a deep breath and did the sponsor-driven Trackside today and just plowed through it.
The transition from SPEED to ESPN should be interesting. The networks are different in every single thing that viewers see on TV.
JD
I guess the only good thing about not getting home until 715pm is that I can watch what I DVRed tomorrow since the action on Speed doesn't start until later in the day. Sounds like I missed some fun stuff. I'll even watch Trackside (want to see that cammo prom dress)
The day is almost over, been with Speed all day. Ran to store during re run of Nascar Confidential. Thank you to everyone at Speed, in front of & behind the cameras, in the trucks all of you did a good job.
Steve B. still knows his name & can speak in complete sentences, I'm amazed. I couldn't do it.
Good show on Trackside, different, but ok. I really missed Elliot.
I laughed out loud when JJ told Dilner he looked like Rutledge.
All in all just a solid full day of on air professionalism. I doubt espn can do it for an hour, we'll see.
Thank you!!!!!
Yes Kudos to everyone at SPEED for doing such a great job and sounding fresh all day :). And of course teasing Wendy & DillPickle for "sitting down on the job" *giggle*
I also look forward to the shout out Wendy will be giving Morgan-McClure tomorrow :). Like Steve I think it was said, a shame to not see them each week and struggling :(
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