Saturday, September 26, 2009

Live Blogging The Nationwide Series From Dover (3PM - ESPN2)


Due to the low number of visitors on this college football weekend, we are extending this post to cover Happy Hour on ESPN at 7PM and also your post-race N'wide Series comments. Just click the comments button below. Thanks.

NASCAR Countdown will lead the way at 3PM to set-up the Nationwide Series race from Dover, DE. We are once again in the scenario where college football will probably run past 3PM, so this program may begin on ESPN Classic.

Allen Bestwick, Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty will be in the Infield Pit Studio for Countdown. Tim Brewer will be nearby in the Tech Center. ESPN has Jamie Little, Shannon Spake, Vince Welch and Dave Burns reporting.


Once things get underway with the 3:30PM race coverage, it will be Marty Reid calling the play-by-play. He will be joined by Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the broadcast booth. These three are still trying to figure out a good racing balance on the air.

Jarrett and Petree work with Jerry Punch on the Sprint Cup Series who provides absolutely no leadership or commentary. Here on the Nationwide trail, Petree and Jarrett have to figure out the energetic and honest Marty Reid who embraces the traditional role of a play by play announcer. So far, this combination is not working out.

Reid was far more effective with Randy LaJoie and Rusty Wallace. These three had fun despite their diverse personalities. Wallace worked an entire IRL season with Reid for ESPN and is clearly comfortable with him. LaJoie takes great pleasure in poking fun at Wallace about the struggles of his Nationwide Series team and adds just the right touch of personality that this series really needs.

Jarrett and Petree sound tired right now and who can blame them? It has been a long season and even with some early vacations, double-duty never works out well.

Dover has two bridges over the track that the TV director has to cut around. The coverage needs to keep ahead of the cars, showing more headlights than tail lights. The best camera shots are from Turn 1 and Turn 3 as the cars head down the front and backstretch. That is where the passing occurs.

In-cars are tough to use live, but great for replays. This is especially true after accidents, where in-cars can often tell the tale of who is to blame. Using the in-cars live forces the TV viewer to miss so much action it is almost unfair. Martin Truex Jr. is the in-race reporter for ESPN today.

In this race there is no Chase to deal with, but there is the temptation to focus all the coverage on the eight Sprint Cup Series cross-over drivers. As the season begins to head to a close, it is going to be important for ESPN to feature the drivers who have competed in the Nationwide Series regularly, especially if they are having a good run.

This post will serve to host your comments on the Nationwide Series race coverage from Dover on ESPN2. To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking the time to drop by.

311 comments:

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Newracefan said...

Andrew we can only hope

Daly Planet Editor said...

No, they are just leaving Marty out there to dry. Plain as day.

Anonymous said...

DJ and Andy need approche this situation like the racers they are, and the team owner is makin' a change so as I said, get over it.

Anonymous said...

ri88girl / david - I've tried to fix it ... But, it doesn't work ... Something weird with TypePad ...

Major Fox Paws said...

Andrew, quit teasing us;-)

Anonymous said...

muti numeral just sign a post with the nick name and we'll get it, its just so we can address you directly if we want

The Loose Wheel said...

its cool, i like saying multi-numeral person anyways.

Charlie said...

bliss is catching bowyer

The Loose Wheel said...

ah, multi-numeral is tim. i see now.

Anonymous said...

Rain is almost fully to the track

Daly Planet Editor said...

Somebody add up his digits and we will just call him the total!

Charlie said...

kyle did not have a communication problem. He switched to a backup radio. Espn forgot to switch to his backup radio.

Anonymous said...

ri88girl - Gymmie knows "who" I am (wherever she went) ... LOL

Me = TiamatsRevenge


JD - They're still trying to say that ELF took down the KRKO towers ... Now they "found" some alleged ELF graffiti not too far from the scene of the crime ... But, I'm still NOT buying it ...

Anonymous said...

Charlie - I hope you're joking. If not, ESPN won the dunce award of the day.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Wow! DJ is just silent. This is sooooooo strange.

Anonymous said...

JD - I'm a girl ... But, I do respond to being called "6" or "Six" ... ;-)

Charlie said...

Kyle's crew chief said they switched to the back up radio when the pit reporter was on the box talking to him.

Daly Planet Editor said...

rofl. duh. sorry. Not like you are new on the block.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Those West Coast types are just a little big different! :)

Newracefan said...

I can't believe how bad they are hanging Marty out to dry. If they did that with JP we would have silence at least Marty tries to find something interesting to say. Maybe DJ is sick, I really don't picture him as a vindictive type of person

The Loose Wheel said...

The women really flock to this place, 6, red, dot, sophia, ragan, ri88...i feel outnumbered!

Anonymous said...

@Buschseries., does that mean the 18 team gets the dunce award:

The Loose Wheel said...

NRF, ask Ryan Newman if DJ is vindictive...

Andrew said...

Yikes. Shannon should not have to be doing the play-by-play on a wreck from pit road.

The Loose Wheel said...

DARN YOU BRAD K!!!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Charlie, I missed that.

Wow, this could change things if the rain holds off.

Newracefan said...

