With the Nationwide Series off this weekend, the ESPN gang is not in Atlanta. That allows the SPEED TV team to step forward on Saturday with live coverage of the Camping World Truck Series. Thanks to Nate Ryan of USA Today, shown above is a picture inside the SPEED TV truck with the crew getting ready for the coverage.
Krista Voda will start the telecast with The Setup pre-race show at 1:30PM ET. Voda will have Geoff Bodine and the gold medal Olympic Bobsled team as guests. Bodine is racing a truck in Atlanta.
Calling the race is Rick Allen. He will be joined by Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip. Allen has been a regular anchor on SPEED's new Race Hub show. Parsons has been in the news as the controversy over "start and park" teams continues. Waltrip just unveiled his new amateur talent show, Fast Track to Fame, last Monday night on SPEED.
The biggest TV news involves truck series pit reporter Adam Alexander. He has just been selected as the new play-by-play announcer for TNT's six Sprint Cup Series races. Alexander is joined today by Ray Dunlap on pit road.
SPEED's truck series production formula is simple. They show the race, focus on the teams and eliminate the TV bells and whistles. Last season, we argued with Allen over his omission of the many truck teams that were starting and parking. He defended his decision. Should be interesting to see what happens if and when some teams head for the garage early in the event.
Waltrip has been finding his voice as an analyst and putting his normally sponsor-driven personality on hold. The results have been outstanding, especially down the stretch last season. With the Daytona race being more of a stand-alone event, this Atlanta race should really show TV viewers if Waltrip can continue his growth in this position.
Last year, Parsons flew under the radar with his Nationwide Series start and park teams. This year, his move into the Cup Series put him front and center. SPEED has worked very hard to avoid this topic and it should be interesting to see what Parsons has to say when the S&P truck teams pull off the track.
The truck series has traditionally had great racing in Atlanta. The weather is cool and clear. There are a handful of Cup Series cross-over drivers who should run up front, including Kyle Busch. It should be a good mix of personalities.
This post will serve to host your comments about the TV coverage of the Camping World Truck Series race from the Atlanta Motor Speedway. To add your comment, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for joining us today.
84 comments:
Been following Bodines Bobsled Challenge for years. I'm glad he's getting the spotlight for his sleds. I'm glad Speed is doing this.
Nice touch, should be interesting to see how he does in the race. Fast truck!
OM goodness, who is that screaming behind Adam & Ron??
Yep, that was special!
Wee do we thinkg that the 'old school' track in Atlanta can give us some good racing this weekend?
Sorry! Dyslexic fingers today!
Great to see the bobsled teams represented! - Thanks to Twitter I read of their appearance just before they came on with Krista!
Question: Am I dreaming or do I recall a few weeks ago someone intimating that MW would not be in the CWTS booth this year?
Very glad he's there; great chemistry among very good friends.
Gotta go work 1/2 day @ my shop, but will folow via computer. Go Bodine(s)!
Cool and fast in qualifying!
Good luck Geoff! Hope does well.
he* lol just woke u;
Hope we get a lot of the teams running the entire race today.
I expect at least the #93, #49, #89 and #21 to start-and-park, with two "maybes" in the #07 of Donny Lia (truck had sponsorship at Daytona, but not here) and the #48 of Tim Bainey Jr. (brought sponsorship, but team is usually a S&P).
Wow, what a start to this one. Looks like a Nationwide Series race.
wow this is some great racing for the lead WOW!!! Im out of my seat right now
this is a great race so far! Mikey isn't bothering me today for some reason.
Pammmmmmm,
Amazing that MW finally learned that dropping they hype and goofy act can pay dividends.
This is what's a shame. People say that the racing's boring these days.....yet Atlanta is a track that always puts on good racing, yet they can't sell the place out. Best 1.5 mile or longer track on the circuit.
The very last thing we need is
more Mikey ! We need Less Mikey.
We can see all of the action just
fine - without repeat and repeat and
repeating the same stuff. How about
Mandatory ANNOUNCER STOP like the
mandatory PIT STOPS.
