There have already been 22 Nationwide Series races on the ESPN family of TV networks. August is the heart of the NASCAR racing season. The primary TV team has been Jerry Punch, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree along with ESPN's four pit reporters.
There have been some races where Rusty Wallace worked in the booth with Punch. Sometimes, the hilarious Randy LaJoie was added to the line-up when the series held a stand-alone race at a smaller track.
For the first time, TV veteran Marty Reid was brought in to call the Nationwide races down the stretch this year. Once ESPN took over the Sprint Cup Series, Punch was free from his Nationwide duties. Reid proved to be a major improvement.
This Saturday, ESPN will step away from the momentum Reid has built and change the telecast format completely. Promoted by the network as a "Backseat Drivers" telecast, this live race will have no play-by-play announcer.
Instead, the team of Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, Ray Evernham and Andy Petree will be in the broadcast booth. The four analysts will make conversation among themselves while the race runs, relating stories about their past in racing.
The goal of ESPN is to let viewers hear the kind of spontaneous conversation and fun that the TV folks have when the cameras are off. Apparently, the ESPN VP of Motorsports has found that his announcers actually enjoy each other's company.
NASCAR fans know ESPN's telecasts as the most carefully scripted major sports coverage on national TV. Whether the network is setting up a driver for controversy or trying to cover a live race, the constant battle is between what ESPN wants to happen and what is actually happening. Script vs. reality has been ESPN's theme for three seasons.
Today's telecast may be a breath of fresh air. It may be a break from the embarrassing producing and ridiculous directing. What ESPN did to the Nationwide Series at Watkins Glen was amazing. Click here to review that disaster.
Everyone deserves a second chance. If the casual commentary is going to be mixed with coverage of the actual racing on the track, this telecast has a chance. If ESPN tries to force commentary into the coverage, NASCAR fans will run to the radio broadcast of the race as many do during ESPN's portion of the season.
Shannon Spake, Jamie Little, Dave Burns and Vince Welch will be on pit road. It should be interesting for these four to mix their reporting with the conversational style coverage coming from the booth. Welch has shaken off his embarrassing moment with JPM, but Spake is still mired in "how do you feel about that" questions while Little goes in for the kill on every issue. Her current interviewing technique seems to involve the invasion of personal space.
Rusty Wallace may have summed it up best. "I'm excited about it," said Wallace."And when it's all said and done, it's either going to work or won't work and we'll see what happens.
This post will serve to host your comments specifically on the TV coverage of the Nationwide Series race from MIS on ESPN2. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.
357 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 357 of 357anon 4:41PM,
Happy to have you repost with your comments on that topic.
We don't tell others what to say or think, we just state our opinions and then discuss.
Yours are welcome.
JD
It is a shame that these guys have to be the guinea pigs for some lame-brain experiment that would never have seen the light of day at any college TV Production course--let alone on a broadcast produced by the "Worldwide Leader". It's even more shameful that fans have to suffer through this
arggghh! rusty! pay attention! listen carefully: his name is brad kes-LOW-ski! not "kes-el-OW-ski."
seriously, someone needs to take rusty aside and get him to undersatnd how annoying it is to hear him butcher kez's name every week!
ok, time for a glass of . . . milk. sigh.
ref the Danica Go Daddy commercials.
Something else we don't get in Canada. I'll take them and trade you 'Vince' and Slap Chop
3:46 pm CDT - Evernham speaks :)
Twitter ain't work evenly for many in SW Ohio.
This camera work STINKS.
music to break does, too.
Off to the store for some chocolate. :)
Will read here what happened in a bit. No MRN today OTA here. :(
anon@4:46: no argument w/any of that. but that fails to speak to an ad series that features nascar racers NOT being used during nascar races.
yes, patrick may end up in nascar and yes, her visibility is gigantic for go daddy. but keselowski is actually on the track racing, right now, and go daddy has ads featuring him and earnhardt jr.
my question remains: during a nascar event, why not use the ad series that was shot with nascar racers?
*sigh*
Just what did that in-car cam accomplish? It showed us nothing --- absolutely nothing.
Just had Justin Lofton add me to his twitter list. His PR or someone is telling me where he is in the race rite now! Great passing going on according to the radio.
Red, I think that Go-Daddy commercial with Jr & Brad is funny I like it better than those guys dressed up in heels pitting Danica.
did we just miss a pass for the lead?
The production truck is too busy with the video recap segments to worry with properly documenting the race for us second class citizens-the viewers. Grrr.
