Note: Please give us your post-race comments on the new column at the top of the page.
Hang on NASCAR fans. 12 announcers and 76 cameras are coming at you live from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It's time for the Brickyard 400 on ESPN.
Last season this was one of the biggest auto racing disasters in recent memory. The Goodyear tire problems unfolded live on global TV. ESPN could do nothing but watch the chaos and try to report the obvious. Now, things have changed.
The foundation of this season's telecast is clearly the incredible recovery of Goodyear from the struggles of last season to being a success this year. No tire problems will return the focus to the racing and the telecast coverage.
The 12 ESPN voices are familiar to NASCAR fans. Allen Bestwick will remain in the infield pit studio during the race. He will be joined there by Brad Daugherty, Rusty Wallace and Ray Evernham. Bestwick should serve to host the race recaps, the video highlights and the coverage under any extended caution flag period.
Jerry Punch is handling the play by play for the race, with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree alongside. Down on pit road will be Shannon Spake, Jamie Little, Dave Burns and Vince Welch. This is a veteran crew, but this is a very big stage today.
ESPN has a new camera that swoops down pit road at over 80 mph. This angle should be great on restarts and to cover the race off pit road. Look for the ESPN director to try and strike a balance between the in-car cameras and the tremendous amount of cameras positioned around the track.
This is the first Brickyard 400 with the new restart rules and the double-file strategy should make for a new wrinkle. Tire strategy will come into play and the pit reporters are going to be busy keeping fans up to date on what teams are thinking.
This post will serve to host your comments about the ESPN telecast of the Sprint Cup Series race from IMS. To add your TV-related comments, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking time from your weekend to stop by.
405 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 401 – 405 of 405Anonymous said...
I'm still having trouble believing this would be an exciting amazing experience if TNT covered the race.
I dislike Punch but even with him I can enjoy an exciting race at a track like Richmond.
But the Brickyard? Sorry, single file shortly after restarts and its boring. A minor bit of excitement at end but as expected the 48 held him off.
Later.
Unfortunately, because of the exclusive use of tight shots designed primarily to flaunt the high-definition cameras, we at home will never know.
In case you just joined us, ESPN's coverage was really really awful. For all the reasons listed here. Clearly, there are no changes coming. I suspect the only change will be how the ratings will go down, down, down.
Makiki
Honolulu
Once again, please go to our mainpage and leave us a comment on the new story about the race on ESPN.
Click the TDP logo on top to return to the main page. We would like your comments on the TV coverage and what you think is good and bad about this style of NASCAR TV.
I want to know why the TV companies don't resolve these speeding penalties live on-air - they have the speeds (they are used on the in-car graphics and side-by-side views).
One 20 second replay and the whole matter is put to bed, either giving NASCAR credibility (and making JPM look stupid for mouthing off) or proving that there is something fishy going on. I know he's an emotional driver, but he seemed so certain on the radio afterwards....
Clearly the system isn't perfect though, or else they wouldn't have apologsied to Juan Pablo for getting it wrong in Phoenix!
Please come over to our new post to offer your comments.
Post a Comment