What about every 10 laps just let
us hear the engines. And of course
on Every Re Start.
Lousy camerawork so far. Lots of closeup-tight shots. Besides brief glances at Skinner & Peters, positions 6-36 have been ignored. No S&P updates either.
Too bad the didn't use Atlanta and Charlotte as their templates for 1 1/2 mile tracks. They were done right for stock cars!
Mike C for the people who say the racings boring well there boring lol
Took a while for the cmaras to change and find the wreck.
Not a lot of outstanding anything. Took a long time for that first replay. Close-ups. Never asked why Hornaday would not pit with a tire rub on a high speed track like this.
Better action on the track than we are seeing.
Poor Grampa :(
Was told that Harvick took a look at the tire from his truck and told Hornaday to stay out.
Wrong call I guess...
In that case, Harvick can only be mad at himself for the wrecked truck.
Did it seem like they were trying to bait Hornaday into bashing Busch. glad to see he called it like it was and didn't take the bait. they even went to the video after he didn't go for it. Speed tried too hard to make something out of nothing there.
Indeed JD :(
@brad--yes it did but he didn't go there!
I'm completely lost. How did Geoff Bodine lose 2 laps? Dennis Setzer? What happened to #85 Raymer?
Hornaday, Harvick & Busch have claimed 80% of the broadcast to themselves.
brad,
That was the most "ESPN-ish" interview I have ever seen on SPEED.
Even played the replay and tried to make him say what they wanted.
How weird was that?
The spacing of the commercial breaks has been rather interesting. Race is about half over, but they've only taken 3 or 4 breaks since the green. Hope they didn't back-load the breaks.
Think how that would have went if it was Kyle instead of Ron that blew the tire and hit that hard!
I noticed that also Brad.
I didn't like it either.
JD,
I hope that was a 1 time lapse in judgement. I don't want Speed to go the way of ESPN in the future. It will not be good for them or the drivers. I know "rivalries" is the buzz word these days but trying to blow a non situation into a big controversy is not the way to get them.
SHOCKER! Mikey to drive for PRISM! Not really...
Why would you use an incar camera when 5 cars are fighting for the lead?
Not exactly what we are used to seeing....
This race really resembles an ESPN telecast. I don't really care for it much. The truck races in the past were the best show each week. What happened? Did Speed decide to fix it even though it wasn't broken?
Shane Sieg up to 7th! Where was he all day?
I thought I was hearing things because I've never heard them do that but twitter confirmed :(. Hope it never happens again :(. We don't need manufactured drama!
@Buschseries61 - And I was expecting Shane to park it early, what a surprise.
it's great to see what some of these start and parkers can do if they actually stay out and give it a go.
Will Speed leave Ron Hornaday alone now?
@brad - Maybe Ryan gave Shane the "good" truck to get the #93 higher in the points since he didn't qualify at Daytona. If they can get 2 guaranteed spots by race #5, they won't have to worry about qualifying that S&P truck.
I admit i have no idea how this works so i'll ask here first. does anyone know the lag time as far as goodyear tire bill being due versus purse winnings being recieved? i hear the s&p owners say they cant afford to buy tires to run today but maybe in the future. i was just curious how long they had to settle up with goodyear and how long it took to recieve purse.
Any sort of 'thru the field' yet?
Thats too bad.
Not the kind of TV time Shane needed.
Horrible camera cuts, but hey at least the onboard told the tale for once since they weren't screwing with the camera aim
Hate that for the 93. he was haveing a good day. dumb luck for speed that over using the incar shot actually saw something.
Didn't look like the #7 truck was slowing down any going down the backstretch. Looked like he was plowing the #93 down the backstretch.
Think SPEED's forces are a little bit scattered today...
"The fallout from EGR"
SPEED is sounding like the hype network this week....
Have always felt that the Truck Series put on some of the best races in NASCAR.
Not getting that feeling this year so far. Is it SPEED, a lack of depth in the Truck Series in 2010, or a combination of both.
