Live Blog: Due to the holiday weekend, there has been very little website traffic. Instead of a new post for the trucks Friday night, we will use this post for live blog comments on the TV coverage from SPEED. Thanks, everyone!
Coming off a great showing in Martinvsille, the Camping World Truck Series gets some primetime exposure on SPEED Friday night in Nashville. After almost eight straight hours of the Palm Beach Barrett-Jackson auto auction, the trucks get on the air at 7:30PM ET.
Krista Voda will host The Setup pre-race show with Ray Dunlap and Adam Alexander reporting. At 8PM, coverage will move up to the broadcast booth for Rick Allen, Michael Waltrip and Phil Parsons to call the race.
It seems a bit ironic that as Darrell Waltrip continues to struggle on FOX with the Sprint Cup Series telecasts, his younger brother Michael has developed into a solid third member of the SPEED truck series TV team.
With the Waltrips, the real challenge often seems to be getting them to say less and allow others to contribute more. Michael got the message. Instead of talking over Parsons and letting his enthusiasm get in the way of Allen calling the race, the younger Waltrip has found his niche.
Working for Showtime this season may have helped. On the Inside NASCAR series, Waltrip has to dress like an adult and talk like one. These days, when Waltrip looks around on the studio set he sees Brad Daugherty, Randy Pemberton and Chris Myers staring right back at him.
In Martinsville, the truck series was produced for the fans. Stories were followed, racing was featured and the no-nonsense approach that has become a hallmark of this production team was on display. Point the cameras and let the drivers do the rest.
There is no "Ole DW" this weekend. No Hollywood Hotel, Slice of Pizzi or Digger. SPEED and ESPN share a weekend without the big boys and all their toys. That may be perfect timing.
Fans will get Rick Allen's energy on Friday night and then the veteran enthusiasm of ESPN's Marty Reid on Saturday. With Mike Joy taking a decidedly lower-key approach to this Sprint Cup Series season, it should be fun to have play-by-play announcers that can get things perking in a hurry on the air.
SPEED gets to follow-up on the Sauter vs. Hornaday incident, which suddenly seems to be all the rage among TV networks. As an added treat on Friday night, the CWTS field also features Steven Wallace, hard-nosed Donny Lia and Brad Keselowski. Once again, the trucks have the potential to be the best racing of the weekend.
TDP will be live blogging this race on Friday night. Please feel free to give us your comments right here on what you think of the CWTS coverage on SPEED this season. To add your opinion, 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!
124 comments:
Anon @ 11:53
No they don't
And watch your foul mouth, you dont want JD to delete your post do you??????????????
JD, I can't believe you are not deleting these anon posts with foul language. You did say it was a family-friendly website, right
You guys are pretty hilarious. You should take that act on the road.
I may have to actually listen to little W to see if he has improved. I have tuned out all Waltrips for years to keep my sanity. Wonder if Daddy Waltrip also had foot and mouth disease?
I think Mikey would continue to
improve if he would quit waving his
hands and trying to create what appears to me as a false fervor.
I don't need to be motivated to
watch what I consider to be the
best series in NA$CAR.
I am getting tons of feeback about DW's isssues this season. He really got off on the wrong foot when he tried to sell us on the fact that no fans were leaving Daytona during pothole-gate.
Couple that with his emotional outburst for Junior overtop of Mike Joy and his creepy behavior with Danica on "Trackside" and this has not been a very good season.
JD
51,
I think he got that message. As I said, that Showtime gig has really been different for him. No more fooling around and being the star like TWIN.
You have to learn discipline in TV to survive, this might have been the year MW finally got it.
JD
I'll be overjoyed not having to see Slice of Pizzi but seeing great truck racing. Should be a fairly nice weekend with the trucks tonight and NW tomorrow. MR will get the viewers going that's for sure.
Speaking of Mikey, I just watched the DVR last night of the Showtime show from Wednesday. In my opinion, he's as goofy as ever. In fact, he did the sing-song "I wanna talk about ME!" thing we've seen so often on SPEED. He may be dressed in a suit, but nothings changed.
