ESPN gets back into the Nationwide Series groove on Friday night after a tremendous effort last week in Nashville, TN.
Allen Bestwick starts the show from the Infield Pit Studio. He will be joined by Rusty Wallace since Brad Daugherty has the weekend off. Wallace will then move up to the broadcast booth.
Marty Reid will call the race with Andy Petree and Wallace. Dale Jarrett is also off this weekend. On pit road will be Shannon Spake, Jamie Little and Dave Burns. Jerry Punch and Vince Welch are also taking a long weekend. Tim Brewer will be in the Tech Garage.
The Nashville telecast featured Jarrett and Ricky Craven in the booth as the two analysts. Petree and Wallace are going to have their work cut out for them to equal the information and excitement of the Nashville effort.
Marty Reid was brought in this season to replace Jerry Punch in the play by play role and ESPN has enjoyed big benefits from this change. The twosome of Reid in the booth and Bestwick in the infield clicked from the start.
This week Reid will have to deal with the original duo of Wallace and Petree that ESPN chose to break up after only one season on the air together. Wallace was moved to the infield, while Petree got a new partner in Jarrett. It should be interesting to watch the on-air dynamic of the TV booth for this race.
Wallace is a Nationwide Series team owner and his team has been in the news. Son Steven Wallace is driving with several breaks in his foot courtesy of a wreck triggered in part by teammate Brendan Gaughan. The senior Wallace was not happy after the accident and should have some interesting reactions as his team cars head back on the track again.
This night race should feature some wonderful pictures as the PIR lighting is outstanding. Last week, the ESPN Director chose all the right shots with the exception of the closing few laps when he tried to show far too much and wound up missing a lot. PIR is a tough track to cut on TV with a weird shape and plenty of obstructions.
One story working for tonight is ESPN's Jamie Little reporting that Jon Wes Townley was fired from his RCR ride after a practice crash. The team is sponsored by Townley's father and his business. Other media reports dispute Little's claim.
This post will serve to host your comments on the ESPN2 telecast from PIR. 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 stopping by.
161 comments:
Hey folks!
Should be good pictures tonight.
I'll hold my breath lol.
All 3 networks are still sharing camera crews right? So I wonder how that might affect the quality of images tonight
As long as the director in the truck keeps up with what's happening on the track, it should be good. How long has it been since the #43 has won a pole?
Share some parts of the crew. Each network also has their own folks.
It's Friday nite, I'm on the Right Coast, it's been a rough wk at work. Noooo way am I even gonna be awake for the start of this race..:(. I am also an oldie but goody, so I think that something to do with it. However, not even sure I'm gonna tape because of network crew. I prob will just catch it Sat on Sirius or twitter. We'll see how that sits w/the ratings.
Happy Friday Night Racin' Planeteers :)
*hugs* Pammmmmmmmmmmm :(
last pole for the 43 was in 1999.
I think Speed wins the pole award though since the 43 is not a part of the Coors Pole Program.
I wonder if JWT is more injured than in hot water?
Nice move by ESPN having both Petree and Wallace, the booth guys, down in the infield for the pre-race show.
@David - You're right, no Coors Light decal on the #43, so #82 gets the Coors Light Pole Award.
I see ESPN is still going with the story that Townley is likely fired. Has there not been any concrete verification of that fact? Where's Marty Smith? Maybe he can check that for us.
Predicted S&P's:
56 Kevin Lepage
90 Danny O'Quinn
91 David Gilliland
92 Dennis Setzer
They kinda brushed over the fact that the # 21 would be shut down IF Childress fires JWT ... since the sponsorship $$$ goes with JWT ...
The kid is 17th in the points ... Would be 10th if you took out the double dippers ...
Tia true but think about this: Daytona they had a fast car he spun on his own, Nashville same story 2nd verse, they've wadded up 4 or 5 cars already and it has to be getting old for RCR. But I imagine based on Clint's remarks, no decision has been reached regarding his release or not. RCR has flat denied it since Jamie "broke" the story.
@Buschseries61 - Unless I missed something, I wouldn't be surprised to see #10 Casey Mears park it early as well, hood and quarterpanels are blank this weekend.
Bet daddy loved getting that phone call from RC.
Why is there loud music during that Carl Edwards interview? Very distracting.
