Thanks to jayski.com and ESPN for the injured fan information update.
So, here we go! Marty Smith is on NASCAR Now to start the day from the track. Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree flew to Connecticut to appear in the ESPN studios with host Nicole Manske. It's pretty clear that Smith enjoys Talladega.
RaceDay on SPEED is always a party from the big track. John Roberts hosts two hours of chaos that includes Wendy Venturini and Hermie Sadler reporting live from the garage area. This is key to today's show because there is a 30 minute overlap between RaceDay and the NASCAR on Fox telecast. Why this happens each season is unclear.
Chris Myers starts the day for Fox from the Hollywood Hotel. He is joined by Jeff Hammond and Darrell Waltrip for the pre-race show. This extended show is supposed to have several features, including Hammond flying with Carl Edwards. No advance word on the Digger cartoon.
Veteran Mike Joy will call the action from the broadcast booth. He will be joined by Waltrip and Larry McReynolds. On pit road is the best crew on TV with Steve Byrnes, Matt Yocum, Dick Berggren and Krista Voda following the teams and drivers.
The field is full, the weather is great and the crowd is huge. This is a great recipe for Fox to recover from a tough outing in Phoenix. Keep an eye on the caution flag pitstop coverage which has been a problem this season.
This post will serve to host your comments about the Sunday TV from Talladega, including the pre-race shows. To add your TV-related comment, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting.
Thanks for spending your NASCAR Sunday with The Daly Planet.
629 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 601 – 629 of 629Anon,
Take a moment and get a blue Google nick if you want your comments to have a reference point.
We have a longtime stalker of mine who is very frustrated about me for some reason. He continues to offer hateful posts across the Internet and no one really has a clue as to why.
The most effective way to present a consistent presence on this blog is to get a blue nick and participate regularly.
The NASCAR TV networks have made a great living by analyzing every single move the drivers, owners and teams make. It seems they are not very comfortable when someone, anyone, offers a critique of their efforts.
Let me know if and when you see any mainstream media member deal with the issues we are discussing.
BTW, this is year 3 of TDP.
JD
When I'm away from my home computer and post on this site, I always identify myself to JD and the Planeteers. I don't want to be confused with the different anons. Why don't the anons just choose an identity?
To expand on my prior comment about Ryan being a foot ahead or behind, that was just a figure of speech.
What? No Marcos interview?
anon whatever....then PICK a friggin' name or sign like some folks do!! Can't help but lump you altogether when u can't take a sec to set yourself apart!!!
red, having a relative who works for Fox makes my perspective a bit bias but i will agree with your third paragraph once they realized that indeed fans were injured. To be honest with you after Carl got out of his car and ran to the finish line, both my wife and my concern was for Ryan Newman it didn't enter our minds, until we saw all the emergency equipment on the track that fans might be hurt.
No, I am pretty sure I got what Dale Jr meant - he said clearly said he thought Brad would be pushing "anyone but him".
Some anons actually post as anon because they are in the industry and might be looked down upon if they were seen posting here. just sayin... and no offense to anyone. I might be getting a blue nick myself though soon.
I also want to say, thank you JD for the forum to discuss these issues.
Bob Pockrass on Twitter:
I still can't believe that finish and still don't know whether I should be excited when we were inches from tragedy.
Thanks Anon, we have hosted adult discussion without profanity or anger for years now.
If you can find that elsewhere on the Internet, let me know.
JD
Here is the quote:
"I couldn't believe Brad was pushing that 99, I would have thought anyone else."
Clearly he couldn't beleive that he boy would hook up with Carl, and I found Dale's comments insulting given that he didn't yet know at that time if Carl was out of the care center.
Thank you for your information, Chief, and I agree the media shouldn't have been allowed into the immediate area. But at least we all deserve coverage of the situation where there are injuries at a race, not just a dismissal and "see you next week."
I like have Dave is taking on this issue. not to extreme, but reasonably cautions.
John, my point was that the information everyone here had sought may not have yet been available to any of the media for presentation to the general public. From what I can tell the only information that was passed along, though not immediately, was that yes people are injured.
Sounds like all injuries were minor - a cut on the mouth and a broken jaw being the worst. So I think FOX's comments were in line and probably accurate. I think given the replays we were all expecting more significant injuries but it turns out FOX was right.
@ anon 9:03, I get that. Use an alias ID so we can tell you apart from the other anons.
I remember last year an anon said something rude about me. I hated all anons after that. Almost kept me from posting here.
Carl ran across the finish line, i think dale knew he was ok...
>Carl ran across the finish line, i
> think dale knew he was ok...
Oh, well then fire away with the insults. I still thought it was not a classy comment on Dale's part.
I thought I heard Mike J or someone in the booth say that the fence held and that debris did not go into the stands, so I left to run errands. Might it be that the control booth was not paying attention and/or not feeding the on air people with adequate info?
And that's why we love this blog...everyone entitled to voice their opinion w/out the nasties I have seen elsewhere..
