Here we go again. Rain delayed the race until Monday and the good news is that there is no precipitation falling at the track. Jet dryers are working to get things dry for the race start shortly after Noon ET.
This is hurry-up mode for NASCAR, so expect things to be different. There will be no long pre-race show and possibly no invocation or anthem heard on TV. NASCAR is trying to get two races in today and that should be a challenge.
Mike Joy returns to call the Sprint Cup Series action with Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds in the booth. Waltrip had a long day on Sunday in the Hollywood Hotel working on the air during the hours of rain delay programming.
Down on pit road are Steve Byrnes, Matt Yocum, Krista Voda and Dick Berggren. Jeff Hammond and Chris Myers are in the Hollywood Hotel.
Texas should prove to be interesting on TV. The track is fast, but passing has been at a premium once the field gets stretched out. It should be the restarts and caution flag pitstops that provide the biggest scrambling of the field.
Staying wide enough to show the pack of cars jostling on the restarts has been a challenge for FOX this season. Cutting to tight shots and using in-car cameras long before things get strung out has resulted in many passes and incidents having to be seen on replays. Keeping it simple today is going to have big benefits.
Darrell Waltrip has once again has a long weekend. When he is tired, the result has been scattered commentary that often happens when he talks overtop of Joy and McReynolds. It's been a tough year for DW, it's almost like he is trying too hard.
Sometimes, these Monday races run very clean. This may be the case today as several of the Cup drivers are doing double-duty and racing in the Nationwide Series race that follows. If weather again threatens, all bets are off as the field may be racing hard to get to the halfway point.
This post will serve to host your comments on the Sprint Cup Series race from Texas on FOX. To add your TV-related opinion, 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 on this Monday for NASCAR racing.
287 comments:
1 – 200 of 287 Newer› Newest»Hey all, at 11AM track drying continues and there are some weepers being attended to by the crew.
Cars are on the grid and driver intros are on schedule.
Top 10 starters: Stewart, Hornish, Biffle, Johnson, Kahne, Burton, Ky. Busch, Bowyer, Earnhardt Jr., Newman.
This could be one of the best broadcasts for Fox this year, Monday races are sometimes less loaded with gimmicks than the Sunday ones.
S&P prediction is #55, #66 and #09. This is one of Max Papis' scheduled races and Joe Nemechek has a sponsor. A few of the regular S&P teams were outqualified by the part-time teams this weekend.
TV scheduling update for Canadian viewers wanting to see the Nationwide Series race: no live coverage, but TSN2 will be showing the race on tape-delay at 10:30pm this evening. For those who can't see that airing, Speed will have an encore on Thursday at noon.
Gee, since poor 'ol Waldrip had such a long day, maybe he could just go home so we could enjoy the race!!!
JD, I didn't see where I could add this comment about MM. He sounded pretty ticked off with the reporters this weekend asking him about next year and the year after, especially since KK's announcement mentions him in the #5 car. I wish someone would get more info on this and let us know. Thanks!
Agree with MV, usually these are the best broadcasts Fox does. Think they realize it's hardcore race fans tuning in.
I'll be here for a bit but I'll have to catch the rest of it and the NW race on Sirius. Got the Tivo set in case it turns out to be worth it. I'm going to be dealing with the traffic mess up there for the rest of the day.
Have a feeling we could have several big cautions as the younger drivers get used to the spoiler on a fast track.
@bevo - I think Fox should cater to the hardcore fans all the time, not just on Monday. If the coverage is good for the hardcore fans, new fans would enjoy it as well. We don't need to be treated like idiots or fans with a short attention span just in case some new fans could be driven away because they don't understand the basics of the sport.
@MV- Totally agree. The past few years I've started watching some EPL games even though I had no idea what the strategy was and only the most basic understanding of the rules of soccer. The thing that sucked me in was the passion of the fans and the way the announcers called the action. They don't explain the basics over and over but I've picked up on what's going on and did a little bit of reading to learn the sport.
Wonder if we get the no invocation or anthem coverage today?
@bevo - Good job by the network covering soccer. With Fox, we get the feeling that we've been stuck in Grade 1 for the last 10 years for the benefit of new fans that come and go every year.
#20 car to the rear engine change.
The stage is still on the start/finish line and pre-race ceremonies are starting now.
Glad we got the opening ceremonies.
That right there folks is how you sing the anthem
Invocation and anthem did happen today. Charley Pride did a nice job with the singing, too.
Great to see and hear Charlie Pride again.