David that's in a race car whole different deal. By the way add me to the ones outnumbering you too

Anonymous said...

JD - No rain here ... LOL No track either (cause of idiot politicians & NIMBYs) ...

Yeah, I've been here since way honkin' early ...

The Loose Wheel said...

I was kidding NRF but yeah, much different in and out of a car.

Wow, makes me wonder how many of ya are youngin's like myself ;) lol.

There goes my ESPN streak...again.

Karen said...

David,

What am I? Chopped liver?

Daly Planet Editor said...

Good thought. Maybe DJ is under the weather. So not like him.

Anonymous said...

David, you are not alone. Count me as +1 to the male column.

Daly Planet Editor said...

These guys are hauling the mail!

The Loose Wheel said...

Karen, very sorry. See, there are so many i cant even keep track.

Paging JWT.

Vicky D said...

Marty is doing a great PXP I think Randy (instead of DJ & AP) would be a team player with him.

Daly Planet Editor said...

I will just leave this post up after the race for post race comments. There are so few people here today it is amazing.

College football has whacked this series.

JD

Charlie said...

13 cars on lead lap after the finish.

Anonymous said...

Congrats to the 29. I hope the booth works their issues out before next week. Marty is deffinetly a plus, as JD said some real play by play in September.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Did you see them scramble to show other cars finishing?

Imagine that concept. Not only the winner has fans.

Tomorrow should be interesting.

PammH said...

I was here, but it wasn't a very exciting race. I do like Marty's pxp tho.

Andrew said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Daly Planet Editor said...

We are live blogging the truck series race tonight at 9PM on SPEED.

Johnny Benson with Rick Allen and Phil Parsons. Krista Voda on the pre-race. Ray Dunlap and Adam Alexander on pit road.

Andrew said...

Marty was the highlight of (the second half of) the race! He tried to keep things going and expand beyond the camera-imposed script. Too bad that DJ and AP were fighting him at every turn. Very odd behavior for both of them; wonder if, as was suggested, DJ is sick. (AP's been off his game for a few weeks now.) The camera angles were....interesting. The finish was incredibly choppy; while it was nice to see the fight for position, it was a belated attempt and we could probably see from the finish line camera.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Hearing a scuffle on pit road with Brad K and Denny. Going to see it?

Andrew said...

Good grief, another break? At least this one is local.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Nicely said Andrew!

Newracefan said...

Wonder if we'll get post race to 6pm since that's the window they have. Should give us all kinds of time to show to confrontation

Anonymous said...

Currently 97 in Vegas ...

Weather a factor there too ... LOL

Charlie said...

30 laps into the race and kyle could use his radio. And espn didn't know it.

Andrew said...

ANOTHER break!? Guess we're gonna get 10 minutes of postrace padded with 20 minutes of commercials.

Denny looked a bit dazed there. Wonder if he's thinking straight. (I'm thinking NOT considering he was just dumped.)

Anonymous said...

Dunce cap goes to ESPN world wide leader in sports

Anonymous said...

bet the 18 team did it on purpose to punk Jamie

Vicky D said...

Guess AP doesn't care for BK. From the replay it wasn't like he did it deliberately. Plus there wasn't much of a mark on the back of Denny's car.

Charlie said...

That wouldn't take much to do that, ri88girl

Anonymous said...

can you say rehersed?

Daly Planet Editor said...

They had to write the script first. Jamie had to make it dramatic.

Anonymous said...

Why does Jamie constantly try to stir stuff up to make it an even bigger deal than it was??

She did this in the IRL ... and keeps doing it ...

It's beyond annoying!

Vicky D said...

I personally don't like Denny's comments.

Anonymous said...

The Good:
- Marty Reid: His humor, obvious passion for auto racing, excitement & constant updates were wonderful. I wish he told us about the debris, but that was my only complaint.
- Infield Studio: Did their job today. Allen Bestwick made a nice transition from the football game to the race.
- Weather radar: We finally got to see the reality that rain is coming. Too bad it took them 3/4 of the season. Good to see the race make it to all 200 laps

The Bad:
- College Football drama: It is becoming a weekly joke. How much of the pre-race will be missed this weekend? This is a major issue NASCAR needs to deal with.
- Signal Issues: Meltdown in the middle of green flag stops. Hopefully this is fixed for tomorrow.
- Andy Petree & Dale Jarrett: The backseat drivers might have been a big mistake. I think Dale is now used to play-by-play. whether he has to cover all of it, or parts when Jerry Punch shuts down. It was like him and Andy were their own little team today. They constantly pointed out what battles they wanted to cover. When Marty would talk, there was silence until Marty had to say something to break the silence. Dale Jarrett did not contribute much. If this is how they are going to act if Jerry Punch is removed, ESPN might as well clean out the entire booth.
- ESPN trying to create drama: Why are they trying to connect a confrontation from a year ago to todays issue?

Overall Broadcast:
** 1/2 / *****

Overall Race:
* / *****

Damon said...

Nobody tries to "stir up" more stuff than Vince Welch.

Like Montoya said after Pocono, "that's what I like about you, you always get things wrong".