Clint's comments were interesting, weren't they???? I don't think he'll be in a NW car next race.
Mears is trying to get the 10 in the top 30 in owners points for when Leffler drives it so he might run all day
ok, i'm going to be switching between n'wide & world of outlaws race on speed -- this will be interesting, to say the last!
Dang, someone found Tim Brewer's mike.
Fingers crossed we have a race like last week's. But I'm going to miss no JP on pit road. :-(
The Chili Bowl? That was January, right?
Hope ESPN gets this telecast right. Not a lot of eyeballs on the sport right now.
Baseball, Tiger, NBA, etc...
well, if the race is as tough as this national anthem, i'm better off watching WoO's tonight!
@David - I guess I forgot that the #10 had fallen out of the top 30, this being the first race where current owner points are being used.
I will be watching the race in a half hour after the Ramsay Kitchen Nightmares is over.
I am a Nascar fan since the early 80's and with what has been going on with Nascar and Tv I am not that much into watching anymore.
Hope the telecast is as good as it was last week.
Is Allen going to be on his own in the Pit Studio? If everybody else has the night off, they could have brought Ricky Craven in again this weekend.
was that espn making fun of the requirement that on-air talent wear suits and ties? & why climb those stairs in both? could they not have taken at least the jackets off to climb the stairs?
not really a serious question: just curious.
comical, may very well be the last time Basha's is the sponsor of this race...
I think Bowyer was trying to say "lay off the poor kid - he's under a lot of pressure" ...
Bowyer's first year stats with RCR weren't exactly stellar ... 5 DNFs out of 17 races ...
Ummmm...looks like that crew guy was reading a prompter...
Already showing "Hollywood" in
the pits. Bet we are in for
watching tire changes every pit
stop tonight.
Little good night racing on TV will be perfect. Hope they keep the good directing up.
Jamie repeating what Clint said pre-race. Not a very informative report....
"bowyer being in this car gives them a good snapshot of just how good their equipment is." now THAT'S an interesting comment!
MR is calling out the S&P'ers already. Bet JWT is out of that #21 car.
Interesting all the way around so far.
When will ESPN learn to leave KRusty off the pxp?
Well, well! Allen Bestwick is tweeting during the live race from the Infield Pit Studio.
It's about time!
Jeff,
After what Ricky Craven did last week, Rusty needs to have a very good race tonight.
Just sayin...
hope that was just a case of those surprise pit stops catching everyone unaware but the commentary seemed a bit disjointed there.
lots of shots of what was happening but i'm thinking that throwing it to the pit reporters may not have ben the strongest choice. booth coulda handled it more smoothly by watching the shots and giving quick commentary. pit reporters were in traditional mode and so we missed explanations (like: what happened to biffle's left front fender?)
my npv radio station is dropping signals a lot tonight. anybody have another Free over the net radio station for the race. I'm getting big gaps and my other station playing country music.
Used up eye time watching the Masters!!
I love MRN but the station keeps dropping or having a brief commercial over race..tech issues or cub scouts running the place.
thanks. will check back soon
Big news from "rubberhead": the
flater the track the more cars
push.
Ummmm, did they miss that spin earlier?
They had the replay cued, but the leader broke off to pit road. TV chose to show the pitstops and then ran the replay later.
Already showing too many cup drivers in the broadcast!
Here we go again....
@JD - Allen must be bored by himself in there. Might as well entertain himself.
# 21 has problems and JWT's not even in it ...
Is that car possessed ?? LOL
ok, so now i have the phillies to keep track of during the race (of course, they're up 7-0 in the bottom of the 5th so i'm a happy camper!) yet another window to open on the laptop!
So far better than Fox by far but not quite as good as last week
Good racing on the track, nice wide shots from the production truck. If only we had last week's announcing team, this broadcast would be another home-run.
How come we didn't get a multi-shot replay of Carl getting into Brad?? LOL ;-)
Agree. Seems like the old director. Here we go with in-cars and lots of tailpipes.
When you see tailpipes, it's time to cut to the next camera. Cars should not be racing away from the TV screen.
Marty didn't update Kevin Lepage parking his car. Looks like Buschseries61 is batting 1.000 on the S&P prediction.
MV - Yeah, he did ... Said KLP was joining the others in the garage ... shortly before they went to commercial ...
well, finally found out what happened to the left front of biffle's car.
