The big news on Sunday morning was that TNT's Bill Weber had been sent home from New Hampshire. Ralph Sheheen is going to step into the play-by-play role for Weber during the live telecast. As you can see from the photo above, Sheheen is not stranger to NASCAR.
According to thatsracing.com, Weber was involved in a loud and public confrontation late Friday night at the TNT hotel. Shawn Courchesne of the Hartford Courant reports Weber received a one race suspension for his actions. No further information has been or is expected to be released by the network.
The TNT booth announcers were not involved in the Friday telecasts, although the pit reporters participated in the coverage of practice and qualifying on SPEED. Weber was at the track on Friday and the incident in question was apparently much later on Friday night.
So, Sheheen will jump into the play-by-play role that is familiar to him. Sheheen is a TV and NASCAR veteran who can usually be seen on SPEED handling the various motorcycle coverage. As veteran fans know, Sheheen has a long history in NASCAR and continues to live and work in the Charlotte area.
The TNT analysts Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds did not mention a word about their broadcast partner Weber during the pre-race shows. Wally Dallenbach also passed on the opportunity when he was shown in the TNT booth with Sheheen.
New Hampshire is a flat track that tests the patience of both the drivers and the TV crew. Little passing and slow spins in the corner are the TV profile of this track. Veteran fans may remember that soft walls were added after two high-profile fatalities years ago.
TNT's coverage of pit road is going to be key to the telecast. Passing will happen under caution as the cars race away from stops and the pass for the win may well happen because of the pit crews. TNT has been working hard on the pit stop coverage and this will be perhaps the biggest test.
Rain is in the forecast. Should the track get wet, TNT's options are limited. The infield stage is open and has proven to be useless in bad weather. It will be up to Sheheen, Petty and Dallenbach to fill the time.
There are plenty of storylines in this event. TNT has done a great job of treating the teams equally and leaving the Dale Junior and Kyle Busch hype for others. Petty continues to Twitter during the race and RaceBuddy again is going to add four additional race cameras and a dedicated pit reporter to the coverage.
TNT is gearing-up for the Wide Open coverage at Daytona next weekend. It should be interesting to see how Sheheen handles a full Sprint Cup Series live telecast.
This post will serve to host your comments on the TV coverage. To add your opinion on this race, just click the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind while posting. Thanks for stopping by.
394 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 394 of 394That sure seemed like a long time for them to tell us the caution was for the #98 in the wall. All that time I thought it was for the rain.
Sheheen is doing very well. BUT... being in the northeast, they should have called up ol' Ken Squier for some nostalgia!
USA 2
Brazil 2
73:00
"Hot magma"?... An Austin Powers reference in a NASCAR race?...
Thank you Dale Jr. Miss that shift buddy!
Uh Oh! About 10 cars in turn 1.
well, there went 40% of my fantasy team...Harvick / Truex, Jr.
Can we have "The Big One" in NH???
OMG. Poor Burton.
i had the 17, 1, 20 and 43...my best car is wadded up
Play the replay on the #31!
Gotta love the rule about not passing before the line...
Now that is an in-car camera shot!
Harvick sounds like he's out of Childress next season
Looks like a great crowd though and they are lucky they don't have to sit through all these commercials on TNT today!
Great job on the replays
Really? Did Weed think he was going to fit in that small opening? Had he stayed where he was.......
HAHAHA!!
Wasn't on the #18 though. 88 spun the tires, Martin realized at the last second he was supposed to stay in line and Kyle was there. Racing deal.
Justin's servers crashed..PTL for RB where I can hear the audio and see action. I also have TP as well...sigh
USA 2
Brazil 3
84:00
Bevo now it's getting upsetting!
jr taking resposibility for wreck on race buddy...spun his tires
sigh. i can't take anymore soccer -- sorry, bevo. to come so close and have brazil come out SO strong after the half? killing me.
so, for better or worse: i'm with the race for a while (but i'll be sneaking soccer every now and again, i'm sure!)
