Sunday, April 25, 2010

Live Blogging Nationwide Series From Talladega (5:30PM - ESPN2)


The second half of the Sunday Talladega doubleheader is the Nationwide Series race.

It will be Marty Reid, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the booth. This is the trio that will be calling the Sprint Cup races later this season for ESPN, including the entire Chase for the Championship. Shannon Spake, Mike Massaro, Dave Burns and Dr. Jerry Punch will be on pit road.

ESPN is in hurry-up mode, so there is no Infield Pit Studio or Tech Garage. The call of the race will be the focus of the telecast. That might be perfect for this situation today.

NASCAR is trying to get this race in before darkness falls. There are no lights at Talladega and if the race does not get to halfway, the entire gang has to unpack and stay until Monday.

The Sprint Cup Series drivers racing in the Nationwide Series race certainly have an advantage, because they have already been on the track. However, they are also certainly drained from a very active race that saw lots of green flag racing.

ESPN needs to focus on the packs of cars and try to stay away from over-using the in-car cameras. The track is fast and these NW cars should put on a good show. Earlier in the day, the aerial shot was fantastic and provided a great perspective.

This post will serve to host your comments on the Nationwide Series race on ESPN2. 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 for hanging with us today.

99 comments:

Andrew S. said...

Race will be delayed until 7pm on TSN2 in Canada.

Becky [@hightechredneck] said...

JD ... I don't suppose you know this (or could find out), but I'll ask anyway. NASCAR.com was scheduled to do in-car audio for the Nationwide race yesterday. Any clue if they're going to have that up and running today? When I go to the page, I'm not getting the driver selection.

Becky [@hightechredneck] said...

Nevermind on that in-car audio. I just refreshed and have the driver list now. I guess I was just impatient. :D

Daly Planet Editor said...

I have not heard or gotten anything about them offering that today after the rain delay.

Anonymous said...

The cheerleading program has been delayed until 1 p.m. on May 8th?

Shows you how busy the ESPN programming grid is!

Charlie said...

If Fox had mentioned that post race interviews were on Speed I bet Speed would have gotten a lot more viewers.

The Loose Wheel said...

yay! Marty Reid!

Anonymous said...

Anyone have an ESPN Racecast link for Nationwide? Can't find it on their page and don't want to use NASCAR.com's outdated scoring. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

MRN missed the invocation ...

National anthem singer was kinda sucky ...

MikeC said...

Here you go:

http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/rpm/racecast?raceId=201004240331&prestitial=false

The Loose Wheel said...

Is it a mortal sin I am happy to see ESPN?

Charlie said...

What a difference - Wide Shots are being used.

The Loose Wheel said...

Remember, same camera operators too...

The Loose Wheel said...

49 off track

Sally said...

A graphic example of what a difference the calls in the truck can make for how a race appears on TV.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Mike C!

Charlie said...

@David, I was just going to ask about the cameras, I did not know it is the same camera guy to.

Interesting.

The Loose Wheel said...

Unless JD know something I do not, FOX/TNT/ESPN share camera crews for the mostpart all season. I think the pit crew camera crews are specific to network though

Daly Planet Editor said...

Everybody does what they are told. Top guys in TV working on these crews.

The Loose Wheel said...

I stand corrected, 49 not off track but is a lap down. Looks like Lagassee Richardson and McClure have lost draft.

Backmarkers like Kenny Wallace and Chrissy have formed their own pack 15 seconds back

MikeC said...

Looks like ESPN might be "front-loading" the commercial breaks, to make way to show more racing towards the end.

The Loose Wheel said...

So is that a yes JD to them being the same crews?

Anonymous said...

Look wide angle shots at Dega! Its a miracle! I'm enjoying ESPN, are we thru the looking glass?
I heard Marty's voice change & stopped typing. Good call.

Anonymous said...

Time for Roush to "park" his other rookie too based on last week's precedence?

Daly Planet Editor said...

David, while some techs are shared there are also may folks who are working for only one network because of their duties.

The Loose Wheel said...

Jack is not happy right now.

I feel for Collin though, nowhere to go...

The Loose Wheel said...

Ok, thanks JD. I thought that last year they all opted to share people to cut costs and did not know if it carried over into this year...

Anonymous said...

That sure got ugly fast ...

Daly Planet Editor said...

Right, but some things like TV booths, production trucks and uplinks are not shared.

There are always combo and individual crew members working in the TV compound.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Mr. Stenhouse is now Mr. Doghouse.

Anonymous said...