Oh crap! Hollywood Hotel still there. Forget my earlier post.
@bevo - Hollywood Hotel is not as annoying when it's mainly used for race recaps, it's the never-ending pre-race circus that gets old.
What was that starting command? Something about Tony Stewart and then, drivers, start your engines???
No clue, anyone figure that starting command out?
I'm guessing the command was given by a die-hard Tony fan. LOL
She won a contest by Samsung
I turned on the TV heard that WWE crap and turned off the sound. Will turn it back on when they take the green. Can only watch about 20 minutes before I have to leave, maybe back later.
That's the most good words for Goodyear from Smoke ever
Who misses the DirecTV head to head brackets already?
Come on Nan, DW is missing you already!
JD, wash your mouth out.
Maybe that lady thinks Tony is not a gentleman, so maybe she's not a Tony fan.
Why did front row joe have to go to the back?
DW already on my nerves...
@Charlie --- He may have concentrated on q'ing, and didn't feel comfortable starting in the middle of the pack.
Like I said David, when he gets tired he is a mess.
You would think FOX would tell us why front row joe went to the back.
In car cams are working.
This better not turn into a Jimmy show.. Already I've heard his name more than a dozen times..
Is Joe an S&P car?
So is he always tired now-a-days JD?
LOL. Sorry, DW has really really rubbed me the wrong way this season.
Montoya flying, field very strung out already
Blaney already a lap down, off track
@JD - Not sure if Nemechek is a S&P, he has a sponsor, but he's been known to park even with a sponsor on the car.
Conway and Gilliland being out run by S&P cars
As for Joe, answer simply is yes. Though this race is weird and has one of the highest purses of the season
@David - One question with Joe has to be whether or not he's up to running 801 miles today. If his focus is Nationwide, he may park early in this race.
Joe still on lead lap.. Not a S&P yet..
Aren't the S&P guys trying not to be the first and get impounded?
MV, that is a great point. I anticipate they will park though. Probably just to build enough resources to race next week.
JD you remember what happened last week though, they were coming in, sitting in the car and waiting for someone else to come in. Then they'd go out and run more laps and that went on for an hour and ahalf till the PRISM cars broke.
I'm gonna spend the next commercial to commercial coverage and count how many times Fox mentions the 48 team..
Are MJ and DW watching the same race as we are?
Blaney back out 15 laps down
@JD - After what happened to Phil Parsons last week, running all these laps and still being the first car out, maybe he's cutting his losses and volunteering to be the impounded car.
Why didn't they re-air the segment with Pizzi and Mark Martin? That was HILARIOUS!
I'm on u-verse in Houston. No sound on HD channel, but sound on regular feed.
Anyone else loose sound?
ps. I think I will keep watching HD feed!!
Wow, FOX got that transponder info out very quickly I believe. Kudos there
Checked out HotPass on Directv. They are doing "head to head" for HP. Cancelled DVR recording. Two drivers occupy bottom screens, FOX upper left, info in upper right.
No thanks. I want to watch one driver, my driver, thank you. Know it is for free. But paid in the past. Would pay if I could get radio call, silence when scanner comes on to actually hear the scanner conversation.
I might even take the broadcast booth announcing if they would just not play scanner and booth on top of one another. Dumb!
@Anon 12:38pm - Because you were the only one laughing!
66, 55, and 09 all off track
Larry is being a lot more forceful in this telecast. I'm surprised.
How was the first restart? Don't know. Doing the crank it up was more important.
Same old. Tight shots and in-cars.
Problem with the Fox ticker, showing #66 McDowell in 39th place, he's 42nd and 9 laps down.
^^ What Charlie said
Joe pulled in
Hm. So we're going to be seeing close-ups of Jimmie Johnson all day. And nary a mention of Junior hanging out in fourth and about to battle with KyBu.
Should come back from commercial with a battle for lead
So, after an enthusiastic start it sounds like things are settling into a familiar pattern
Ok, in that short coverage between commercials they mentioned "The 48" or "Jimmy" 10 times.. I wonder where Edwards, Martin, Gordon, and a slew of other drivers are located.
18 falling back, complaining of loose. They will be going back on their changes they made last stop.
McDowell back out of the garage.
JohnP, there are other cars on the track?
FOX has only left the top 5 3 or 4 times today. It is really sad to see this early
I agree with West Coast Diane.
The Hot Pass coverage should have
the drivers audio overiding the
booth guys. I can change channels
if I want to hear them.
BTW the promo for that new Fox show "The Good Guys" is set in DFW and they're still here filming.
