Monday, March 30, 2009

Live Blogging The Camping World Truck Series Race From Martinsville On SPEED


The best show of the weekend is often the Camping World Trucks at Martinsville. The beating and banging short track style is exactly why the trucks were originally created. This series was designed to serve the tracks with too few seats to attract a Sprint Cup Series date.

2009 finds them instead racing in places like Daytona that demand aero and drafting. How times have changed. This Monday at noon ET the trucks return to their roots with the rain delayed Martinsville event on SPEED. Thanks to Max Papis for the image of the trucks lined up for the race today.

The shift from Fox over to SPEED has changed the TV announcer assignments. Out are the NASCAR on Fox guys and in are Rick Allen, Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip. This week Ray Dunlap is on vacation, so Krista Voda will step in because there is no pre-race show this week. Joining Voda on pit road will be the versatile Adam Alexander.

This might have been a good weekend to give Wendy Venturini an opportunity on pit road, since Venturini and Hermie Sadler have been working very hard on RaceDay this season with solid results. There should be an expanded role for her down the road among all the NASCAR programs and races on SPEED.

Digger is gone and the SPEED TV crew should return the focus of the event to racing. There has been a solid television production package from the CWTS for several seasons now, with good racing and outstanding coverage.

This will be a "hurry up" race that will start shortly after SPEED takes the air. The field is full of all kinds of experienced and very inexperienced racers, so the action should be interesting as the leaders start to lap the backmarkers rather quickly.

The unknown factor in the race will be the new CWTS rules that limit the pit stops to either tires or fuel. Depending on how many cautions wave, this could cause the entire field to pit twice to get both. That is going to raise the risk of problems happening, especially with trucks on new tires trying to exit the pits after getting fuel only.

The new pit rules also bring into play new strategies like staying out on the same set of tires for a much longer time than anyone has tried before. There is no ability to stretch the gas mileage, so this strategy should be interesting to watch.

This post will host your comments about the CWTS race on SPEED. To add your TV-related comment, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, so please keep that in mind while posting.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

64 comments:

Dot said...

I have to work today so I'll miss the live comments. Dang it.

Doesn't the two stop rule double the chance for something to go wrong? We haven't seen it yet, but it's only a matter of time.

The only good news about the race being on today is, no Digger.

hotaru said...

Again, gives me something to watch today.

Photojosh said...

I sure wish I had Speed. But somehow Comcast magically took it away from me a few months ago. I hate Comcast. Match that with the fact that I've got no MRN/PRN radio affiliates that reach my house, and I am missing all the truck races except the ones that are on Fox. Sucks.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Here we go...

Anonymous said...

@photojosh--if you don't mind watching on your computer, there are a couple of guys that stream on justin.tv.

Anonymous said...

nice to hear Rick and Phil

bevo said...

Ah the benefits of having a weird work schedule. I love Monday races!

Anonymous said...

I notice that SPEED is NOT using their CWTS graphics package...guess that's a by-product of this originally being a FOX telecast.

I've also noticed several FOX commercials during the breaks.

Anonymous said...

bevo, this works well for me, too! I'm at college, but this is my break time for a couple of hours!

Daly Planet Editor said...

Little scattered on the coverage today, I wonder who is directing?

Two wide action should get the camera's attention, not the leaders.

Max looks like he is holding his own.

JD

bevo said...

@Anthony-

I envy you. Loved my college years, except for the student loans.

It's amazing the difference the Speed team makes on the CWTS.

Anonymous said...

I don't care about the stupid gopher!

The Loose Wheel said...

oh god...

the gopher

Anonymous said...

Digger found his way to SPEED :p

Daly Planet Editor said...

There are going to be production element from the Fox telecast like those billboard windows that have to run.

Daly Planet Editor said...

oops...elements

hotaru said...

So much for no digger...

bevo said...

I don't remember the trucks ever running on Monday. Remember Cup running here in Texas on Monday a few years ago and the crowd was huge.

hotaru said...

Let's hope that was the end of nonsense talk.

hotaru said...

'Idol'... ick.

Anonymous said...

yeah, with the way the Trucks schedule is, I doubt they've run more than 8 or 10 races on Monday.

bevo said...

JD,

How about the commercials? Does Fox just give a refund on what would have run or do they just give a discount since it's on Speed on a Monday Afternoon?

Anonymous said...

let the cautions begin!

hotaru said...

Oh no Colin! Darn!

The Loose Wheel said...

Im willing to bet its maybe only happened 2 or 3 times

bevo said...

Good replays.

Looks like they might be lucky if there are 5000 people in the stands.

hotaru said...

Suprised there is anyone in the stands. And for a truck race too.

hotaru said...