This idea worked much better with the college football thing a few years ago. You could watch the traditional PxP on ESPN and if you wanted the other stuff switch over to 2, ESPNU or ESPNews. If you wanted a real "guys sitting around shooting the breeze" put that on another channel. This is neither fish nor fowl.
Rusty thought Baine was out of the race on lap 1? he didn't loose a lap. What was rusty doing in the booth early on? Why are the pit reporters doing the through the field?????
@PammH -
With Lofton, we have an ARCA hotshoe making his NNS debut, staying on the lead lap and not causing trouble. It used to be that a story like his would be worth at least a few seconds of TV time.
Did that bottom line seriously just say Furniture Now Racing?!
Go Daddy Anon, just drop me an email at editor@thedalyplanet.tv and I will help you with our format for live blogging. Thanks.
Maybe some PA on that ESPN "telecast" is reading this--Shannon Spake calls a lead change...and the camera actually showed it.
...and as I post that, Lofton gets a mention.
"17th from the left . . ." in that spotter scrum? really? did any of you count "17th from the left" and find that particular spotter? no? so that camera shot made what sense?
Nice through the field by the reporters.
Wow. Good through the field. And not an in-car cam while doing it!
Little weird with all the time away from the race. No two video box coverage of pit stops or field recaps.
bryan, suddenly the in-cars stopped like someone got a phone call or something.
@JD - maybe the checks bounced? :)
Remember the good old days when the This Is SportsCenter ads were really clever and funny???
Think I figured out the "music"--must be ASCAP/BMI/SESAC (organizataions that license music for broadcast and performance) jangled some nerves in Bristol, CT and the "Leader" is economizing with some "rights-free" tunes.
Are those guys in the SportsCenter promo the Board of Directors at ESPN?;-)
Red, my husband laughed at the "17th from the left" too. Say what?
Sounds like AB is taking over right now.
@bevo --
You owe me a new keyboard. I just spilled iced tea on mine. ROTFL
Well, they have split the PXP duties between Bestwick, Jarrett and Petree.
Now that we are late in the race, the format is not working very well. AB has the skills to direct traffic on this level, the others do not.
Have you noticed the guys have focused on talking about the race and we have rarely heard stories or conversations?
We didn't know that Tim. We are ALL newbies...ick!
Tim belongs in the small box. Fix that next time;-)
Oh, by all means lets watch a tire being changed during green flag running.
full screen pit stops again? not good..
@drteplisky: and those ascap, bmi, etc. licenses aren't cheap!
i can't help it: i laugh every time i hear "and hear comes brendan gaughan." it's just the way his last name is pronounced so i see it in my mind as "here comes. . . brendan gone!"
Have you noticed the guys have focused on talking about the race and we have rarely heard stories or conversations?
Yep, JD. Interesting. The 'dinner table' conversation doesn't work well on life TV, LOL.
Could we have the double video boxes.....please?
Gotta get those RWI cars in...
Edwards is out on lap 3 and ends up 40th. So 3 cars dropped out before lap 3?
Is there a race on? I've been watching for about 40 laps and its commercials, AB recapping from break, pit stops, and a spot from the tech center. The recap of the lead lap was great.
In case you didn't know how they change tires they will show you each time the 5 hour energy runs out of energy.
So yes even without a punch its still disjointed and a big wt*,
"Put the ground into the tires"... Wha?
I glad they don't announce every drivers age when they talk about them like they do "18 year old" Trevor Bayne.
@holmes: if they get that small box/big box 'thing" fixed anytime this season, i will be amazed.
and we're back to single car pit stops under green. how about we try the race in the big box and the pit stop in the small box?
wow, this is bad. in car on pit stops? the thru the field was well done. okay, I've said something nice.
Rusty and DJ can't seem to decide which one of them is the traffic cop sometimes.
Jim, someone suggested earlier they should have changed the producer and director as well for this one.
"Could we have the double video boxes.....please?"
Is that in "NASCAR Broadcasting For Dummies"?
;-)
I'm having more fun typing than I am watching the race, and that is not good.
Don't you guys think Go Daddy is trying to get the NASCAR audience "comfortable" with Danica before they sponsor her car in the next year or two, probably in Nationwide?
Kinda like advance ground preparation.
imagine that we missed the pass for the lead again.
Real nice that we missed a lead change while watching full screen pit stops.
CVT, groan...please, no, don't even think that.
If I was doing the Rusty Wallace I-Tell-You-What drinking game today I would be dead of alcohol poisoning.
And we missed a pass for the lead that might win the race....wow.