I still think that a good broadcast would not need a Up to Speed or Through the Field segment. You should know about these cars as the race unfolds.
And yet another explanation of where the batteries are ona race car. How enlightening. You know, I learned all this stuff years ago by watching the races and listening to the announcers and pit reporters. Guess today the have to draw pictures...over and over.?
Charlie, and that is exactly what Nashville was. Today though has been rough and disjointed at times.
Another big box Brewer tech segment....this is getting rough because now we are hearing about Bowyer's issues 20 minutes later when they should have been talking about it during caution.
Charlie, that is tough to do. Lots of teams have not made news or advanced in the race.
Through the field just recaps what the single TV feed might have missed.
That is one reason why added video concepts like RaceBuddy and Hot Pass are soo well received!
david and charlie: unnecessary explanation that came too late and should NEVER be in the big box during green flag racing.
same old, same old.
phillies up 7-0 is more interesting right now.
Director having a tough time. Waaaay late on camera cuts.
No clue why.
Same director this week?
Maybe there is a time delay from the director and that is why the camera cuts are late. He may say bad words once in awhile. ha ha.
"alot of the teams watching this broadcast need to tell their drivers about these brakes . . ."
wait, what? does anyone have ANY idea what wallace was just talking about there? teams watching the broadcast would be cup teams: what, exactly, should they be telling their drivers about the brakes at phoenix? and what does that have to do with a possible cut brake line?
back to the phillies.
3 wide, but they cut away.
Looks like an intern doing the directing tonight. MR trying to move around the track and show different drivers but director showing cup guys. Poor Alligator having a bad time tongiht too.
an observation: there is a disconnect between the booth and the camera shots.
They sure like talking about the cup drivers.
Well, it might be Rusty...it might be the racing...it might be the directing. But this kinda stinks.
jd, this doesn't "kinda" stink: it DOES stink -- and more.
Hey guys! I haven't been around much lately (been far too busy) but I'm back, at least for this weekend.
Have they talked about the JWT flap a lot?
Hard to believe ESPN gave us such a wonderful broadcast last time, and is doing the same old thing this week. Rats.
Wallace made no sense talking
tire pressures in regard to the
smoke. The tires have had plenty
of time to expand on this long run.
We need someone who knows what they
are talking about!
Hi Andrew
show the car, director. Geesh Jaime is talking about the 34 and we see another car. Nice rundown of the NW drivers FINALLY.
Hm, the cameras didn't track the through the field well, did they?
Hey Andrew, ESPN was great last week and fell flat this week about 50 laps into the race.
Hey, the cameras found that crash before Marty!
Observation:
I do not hear the voice of Jerry Punch on pit road today. As a result the quality of the pit reporting has taken a complete dump. Amazing how 1 person changes the entire tone of pit road.
Last week ESPN was aggressively following the racing action where ever it was on the track.
They caught all the spins and accidents live...because that is where they happen.
Dale Jarrett, Brad Daugherty and Jerry Punch are off this week.
Spring break week ya know!
Fuel mileage could be a factor here. Going to have to average better than 5 mpg on this run to make it to the end not factoring in GWC. Lets see what happens
I think the track is too big for
them to cover with only a couple of
cameras. Maybe we could let Rusty
go up on Rattlesnake Hill with
a handheld camera.
Tons of cameras all over this place. That is why the lazy coverage is so maddening.
Did the booth boys MISS the replay from Stephen's on-board where you can clearly hear the tire explode??
I knew that last week's coverage and all of our praise of it would jinx this week ... LOL ;-)
tia, i guess so. I thought the same thing you did when they reexamined it.
it was a no duh situation the first time.
Really Marty and the booth has been just a bit lost today. Not completely but it feels like they are off on an island and everyone else is somewhere else. Marty has tripped over several names and lines today but I appreciate his effort and enthusiasm. Andy is showing quite a bit of rust, you really need LaJoie to put Rusty in check.
Well we got to see 8 cars at one time there for a bit.
tiamatsrevenge, i only caught the replays (thanks, twitter!) but i'm pretty certain i heard all of the booth guys point out the exploding tire.
then again, i can't say i'm really paying attention.
Need a better replay of the Bliss deal....