Are they getting paid to advertise Hendrick Motorports? It would explain a heckuva lot.
David, the get beyond the top 5 to spotlight another Hendrick driver and a future Hendrick driver.
At least the camera work on that three-way battle was good; they didn't cut to the in-car until the battle was over.
This is a great time to get a through the field because we have been running 30 green flag laps, drivers really have an idea what their car is doing and it would be an excellent spotlight of drivers having abnormally good runs or bad runs today
Sure, finally they start to show some racing instead of tight shots and they go to commercial.
That explanation of Mark Martin's sponsor was a bit useless, I think most fans know Hendrick has dozens of car dealerships. To copy some of the drivers' favorite saying,... it is what it is.
Nemecheck and Bliss back out minus 13 and 23 respectively
Commercial? Now?
TexasRaceLady: Sometimes I wonder.
@Martin--yes they do 'hurry up' mode on rain delay/rain interrupted rebroadcasts. They generally do a welcome/update and then get on with it. No wasting time especially since the schedule for the affiliates is thrown off. Instead of wasting an hour redoing a pre-race they get on with it.
CRAP! Running behind and missed the anthem :( I haven't seen Mr. Pride in FOREVER! :(
Yes as Bevo said they said if you dropped off a used cell phone for recycling you were entered into several contests. One was to drive in the pace car and another was to give the command. I forget what the 3rd one was seems like it was a garage pass.
Robby Gordon, unscheduled green flag stop
Well, watching the race with totally no sound including engine noises isn't so great. I'm off to wade through u-verse's helpless line to try and get the hd sound back.
And I'm still glad I switched from DirecTV. With HotPass doing that bracket line up, it certainly was not worth staying for!!
#David - Unless Kvapil has problems, he's going to bump Robby Gordon back out of the top-35, he's only 7 points behind him.
YAY, a split screen for green flag pit stops!
to bad for Vickers.. Good camera work though..
That story on the #55 is a bunch of bull, the #55 team had zero chance to get back into the top-35.
Pretty good pitstop coverage!
MV, that is why when Larry Mac chimed in, he was speaking the truth. It was about being in the top 41 teams so they would not get sent home in case of rain
And by "accolades" LM means "benefits".
Looks like Larry heard a new word this week. :)
WOW.. JR's pit crew smoked everyone.. Did it in 5.7 seconds then the cameras went away.. That's fast!! Lol.. Why show the timing, if they don't follow thru with it??
Nice that they're talking about cars which have gone to the garage, and they even mentioned the Phoenix roulette, though they still can't seem to say "start and park."
@Andrew - True. Dave Marcis, Jimmy Means and J.D. McDuffie were "independent drivers"... McDowell, Blaney and Bliss are "start-and-park drivers".
ARGH. How many times do we have to say that in-car cameras are useless for showing passes before they'll listen?
Tight shots. Must not be any racing going on.
@David - About the #55 car, they really only have to be in the top 42 to make the race at Talladega if qualifying is rained out. Elliott is not running Talladega, so only the #09 could bump a car out of the lineup due to its win last year.
Again too much constant promotion and too much DW
Not so good with finding the wreck this time.
Really poor camera/director work
What are they watching?
@Andrew - With all that smoke in the Jeff Gordon shot, it was a bad move to switch to an entirely different camera. They should have just moved the first camera to where the smoke was coming from.
Another wreck in replay!!
Is the race over with yet. What a pain to watch.
Knock on wood, this is still better than the coverage last week at Phoenix. So far.
I'm trying to keep up with the race with Trackpass and I've got no audio. Anyone else?
Nice to hear a tech explanation which is clear, concise, and didn't involve the cutaway car!
GREAT job not hitting anything Sam!!
No one else saying Trackpass has a problem. Can you reboot one time?
Anon 1:25, I'm running Trackpass Pitcommand. No audio problems here.
New camera idea this race. Lets use one camera and hold it still and watch the cars go by.
To bad there isn't any racing going on.
When I updated my java a few weeks ago, TP did not like it and I had to reinstall java. but if it is working without audio, deft try and reboot or just run pitcommand then fire up scanner on a different browser if you can.
Interesting race so far
The excitement has flat-lined for FOX. They finally have Junior in the lead, stories in the field and lots of strategy going on....and nothing from them!
Come on Mike Joy! How about calling a couple of laps of play by play!
Holy stuff.. Larry Mac pronounced Keslowski's name right!! Wow...
