The rain has stopped, the track is dry and NASCAR is ready to try and get to halfway. FOX will be on the air from Martinsville, VA with the Sprint Cup Series at 12PM ET.
FOX has told us that they have kept the Hollywood Hotel at the track. This is perhaps due to the off-week coming up. Normally, this set is off and rolling to the next destination when a race is delayed.
Chris Myers and Jeff Hammond are going to open the show. Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds will be calling the action. On pit road are Krista Voda, Steve Byrnes, Matt Yocum and Dick Berggren.
The sky is partly cloudy and NASCAR has announced that there will be a competition caution at lap 50. The track will be green and abrasive, so tire wear early on is going to be an issue.
The short and relatively slow laps at Martinsville can be a TV challenge. Changing camera shots and alternating views of the endless laps is the only thing that works from a TV perspective. In-car cams are tough with the short straights and quick corners.
We are going to use this post to host your comments on the live FOX coverage of the Sprint Cup Series from Martinsville. To add your TV-related opnion, 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 The Daly Planet.
119 comments:
OK, who called in sick?
I wanted to, but I did the responsible thing and came in. BUT ... I am listing to the radio broadcast online, I have your site up and Twitter and another, and I'll be listing to in-car audio. Good thing my boss is out of the office today. :D
There are some advantages to being retired. Besides, it is still raining here in western Virginia and I hope it is not heading east.
Rearranged my schedule. I can hang in until +/- 2:30 Central
Usually these postponed races bring more toned-down coverage. Will have to see if that transpires today.
Good day to everyone!
Anybody know if the TV stream is online anywhere?
IRL video on laptop and Cup on tv
They said the race had only been rained out for the spring once before. They didn't mention that it was run the weekend after Easter. Running the race two weeks earlier in the year greatly increases the chance of a rainout.
I'm an unemployed bum.
Good day to everybody!
Is the TV stream online anywhere?
For those of you with Iphones, if you have the "Pocket Tunes" app, look up WDEN and you can listen online to the MRN broadcast.
This feels like a practice session.
Not me, can't afford it. Will be leaving shortly. Cogeco Cable here in Central Ontario has 5 different channels showing the race.
First is TSN in standard def
Second is WUTV Fox 29 in Buffalo in sd
Third is TSN-HD
Fourth is WJBK Fox 2 in Detroit
Fifth is Q13 Fox in Seattle
Watching the race you would think there is no racing going on. Just single file and tight shots. Zoom in camera guys, we need to read the name of the driver on the side of the car.
Amazing that ESPN can show a lot of passing on the IRL race but Fox ignores it in Cup
IRL race over - Power, Wilson, Briscoe
WOW, all I have to say is it sure was nice to see a short and sweet pre-race show. How great was it to not have to hear the Hollywood hotel guys blathering on about nothing? Just put the show on the road and ve at it without all the crap.
But, it's still the same old, same old, and the coverage is still awful with single car coverage.
Leaders, tight shots. Nothing more. How does this hold viewers? Oh, forgot in-car cams.
the race cars are beating and banging each other. If a car is in your way you try to move them out of the way. Seems a bit early to do this but that is what they are doing.
no JD, tight shots and watching the leader do not hold me to the tv. on the plus side it gives me more time to read the TDP and twitter. go figure..
We ever get a Scott Speed update? Man, he tore that one up.
That was my question, did they ever say what happened to Scott Speed? Did he blow a tire, get punted, what? That scrunched up of a nose there has to be a story as to how!
Just showing the top 4 cars is not working. Lots of action behind that. Hard to believe that this is the same track that the trucks ran on.
His wife said on Twitter cars checked up and he could not get stopped. Fixed it and back on track.
FOX said nothing.
Did you see what DW said about Reut spinning? Made no sense and had nothing to do with it. Joy just like it drop.
These guys are awful today.
Not a word about Scott.
JD, did you hear what happened?
@Charlie, love that comment about reading the driver name on the door.
Come on, FOX, show me the racing.
Fox needs to watch how ESPN did the camera work today for pointers
I am totally 100% lost with what is going on with the race. Took the afternoon off to see it. I'm heading back to work.
I'll leave you all with this. There is total and complete disconect between what the camera's are showing and what the talking heads are saying. Total and complete disconect. Chow all, heading out.
To state the obvious in regard to tv v. radio coverage of a race - the advantage tv has is the actual pictures. When that is not compelling or informative then radio has the advantage with their superior call of that race.
Like I said it's obvious but apparently lost on the powers at Fox this season.
This could be a road course. They only zoom out to show 4 cars at a time. In-car cams, follow the leader and the heck with the rest of the field.
See ya JP! I certainly agree that FOX is just picking cars and talking about them rather than chasing the actual racing on the track.
For those not being able to watch, they have already done a Crank it Up segment. Which of course doesn't show anything.
Is it my imagination or are we being overwhelmed with commercials?