Just got a local commercial break inserted by cable while Bestwick was talking.
What's the over/under on getting a Mike Bliss interview?
Shannon is back, but this time no "how does that make you feel" questions!
tech issues continue online as well..folks talking over each other on MRN..something is off.
Then some chick on pit road spoke with such hesitancy, I wondered if she's done a NASCAR race before? WTH?
Are the bugs driving everybody crazy (Keep reading of horrible gnats all over the place)
Holy Mackerel I'm losing interest in NASCAR.
Sad. but. true
Glad for Mike Bliss interview. He looks beat. What about update on Steven Wallace?
Shannon's no Jerry Punch. Pretty short interview.
Holy cripes! What just happened?
Sophia - they asked Harvick about the bugs on the windshield and he said they weren't that bad.
KyBu just took out the entire field of NW regulars!
just turned on the tv for the big restart wreck. Good grief.
Wonder where my brother and his wife are sitting. that was a mess..10 cars wiped out. Shame
Charlie
Earlier on Twitter KyB said they were bad and Delana was going nuts on pit road some hours ago.
I can't BELIEVE this wreck!!!!
Good lord! Just turned on the race for a minute, what the heck just happened?
the "bugs" are actually just gnats that pop up this time of year. It is worse going into the evening and first thing in the morning. They aren't that big and it shouldnt make visibility much worse than usual. Kyle just caught them early in the race at a bad time. Its a non-issue at this point.
WOW.
Kyle Busch put one of the biggest brake checks on the field I have ever seen. Wow.
Maybe the problem with the # 21 is NOT Townley ... esp since Bowyer's had problems twice ...
@tiamat - If Townley was only struggling this year, I might agree, but he was a rolling chicane last year; even worse than Steven Wallace.
Was Kyle trying to get Brad K to draw a penalty for going across the line first?
Sophia - beckybship on twitter this afternoon was talking about the bugs being bad in the garage area.
@Ann - Looks like that might be what he tried to do.
Warm temps bring bugs, at least where I live they do!
Ann...yes.
JD, it looked like on Carl's cam that Kyle just didn't go. He was going to pull a late RS and like Ratcliff said, everyone went off the 22 and brake-checked when Kyle wasn't going.
There was some gamesmanship at hand there, but I don't think Kyle brake-checked
Sheesh!!!
Since Brad K did cross the line first is NASCAR going to penalize him?
Or did the big crash make them forget about it?
They ought to penalize Kyle for that stunt!!
Shame on Shrubba Dubba for causing that (now that I got the gist of what happened)
really? espn's going to take us "all the way home" to the end of the race after this commercial run?
hmmmm.
again: this would be a very fine time to recap the start zone explanation with andy p.
a seriously good time.
Well that was cool of them to just give Brad the lead. That should be a penalty on 22...
Brad was going before they ever crossed the final restart line, Kyle wasn't obligated to go until that point
I bet with a good Tv crew this would have been a good race. Looked like there was racing going on.
Did ya'll see that commercial for ESPN3 they are saying it used to ESPN360.
Still no promo for the Cup race tomorrow.
Nice explanation with camera evidence. Kudos ESPN.
Hard to know if KyBu was intending to make BK draw the penalty or not, but since NASCAR put BK in the lead I have a feeling they, at least, think Shrub was up to no good there.
If I were a betting man, I'd guess we'll see Eddie Haskell make an appearance in BK's post-race interview.
Taking us to the end? Maybe we can get a few more cameras fired up?
Yea, I love Rusty, but.... it's been back to when it was like they had a script for the race, and that was what they were going to talk about no matter what. Does Rusty have a bunch of prepared notes he just goes through checking off?
What a useless angle for a full-screen replay under green.
Holy cow. Kyle is gonna be crazy after the race. too bad we probably won't get an interview.
Wow, are we seriously back to the Cup driver-happy love fest? Ick!
@hotaru - Are there any NW drivers left after Shrub's stunt?
@brad: agreed young mr busch will likely be "crazy: afterthe race but he has only himself to blame.
and, he's getting to log more laps than the cars that wrecked behind him b/c of what he did.
If they wanted to follow cup guys it would have been interesting to see KB when he got back on the track to see how he was racing through the traffic.