There's another thing ESPN is great at and Fox never does. When they come back from commercial and they see nothing's going to happen for several minutes they immediately go to another one within less than a minute instead of just filling with a bunch of crap. Nice to see that one network cares!

Anonymous said...

Carl absolved Ricky of the wreck on MRN ... Said someone was ramming Ricky from behind ... and he was about to get on the radio to tell Ricky to layoff ...

Sally said...

Nice to get prompt updates on the condition of the drivers involved in the wreck. Fox...please take note!

Anonymous said...

Is it just me - or is it creepy to see a deceased man ( Billy Mays) doing a commercial for the awesome auger?

Sally said...

No, it's creepy.

Charlie said...

Lack of comments says it all.

Sophia said...

I don't know about the others but I am STILL seeing lots of in car/bumper cams? Was making food earlier & noticed it on kitchen tv...still noticing it.

Have on MRN again. Commercials? glad I'm dvring this race...not gonna be worth sitting thru....sigh

Daly Planet Editor said...

Same thing last week! A fun NASCAR race on TV where you knew everyone was working hard and it was going to be exciting.

ESPN has come a long way on this deal. Marty Reid has been clutch.

Sophia said...

another link to listen to race

http://www.wnpv1440.com/

The Loose Wheel said...

Sophia, in-car and bumper shots are just a fact of life now and the networks are going to use them. Especially at a track like this since the cars get so close together too. That being said the non-in-car stuff has been pretty darn good so far

Anonymous said...

Replays of lead changes we missed during commercial! Don't think Fox did that once earlier today.

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

Thank you for all the wide shots, and Marty calling the race

Charlie said...

I agree, it was nice to see a almost big one replayed back to us. Keeps the flow going.

Anonymous said...

Marty keeps tripping over his words and is not as strong as I've come to expect recently.

Anonymous said...

I like the in-car / bumper cams at the RP tracks ... It's telling a big story about drafting partners & the bumpers ...

Anonymous said...

@Sophia - the Hubby is watching I'm watching & cleaning -any way he said they had a really good back bumper cam that showed several cars a ways back from Baynes car, so I guess all of them aren't too bad, sometimes

Anonymous said...

Full screen replays should be banned under green flag racing.

Sally said...

All bumper shots aren't useless. But, when they try to 'show' a pass from that angle it's useless.

Daly Planet Editor said...

We missed more passes and incidents this season on FOX because of the in-car issue.

Sometimes, it was almost funny.

Anonymous said...

Did you see Joey & the gas can LOL

Anonymous said...

I certainly hope NASCARonFOCKS is taking notes here. By God, they need to be!

Daly Planet Editor said...

The one positive thing is that ESPN may finally be ready to bring the Cup season home like it needs to be for the first time.

Charlie said...

Something has to give.

The Loose Wheel said...

My only gripe: A dead man is trying to sell me a gardening tool...

Anonymous said...

JD - You may have just jinxed Disney ... Everybody was all giddy about the Nashville coverage and then disappointed the next week ...

Anonymous said...

Who's on the play-by-play next week at Richmond?

Marty has an Indycar weekend.

Newracefan said...

JD only worry with ESPN the all chase all the time agenda with cup, if that persists it will be a fail even with Marty doing so well

Daly Planet Editor said...

Trust me, I let them have it.

Daly Planet Editor said...

AB fills in for Marty this season when he had IRL dates. Richmond, Charlotte and something else. Nicole hosts the infield.

Daly Planet Editor said...

oops "has" IRL dates...

Charlie said...

See, camera guys have been there all day.

The Loose Wheel said...

I concur with NRF. It is easy to say thing will be better with what we have seen so far but what happens when the Chase starts and the focus is on Jimmie going for 5 in a row and the vaunted top 12. My hope is that they DONT do what they did last year and that is fit a script to a race.

Thanks to Reid for confirming most of the crew did both races

Anonymous said...

Good to hear AB fills in... I thought I saw rumblings of Dave Burns and Vince Welch doing PxP.

Anonymous said...

Maybe because of all the rainouts I missed this story, but good to see RCR is continuing to sideline Jon Wes Townley, even if he Richard ends up losing the sponsor and Townley reappears as the driver of a PRISM car with Zaxby's on it or something.

The Loose Wheel said...

RC said last week JWT was out last week and this. Has said JWT will be out a couple or few more races until they have a decision

Anonymous said...

A bit heavy on the commercial front, I guess I'm to assume they'll have a long stretch to the end.

The Loose Wheel said...

ESPN usually goes that route. Last 25-30 will prob be commercial free barring caution

Anonymous said...