While participating in the ESPN RaceCast chat from New Hampshire Motor Speedway, ESPN reporter Ed Hinton told fans, "Word around the media center is that there was some sort of issue in Bill's hotel lobby last night. Something about adamant complaint about his room." A fan in the chat asked if Weber was crying about his hotel room. Hinton replied, "Uh, i think it was a little more than that. ADAMANTLY complaining, is what everybody's saying."
So that wreck finishes off Vickers' and Burton's chase hopes I believe
@Vicky- just think of the USA in soccer as a start and park team in Cup and it looks a whole lot better :) They gave it all they could.
Dare I ask which hotel were the TNT guys staying at in New Hampshire. I think the Hartford Courant said its in Manchester, that's a bit away from the track.
Karen I figure it had to have been a HUGE blowup for Bill to get sent home.
My ex met him a few years back at Richmond, said he really does carry himself with quite a smug attitude so hearing all this doesnt surprise me a bit
Final
USA 2
Brazil 3
Manchester. No hotel named.
Wonder what BIll's complaint was..if non smoker some rooms can REEK OF SMOKE or masking deoderizer...or no AC...all legitimate beefs...maybe he's a hot head.
Shame we don't know details though...and insipid of TNT to treat us all like 5 yr olds and not explain Bill's time out. :)
Good replay package, good turn around time and I appreciate the interviews from garage area.
Shaheen is VERY informative.
Kyle Petty called the accident a "TRAIN reaction".... just get outta the booth Kyle !!
Sorry I'm late --- I've been watching an enjoyable telecast.
Ralph, Wally and Kyle have had me in stitches.
What is it, stand up comedy hour on TNT?
These guys in the booth are hilarious discussing Crew Chief's role :)
I love when Gordon makes threats...Hopefully he and Kurt will make this interesting
Does a message like Gordon's to Kurt Busch really get delivered to the other driver? Or does his spotter just ignore it and leave it alone.
This is starting to look more like an ARCA race than a Cup race!
Rubber wrapped around the rotor, gonna probably lose a lap for 2 for Joey. Did a great job not to hit the wall though
Anyone else noticing the lack of comments about Ralph on this message board, he doesn't seem to be a problem.
Uhh...anyone notice Hornish in 6th?
@David
Hornish? Not til you pointed it out. I wonder if they just put the #2's setup on that car and saw what happened?
Almost get the sense these guys realize they've lost control of the broadcast and have just decided to have fun and let it all hang out these remaining laps. Or as the term is used in broadcasting...."winging it"
Anonymous said...
Anyone else noticing the lack of comments about Ralph on this message board, he doesn't seem to be a problem.
June 28, 2009 4:30 PM
**************
I shared a row with Ralph one year on the way to Vegas. He KNOWS his racing -- his stories made a long flight seem very short.
Haha, "debris on the windshield."
It sounds like they just decided to make a joke about the instructions on not mentioning rain.
If Jeff wants lessons in deliberately wrecking people at New Hampshire he needs to talk to Robby Gordon.
more light precipitation - seems VERY light.....about 30 miles from race track.
Could make for interesting end.
Ralph, a throwback to the TNN days...VERY race-smart guy!
Lookie there...Sam gets some love after getting to 4th...
Certainly did get interesting to watch, however it turns out.
A mention of Hornish.
Guess the guys are reading us.
Name check to Hornish! TNT is reading TDP.
@Nan
the day after Thanksgiving race if I recall?
ya know, the level of excitement in the booth is truly making this enjoyable. wally and kyle love their racing and they are really appreciating the hard racing they're seeing.
i'll take this over the calm recitation by others any day!
Thanks Kyle.
I can imagine his twitter, and TDP pages up with scoring and a voice in his head...guy must be bout ready to go nuts lol.
Robby in 2001 was priceless. Course then I really disliked Jeff ALOT more than i do now.
They can be excited without getting screechy and over hyping what's going on. Excellent.
@red,
I'll second that motion.
I'm HAVING FUN!!!
See BSPN, it can be done.
track pass seems to have worked out the scanner prob.