Where's Marty? We need his expertise with the cars that are out of race or down lap(s).
bevo, if you played the game with the Go Daddy ads, you'd already be under the table.
Maybe Brad K. and Danica can share the 88 Nationwide ride if he goes full-time in Cup in a Chevrolet
cvt,
I am going to start posting the emails of adult female fans who left the sport because of those ads.
I have no dog in that fight, just passing along that 50% of people watching TV right now are women over 21.
Those ads are way off-base for that audience.
JD
Marty Reid!!! paging Marty Reid....
Makiki
Honolulu
Bevo:
The "This is SportsCenter" commercial with Kurt Busch selling a tiny piece of ad space for $200 under the rocker panel is funny even if you not a Busch fan.
The really old one where Danica Patrick parks in the "Reserved - D Patrick" space of the late Dan Patrick was funny too.
@cvt- No, especially since Danica changed agents after that contract was signed and the campaign started.
Is it too early to say I told myself so?
Dan Patrick died? When?
I think Dan Patrick has a tv show that just started.
Now that Tim Brewer explanation was a good one. I've often wondered how a catch-can could hang up.
@cvt: i have to disagree. i would be hardpressed to find a nascar fan who doesn't know danica patrick already, regardless of the go daddy commercials. it's not as if she's an unknown to even the mythical "casual" race fan.
i just think that, for some reason, go daddy either doesn't recognize the nascar demographic is strongly female or fails to understand that nascar fans would rather see the ad series that features brad kez and his boss, dale earnhardt jr.
Marty frequently tells the director what camera we should be seeing - starts sentences with "Look at the battle between ..."
would you know there are only 17 cars on the lead lap if you weren't looking at leaderboard?
@anonymous 5:12 - they showed the Busch one last week. Always loved the old ones with Charlie Steiner.
These guys need to get with Barney Hall (MRN Anchor) for some schoolin'.
Is anyone still have Twitter issues too? Is it still under attack?
my twitter is working just not many people posting right now.
@Holmes- he left the WWL last year. Doing his own show now and just started showing it on DirecTV Channel 101 last Monday. Much nicer studio than his old digs and he really enjoys doing a show again.
Unlike this race broadcast, my Twitter is working fine.
--KarenB
Now that little chatter about 2 tires vs. 4 tires was fun.
Too bad it's too little, too late.
I caught up had to sit through a Go Daddy/Danica commercial, paused the race and iced the cake instead so I can FF through the rest of them.
@Anon 5:16--I had some Twitter issues early AM, but more with Twitpic. prnbrett had an early N'wide post; suspect @NASCARSays keeping law and order on Twitter.
for me, the issue today is not the booth -- altho' i think this whole thing has been "sound and fury, signifying nothing." they could have just said "marty reid's on vacation" and it wouldn't have been much different. but i don't want another n'wide race without marty, thank you very much.
but the camera choices have been appalling. too much has flat-out been missed, whether it's been passing for the lead, caution reason, pit road coverage -- whatever. it's just been uninteresting and not at all informative.
and why does each pit stop sequence start w/a single car then go to the split screens? is the truck not ready with the spilt right from the start of the stop?
does anyone think Busch isn't gonna go to the inside of the 12 in turn 1?
Holmes said...
Dan Patrick died? When?
ESPN would just like you to think he died - his show is now televised on DirecTV's The 101 channel.
Look right there...
Hey guys, I am going to post another Your Turn post after the checkered flag.
Please don't leave without jumping over to the new post and leaving your comments on this telecast.
The first time we did this on Sunday it really worked well. Thanks for your help in advance.
JD
Go Daddy's whole purpose is to use sexist "outrageous" ads. They catapulted into public consciousness by making a Super Bowl ad that was rejected, then followed it with tons of "see the BANNED commercial online". Look at every commercial they do- the whole "WEB CONTENT UNRATED" at the bottom. You'd mainly be playing into their hands by raising any stir about their content.
It'd make more sense to bring up the Danica ads running over the Jr/Keselowski ads, but that runs into three problems:
1- people generally don't care about the Nationwide series
2- Junior is doing horrible this year and Danica isn't
3- Kes is not a household name like Danica is.
I'd just keep hammering at ESPN about their script-over-reality approach.
Hey guys, posting from the race on my Crackberry. Not bad racing if you're actually here and not under the control of the bozo ESPN director, but it's hotter than heck sitting in the stands. Not really a bad crowd, but I remember coming here for CART racing and you couldn't find a seat. I'll be interested in seeing how crowded it will be tomorrow. Will be as hot. Still a very pretty area---I grew up here and spent the summers at Sand Lake, just down the road from MIS.