@Red: I think that was Mr. Busch trying to thumb his nose at Nascar for making the correct call (not in Kyles eyes) on the previous restart. Unfortunately for Mr. Busch, Nascar made the correct call again and he got burned. He's no rookie, he knows the restart rules.
Yeah, I guess Shrubba Dubba spoiled that, but it's normal for most of the NW races to be that way. Still makes me upset.
Highest NW only driver is All-Vomit, but I dislike him.
charlie: agreed they are now hoisted with their own petard: if they'd been covering the n'wide regulars all race, covering young mr busch now would be uncalled for. as it is, they've been covering cup guys all night so to not even sneak a peak at the 18 seems contrived.
"nothing to see here, move along."
I guess the infield camera was too focused on Kyle's CC & GF than watching the wall ... for the lines ... LOL ;-)
@brad: i completely and totally agree with your observation: spot on!
You mean there is no racing going on at this track right now.
Why the one car tight shots.
Bet NASCAR is looking for a caution flag to get this bunched up.
They seriously need to get a more readable font for the ticker ...
Just can't read the lap counter part ...
wow, that 21 car is ugly -- but still running!
I respectfully disagree with the "NASCAR made the right call" remark. 22 was going and ahead of Kyle before they got to the last restart line, he then beat the 18 to the line so logically I feel the 22 jumped the start. Now Kyle just gave it away on that last restart. Totally stupid on his part.
Come on JoLo!!!
Hey, an actual debris caution with 11 laps to go!
david, in turn, i have to disagree. i believe that petree's explanation -- supported by nascar via pemberton -- made clear that the 18 car did not accelerate at either of the two different start lines in that restart zone. once he didn't accelerate at the second set of lines, the 22 was legal to go -- and did.
from the angle that the broadcast showed on that restart, i didn't see the 22 pull ahead of the 18 until after both had passed the second set of lines.
and neither did nascar.
What part fell off a car that looks like that and landed in the high groove there?
Totally missed every single thing that happened on that pitstop.
The 20 ran into the 18?
Bires takes out Allgaier, and Logano takes out @KyleBusch's transmission. Good grief.
Anonymous said...
The 20 ran into the 18?
or something.
it sorta all fell apart right there.
Edwards has major problems; it didn't go at the start and he's going straight backwards. Say something about it, ESPN!
DIG KYLE!!!! justice served!!!!!
I rest my case.
Okay, I said I wouldn't get mad, but if Shrubba Dubba...
WHOOOOHOOOOO!!!! SHUBBBBBBBBBBBYYYYYY!!!!
Joey really does need to assert himself with someone though. Brad didn't respect him at all right there
My two cents- *throws two pennies at SDDD on screen*
It never changes. That makes two people in each of the sports I like (Shrubba Dubba and Alex Ovechkin in hockey)upsetting me tonight. Ick!
So that is it for the post race?
Um. All you have now is SportsCenter. That's it?
Very nice Kyle. "I paid Nascar back by winning". I stand behind my thumbing his nose at Nascar observation from before.
They are running for the airplane. The ESPN guys are not into this. One and done for today.
I just hate that we missed soooo much of what was happening on the track. Signature of ESPN from the past, bummer today.
Dude can drive....
Coverage was good in the beginning and at the end, but went back to the old read from a script in the middle.
Many periods of talking only about Cup drivers, but they were the ones out in front.
Thanks everyone for stopping by, sorry it did not turn out to be a good telecast.
See you Saturday for NASCAR on FOX.
JD
"everybody looking at each other down here and wondering 'how did that happen?" "
yeah, we're wondering that as well. the parts we were allowed to see where great but unfortunately, we didn't see it all.
"i paid nascar back by winning." OOOO-K. that'll sit well in the big trailer.
Coverage was descent until the end. So much action on that last caution and I don't think they came remotely close to covering the madness. Did they just set a timer on everything to beat the traffic out?
Funny, I watched from about lap 125and it seemd to me that ESPN did a lot more focusing on mid-pack racing than I recall for a looonngg time.
I dunno what I missed that others thought was crappy. Maybe because I almost never sit thru entire races I'm missing some things others find annoying.
The end of this race felt more like a truck race than anything. My .02 cents
Darn! I was bored to sleep a little past halfway. The broadcast went from fairly good to bad and I went to bed so I would be "fresh" for the cup race.
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