TNT rented a house on a Michigan lake for the NASCAR on TNT announcers. It was close to the track and made the travel and logistics a lot easier. Kyle Petty quickly dubbed the place Camp Weber.
When not fishing or having a sing-a-long with Petty on the guitar, the TNT guys were talking about the issues with MIS. Junior fans remember him creeping across the line on fumes last year, saved by a late caution flag.
Now, the Sprint Cup Series comes to MIS after a wild season that has featured as many stories off the track as on the racing surface. MIS has the potential on TV to either provide a great telecast or become an exercise in gas mileage once again. NASCAR is hoping that the double-file restarts will add a kick to the middle and closing parts of the race.
The irony of General Motors announcing the withdrawal of funding for the truck and Nationwide series this week is not lost on the Cup teams in the garage. Putting on a good show is more important then ever when the survival of the series as we know it may be at stake. Next week will bring the real world fall-out of the GM news.
TNT is off to a good start in 2009. Petty, Larry McReynolds and Wally Dallenbach have been working well as a unit with Bill Weber directing traffic. Petty may be the star, but Weber sets the tone and he got annoyed in the closing stages of the Pocono race.
That break in communication caused a failure on the final lap that resulted in a big hiccup. The TV perspective was lost on the last lap, the cameras only showed the leader and the drama of cars spinning and running out of gas was never shown. Weber's words about Tony Stewart being the story made no sense with blue tire smoke in the background and other cars slow on the apron. In NASCAR TV, the final lap is more important than the first.
TNT's online companion is RaceBuddy. Again offered free to any broadband computer user at NASCAR.com, RaceBuddy offers a designated pit road reporter, four camera angles and team scanner audio. For those fans who enjoy multi-tasking, it just does not get any better.
Petty continues to push the envelope by Tweeting while he is on the air and this week TNT has added a direct link for fan questions at the NASCAR.com website. Upping the interaction between the fans and the TV crew is something that TNT has been doing well. Hopefully, somewhere ESPN is making notes.
TNT has been great with the directing, including the triple-splits in the pits and the priorities assigned on the track. With the huge MIS facility, the TV coverage is going to have to jump continually to the best racing on the track, regardless of the position of those cars in the line-up.
The network offered good recaps last week and seems to be aggressively including the pit reporters continually during the race. Interviews of the drivers who are out of the race this week is going to be important, especially if there is a big incident early on.
The biggest complaint emailed to TDP about Pocono was the fact that TNT left the air 15 minutes before the scheduled off-time. The remainder of the post-race interviews were done online at NASCAR.com, but that eliminated those not multi-tasking and did not seem to be fair since there was time remaining.
In 2007, TNT did the same thing during a crucial race and explained that it was more important to start the vampire movie early and keep the audience than offer interviews to NASCAR fans. The resulting anger changed that policy rather quickly. Perhaps, it might be a time to review that memo.
MIS offers the clear opportunity for both NASCAR and TNT to put the sport squarely back in the spotlight. Great weather, evenly matched cars and double-file restarts might be just what the doctor ordered to change the momentum for this series.
TDP welcomes your comments on the TNT coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race from MIS. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting.
We appreciate you taking the time out of your Sunday to stop by The Daly Planet.
432 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 401 – 432 of 432ok, first time out and leaving early, i was willing to say "just a mistake in judgement, they won't do it again." now they have.
so, tnt, you've disappointed this fan today: decent coverage, great booth, solid pit reports, interesting post-race but you've left it early two weeks in a row now. bad move.
sure would appreciate hearing WHY tnt pulls away with time remaining and available to use for post-race interviews.
Quit crying you big babies. I'm sure there are good reasons why TNT limits the amount of post race coverage.
I like the coverage in terms of the stories they cover, but other than Larry Mac and Kyle Petty, the announcers make me want to gouge my eyes out. Also as others have said, pre-race is WAY too long and post-race...is there even a post-race?
Now we know why TNT only has 6 races: mediocre race coverage and worse post-race coverage.
OK, we are waiting. Got some good reasons?
anon@5:22: and those reasons would be . . . ?
see, all i want is that explanation. it's a disappointment and, in my opinion, a poor call two weeks running. if raising my voice in complaint can help the tnt gang make a different decision next week, then that's what i'll do.
no whinin from me, anon. just providing feedback and giving voice to disappointment of a good, solid broadcast gone bad at the very end -- again.