Good racing and they switch to the Toyota cars commercial package.
24 fastest car on track but didn't get that info from TV
24 still fastest and TV just acknowledged it.
Still no audio on uverse hd channel!!
I tried the online tech support chat. The guy there was useless... told me to call my local fox station because it was there problem!!
So I had to endure the automated phone support and get a live person who at least reported the problem.
This is the second time that the hd channel has lost the sound during a race. Maybe directv pulls their plug behind the trailer at the race!
Man, wonder what the NASCAR execs think about this lackluster telecast.
Only excitement is from Larry Mac!
Ann, that is just weird. Audio is the easy part of an HD feed like that.
To bad they don't get as excited about the real race as they do this bracket stuff.
Almost missed another lead change.
Just hit mute on tv.. Kicked up MRN on the radio on the computer..
JR Gordon side by side.. Gordon new leader
This bracket stuff is hilarious.
Enough of this fantasy land bracket crap! This is a REAL race, we don't give a damn about Fox's contrived brackets. Don't let anyone fool you either, this is a FOX SPORTS fantasy game that you need a FOXSPORTS.COM ACCOUNT to play. directv.com/nascar just re-directs you to Fox's website.
GET OVER YOUR DAMN SELVES FOX! Stop making these broadcasts about YOU YOU YOU YOU!
Broadcast this race like a practice. No play by play. Get excited about bracket racing. Use lots of tight shots and in-cars.
You know, this could be a really interesting comparison against ESPN if the latter pulls off a stellar race.
Sound back on. Phone support 1, online chat support 0!
bad news is the sound is of broadcast crew doing a bad job... but at least there are racing sounds!! Hard to watch a race in total silence with no vrooooms.
Thanks to all for the feedback & suggestions on the Trackpass audio problems. It must be a local PC issue 'cause a reboot and browser changes didn't help. I'll keep trying and hopefully get it fixed before the checkers fly.
Do the drivers and crew have a deal with FOX so they will not race each other during green pit stops.
since I'm "watching" this race through your eyes on the blog and the lap x lap coverage on nascar.com -- how many laps IS this race?
Based on what I'm reading, I'm ever so glad I didn't take the day off to watch it on TV!
Just between us girls....the DirecTV thing is a marketing ploy to develop a new emailing list by using the personal info you must give in order to enter.
The lower prizes are junk and the top prize is completely impossible to win.
DirecTV just raised rates across the board, but claimed to be broke when VERSUS wanted a bigger payment.
If you just take a minute to look at the entire concept of NASCAR brackets, it makes absolutely no sense.
334 total laps make up the race.
Gina, Doug Rice and the PRN guys are calling a very different race...as usual.
Fox race broadcast starting now here in Honolulu. Had to sit thru endless local morning show....it's 8am here now.
I've been "watching" the race on TDP and FoxTrax.
Makiki
Twitter is reporting that Vickers is out of gas and trying to get back to pit road. And FOX goes to commercial despite the possibility of him not making it. Um?
48 fastest since that round of pit stops
I think I've been reading too much Daly Planet--I had a dream that I was explaining to someone how Larry Mac mispronounces Keselowski, lol. I can't comment on TV coverage because I'm at work, but PRN is doing a good job, they're running through the field right now, and they talked earlier about Gossage's S&P comments. BTW, Larry eventually got Jamie McMurray's name right, so maybe he's finally got Brad's now....we can hope. Probably bothers us more than it would Brad though.
PRN? Not MRN? Oh ok, just listening to it through the local country station via internet. Timing is at least a minute off from TV.
You guys are cracking me up!
It almost seems like FOX is surprised when two cars are near each other. It messes up their TV plans.
Thanks, Charlie and JD -- I'm not supposed to stream audio either, but would love to listen to at least the radio feed, even if it is PRN. Don't like them as much as MRN, but better than TV!
Charlie, thanks for the humor. It's keeping me awake.
When they use the bummer cam and move the camera quickly I think the car is spinning out.
Junior was not the first on the last round of pit stops. Mark Martin was. But let's not let a little thing like facts interfere with the Junior love!
Is it weird to think that I can hardly wait for the ESPN race?
"Look at this traffic jam!"
uh no, I can't look at it... your fancy graffic is in the way!!
HMS domination = one of the main reasons why NASCAR is suffering ...
What is the reason for a tight shot on the leader during pit stops?
@John--PRN is Bruton's SMI tracks and MRN is NA$CAR's ISC tracks :)
LOL @ Ann_Ominus!