ESPN's pit reporters just stink as a whole.

Charlie said...

So it is better to talk about two guys having problems in a wreck rather then interview other drivers.

Charlie said...

I know, they could talk to Carl about his foot.

Vicky D said...

Charlie I'm waiting for them to talk to Carl about his foot next.

Anonymous said...

RE: Denny's comments about brad.

Dude, you have a VERY short memory

Andrew said...

So...will we hear from Mike Bliss? Or any of the other NW regulars?

Vicky D said...

Andrew - there were other NW regular drivers racing today?

Anonymous said...

Carl said in the pre race that he always won with the Bird not anything about Scotts. Another driver with a short memory

Karen said...

JD, do you know who TS was talking to yesterday in the media center when he said to a reporter you're not smart enough to understand or something like that?

Andrew said...

@Vicky - LOL

@Karen - Mulhern, probably. (I kid, I kid.)

Damon said...

Karen,

It was David Newton of ESPN.com

Anonymous said...

there you go Vicky! Hey, they have eleven more minutes to fill

Karen said...

Damon, thanks.

Charlie said...

Sorenson finished 7th.

Andrew said...

Did we really just go the entire race without seeing the Tech Center!?

Anonymous said...

Andrew ask and ye shall recieve

Charlie said...

tech center instead of interviews.

Andrew said...

@ri88girl - I was (attempting to) respond to its sudden and unwelcome appearance instead of more driver interviews.

Labbie said...

Yeah, we went the whole race, but ESPN had to shove Brewer down our throats anyway.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Dover is so fast the Tech Center and the Infield Media Center can only get on the air for cautions.

Andrew said...

@JD - Maybe that ESPN will notice that in all our complaints about this race, we've never once complained about NOT seeing the Tech Center?

Anonymous said...

clearly, this means all the drivers have run away screaming from the ESPN pit reporters

Anonymous said...

@ Andrew -

No ... Brewer did an explanation on springs earlier in the broadcast


@ ri88girl -

Denny's a maroon ... Sure looked kinda "drunk" in the group shot there ...

Someone needs to pull up the video AND audio from his little tirade last year ... ;-)

Anonymous said...

I can't remember the last time I spent post race watching cars go through post race inspection...hmmmm

Daly Planet Editor said...

Remember, ESPN is back with Jerry Punch for Happy Hour at 7PM on ESPN.

Dot said...

I am waaaay late today. Just got back from the pool to see Clint in VL.

Before I left, pre race was on BSPNCL. I recorded that channel for the race. My mistake.

Oh well.

Andrew said...

@JD - Are you gonna leave this one open for Happy Hour comments? It'd be interesting to see if DJ is any better than he was during this broadcast.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Sure Andrew, that is no problem.

Dot said...

Will HH be on? Are we betting?

Charlie said...

Dot the race is on again at 3 to 5 am eastern time Sunday morning on Espn2

Labbie said...

I'm betting that a good portion of HH will be pre-empted bt College Football Scoreboard.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Happy Hour could be on thin ice. We will find out together.

Andrew said...

The Ohio State game only has 8 minutes left. Happy Hour should be okay for those of us in the South.

PammH said...

What channel is HH supposed to be on? I just got a football game starting on B2.

Andrew said...

@Pamm - It's supposed to be on ESPN itself (surprisingly).

Daly Planet Editor said...

Pammmmmmmm,

HH is on ESPN. The full NASCAR TV sched is on the main page. Right hand side.

PammH said...

ty both!

Andrew said...

Ohio State game is over and we're into the postgame show.

Dot said...

@ Charlie, thanks. I saw that on the guide. Looks like the Readers Digest version, being 2 hrs long.

@JD, thanks for bringing back word veri. Mine is slypot.

Andrew said...

We're already using the tight angles and production pieces? Oy. This may be a looooooong practice session.

Very surprising that they didn't mention Hamlin's incident with BK.

AP sounds really tired right now; JP's on top of things so far. *knocks on wood*

Daly Planet Editor said...

Talk about watching paint dry...

Dot said...

Think we'll see more car camera shots tomorrow so the bridges stay out of view?

Andrew said...

And yet it's still more exciting than the Florida-Kentucky game, where Florida is currently winning by 31 points with more than 12 minutes remaining in the first half.

Andrew said...

JP is getting a chance to show off his true talents here - since Happy Hour is less about PxP, he's free to share his stats and history knowledge. He really should be in AB's position, while AB should be in his.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Kind of ironic that he is better at rain delays and practice then he is at the actual races.

Dot said...

@ JD, and yet he still gets to do PXP.

Anonymous said...

DJ seems happy again, oh well

my veri is 'lidprom'

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
peggyann said...

This practice was before the Nationwide race; they couldn't mention an incident there.

I switched to Finding Nemo, had never seen it in HD.

Which radio group is it tomorrow?

Newracefan said...

Peg that would be MRN thankfully

Andrew said...

Whoops, I'm dumb! Didn't realize that this practice was before the NW race.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Yep, this was Memorex!

There is a new post up for the CWTS race from Vegas.

Thanks for all the great comments on this event.

JD

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