I had two non-racing fans watching with me. Of course no one wanted anyone to get hurt, but I think the pure excitement of the finish hooked them. It wasn't a fight in turn four like the famous daytona 500 fisticuffs, but my friends were really impressed by how hard every driver wanted it that they would wreck just trying to get there. I think I hooked two new fans. I know some of you don't want to think that a crash can make a new NASCAR fan, but I think the intensity of the competition behind the crash did just that today.
@ PammH, Ditto.
I took JR's comment a different way as in he didn't expect Brad to be passing him for a possible win, considering it is a single car team with a prior generation chassie. He even said later that even James Finch would agree it wasn't a great car.
Sounds like all injuries were minor - a cut on the mouth and a broken jaw being the worst. So I think FOX's comments were in line and probably accurate. I think given the replays we were all expecting more significant injuries but it turns out FOX was right.But Fox didn't know that at the time. They chose to ignore the situation.
The did the same with Ryan--we had no idea how badly he might have been hurt.
Clearly he couldn't beleive that he boy would hook up with Carl, and I found Dale's comments insulting given that he didn't yet know at that time if Carl was out of the care center.
Here we go again: do you want heat-of-the moment comments or carefully-thought-out PC stuff?
Eury, Jr just now on the Sirius pre-race show laid blame on Jr missing his pit on his in-car reporting during the race. Said they had an organizational meeting about the promotional aspects interfering with race preparations.
During today's race, Michael Waltrip nearly missed hearing his spotter's "green flag" call on a restart call because of this.
I find Eury's comments entirely believeable.
After seeing the race live and watching it over a few times, I have come to this conclusion.
Should FOX have acted a little more classy? Absolutely. I cannot believe a person of Mike Joy's experience in NASCAR had the nerve to say "no debris went into the stands" as they are showing the close slow-mo shot of the pieces of car that flew into and injured eight fans. They did a very poor job of turning what was a crazy finish and an upset at that into a serious tone, for there are good-paying spectators injured. While it is their choice to take in a NASCAR race, I believe at some point their safety should be at the utmost concern of the sanctioning body, and the network TV should be right there with them.
I would have liked to see an interview with Jim Hunter or some other NASCAR higher-up giving us all an update on this. While I agree that these spectators have a right to their privacy, at the point of the race where it first happened, someone should have been told how many people were hurt and how serious it was. Thankfully, it was not as serious as it could have been.
As for the yellow line rule, if there was none, Keselowski would have been driven into the tri-oval grass, and the both of them would have probably spun (i.e. The Big One in April 1999 started with Tony Stewart and Mike Skinner racing to the grass on the backstretch.) Dave Despain had a good point, saying that Edwards' car was going back down when Newman's car hit him, which launched it into the wall. Another few feet and the 99 would have backed it into the wall and not the catch fencing. I think they need to keep the yellow line rule, if they intend on keeping the speeds the way they are, or keeping the plates on the cars.
I wish FOX showed footage of Regan Smith's move on Stewart last fall. It was almost the exact same thing, but Regan gave Stewart room, and as a result not only lost the race, but was put at the end of the lead lap. Keselowski had his fender under Carl, and did what he needed to do to win the race. Same thing happened at Daytona last July when Carl went to the inside of Jeff Gordon for 2nd with 2 to go, and Gordon spun off Edwards' front bumper.
I think after watching this finish we should all be thankful it was not worse--much worse, than it actually was. Further, we should all realize that as long as we race at Talladega, these freak accidents will happen once in a while, and that there really is no practical solution.
One thing we do NOT need is knee-jerk "instant analysis" of what should be done in the future to prevent this from happening again.
History has proven that the the immediate aftermath of any kind of incident is a bad time to start making new rules.
Dega race made the Drudge report.
EXTREME Racing: 7 fans injured at Talladega Superspeedway
Also, if nothing ELSE, I think today's race should point out ALL TRACKS NEED SAFER BARRIERS ALL AROUND. Long, medium or short tracks.
There were so many cringeworthy hits.
Despain said the only fix was plow down the track, flatten it out and get rid of RP. Didn't Mark Martin make a similar comment a few years ago about Dega. How did he fare after today's race?
This is gonna cause mainstream buzz to non race fans.
Jack from Pa - Agree wholeheartedly about Fox. Every single on-camera person (except one that I can think of) has been around the sport for at least 25 years. This was not their first time at the rodeo. They know the most important thing is the safety of the drivers, crews, officials, support personnel and fans. I would go so far as to say the majority of the Fox crew has that same level of experience. I have no idea about the Director or Producer.
I understand getting caught up momentarily in the action and the immediate aftermath. But when it ends I cannot understand how the first impulse is not the welfare of the fans in the area of the incident. When replays clearly show debris flying into the stands don't say everything is fine. Temper your words and actions. No need for tight shots of the injured, no need for immediate specific injury reports. Let the emergency responders do their jobs. However do acknowledge the seriousness of the situation and act accordingly.
It appears to me that the Producer dropped the ball in this situation.
As for the cause of the accident, the drivers responses and all the rest that is an issue for further discussion in other forums. The focus of this blog is the TV coverage of the race even though we venture off the path during the course of a race.
I think I can safely say we are all thankful the worst did not happen. At the time of commenting however we did not know that. And Fox did not know that either.
Thanks everybody, there is a new column up for your comments about the NASCAR on Fox coverage.
JD
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