Marty's sounding like a giddy school girl meeting her fav pop star ... He keeps getting tongue tied & giggling ... LOL ;-)


Why is Marty Smith wearing a tie at the track ?!?!

Daly Planet Editor said...

Brendan,

Dave Burns and Vince Welch will each get one opportunity to call a NNS stand-alone race this season.

Nothing more than that, just on a split weekend later this year.

Anonymous said...

Rapid Recap ?!?!?

Why didn't they do a split screen on that ???

Anonymous said...

Does ESPN have to do something to compensate this race's advertisers to being bumped from an over-the-air network to cable or doesn't that matter any more?

Daly Planet Editor said...

Same spots, different rates.

Daly Planet Editor said...

That is the actual ESPN team in the picture above during a race.

glenc1 said...

just catching up cause I was on the treadmill....

Ditto on Billy Mays...good grief, even death can't keep him off TV.

Enjoying the coverage. Even an 'update' on start and parkers, finally a Chrissy Wallace mention (that took a bit long, but she was just running midpack & keeping out of trouble.) And good catch on Kyle's plastic...

The Loose Wheel said...

cool shot jd

Anonymous said...

Who were the cars that got together when they put Vickers' pit stop in the large box??

Ann_Ominous said...

Not perfect, but still much better than Fox.

I hope Billy Mays' family is getting money from those commercials. That would be the only good reason to keep showing them. Well, Sully is really creepy...

glenc1 said...

JD...any idea what Patti Wheeler's doing these days? Wiki says she has a TV company but no details....

Anonymous said...

Commercial with 13 to go... bad day for commercials all around. I thought they were front loading.

Charlie said...

Is the sun going down making it a problem for the drivers to see?

The Loose Wheel said...

seemed like a hard commercial because there was no intro into break...

Anonymous said...

MRN and the Deuce on commercial at the SAME time ... with 10 to go

glenc1 said...

Charlie, I was wondering that too...been looking kinda dark and they always say the cameras make it look lighter than it really is.....

longtimeracefan said...

This a perfect scenario for a great finish.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Glen, she does not have to do anything. She re-married quite well.

Daly Planet Editor said...

Man, glad no one was hurt in that one, including Morgan!

Anonymous said...

Nice coverage (90%) the commercial thing well, just sighing here. Have a great night the lightning & rain has arrived here. Good Night

glenc1 said...

yeah, they mentioned Leo...I've seen him in the sports car field...

but you know it isn't about 'having' to work (someone might accuse you of sexism...lol.) She had a pretty impressive career.

glenc1 said...

I'm a McMurray fan, but that one was on him. Just hard racing, but still...glad to see those guys are okay, especially Setzer...yikes.

Anonymous said...

Way too messy of a call at the end. A car got into the catch fence and was on fire and they almost ignored it as it happened.

longtimeracefan said...

Great race. Nice visuals. Good race for Brad.

Daly Planet Editor said...

I really appreciate you guys hanging in there with us today.

Long day of racing and lots of interesting TV topics.

Next weekened should be fun. Richmond!

Have a great night!

JD

Charlie said...

It seems the director of this Espn race was having fun and the Fox director was just doing his job.

Sophia said...

Agree with Jr...should only have 1 GWC at RP races. Adds too many crashes though Jr knows the 'fans like the drama'.

I HATED hearing idiots yelling and whooping over the car on fire. Drunken idiots. Glad all are safe.

HOPE NASCAR RETHINKS the GWC rule and the fence did it's job..

Vicky D said...

JD, any weather reports yet for Richmond next week? Hope it's a sunny a warm weekend.

GinaV24 said...

Sophia, I agree with you that there should only be one GWC attempt at plate tracks.

Personally I think multiple attempts at any track is a stupid idea and it doesn't seem like the drivers like it much either.

Sally said...

Having the Cup and Nationwide races run back-to-back really pointed out the differences in the quality of the broadcasts from the different networks. The lack of useless babble from the ESPN booth really contrasted with the Fox booth. The updates on various cars that had wrecked or dropped out along with the wide shots showing more of the field made it much easier to kepp track of the action in the Nationwide series race.

adamtw1010 said...

I thought that ESPN did a very good job today. Originally I thought that ESPN was being really dumb when they announced that they would broadcast a race scheduled to being at 4:30 starting at 5:30. However, it appears now they knew what they were doing. Marty Reid provided great enthusiastic broadcasting with Andy and Dale popping in at just the right times for the right amount. Running both races back to back gave me a headache and I was ready for a nap about halfway through the Nationwide race, but ESPN did a great job today and I am glad to see that FOX and ESPN both have made great improvements this season. Perhaps the better racing has something to do with it as well?