The reason it feels like a practice session is because they are not following the race by picking cars and talking about them. They don't seem to care anything about the actual racing.
Something doesn't feel right about the race coverage.
It's very strange. They just pick a car, show it and talk about it.
Has nothing to do with the actual race or what is happening.
oh no, why would they use tight shots at this little track? The right camera would let the tv viewers see ALL the action. What a stupid plan -- are they trying to get people to quit watching and turn to radio?
I'm sneaking on and off the nascar.com feed and here to follow along.
Is it me, or is the LAP by LAP blog on NASCAR giving better coverage than the talking heads... Max max max headroom could do a bet bet better job...
split screen for 1st and 9th seemed like a nice surprise, finally.
That's a weird break with Myers reading promos in the middle of green flag racing
If there were just 4 cars on the track would the camera work be any different?
Bruce, this is amazing. FOX has become the ESPN of last season.
No clue to what stories to follow. No updates on folks out of the race. No excitement.
And DW is on another planet!
Good Lord! Another DW moment. This is getting really, really bad.
geez, reading the comments on the coverage sure makes me glad I didn't take the day off to watch this mess that Fox is presenting as race coverage.
I remember "back in the day" when the director actually showed wrecks live. Wonder if they gave the director the day off or he has VERY VERY slow reflexes?
It looks like most of the cameramen went home and there are only 3 or 4 left.
Osbornk maybe FOX should record the race, edit it and then show it on Tv to the rest of us.
Spotters say rain is coming. Not to halfway yet.
Wow...MRN talking about how great the race is....twitter is on fire....SHOCKED that ratings have gone south!
Jeff Burton is in the lead. Ok fox lets get those camera shots of his wife ready.
That last segment was the perfect illustration of what's wrong. LM calling the passes with MJ being just the host to throw it to commercials.
A couple of years ago when HotPass was full service LM did pxp at the end of the season. I think he discovered he would rather do that than analysis.
How many times does LM ever contribute anything from a former crew chief's perspective during a race anymore?
Just joined, got off work at 1:00pm. That's the nice part about going into work at 4:30am.
At work on nascar.com. I'm getting more info then the tv. Sad.
Charlie, the director is sitting there looking at all of the monitors. How difficult is it to flip to the monitor that is showing the accident and we can see it in real time. The booth monkeys aren't talking about what's on the TV screen anyway.
boring!!! Is there a conspiracy to kill NASCAR?
After a restart they show the top 4 cars. 2 laps later the top 4 are single file, behind them two wide but they keep the camera on the top 4. And then it gets better. They go to Crank it up.
Watching now with no sound. Listening to talk radio instead.
@Darcie--yup that's about the one nice thing about rain delays...they're in and out :)
One nice thing about working from home can "work" and still catch the race :). But the bad thing about working from home and having to be on phones is that you have to keep the volume down so can't hear the audio but that's what Twitter's for when the picture isn't 100% clear on what happened :)
Isn't this just mind blowing? Beating and banging at Martinsville, radio going crazy, all this info on Twitter and TV is absolutely awful.
@JD- Amazing that ESPN shows more action at of all things an open wheel street course race than Fox can at a short track stock car race.
kinda glad I'm here listening on MRN. What planet is DW on today (just wondering...has he gone to 'once upon a time' land or something else)?
This doesn't make any sense. Why have one solid NASCAR-knowledgable group of production truck people work the Saturday Truck races and then send them home on Sunday/Monday and replace them with a bunch of ball-sport people that clearly don't understand how to cover this sport?
Use the real NASCAR production truck for the Cup races too!!!!
All the comments about how awful the tv coverage is kind of makes me glad I'm at work, and only have the live leaderboard to keep up.
If there was a story I'd be going to right now it'd be the fact Stewart and Biffle are about to be lapped.
They so phoned this in....
Add Kahne into that mix of cars about to be lapped. Stewart, Biffle and Kahne.
got to admit it takes a certain kind of talent to make a Martinville race as boring as Pocono or California.
Bevo, They got good practice at Bristol.
so the tracker shows Stewart down a lap - has TV covered it?
Positive thoughts:
- Major improvement in cameras. Very little digger shots & less in car cameras.
- The booth has done a great job looking out the window.
Constructive Thoughts:
- I wish the pit reporters were used more. Did the #55 get impounded? How are the tires looking? How are the cars that came back out on the track? How is the top 35 batte looking? More garage interviews...
Negative thoughts:
- The Hollywood Hotel should have went home Sunday. When Myers asks Hammond about a pit decision, he refrases what Larry Mac just said. It adds 0 to the broadcast.
- I'm still confused who is supposed to do play by play.
What I see is on a restart they show the top 4 cars and stay with that until a car spins back in the pack. Caution comes out. Show replay of car spinning. Show restart and do it all over again.