MartySmithESPN: Unless you've personally sat alongside him in the moment, it's impossible to understand how good Allen Bestwick is at making television.
They have the ability to have a 3-piece screen. One big on the lower half, while the upper half is split. USE THAT DURING GREEN FLAG PITS, Puhleeeze!!! I'll stop screaming now. Use the big pic ALWAYS for the green flag on-the-track racing. and use the other for whatever you want. pits, Brewer(maybe not), in-car/bumper cams.
Also they've been hammering away with the Junior ads for Nationwide so it gives them the easy (and maybe even true) excuse that they didn't want to over-expose Dale for the GoDaddy ads
Marty Smith just tweeted about how good Bestwick is at making good tv. Why is it the higher ups don't see it and put him in a booth?
Pretty obvious now that The Problem with NASCAR on ESPN is the producer and director. They know the technical aspects of the job but don't have a clue about the "art", so to speak, of it. No feel whatsoever for the flow of a race or what is interesting for the fan and viewer.
JD, AB is one of the BEST. Period.
Whoever he rubbed the wrong way at Turner its a shame he got yanked from PxP.
4 people in the booth = bad idea.
And a good thing is at least the guys aren't wearing the same shirts and ties!
JD and all you regulars, take a bow! This was and is more enjoyable than the "telecast". Got to learn a lot from all the regular posters and hope I added something.
Wonder if RP is phoning strategy into Allgaier's pit--
Notice that Jarrett is standing in the lead announcer spot.
DrTeplisky said...
@Anon 5:16-- suspect @NASCARSays keeping law and order on Twitter.
Does @NASCARSays really control posting during a race if you use the #NASCAR tag? Do they work with Twitter on this?
Interesting - didn't know that - maybe why no one is tweeting...
@hagetaka: again, at this moment, i'm not focused on the content of the go daddy ads: that discussion is likely for another time.
but the choice of patrick over kez/earnhardt for a nascar race still baffles me. i don't think it has anything to do with how dale is running this year: he's still a very popular figure in the sport, regardless of how he runs.
as for kez being unnknown: not by those of us who watch n'wide and who know he faces a big decision in the very near future.
finally as for "people don't generally care about the n'wdie series': without arguing that point, the bottom line is that the folks watching the race right now DO care about the n'wide series. that's why we're watching right now.
it's just a curious decision and it didn't happen this way early on in the season. sometime this season, go daddy switched from the nascar racer ads to the irl racer ad during nascar races.
That restart looked a lot more exciting than the sense we got from the booth. Where is the emotion?
I just read here the in car cams stopped while I was gone and less than 4 minutes after watching I spotted one :(
Looks like Dave in OKC has the hotline to the booth, they just gave Lofton a shoutout like he called 20 minutes ago
@patrick: agreed on that restart. did you find yourself missing marty reid just now?
Anon 5:30--don't think NASCAR is controlling the #nascar hashtag. I Tweet and will hammer the sanctioning body when warranted. The "law and order" is a phrase I use on my Tweets when I know there's a regular, non-sanctioned Tweeter on scene.
Hope that answers the question.
did Kyle just drop the f bomb?
Did Shrub just say the f-word??
hey young mr busch? it isn't all about you. the 32 isn't interested in wrecking YOU: he's focusng on not wrecking himself!
So because Vickers goes to the outside and wants to win he "wants to wreck me" according to Busch.
@ Hagetaka -
Blind squirrel finds nut. Kind of like whoever is directing the race today.
There is no control over posting on Twitter from NASCAR. Just a new policy from ESPN, no SPEED news folks on site and few journalists.
@darbar- I tried doing that last year at the TX Truck race. Lot of fun trying to read all of the comments on my Berry :) Enjoy the races!
Thought I heard "shrubby" drop an F-bomb?
wow! f bomb over the radio by Kryle & the booth completely ignored it! interesting...
My husband just pointed out the crawl about Regan Smith and Furniture Row next year. Good for them!
Well this race is going to have a very interesting finish. Im good with either guy winning.
Cautions are being wayyyy drug out though with these last 2
red said...did you find yourself missing marty reid just now?
Big time! While he deserves a vacation before the push to the end, AB could've/should've filled that void. Why they refuse to use their best assets befuddles me.
Vickers hugged KB, it was an effort to "suck" Kyle around...
Least how I saw it
potty mouth and a shrub
wonder if nascar will "discuss" that f-bomb with young mr busch? not that i think they should, mind you. just wonder if they will.