I think Kyle Wally and Larry Mac can't help but be funny they all know the same inside jokes.
really enjoing the bcast. Miss Weber, but it seems he may be broadcastings answer to Jason Leffler.
PLEASE WHAT did Jeff Gordon say on his scanner? Had the tv on mute and missed it.
tx
I'm liking Ralph in the booth. At least he doesn't screech the pit reporters names.
I don't understand why Bill was suspended. The incident happened off track. If AB got the boot permanently, why shouldn't Bill?
Gordon pretty much said if the #2 doesnt chill, he is going to be in trouble come the next corner.
See I'm thinking about Robby taking out Biffle which also took our Stewart and Mayfield. But with Robby there is so much more to think of ... helmet flinging at Mickey, etc.
This booth SO MAKES BSPN's booth ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL.
These guys are a hoot and a half.
Should be a calmer restart.
I'm used to Ralph because I'm a big Supercross fan and Ralph does most of those races. He does know his stuff.
Sophia...think about this way...if you were disciplined for something you did wrong in your job I don't think you'd appreciate the boss sharing it with the entire company. It's hard because we're curious, but I realize it's not really our business....
From 3:37 (race track time) to 4:39 we have had 35 minutes of track coverage and 27 minutes of commercials.
Far cry from earlier in the race when people were wondering why SB or someone else didn't get the nod instead of Ralph. A+ job today!
Sam doing everything he can to hang on to a top 5.
glen, if only it were that simple..
Glenc1
True
but as mentioned it was off site of the Track which makes it more curious.
Thanks to David (?) for answering JG scanner question.
I am only half here today, folks...lots of real life stuff going on..but this race just got fun in the last 30 minutes anyhoo.
It is that simple. Should TNT have mentioned Bill would not be here today? Yes. Should they have told us Ralph was filling in and allowed him to assume Bill's normal duties in a full capacity? Yes. But do we need a full rundown of exactly what happened, what was said, etc, etc? No. It didn't happen at the track, it didn't happen on national television, and he did not commit a crime.
I could honestly care less what or why Bill is not here. Ralph has been an excellent fill-in and maybe this will be a blessing in disguise.
notice everyone in the booth does us the pleasure of assuming we know who goes with what number and don't waist our time? also comments don't assume the person watching has never seen a race before.
Strange, Jeff Burton is still shown as "off" on the tracker at the top of the screen, but Live Leaderboard shows him running, 18 laps down.
David, you are nice young guy...but you have a lot to learn about life.
Trust me, where TV is concerned...it's never that simple.
@ Martin V, the leaderboards never show a driver out of the race. Why is that?
When you're on a business trip you're actions reflect on your employer. As long as there wasn't a police report it's not a public matter.
Wonder if Burton's transponder is still in the garage and his car is on the track....
Well JD I guess its just two different perspectives. I get the feeling there is certainly a story in what happened with it being as hushed as its been on TNT and what little details we have. But I just never got caught up in the idea of needing to know every thing about every person whose ever been on tv in their entire life. Must be a part of my generation of which never took for me.
Lol. Least the race got interesting in a hurry.
This should be a good run down the stretch. Couple of cautions and restarts will make it great...
@JD - If the transponder wasn't on the car, wouldn't Live Leaderboard be unable to count laps and give lap speeds?
@Dot - Live Leaderboard has never been able to tell you if a car is on or off the track. What's weird is that the top information box that gives the lap count, caution laps and lap leaders says "Running: 41" when there are at least 5 S&P that are no longer on the track. The only way to know if they're on or off the track is the broadcast's tracker.
Yet another telecast with weather / rain possibly playing a role in the finish and the network refuses to mention that the precip "could be" approaching.
Let Larry take a look at the radar for cryin' out loud.
I bet the crew chiefs are watching the radar.
The network could even sell the "radar update" to a potential sponsor.
Get ready for sprinkles shortly.