Was hoping for more excitement after the one month layoff.
Am I alone in the disappointment?
JD, I
was in Daytona so i didn't see the broadcast. was Speed off their game then or is this just a bad day?
Well, the Daytona race was typical because it had some one timers and lots of early season hype.
This telecast is dominated by only a few drivers. The cameras are like Fox, zoom and zoom again.
For me, the tough part is always having two drivers in the booth. They both have the same point of view. I like one driver and one crew chief.
Also had hoped Krista would be the third pit reporter. Only two guys with over 30 trucks running is rough.
Yes JD, the FOX camera angles are showing big time
If you recall, this was one of Fox's 2 Truck series races in the recent past. Makes you wonder if they're not using the same production team as then.
Rick shouting "problems!" for every crash, flat tire, engine failure is beginning to feel stale.
Cali and Martinsville were the FOX races in the past. Atlanta was never a FOX race...
Least not that I can recall
I dont like Rick hes to phoney sounding just like Mr Punch was in the booth!
So, we can officially add SPEED's truck series team to the "weird vibe" list this season.
Only other group on it is FOX.
Never got the finish line graphics in......
Now Speed has taken the FOX approach to the checkered flag. Today had a VERY wierd vibe.
What was up with the end of the race? was anybody in the truck looking at the monitors to see how horrible that was?
It felt as if they phoned this one in, didn't it?
Liked the finish....only thing I'd request is some sort of drop down, or flash across the top of how they finished....sort of like what ESPN does.
Sucks Kevin wasnt able to do a burnout at the end? I enjoy that when I go to the race sucks for the fans
That was as disjointed as a Fox broadcast. Disappointed.
30 mins left, how long will they stay post race?
Yeah not that great of a broadcast but what do you expect a Fox owned station w Fox at the track so oh well.
Really took a turn for me when they had Adam try to force confrontation with Ron Hornaday.
Heres some perspective from someone on the other "weird" broadcasts. DW tweeted "Mikey and the boys have done a nice job today". If DW and the higher ups think that was a nice job it does exlain a lot. maybe they aren't far enough away to see what it really is. Or DW was just cheerleading for his brother and his bosses. hard to tell!
Who doesn't like kittens, bunnies, and little baby seals?
Congats on a good run today Kyle...
LOL....always makes me wonder how much soda gets dumped out during a weekend after the driver is done using it during an interview.
If you knew Rick Crawford, Dennis Setzer, Jason White, Timothy Peters, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Mario Gosselin, or Brett Butler were in this race...congrats! You could read the ticker and your vision is fine.
Congratulations Happy :)! Great runs by Ricky and young Austin :)
Indeed BS61 :( a shame that they were ignored :(
Wow! Donnie Neuenberger is still in the top 10 in points! Thats another driver you can add to my list.
....
You have got to be kidding me. There's 15 minutes left and we leave for Nascar Smarts in progress. Seriously?
Wow. give a less than stellar broadcast then bail early for smarts rerun from vegas. not a good day for speed so far. hope grand am race is better. I know the supercross will be.
Live MRN and timing and scoring on Grand Am website for Homestead.
Did the minor league producer and director that do the Sprint Cup races for Fox handle today's race or what? The production and direction were Fox bad for sure and they also added a pinch of the ESPN pot-stirring with trying to elicit a response in the Hornaday interview. Double A really let me down with that one.
Truck races can be hard to cover since the field spreads out so fast. Usually Speed does a great job, today they didn't. Hopefully it was just a one off and by the time M'ville rolls around things will be back to normal...
Skipped this race. on the DVR but will delete before watching after reading just 10 posts here on lame camera work...'listened to the tv' until a few minutes after HOrnady crash...heard many in car cams.
Well, not watching NASCAR gives you much more free time on the weekends.
NASCAR can thank the TRUCK PRODUCTION/DIRECTION for less people watching. Damn shame. Trucks used to be the best to watch race wise, and camera wise.
:-(
Mikey we need less and less not
more and more.
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