Later Gators! I'm going to catch the rest of the race on Sirius.
Holy cow, a shot from the blimp for a few laps and there was racing to see.
I left out, the cars look great and more familiar with the spoiler instead of the wing.
Hopefully there will be changes to the front of the car during the off season. It would be nice to see differences between Ford, Chevy, Dodge & Toyota besides the stickers.
As usual the coverage is just plain awful. Why can DW not keep his mouth shut? His ego is too big for the TV booth. He thinks we tune in to see him and Larry "Mcjokereynolds?" Please fire these people and get some sense in the booth and do away with the nonsense. U+I will be happy when Fox is off the air, then maybe we wont have to dread tuning in.
Charlie,
Wasn't that interesting? See the real dynamic of raing here and not just the random camera shots!
I am sooo glad I didn't waste a sick day on this hot mess! Radio and nascar.com's lap updates sound better than what you are all describing. I've been to Martinsville, I can "see" it in my head.
Has Mike Joy even raised his voice once in this telecast? Seems like a guy who just wants to go home.
Stewart's about to be put 1 lap down again.
David Stremme spun and Stewart stayed on the lead lap. I doubt TV reported that. That is the cause of the caution. According to the steam on nascar.com.
FOX is lost and NASCAR obviously means nothing. Embarrassing.
Missed caution for a commercial, DW talks up a crazy round of pit stops that just happens and Joy speculates on a Martin pit violation. How much of it does the football production truck show us? NONE!!!!
.... but we did see a great Fox baseball promo in place of all that other NASCAR stuff we missed :(
Those clouds are DARK on the backstretch. Weatherman? Larry Mac? Pit Reporter? Digger? Anyone?
Typical Fox. Hamlin catches Burton, the announcers talk about the inevtiable pass, and the oblivious football guys roll commercial. Yuck....
Amazing that these are the same guys who set the standard years ago.
Now, it is clear they could care less.
JD, I'm just lost. The shots are great today, but there is no flow. Just hop from one car to a random car and get through the talking points.
Is nobody looking at the weather radar? A quick glimpse at The Weather Channel's website showed me the rain cell seems to be moving SSW, so it should steer clear of the track.
Via - Nascar.com stream - "The spotters are reporting there is a shower to the west of the track."
Someone let everyone know how long the tv takes to say that information. Reported on lap 402.
Another missed caution during commercial? No way! How many is that on the year for Fox? Can you say Wide Open Coverage? Sure would beat this mess.
Who watches this and wants to come back for more in two weeks?
If I was TNT, I would be pissed right now. It's like FOX did the big show at Daytona, now they are just riding out the string.
I wonder if this is the last commercial break, or if we'll still have the 10% or less to go break coming yet.
Anyone seen the overnight TV ratings for Bristol? Jayski always posts them on Tuesdays but have not done so for Bristol this past tuesday. I've looked but can't find them. Just wondering.
Been slightly down or flat all this season on the Cup side.
What a daggone shame. The racing is good, just the TV coverage is bad.
Larry has taken on the role of play-by-play.
This is about the time where the football production truck usually abandons covering the race and focuses on nothing but Burton's wife isn't it? I hope I'm mistaken....
FOX notices a trend in tire failures NOW?!?! With 14 to go. Incredible insight!
Now we watch Denny Hamlin ride in circles by himself.
Talk about dropping the ball.
How weird was that? The announcers were talking about one things and the director never showed any of it.
This is awful.
If they have such great camera shots for replays, why don't they use these same cameras under green.
We knew it was a 100% certainty that there would be a late caution. How many other cars had a flat and hit the wall earlier and there was no caution?
The production truck is ignoring the booth.
Oh my [censored censored censored] how do you cut away right in the middle of a three-wide like that!!!
Why show 3 wide for a split second then go back to the leader by himself without seeing what happens with the 3 wide?
They could not even follow Hamlin back through the field.
They need to show how close the #24 was to taking the white flag when that caution came out.
Announcers on camera before a GWC restart???? WTH???
MikeC- I thought the same thing. I thought the race was over.
If Gordon would've taken the white flag there would be no GWC. Be nice to show how close he was to taking it.
Somebody forgot to change those graphics in that Phoenix promo. The Subway Fresh Fit 500 was last year's race. This year, it's the Subway Fresh Fit 600.
That was just dumb.
Sad...I could have went to our conference room to watch the finish...stayed with MRN....good call on my part!
Glad this race is over. Was a pain to watch. Bet DW twitters how great this race was.
Wonder how many interviews they'll do. I say 2, Hamlin and Gordon. Good try, Newman.
I live in the Indy area. No interviews, straight to the 4:00 news.
I never got to see the finish. Just before the GWC restart, my El Paso, TX FOX aflliate (KFOX14) lost transmission and the signal went out. It came back after the race was over..I'm so upset with them.
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Thanks again for taking time from your Monday to join us.
JD
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