Ive had live leaderboard tell me someone is out or in the pits before. Its slow to do so but it does. Sometimes it doesnt always work but I know Ive seen it before
@ Martin V, yeah I noticed 41 cars running too. I was also going to mention that.
JD or anyone, how/why is that?
@David - The only way I've been able to tell if someone is on the track or on pit road is by the lap speed, but even that's not telling the whole story. A car that crashes and gets towed shows a high lap speed, a car that rolls into the pits and then pulls into the garage shows a low lap speed. Live Leaderboard doesn't have a running / off / out status like the tracker does.
jd, i believe one can't run w/o transponder as that is how nascar scores in case of a yellow.
but i could be wrong . . .
Dropped the ball on the pit stops
I hate GF pit stops.
Live leaderboard, not through racebuddy, you can click the dropdown which shows the status of said car. Thats where I've seen it say if someone was in pits or out of race is what I was eluding to.
There's no more incentive to stay out once the first guy heads onto pit road because we now have a wave around instead of the "tail end of the lead lap."
Well, that answered the question about Jeff Burton. LOL
Damaged, but running.
sure you can, did you see the #31 on the track? nothing left of it but tires and an engine.
To answer the why 41 cars are running question,
live leaderboard separate from RB shows the 71 and 37 as Out. The 36 is said to be active for whatever reason, but the 87, 6, and others are "In Pits" while the rest show as "Active"
Its a screwy little ticker.
@David - That status is not accurate, Carpentier is shown as "Active" because his lap speed was high after a crash. A bunch of guys are shown as "In Pits" and they're out of the race. That's why the count for cars running is at 41.
As I said, screwy little ticker.
but it shows 2 cars as "Out"
I'm guessing the broadcast's ticker gets updated by somebody actually checking with the team to see if they're repairing the car or loading it up.
Last night for the IRL race, their live timing and scoring would show with the letter "P" next to their car that they were in the pits which was very helpful. Unfortunately, it had much more info than I could comprehend though.
Since everyone is speculating on how the cars are shown out, i will add my two cents as well. (I am sure JD can tell us all and just settle this, but that wouldn't be as much fun!) I would think that someone in the truck simply listens to race control as they announce over the radio every car that comes into the garage and every car that is officially out of the race and the "reason" for it.
rain is very close !!
They must've burned a lot of commercials earlier in anticipation of rain.....because now the commercial breaks seem to be spread much further apart.
When listening to the officials channel they don't show a car as out until that official notifies race control that the car has retired for the day
The R word was mentioned.
Its for "drama." Pretend there is none until 40 to go then go "where the heck did that come from?!"
The best and most accurate scoring system is the one in F1. Simple, clean and informative.
rain on tony's camera!
Raining in 3-4
Just pulled up the zoomed in radar.
There is rain in the village of Loudon Center as we speak, probably 5 miles from the track.
Pushing it too far!!!
TNT needs some drama, but I don't think this is going to be it from Newman.
And I mean real rain in Loudon Center!
YESSSS!!!!!!!
Bad call for Ryan. Whose idea was that?
Great, now a caution.
JOEYYYYY!!!!!
What is Mikey's deal in second? More or less fuel than Logano?
wow your opinion of when nascar decides to red flag this is totally dependent on being a 20 or 24 fan, this will be wild, and no doubt lead to controversey
The guys in the booth started out a bit awkward but as the race went out they pulled together and have done a fine job.
Looks like the forecast was right - 60% chance at this hour
Mikey pitted long ago.
Reutimann needed this too in 4th
David,
I know it was long ago for Waltrip.
Just looking to see what the lap number was compared to the 20, if he might be able to stretch it any further than Logano in case Nascar does the prolonged yellow thing.
@Dot - He ran out of gas as he came down pit road; he really didn't have a choice.
They still have 4 hours until sunset
Oh, no idea on MW.
His teammate is hanging on tho.
I give the #20 team credit for taking a shot though
Track looks like it is getting wet in one corner.
RED FLAG
Tony is ticked they are red flagging
Whoops! Looks like PitBuddy's forgotten that Logano now drives the 20.
