We are posting a new live blog for the NASCAR activities and TV coverage from Las Vegas on Saturday. Unfortunately, rain is in the area and threatens the on-track practice, qualifying and races.
We will also use this post to comment on the TV coverage by SPEED of Nationwide qualifying at 12PM and the following two sessions of Sprint Cup practice.
There will be a new live blog up for coverage of the Nationwide Series race on ESPN2. After Dale Jarrett experienced a family illness, Rusty Wallace will be joining Marty Reid and Andy Petree to call the race. Allen Bestwick begins the coverage with the NASCAR Countdown pre-race show at 4PM ET. He will be joined by Wallace and Brad Daugherty in the Infield Pit Studio.
Please feel free to help us with weather updates and info from the track. We are also on Twitter at twitter.com/TheDalyPlanet with live updates. To add your comments, just click the comments button below.
75 comments:
From: @Kenny_Wallace: Everyone wants to know about the rain! Its Cloudy and threating right now at 8:45 AM!
so far so good...
Just wanted to use this opportuntity to say how much I've enjoyed Kyle Petty so far. Yes, he tells some of the 'old timer' stories, but I think he's done a good job at trying to tie it in to today's racing.
The weather doesn't sound promising...
Looks like it might be more spotty than anything today.
Got two tweets that light rain is falling in Vegas. Seems to be west of the track.
Looking like some Danica with potential Danica to come shortly...
Can't believe she got on the 5 minute clock after late tech.
She picked up on her second lap. I love how the announcers made a big deal out of that. Everyone picks up on their second lap.
Cautious lap from Danica. See how that holds up.....
Matt Yocum says rain is coming...
Always convenient to see the team that pulled the #1 pill be "slightly late through tech". Terribly unfair when this happens all the time. Can't even enforce the 15-minute practice time-out on Danica's team at Bristol next race since they won't be there so no penalty at all I guess. Must be nice.
As an aside Kyle Petty has been infintely more enjoyable to listen to in the booth than DW.
Don't they qualify in IRL? How does she not understand qualifying?? You run 2 laps, as fast as you can
Going to be fascinating to see if she just stays safe during the race or takes some risks and hangs it out.
62 looks like he took a chunk out of that air dam
When is the last time the IRL had more cars then spots? Just sayin...
BIRES!!! Getting BRAVE!!! NICE JOB!!!!
Good thing she won't be at Bristol, she would get run over.
Have a feeling these guys are going to be giving her another lesson today.
There's no doubt the announcers are tip-toeing when it comes to Danica. It's as if they feel compelled to build her up and do nothing but praise her, and that they're afraid they'll upset people if they do otherwise. Also, it's like they have to justify as to why she's been given so much coverage these last few weeks.
Harvick. Wow! Flat foot all the way around! That was impressive
Daly Planet Editor said...
Have a feeling these guys are going to be giving her another lesson today.
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I doubt it, qualifying is one thing, the race is something else and she very consistent in practice in terms of the speed charts, just check her times vs Bires, within 3 tenths of him in both sessions.
As she said, a top 25 and lead lap finish would be a good day for her. At this point, that's the safe way to go, sorry if that's not enough for the whiners out there.
Wonder what Danica is thinking when she sees someone like Harvick run a lap like that?
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Probably thinking, "Harvick's got a lot more experience in a stock car when it comes to qualifying than I do and I haven't been looking for pure speed/doing Q runs like others"
One good thing about Kyle Petty, he makes his partner better. Today, Jeff Hammond gets the benefit.
A 2 person booth would be better for qualifying sessions I think
Where is the rain?
Right next to the track!
I wonder what the producers think of these 3 guys talking about the hey-days of the Busch series?
The leading edge of the main line of showers is just entering the Southwest corner of Vegas....LVMS is just beyond the northeast corner.
It's been an interesting conversation. Steve Byrnes needs to maybe call a little more of the action. This is not TWIN. Just sayin...
Re: Chad Blount is there an easier job in sports than being the driver of a top-30 locked-in start & park car? Maybe that's the prize the winner of Fast Track to Lame gets...
Like I said, 2 guys might be better in this situation since Hammond and Kyle are off in the land of used-to-be
I think someone might have said something in their ears, because all at once Hammond started talking about Edwards qualifying run and the hey-day talk suddenly stopped.
i tweeted this yesterday and i stand by it today: kyle petty is making an enormous difference in the n'wide booth and it is very enjoyable. he is skillfully bringing his experiences as a driver to the conversation, most noteably when talking about DP/any rookie's learning curve. his life stories are pertinent to the discussion and he doesn't have the "well, when I was a driver, I did . . . " mentality.
he is, as jd noted, making his co-announcers better: he is giving them time to make observations, listening and then making intelligent follow-up comments. he's not frenzied or silly and, when things start to go off track (no pun intended) he brings them all back with an observation or recap.
perfect example just now: "ok, we're not getting into another baby show today; we had that yesterday. . ." and then moved to quickly cover k wallace run. smooth as silk and not offensive to his co-announcers.
i admit he irritated the tar out of me a few years back but i'm enjoying him in this role and appreciate his professionalism.
Wow........monster lap by Denny Hamlin's buddy.
According to the radar I'm seeing, the rain could be reaching the track in the next 10 to 15 minutes. I'm not sure they'll have qualified all 51 cars by then. This could get very interesting!
Uh oh....rain.
Haha
Darn, looks like the rain will hold off and we'll finish qualifying.
They've only got like 5 cars left to qualify....wouldn't it be something if they had to reset the lineup because they couldn't get all the cars into a qualifying run?
I don't know how it's not raining there. The radar I'm looking at shows rain right on the track.
Here comes the DW Vortex Theory!