If you are new to NASCAR (heh), if you steer a loose race car hard to the left, the back wheels come out.
Anon 5:16
twitter been spotty for me all day. Different folks having issues, outage for many half the day.
Tweets ain't posting..some are losing tweet numbers ..so it's an odd day. I came across an article earlier but lost the link.
Twitter having major growing pains but it's not you..it's like different parts of country have "road blocks". :)
CAEFAX in car cam.
SOMEBODY please, please tell NA$CAR the horrid car cams and lack of wide shots are killing the broadcast. That's it in a nutshel imho.
6 laps to go and the booth wakes up!
I miss @Restrictor on Twitter - did #NASCAR make him quit tweeting the race play by play on Twitter?
No play by play call of the final laps. DJ is doing his best, but that is not his skill.
THey haven't said a word about Newman in the 5 all day, have they?
4 laps to the awkward flying heads. good luck figuring out who finishes 5th, 10th, 15th, etc.
I think the Fbomb will be ok so to speak. Same happened to Kyle Petty at Sonoma last year. The official line was that it was in car audio that was taped and replayed by teh network and it is on cable. Bad judgement by truck but not gonna get Busch in trouble.
what a last lap
There goes Kryle's 1-2 streak. I love it.
Rewound the Tivo several times and never heard Kyle say anything like the f word
Good going Brad.
Good ending to this race!
wait til Busch goes off on Vickers
Jump over to the main page when the race telecast is over and leave us your comments.
We are live blogging the Cup Series race tomorrow, so please join us then.
What an interesting day of NASCAR TV.
I look forward to your comments.
The crowd is yelling for a fight. This was one heck of a great ending. Great for Brad.
what an amazing piece of driving by vickers! that car was a major piece of junk and he still held on to it for a 2nd place finish.
young mr busch is a mouth with a body attached! i'll take vickers over busch any day!
it's called racing, young mr busch.
I wonder who chose the short straw to interview KB? Let's just see Brad. Congrats Nationwide guy and Eury Sr. & team.
Kyle manages to upstage the race winner. What a surprise.
Kyle said he's "sucking the car around", not the f-word..... Pretty obvious
DJ, what an understatement about KB being mad about being forced onto the apron, LOL!
Seems they were about clueless about Brad the K...great finish...bad behavior between Shrubby and Brian Vickers...a good Assistant Director (AD) would have seen that. But the ADs are likely film majors, not race fans
ugh.. I don't care about the vickers-kryle controversy. I want to celebrate that the michigan kid won at michigan.
Vickers drives like an idiot most of the time....
Now THAT was an ending to remember!
OK, new post is up and waiting for your comments.
Vickers was racing with an idiot also.
nice self assessment. First car to the flag doesn't deserve to win since when? Good interviews !
And hypocrisy spews out of Kyle's mouth...
And Brian comes back with a zinger or two!
--KarenB
Pops: "How cool was that?" ROFLOL
WOW Weed is such a baby!
LMAO @ Vickers' response. Didn't know it was the Kyle Busch show.
Funny how many Kyle wrecked in the truck and her forgets.
Brian says Kyle ran off instead of fighting. Wow, never saw this side of Brian before. :)
That's the ONLY problem of being at the race. I would have loved to hear what Shrub and the Vic had to say about each other. But my guess is that Shrub is whining.
Fantastic 2 laps of racing. No love lost between former teammates Vickers and Busch. Shrub breaks his streak of 2nd place finishes. Yeah!
gotta head to dinner and will be back later tonight!
thanks for all the good wishes, gang: i truly missed being with everyone last week and i am so glad to be back!
Hurry, Look up the word pacifier in your Funk & Wagnalls. A picture with Kyle Busch a pacifier in his mouth. :-)
He is a piece of work
@Red
eat some chicken livers to help build up your iron!
I had more fun reading comments so I am glad I ran to the store for a quick pick up.
Thanks JD.
@darbar
have fun tomorrow. Stay cool and drink some gatorade & hydrate.
Great driving by both Kyle and Brian to hang onto their cars. Good win for Brad. Hopefully he replaces his boss soon in the cup car...
Thanks Sophia. It's even more fun when you're in a wheelchair. But I will say, MIS has some wonderful places for the disabled. The parking for disabled is right in front of the main gate. HC seating is really good,too.
red, I'm so sorry about your illness. We're both a couple of physical messes. Not fun.
Please move your race comments over to the new post on the main page.
Thanks everyone, see you Sunday at 1PM ET for Cup racing.
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