Well, right on time for TNT...how funny is that? Wonder if we will see a movie?
From Live Leaderboard - Brett Bodine says the track is real close to being lost.
looks like mother nature has picked another first time winner this year.
From NASCAR.com . . .
"Breet Bodine says the track is real close to being lost"
Joey just might win this - although my fav, Matt, is way behind. We need the rain here much more than New Hampshire does . . . . . .
Kyle calls "stupid comment" on himself. Too funny!
Again, the hype of an extra lap at New Hampshire falls flat with another (assuming) rain shortened race.
Brad Keselowski is running in 6th?
Another top ten for the James Finch car?
Might want to synch the audio with the video
Can you say out-of-sync?
this Zippy feature looks like an old kung fu movie. how do you mess up audio to video that bad?
Keselowski on same fuel strategy as the 00 and 20.
audio not synched up here with this replayed piece
think they will get this restarted, just scattered showers
JD -
We have complained / commented in the past on why the networks stay away from showing the weather radar during a race ....
What responses have you gotten on WHY they refuse to show the radar when weather has a chance to effect the outcome of a race?
I have a feeling that NASCAR tells the respective network not to mention rain or show a radar.
TNT obviously think Logano's won this thing - Lindsay Czarniak and Zippy are down there with him. You can see them on RB.
Ok, we thought it was just our viewing that was out of sync - I always blame hubby for messing up the DirectTV. Maybe not this time.
They showed the rain coming a couple of weeks ago
Might be a good idea not to put folks on camera during this problem.....
Audio sync is terrible! :(
Still out of sync here??
so much for the out of synch replay theory. the supposed live interview was messed up also.
live interview out of sync as well. what the heck is going on?
How desperate were they to get a win for Home Depot? That caution was called ten laps too early. This is absolutely disgusting. And I'm sure they'll call it so that they can show "The Anti-Semite"--excuse me, "The Patriot." I am absolutely nauseated by this.
I'm watching the people in the stands....it looks like they're all filing out.
So, how much pressue is placed on race officals by TNT to make their broadcast window, versus doing every thing you can for the paying customers at the track to see a full race?
Sounds like they are leaning towards calling it...
Between getting voted into the All-Star race and the Sliced Bread theory...might NASCAR be inclined to make a rash decision?...
Fly your black helicopters folks!
The caution was not early. Turns 3-4 had been getting a ton of precip on the camera from the #14. It was due.
Perhaps they should make Joey wait as long as they did Reut. Please no I don't want to go through that again
@David - Considering the vitriol they got over cutting the 500 and the 600 short, I have a feeling they'll try to wait this out, especially since there's only 28 laps left.
But if Joey does pull it off, then that's a fantastic call by Zippy and a great recovery by Joey after that cut tire.
Sync fixed, took them long enough
NRF - I don't think any of us can go through that again!
No lights in NH, i believe this is one is over. would have been nice to see a restart to finish this thing.
I saw the #20 wheeling their war wagon....has this been called? or they just waiting to get things into place?
Let's see how they handle this.
On the other hand, I guess not! Congrats to Logano.
Wow. Just as the skys lighten up...
It's over, time for dinner
Congrats Joey & Home Depot Team!
That helped my fantasy team, I bailed on Kahne to run Joey lol. The 17 and 1 got wrecked and the 43 didnt do well, but i got the winner! lol.
Happy for Joey, bummed because people will probably call this a cheap win though.
Class move by Tony!
Three hours of daylight left and they call it for spotty showers.... I hate rain races!!
well its official..the broadcast window is more important than getting in the race for the fans that paid to be there..disgusting
The real congratulations in order are to Zippy, who clearly was the one who came up with the strategy.
As Mike Joy said earlier in the season "that comletes the full Logano".
Frank in Sebring
maybe we should have an earlier start time at NH. it's a shame we cant get a 301 mile race in. I realize we can't predict the start time of a shower but a 1:00 est green flag would have ended this long ago.
@brad - This has to be because of more rain coming; we've got at least three more hours of light.