These commercials are not helping the broadcast.

Anonymous said...

good job David!

Daly Planet Editor said...

Same commercials with different promos.

Max said he was surprised there was fans in the stands.

hotaru said...

I spoke too soon. Mikey did a sponsor plug.

hotaru said...

Colin's out of contention; so go James (Buescher), Ron, and Rick

The Loose Wheel said...

Good job on what? did they say the answer?

Anonymous said...

yeah...it was 3...all at Martinsville

Daly Planet Editor said...

On boy, this is going to be a slugfest.

Anonymous said...

great save for JB ... only lost 6 spots

The Loose Wheel said...

Cool. wouldnt have figured they were all here but I thought it was kind of a gimmie when they said its rare to run Monday...

bevo said...

They might want to have all cameras on the pits at the end of this race. Could be more than a few fisticuffs.

hotaru said...

More FOX-esque commercials.

Really makes me wish for a MRN affliate here in Orlando. (closest is Daytona via an online stream that don't work.

Even so, I doubt the affiliates would interrupt Rush/Dr. Laura or whatever else they might play mid-day for Camping World truck.

hotaru said...

Getting good up front

Daly Planet Editor said...

This pit stuff sure is wild.

bevo said...

NASCAR has to end this absurd pit rule.

Anonymous said...

yeah, I think it's a little pointless

Newracefan said...

Here I sit at work that goodness for the DVR or I would be screaming sounds like I'm missing a great race

Daly Planet Editor said...

Great commentary, the guys have a good groove going. Phil Parsons has to be one of the most under-rated TV commentators in history.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with you, JD. Phil knows his stuff and is a great analyst.

FOX was wise to integrate him into the Truck broadcast on Saturday. It's a shame that we couldn't have had more.

hotaru said...

Seems a little odd for me to be yelling at Shrub-inton on a Monday.

Daly Planet Editor said...

That whole Timothy Peters story is amazing.

bevo said...

I agree about Parsons but I think it's a much better booth when it's just him and Rick.

Anonymous said...

you're right, bevo, these 2 definitely work well together in the booth

bevo said...

Seems like we're getting more shots of the trucks coming at us than Fox did yesterday. The cuts are flowing together.

Photojosh said...

@Gymmie You are my hero!

I wish I had remembered to check the comments sooner. But at least I'm getting to watch the last 50 laps.

Thank you again.

Daly Planet Editor said...

This is still the NASCAR on Fox Producer and Director. That is why all the production elements are the same.

Just the announcers are changed, but the coverage has been much different and nicely focused.

bevo said...

So I guess this Producer and Director aren't big fans of pit reporters giving much information? More today than yesterday but still not what we usually get from this crew.

Sophia said...

ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:)

bevo said...

Man those are some pretty trucks :)

Sophia said...

that was a confusing finish. Yay Kevin..but wish NW guy could've won.

still, at least it was not shrub

Sophia said...

So much for the "nicer Kyle" on camera over the weekend.

Still angry and it's all about him. Does not deserve special rules.

Why is he running away?? Doesn't want interviews.

Sore loser.

Listen to the loud boo. Man, that kid does not learn. He did not have me fooled for one minute yesterday.

The Loose Wheel said...

Kyle has zero obligation to stay. I think TV isnt giving him a break though because they FOLLOW him through things like this which makes it worse then what it is in my opinion. I imagine if you followed someone else who was upset in a given situation like that it would paint the image of a sore loser. Kyle hates to lose, he said it the other day, he's here to win period. No win = doesn't matter.

Good win for Harvick, sucks Kyle got that penalty because they at least deserved 2nd but he made the mistake using that backstretch wall. I imagine thats what he is upset about rather then really being upset at a specific person.

Pretty solid race tho

Daly Planet Editor said...

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. NASCAR Now on ESPN2 at 5PM and TWIN at 8PM on SPEED.

Have a good one!

JD

Anonymous said...

@photojosh--yw :)

Dot said...

Glad that KyB didn't win. I'm cheating by reading the comments. I have to wait until roommate gets home to watch. I missed you guys today.

Vicky D said...

I had jury duty this morning (murder trial) then had to go to work, and am watching on the dvr. The national anthem was awesome. It's a shame there isn't many people there, but I'm sure we'll have a good broadcast.

red said...

hate that i had to miss the trucks: reads like it was another great race. jd, it says something about TDP that i came here to learn about the truck race from the live blogging BEFORE going anywhere else to even find out who won!
any outside chance of a replay by any network this week -- and at a time when those of us who had to miss it b/c of work can watch? i suspect not but i can hope.
thanks to those who were able to blog: wish i'd been with ya' and i appreciate your comments!