I don't mind if they leave TV early for a post race show on nascar.com,but that post race show is already over, too! What's the point!
so now the post race is over on nascar.com. so even if they had shown the entire thing on TNT they would still be good to hit the movie and the 30. I'm sure it has something to do with the agreement to air the races free and tnt has to drive traffic to the web site however, it does not sit well! not just complaining. Just trying to understand the logic.
10 minutes? That's a bit insulting.
5 hours of pre-race, including 90 min on TNT. Then they bail on 20 min of good post-race interviews.
TNT only has six of 38 races for goodness sake!
Fortunately I can see the post race online. I'm just glad I didn't have to install that player thing. Didn't work last week. However, if there is time left over, why can't they show it on TV? That's my only gripe. Other than that, I love TNT and RB.
Well, thanks again folks for watching the live race with us. Please feel free to continue comments on this post until the race wrap goes up around 8PM tonight.
7PM - SPEED Report
8PM - Victory Lane
9PM - Wind Tunnel
Have a great rest of your Sunday!
I twittered KP about leaving the air early. He tweeted back that he didn't know that they left the air early!
@anon 5:22--IF they were at/over the TV window I would agree. But there was 20 freakin' minutes left in the advertised TV window.
There were some more folks who could have been interviewed and they could get us ready for Sears Point next week. And tie up loose ends
tedikatAnonymous said...
Quit crying you big babies. I'm sure there are good reasons why TNT limits the amount of post race coverage.
June 14, 2009 5:22 PM
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I beg your pardon! The whole world is NOT broadband. I MIGHT get DSL by the end of year -- but that is iffy.
All the prerace in the world does NOT make up for no post-race.
Some post race okay. Doesn't bother me they leave early. They got in a few good interviews. I'm on NASCAR overload by this time of the day.
I'm sure all the paid advertisements have already aired on the TV side of things. If I were to wager, Turner wants hits for advertisers during their Internet post-race. If they show all of it on TV, then that wipes out the Internet show.
Internet post-race viewers likely helps cover the costs for Race Buddy everyone loves.
get traffic to nascar.com?
THEY ARE OPERATED BY TURNER WHO OWNS TNT!!!!
So that doesnt fly.
They bailed. Good time to show the cut out Roush segment perhaps? There were ways to fill the time, SIRIUS doesn't have a problem doing it and they do it for about 2.5 hours. Interview tons of drivers and even crew chiefs!
I give TNT a TON of credit they have the best product on the air so far, but we still deserve a good post race, especially when so many guys ran out and you had odd ball finishes. Robby Gordon and Bill Elliott didn't get interviews, they had great finishes...
Why leave coverage early when you're already committed to a specific time block. On the Guide on DTV it states the race will run until 4:30 Central. So, if you've scheduled a block of time, why start another program within that time block?
Also, as to the start and park people, I know you've all written that it's better to be out there to attract sponsors. BUT, how can you attract sponsors if you're getting out of the race with less than 80% of it being run? Why would a sponsor want to put money in a team that, quite frankly, stinks?
Great job by the on-site TNT crew. In my opinion that was easily the best Cup broadcast of the season to-date. I was especially pleased that the production truck rebounded from their last lap meltdown last week to give us solid coverage of the finish line. Besides the green flag pit stop coverage that is still lacking Fox’s continuous cars on track / cars on pit road split-screen, the TNT production crew has put Fox’s to shame from top to bottom, in my personal opinion.
While I give major kudos to the on-site TNT crew I have to give another major thumbs down to the TNT program director(s) in Atlanta. Movie fans weren’t going to tune to TNT until their program was to start at 5:30. The general non-NASCAR fan TV viewers weren’t watching TNT at 5:10 because they looked at their program guide and saw “NASCAR Racing” was on the air until 5:30. Those people with no NASCAR interest had already gone to find a different channel to watch.
