Saturday, September 12, 2009

Live Blogging The Camping World Trucks From Gateway (2PM ET - SPEED)


Kim Lopez will control the chaos from the flag stand, but first Krista Voda needs thirty minutes to handle The Setup.

This week Voda will review the Championship fight, offer a feature on the dynamic Angie Skinner and discuss the career progress of driver Timothy Peters. Adam Alexander and Ray Dunlap will join Voda with interviews and news.

Once the green flag flies, Johnny Benson will once again be joining Rick Allen and Phil Parsons in the broadcast booth for SPEED. Michael Waltrip is in Richmond attending to Sprint Cup Series business.

Benson has been slowly getting the hang of this live TV thing and his insights have added to the broadcast. Parsons is easy to work with and Allen has his play-by-play role well defined.

Hopefully, the vast majority of the trucks at Gateway are there to race. As the field in this series starts to thin out, there is certainly a huge gap between the top trucks and those struggling to just keep running the schedule.

Gateway is the right size track for this series and hopefully the action will continue to be fun to watch. The TV challenge is to keep cutting the cameras as the trucks run lap after lap. There is no doubt that Allen can keep up with the action on the track, the challenge is for the TV director.

This post will serve to host your comments on the Camping World Truck Series race from Gateway on SPEED. 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 again for stopping by.

60 comments:

Daly Planet Editor said...

Hey all, this should be fun.

Anonymous said...

Happy Saturday All! We're wet here in DFW :)

Look forward to a great race today!

Go Rick, Phil and Johnny B. I hope Johnny B. is added next year :). He did great the other week and I know he'll be awesome this week :)

Nice stories on the Setup Krista does a great job! :)

Palmetto said...

Doesn't anybody know how to sing that song?

Patrick said...

Gymmie,
I'm hoping Benson gets a ride, but if not, he's much better than MW, IMHO.

While this girl isn't a "great" singer, she gave the anthem a respectable effort. No over-the-top or making-it-their-own, so nicely done.

Daly Planet Editor said...

I have been volunteering all season long to be the National Anthem picker.

NASCAR says the local tracks do it.

Palmetto said...

Gymmie, I'd rather see Johnny B. get another ride!

PammH said...

Poor gal couldn't quite hit the notes-had to mute her. Isn't TP the driver that took JB's ride? I don't find that heartwarming at ALL..

Anonymous said...

I can sing the song ...

And ON key ...

Anonymous said...

Why is there no Live Leaderboard for the Truck Series?!?!

Red-headed stepchild much?

Anonymous said...

JD - Last week, they had 3 different "named" country acts do it ... and only "Diamond Rio" did the national anthem properly (Too bad they got kicked off Arista Nashville to make room for AI's carrie underwood) ...

Daly Planet Editor said...

Rick Allen gets credit for his durability and enthusiasm for this series.

Anonymous said...

@Patrick--oh yes! I left that out my bad! IF Johnny B. doesn't find a ride I hope he's added to the team That's what I get for responding here and on another forum at the same time! I definitely want Johnny B. racing over being on TV! He's still young even if sponsors don't think so and can get the job done!

Daly Planet Editor said...

Still waiting to see what is going to happen with MW next season on TV.

peggyann said...

Thoughts on lack of attendance:

They have moved this race around in past years, has been in April and earlier in Sept.

Trucks at Chicagoland didn't help. I live between the two cities and went to Chiland.

There is a lot to do on a beautiful fall afternoon in the midwest--as in high school and college football...

Sophia said...

tia

I can sing the song and do good harmony on it as well. Not that tough to do, the harmony..keep it simple. Melody is another deal. Tough. Many of these singers MUST have connections to local powers that be.

Will read comments later. have to go mow the lawn. Thank goodness for riding mowers or I could not do this.

too GORGEOUS day to be sitting inside & will try and listen to race tonight. :-)

I will get all the important info here as always.

Thanks

PammH said...

Sorry, Rick, but that really doesn't look like a great crowd to me.

Dot said...

I think JB is getting groomed for the truck booth next year. I think he does a good job telling us what's going on on the track.

Patrick said...

PammH,

Quality over Quantity? maybe?

Dot said...

@ dear Sophia, take the blade off and do some racing, lol.

Is there another series running with the trucks? Seems like a waste to be just them.

MikeC said...

Plus it probably doesn't help the Cardinals are playing a home game this afternoon as well. Some tracks are suited to have races in the evening, and Gateway is one of those.

Patrick said...

Dot,

ASA Late Models, after the trucks.

Anonymous said...

Dot - ASA Late Models are after the Truck race


PeggyAnn - In 2004, the race was in July on the Cup off weekend ... when they had the on-the-side trucks & 4 GWCs

Daly Planet Editor said...

Straight up truck race, tough to pass and good TV coverage.

Patrick said...

S&P update. Thank you.
Kinda skews the real differential between how many points someone out of first can expect to make up. Unless Hornaday were to wreck on lap 1, nobody can really expect to make up 100 points on any given day. They'd be lucky to make up 50.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Now that is how to work the triple split on caution flag stops!

peggyann said...