Had the wrong car as the leader but what the hey. Is it really that important.
For those of you who thought to yourselves "why would Fox go to commercial when the 48 is bearing down on the 88 with several laps fresher tires?", guess what happened about 10 seconds after the producer rolled that commercial....
Something tells me the truck really doesn't care though...
They never even bothered to show the pass for the lead when they got back from commercial.
Juan is very unhappy with his car right now
Gymmie, Ok thanks.. Thats why I like this site so much, everyone knows there stuff.. And is polite about it.. I pulled the radio broadcast up via our local country station and it just says WKTTFM.. No Mrn or Prn.. Guess I had a flashback to when Alan Bestwick was with Mrn.. Lol.. Listened to him so many times at Dover..
Some debate on the 42 radio if they had a tire going down, felt wayyyy too loose after that stop and was very vocal about his problems. Unsure if the right rear is down or if it went down after hitting the wall, etc. They feel they are killed on the right side
Don't like that two-car strategy this late in the race? What does Larry Mac mean?
I think Larry said Two Tire strategy, not two car.
Anon, thanks. I couldn't imagine I'd heard him correctly.
Do you really think there are 90,000 people there?
Jr's pit crew needs some practice. They're always losing places for him during pit stops.
A very important restart and they do crank it up which means you don't get to see it.
Tracy, people with NW tickets got into the Cup race free. I actually can believe the attendance is decent
Reporter Jeff Gluck says more like 50.
Hey! Booth! Smoke! JJ's got a tire rub!
Took 'em long enough. I'm loving Jeff's driving today, though!
Finally, someone with the cajones to not back down to the 48. I'm getting sick of the drivers bowing to JJ.
As much as HMS domination is something I want to end, the idea of Jeff Gordon being the guy to knock off JJ is a pretty cool one I'd say...
24 says take no prisoners
JD - well it may be weird to be waiting for ESPN's coverage, but honestly, after the mess that the Fox coverage has become TNT will be a real relief.
I say, anybody but JJ
I believe Mike Joy was wrong about
Jeff Burton.
In the "old days", I believe passing was not allowed on
pit road. Nascar could care less
now.
Funny how the funky bunch said Stewart's 2 tires was a short term solution but Burtons no tires was amazing?!
I'd love to hear JJ's whining and Gordon's responses from the radio on TV.
Lol, Kyle Busch not happy, he had paper on the grille and when he ran Carl down it flew off and now he is dropping back again. The paper was his downforce
I got that Sue!
We have to trust the booth monkeys about their tires. They were so right last week.
Thanks, FOX! Both for the correction and the radio.
Missed another lead change.
When will Mike Joy start doing Play by Play.
It would be nice if they talked about Matt Kenseth's mini-rally
Is it just me or does it seem like we've missed more lead changes and caution flags to commercials than usual this year?
Wasn't that amazing how DW wiggled out of that last week?
Oh, who gives a rat's red rumpass "where" Hendrick got his first win ??
A LOT of people do NOT care ...
I stand corrected. Nice job FOX.
YW John :)
The producer is not timing the commercials to the race, but just to the clock on the wall.
We missed a lot, including key lead changes that we could all see coming.
Not saying they are mailing this one in, but it surely is a Hendrick lovefest right now.
The Speed Channel PxP on the Indy race yesterday was 1000x more exciting then what I'm hearing today on Fox..
DW has lots of practice wiggling out of the stuff he says when he runs his mouth without engaging his brain.
I'm curious to know when you folks would like Fox to take the commercial breaks. Figure they have to fit in probably 45 minutes of commercials during the broadcast. It's not like they have control over when cars are going to wreck or pass each other.... What would YOU do if you had to make the calls? I don't know that I could do a better job.
Excuse me.. Versus channel
Mike Joy has outlived his usefulness. He needs to retire or get fired.
All race long its been a 48 lovefest. From DW saying Chad is the wizard and needs a curtain to JJ being the best closer.
JohnP, Versus did the Indycar race yesterday and Speed did the Formula One race but you are right, they were both broadcast more energetically than this
anon at 3:00,
A.) This problem doesn't exist with the IndyCars because they have side-by-side ads, which all NASCAR networks should have by now.
B.) You can't control cautions falling but you can watch the race and hold off on a break when a lead change is obviously about to happen (like Vegas with the 24-48 at the end and earlier today with the 88-48)
HOW did Sammy get the damage on the front of the car ?!?!
I don't think they ever said / showed what happened ... Cause it wasn't there after the spin ...
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