Plain and simply, TNT had a captive NASCAR fan audience until 5:30. The only people watching were NASCAR fans. The general TV fans and the John Q Movie fans were nowhere to be seen at 5:10. Instead of appealing to the captive NASCAR-fan-only audience and giving us more post race interviews and analysis, this individual or group of individuals in Atlanta decided that the NASCAR-fan-only audience would rather watch a chopped up 20-minute version of some police video show between 5:10 and 5:30. What a disgrace.
I greatly appreciate the TNT NASCAR crew removing the dunce caps David Hill forcibly put on the heads of NASCAR fans worldwide from Daytona to Dover. I’m just sorry that the person/people running things at Turner’s headquarters also feel Mr. Hill’s need to slap down and disrespect the NASCAR fans. I’m sure they would get along quite well with the ESPN production truck member or members that think on-track practice/qualifying/racing is too boring and needs to be covered up with full-screen video packages and other junk.
Pre-race too long....Post-race too short>>>>NASCAR fan impossible
Folks,
Its a simple concept. The longer after a race, the sharper the viewer dropoff is. Its obvious by now there is a pre-determined amount of time for the TNT post-race, so there still will be people hanging around for the webcast postrace show. Turner has spent the money, and sold ads for the webcast. The webcast needs viewers. TNT TV viewers don't count in that respect.
The longer the TV broadcasts goes, the fewer Internet viewers
Anon 5:41
Sorry JD- this is going to get way off topic.
Regarding the S&P issue. Sorry if someone had said it before, but I didn't read everything. It's not that the teams stink. They plain don't have the money to run. Purse money is not going to cover the operation. I know one S&P team has been asking for $100,000 per race for primary sponsorship. Last year there was a figure of $250,000 to get a car to the track and run competitively. The S&P teams have shown that they can run. Are they going to consistently get top 20's? No. That's why they can't ask for so much money. But without money, they can't run or even run well.
Another issue with the S&P teams, especially in the Cup series is that they are all, except for the part-time status S&P of the 09, new single-car teams. The 09 gets support from HMS when Brad K. is in the car. With no testing, these teams are really far behind all the multi-car teams with years of information. So when they get to the track, they struggle. Sure a lot of the drivers, crew chiefs, and personnel have been around a while, but I doubt teams let former drivers and crew chiefs walk out with notes. I'm sure that Gilliland wasn't able to walk out with any notes from Yates; Riggs probably didn't get anything from SHR; Baldwin and Blaney maybe were able to get notes since BDR shut down, but there is no guarantee.
Look at qualifying at Texas and Michigan. Most of the S&P teams qualified towards the back. These teams are not powerhouses and will take years to become competitive. Looks at Robby Gordon. He has run a single car team for years with having sponsors for most of his races, and he is barely competitive now.
When these teams have sponsorship, they do run, often with results not much better than if they parked. So they will make the commitment if someone else is paying the bills, but can't afford to if they are paying the bills. All they get if there is no sponsor is the prize money. If there is a sponsor, they have the sponsor's money and the prize money. Maybe the sponsor will allow them to buy/lease a new engine which they will run for multiple races.
By showing up to the track, the teams show sponsors that they are committed. With little resources they have they run and get whatever notes they can. Each week is building on the previous week. I am not in the garage, so I can't say that everything that I have been led to believe is true. When a S&P team has to go behind the wall to allegedly change tires, at least they are trying.
Everyone seemed concerned about short fields this year. Well, without these S&P teams, the Cup series would have short fields.
And to be clear - I am a fan of a S&P driver.
I'd rather see short fields than fields filled with S&Ps. I'm in favor of fines and long suspensions for anyone associated with a S&P team.
Robyn, the point is, though, that it doesn't cost any more for the team to stay in a race than it does to run a few laps and then leave---unless they can't maintain the required speed. And if that's the case, they wouldn't have qualified. So it still begs the question, why would any major sponsor want to buy into a team who starts and parks. Like you, I'm not bothered by the S&P's but what they do makes no sense. If their car breaks, then fine, it's understandable, but if they just park the car, what's the point? Why don't they keep on racing? Heck, we've seen the non S&P's who crash, get their car fixed and continue running, despite the fact that they're laps behind. So why don't these guys just stick it out and keep in the race? And I'll say it again, sponsors are not going to shell out money to cars who can't be competitive, regardless if they show up at the track each week or not. Yes, I understand the whole "we've got employees" thing. But you're not going to get dollars in this economy if the sponsor thinks you're just going to run for the heck of it.