Sure hope it's the third, not second weekend in July next year for Nationwide and Trucks, or I'll have to change my hotel for Chicagoland. The third weekend is off for Cup.

Sportstravel seems to be a good place to find out the schedules; they have Chiland being the second weekend.

It is HOT in St. Lo in July; hope they race at night.

Patrick said...

over 30 minutes without a post during a race (3:14 - 3:46). No TV complaints here. All the haters should witness this for a satisfied group. so far.

Patrick said...

Fugly restart. Flagperson not too ambidextrous. She couldn't shake the yellow with her left, needed to be in the right hand for effective waving.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Big pit stops...

Palmetto said...

Lap 104 - that's the third wreck that's been right in the middle of the shot when it happened. One part luck, one part good direction, one part good camera work.

Patrick said...

Good thing the Boogity Toupe ADD Spaz-fest RaceDay is next. This race cannot finish in 30 minutes, can it?

Daly Planet Editor said...

3 and 4 wide and no one there watching...shame.

Anonymous said...

What's with the teaser for RaceDay during green flag racing?? The show doesn't start til the top of the hour ...

Patrick said...

tiamatsrevenge,

Just in case you just joined us...

Pal said...

JD, re: 3 and 4 wide: That's why I'm glad Darlington is rumored to return to next year's Truck schedule. Trucks were always the best race of a three-day weekend at the track closest to me.

Patrick said...

There are 15 trucks OUT of this race, which means only 21 are running, with only 15 now on the lead lap. That's a pretty large attrition rate, even accounting the S&Ps. While there have been too many cautions, this broadcast has to be one of the best in a while. Just look above at the LACK of complaints. Benson is much improved over last week, more comfortable interjecting his opinion on the young drivers, scenarios, etc.

Daly Planet Editor said...

We need a major overhaul of the truck series and they know it.

The bullrings need to return and the big tracks need to go away.

Darlington would be great even with the high speeds.

Delco said...

Jeezzz...how many trucks are left running???...can't be 15. Did that many just give up? I know there were about a dozen S&P's, but this is awful.BTW, Onion deserved that!

Anonymous said...

Toonces is not happy!

Patrick said...

Mike,

I count 19 still running. 13 on the lead lap (assuming no lucky dog inside 10 laps, right?).

Anonymous said...

Maybe NASCAR Now would take the CWTS seriously if more than a couple dozen fans show up for the races. The attendence is horrible.

Anonymous said...

CRAP! Grampa!

Delco said...

Block some more Ron.....and Onion. Maybe they should start penalizing for blocking like in the IRL and ALMS!

PammH said...

About tiem Nascar put their foot down about Matt Crafton. He's a menace-no wonder KH got rid of him!

Anonymous said...

Horrible call by NASCAR. Wish some guys in the booth would have the guts to rip NASCAR.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Should get to RaceDay at 20 after the hour.

Palmetto said...

Bad call for two reasons. One, Crafton held his line both times. Two, moving to the rear just gave him more targets!

Anonymous said...

Huge difference between holding your line by not backing off, and outright wrecking people. NASCAR is just bending over for Hornaday.

Anonymous said...

Wish there was a "SPEED Classic" so RaceDay could start.

Delco said...

Both those trucks cut across Crafton's bow. If your leading the truck points by that much, why in the world not give the guy a little room? BAD call by Nascar IMO.

Dot said...

Seems that I missed a good race. I thought I'd have to read a 100 comments.

Dan had it paused. Don't know who won yet.

Palmetto said...

Please don't cut away until we hear from Crafton and Hornaday.

Anonymous said...

Happy that Tayler got himself a Top 5 today :)

The Principal wins again :)

glenc1 said...

he didn't just take out Bodine and Hornaday...there was a lot of collateral damage. AND...he was arrogant about it on the radio--NASCAR often listens to that stuff. If he'd done it on a straightaway it would be different...going into the corner you do what Sauter did. But I will say, Johnny Benson & Phil bent over backwards trying to make explanations. Whoever thought JB would be bad...he was great...

Palmetto said...

And we got to hear from both of them.

Didn't someone say Hornaday was going to take that truck to Loudon? Not any more...

Stokely said...

Idiot redneck track officials around the country get this call right every Saturday night. I'm blown away by the milquetoast tone of the commentary on TV. Just pathetic that the Truck Series officials are such Hornaday sychophants. Sad and pathetic. Maybe they're getting a cut of the sales of testosterone cream.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Well, at least it's over. On to live blog Raceday. There is a new post up on the main page.

JD

Sophia said...

Dang, I got caught up on phone & finishing cooking.

wish I knew the story on the wreck and who did what.

Am glad RD starting late...2 hrs is TOO LONG. needs to go back to hour.

Hornaday seems to have taken credit for bad restart but did not make friends in the comment section.

Had no idea this wreck was such a crash fest...glad I missed it and everybody was ok.

Anonymous said...

at most of our local tracks, if you wreck a guy, you and the car you wrecked go to the back, intentional or not. The Principal got it right.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Thanks for all the great comments.

JD