To use an urban phrase---Don't hate the playa hate the game--Kyle was out of line buy reinforcing the gossip that people think Joey being in the #20 is in over his head---heck Kyle was a legacy....and was in great equipment from the start---Congrats from a Connecticut transplant..to "Sliced Bread"!
The best car or driver did NOT win today, the best CC did!
Joey didn't win the race, Zippy won the race.
Greg Zippadelli earned his paycheck today.
I doubt they would have called the race with a less bankable driver in the lead. Radar from Loudon is light, relatively speaking.
Do we have a really short cameraman or is he just holding it really low?
What's that in the sky? A Black Helicopter!!
Ironic that Larry Mac and the guys in the booth were getting into it about the importance of the driver vs. the crew chief. . ..
Guess we know who wins that argument this week.
I love Zippy but you wouldn't be saying that if Tony was still wheeling the #20....
TV has no say if a race gets called, or is even considered when NASCAR makes its decision. I know it seems strange races get called as the broadcast window is ending, but that's just plain coincidence.
Congrats to Ralph Sheheen and company for making the best of a bad situation. That was OK and really took some effort on their part.
Thanks to NASCAR for the new restart rules!
There will be a new column up for your comments shortly, have a great Sunday night everyone!!
JD
he's holding it that low bevo
That was a real cheap win.
What's that in the sky? A Black Helicopter!!
I saw that, too, David.
It doesn't matter who the driver is in the lead. As long as it's handled fairly by NASCAR. They called the race at Charlotte a few weeks ago for Reutimann just as quickly.
@MikeC - Uh, no. They didn't call that race for well over an hour after the final red flag flew.
Joey is not the first driver to get the win handed to him by rain nor will he be the last. the fact that he didn't have the best car doesn't mean a whole lot since the best car doesn't win every week either. The object is to be leading at the last lap run. Logano accomplished that today. Give credit to Zippy for the call to stay out as well. Would everybody be upset if Newman had made it or would it have been the "smartest call of the year"? I think we all know the answer to that. Let Joey and the 20 bunch enjoy the win today, they did what they were supposed to do.
Lindsey Czarniak is interviewing Joe Gibbs on the Nascar.com post-race show.
I live in Washington, DC area and this is entertaining to see because she has interviewed him a lot in his other capacity with her day job.
Certainly a shame that Lindsay cannot find a place inside the NASCAR TV world on a fulltime basis.
Am I the only one STUNNED it was called so quickly?? They did not have that many laps to go.
Wonder if HDepot was not the sponsor if the same woulda happened. Nothing against Joey...i know races are won this way all the time..still..they couldn't wait 30 minutes??
Sirius Post-Race Show : raining buckets at the track.
As for the finish... that's racing!
Thanks bevo, bout to head to the car and head to work so ill be listening too!
Not raining now BUT it takes about 2-3 hours to dry the track. The humidity is very high and more storms are on the way so NASCAR was right to call it. And NASCAR took commands from TNT then they wouldn't have called it when TNT was interviewing David Reutimann.
Anon 6:02-
I live in the DC area and was waiting for the Lindsay C/Coach interview. I try to get up early enough in the morning on Mondays to watch the Sports Minute on NBC to see what coverage the race is given.
Sorry but I should have said "IF NASCAR took commands from TNT then they wouldn't have called it when TNT was interviewing David Reutimann."
I would rather have them call it then drag on and on like reuts was. If you know you have lost the track and it will take X amount of time to get it back up then why drag it out. Doesn't help the fans.
Good booth action today. Great addition whether temp or permanent.
Joey worked for it. He wrecked at one point and still came back. Lots of demo derby action today. If Newman would have made it would people have complained? It’s just like Jr’s last win. Races involve strategy.
Good coverage. Not excellent. Some misses on covering. But STILL better than the races before TnT. Yes I can suck up a few errors compared to 4 hours of ads with race breaks.
Wonder if the Nascar.com post race is an agreement for having racebuddy.
Joey worked for it. He wrecked at one point and still came back.
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