Can you confirm that the Tweets written during the race are actually written by Petty himself and not some staffer? The reason I ask is that the New York Times recently ran a huge article about the number of celebrities with Twitter sites who don't actually do the Tweeting themselves. With all that is required of a broadcaster during a race, I really wonder if Petty is the one typing these.
TNT is doing an excellent job.And Race Buddy is the best thing to happen to NASCAR race viewing in a long time. Just like other sports have similar FREE online services for their fans.
Too bad Jr did not win, but it's nice to see Mark win again. Didn't anyone else notive on TV that the track was possibly 1/2 - 2/3 capacity??? Woah
@Anon 7:05 - It does in fact cost teams more to stay in the race than it does to park. Many of the teams have extremely limited resources, and cannot afford to buy/lease/whatever enough tires to last the whole race. Also, many of these teams only have two or three cars and engines, and if one is damaged, it could cost more money than they have to replace it.
Anon 7:05
It does not cost the same to race the whole race. First off, there is the cost of tires. At $1,800 a set that is no minimal cost. Next is the pit crew. If you want a real stop, you need 7 guys. That's 7 people to pay for their work, plus a per diem. If it is true that Prism has only 4 employees, then they need at least 3 more to complete a pit stop.
If there was some financial incentive to stay in the race, I can see teams not parking. But the way the payouts are now, it doesn't pay. Finishing 30th instead of 40th is not going to pay the tire and personnel bills.
The S&Ps that crash or have other issues have the personnel, money, and materials to fix the car. Plus they have sponsors that they have to please. Since most S&P teams do not have the sponsor, there is no one to make happy.
Since a lot of the winnings are based on past performances, such as last year and other contingencies, it's hard to compare payouts. But in today's race 43rd won $73,266. the 42nd place team won $73,620. 43rd was a part time team, 42nd was a full time team. 41st earned $35 more than 42nd, and 40th earned $35 more than 41st. Then the BIG jump comes from 40th (S&P) to 39th (scheduled to run the whole race). 39th earned $40 more than 40th. Then you go up to the next new team in 32nd. The 71 earned $76,800, only about $3,000 more than 39th. The 21 team, in 16th, earned $78,175. So even if a S&P team finished 16th, based off the earnings of the team in 40th, they would have probably earned about $4,500 more.
So if you work out the math, how many times did they change tires today. I believe that it was at least 3 times, so that's an extra $3,600 tire bill just for the race (taking out the set that the cars start on). Factor in everything else that teams have to pay for for a race weekend, they park to stay afloat.
Teams that were in existence last year or have drivers that were in the Chase last year, or are involved in more contingency programs earned a lot more. The new teams are not going to get that. If the purse distribution was changed, then maybe there would be more incentive to run the entire race. Or if people weren't running it as a business and were racing for the heck of it.
Oops I meant the non S&P cars that crash.
And I it's $5,400 for the tire bill for the 3 sets that were changed today.
The tires alone would cost more that what financial gain you make by racing the whole race.
Of course there is the whole, use this year as a test session to gather data and stay out of the way of other cars theory.
Kyle Petty tweets his own stuff. Not sure about whenon the air on TNT but it sounds like Kyle..and all his journeys have been HIM tweeting..typos and all.
I am well aware of the celeb "ghost tweeters" or even impersonators. Rut and Kyle are even sending pictures step by step on their driving journeys. that you can't fake.
It's Kyle on Twitter.
I wouldn't give you two pennies for most of the celebs on Twitter. Some are even too lazy to tweet who is on their show to interview? Those folks don't tweet themselves I know and last I heard, bragged they don't even do email.
But Kyle is the real deal. ANYBODY that followed his journey across country and pics with various fans and various cities, with Kyle in those pics and photos looking like they were sent via cell phone, KNOW it was Kyle.
That said, it STANK to high heavens TNT LEAVING EARLY. BUT if it's a contractual thing for dollars and they are not allowed filler time for interviews..then TELL US the fans, please.
Loved the coverage and the guys in the booth.
There is a new post up for your comments about the TNT coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race from MIS.
Thanks,
JD
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