Sometimes weather radar shows precipitation that is falling but not reaching the ground.
Will we get the race in today, that's the most important question?
I could care less about final Cup practice.
Daly Planet Editor said...
Here comes the DW Vortex Theory!
and we were all chastised yesterday for believing in the science rather than the anecdotal evidence (which was said as if it trumped science . . . )
that arrogance fell right into the "we know better than anyone else so just shut up, don't question or criticize and believe what we tell you" frame of mind. if there was ever a group of people who have NO standing when it comes to science outside of a racetrack, it was those nitwits yesterday! and dw going on about "those same folks believe in global warming" nonsense just made it worse.
yet another embarassing nascar-related moment yesterday.
Thanks to Mike Joy for the TDP shoutout!
Mike Joy is just tired of getting trashed by a bloggers/fans on this site so he comes in piece, JD.
peace, even
Mike has a thick skin. Just not buying for one minute the #66 car BS they FOX guys are shooting.
That's the first time I've heard the first non-wrecked retiree of the race gets confiscated. If that's the case, why was the #66 confiscated last week such a big deal then? Wouldn't that car have been confiscated many times last year as well?
That's because it's a bunch of hooey. Keep an eye on whether the first start and parker tomorrow is taken.
ugh, rusty in the booth. Hope it doesn't rain.
JD, sorry about the doubleposts. I've been having a lot of problems with this lately. Mea culpa!
JD was was the "BS" that was thrown around? Missed the first session.
Besides, wasn't the other car who got confiscated part of a random selection based by the first car to fall out of the race? Perhaps someone was "motivated" to pick Blaney's position?
Anyways, someone fill me in!
Marcus Smith sure isn'ta Humpy Wheeler is he?
With that sportcoat on Marcus Smith, I thought Herb Tarlek (WKRP in Cincinnati) had arrived in Vegas.
No prob G!
The topic is SPEED announcer Phil Parsons. Last season, he had two NNS cars that started and parked. That was his business and he made money doing it. Nothing NASCAR could do.
This year, Parsons teams with MWR for some cars and moves up to the Cup Series. All the while, he is saying that IF he gets a sponsor they will race.
Blaney gets up front for Cali and on national TV pulls out of line before the start. Nothing in that car is set to race. It's a start and park business. He parks.
Lee Spencer from FOXSports.com drops a column suggesting that S&P as a biz in Cup is not going to be tolerated.
Meanwhile, the TV guys are falling all over themselves to say it was just random and nothing more.
The doubletalk is deep right now.
CandiceSpencer Nascar will make an announcement @ 12:30PT re: changes in schedule due to rain
JD the MWR support was there last year though too. That is why the 66 ran the 600. So that part was nothing new though I find it interesting FOX/SPEED has ganged up behind Phil...
He is sure lucky his last name is Parsons and he is a good guy, I think out of respect to BP there have been alot of people holding their tongues.
David. Two fulltime S&P cars in Cup is unheard of. Don't get lost in the details.
Oh I'm not. Just saying MWR has used that team as a guinea pig for over a year now.
Them doing 2 start and parks is a disgrace. I have a ton more respect for what Tommy Baldwin did last week with a blank car after losing 2 in Daytona than the worthless excuse PRISM has given
Sirius was in full"nothing to see here, move along" mode about the S&P thing all week too. Speedway even went so far as to ask why people wanted to deny Phil a living - talk about obfuscation. Amazing the straw man arguments they can come up with
Bevo, I'm not a fan of assigning different rules for different people as much as I dislike start and park. It's Phil's team to do whatever he pleases with, however something should be done to discourage this behavior. The fact that people do it does not bother me as much as the fact that NASCAR sees zero problem with it.
@Bevo - marcus cannot hold a candle to Humpy. Going to the track in Charlotte isn't the same now that he's gone.
I turned on practice to see DB in the 48's garage, so I went somewhere else for a few minutes, blah, blah blah the 48 is great, blah blah blah
do any of the broadcasters understand that the fans can figure some of this stuff out for themselves? And that the smoke and mirrors being spouted by TPTB isn't doing NASCAR's credibility any good?
There's no doubt Fox/SPEED has taken Roush & NASCAR's feelings to heart.....they've gotten where they're taking the party line. Especially Larry Mac....it seems like after that situation with Dustin Long last fall, that there's becoming a us media vs. them media....the them is becoming those they feel "hate" NASCAR, and the us, is the one that follows along the party line.
You guys catch that little David Hill and SPEED tribute?
@David- I'm right there with you. NASCAR still thinks this is the 1970's and 80's and they can control the message.
DW: "David Hill and Hunter Nickell are trying to make Speed THE Nascar station"
Yeah, by cancelling Speed's decade-old Monday night franchise NASCAR show and replacing it with a 3rd rate talent show and a cooking show?
Nice try Darrell. But I'm sure your bosses do appreciate the butt kissing.
JD, I think I may be sick! shameless self-promotion.
No, all I heard is some more yakking about DP. What did they say?
Fox doing what Fox does best... Patting themselves on the back as hard as possible, giving the "anonymous" behind-the-scenes people as much TV exposure as possible, and lying to support NASCAR's or their network's own agenda.
Seriously, start counting how many times we have to hear the names Kempner, Landis, Hill Smith etc. on Fox/Speed every week compared to how many times we hear the equivalent names on TNT and ESPN. It's absurd.
Track now officially wet. Cars parked while drying is starting.
Practice is done, might as well park the cars. They have to start lining up for the Nationwide race, should it occur.
Practice is done, might as well park the cars. They have to start lining up for the Nationwide race, should it occur.
New post is up! Please move comments to the new post for the ESPN Nationwide Series coverage.
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