BTW, don't the trucks race on Fridays in prime time for most of their schedule? It seems the only time they're on Sat. afternoons is when NW is in an off-weekend.
JD, time for your friend who has the means to identify the anonymous posters on here to do his thing. He sure put the run on the one that was here a few weeks ago. I wonder if he has gone to court yet? Anon 11:05, beware of the boogie man knocking at your door. Or should I say mommy and daddy better beware when he comes to serve them.
This kind of stuff always picks up during Spring Break. My apologies.
Looking forward to the truck race tonight. Watched the last one and really got into it. Could be a good alternative this season over Cup. Racing is good, broadcast is good, and that's surprising since a Waltrip is involved.
JD, I wish there was somewhere to go to find out the starting lineup before the pre-race show comes on Speed.
Got a ghost town going on this weekend! Live truck series comments right here for tonight!
Happy Friday Evening Pick 'em Ups fans :)
Little light on the fans! Wow!
This race has all different kinds of drivers!
I'm here for awhile. See they are still milking the guitar smashing by Shrub. Guess how could you not?
I have returned!
Love this track!
So good to see Todd Bodine again, he and his brother deserve so much more credit..
Bummed Johnny B isn't in the field but gonna be rooting for Kyle and Aric.
Good to see the booth loose and ready.
Hey David! Hi everybody. This should be good.
Kinda convenient how they edited the footage of Grampa & Sauter from last week ... Missed a lot of stuff ... like Sauter already starting to spin before Grampa got to him ... Then Sauter pushing down one of Grampa's crew as well as pushing on Grampa ...
Sauter took the high road. Think he is growing up a bit.
Hi JD,
Yes, i am here. darn construction crews dug up the comcast line at noon today. still waiting for repairs. depending on TDP and twitter for the race updates.
I can't let Hornaday go with a pass for last week though, he is far from innocent.
Sauter does seem to be growing up in some ways though. He is still a Sauter though, and they are fun to watch lol.
Team Gill Racing...to think they could have just kept Johnny Benson....
Holy Moly! Hate to say this, but what a downer prayer..:(
"There is no "Ole DW" this weekend. No Hollywood Hotel, Slice of Pizzi or Digger. SPEED and ESPN share a weekend without the big boys and all their toys."
Praise the Lord...(and they're about to do the invocation...)
Sauter growing up? I never thought I'd see the day.
Pretty lil thing, but not the most gifted singer ever...
Rare miss on the truck anthem.
glen, now we just need some good racing!
Painful anthem on the frontstretch ...
Nah, I think Sauter got reminded by the Thorsons that KHI hangs the bodies for their trucks ... LOL ;-)
Yes sir! That's what I'm looking to...some good Pick 'em Ups racing :)
From Bob Pockrass: Teams will have four sets of tires today. One on the truck, three in the pits. Race is only 150 laps (200 miles).
David, I was thinking the same thing on the anthem girl. Probably a good singer but no 'anthem' range.
Anthem was too slow. Let's get this show on the road!
Very few have the range to sing the Anthem. Most should gratefully decline the invite.
you know, as much as the repetitiveness of the Toyota ads is annoying, the two ads both make me laugh. Kyle in the pink, and David saying 'I love love'....at least if they're overplayed they're funny. And of course, they're not ads for ED....
Glenc1 yes I love that one with Reut saying - I love love!
Washed my car, washed my hair, washed my horse...I'm ready for some truck racing!!!!
Sally, that is something you just can't make up!
@Sally--yup should be limited to the Military Bands, the Horned Frogs and a very very very *small* group of singers
Got that right, JD! It was a beautiful day here in MI, so I spent most of it outside. The night racing is perfect!
I love the night races! No matter what series.
I would like to see a whole race without using in-car cams while they are racing live.
In-car cams would be ok for replays.
Wouldn't that be a nice experiment? Getting annoying for sure!
I'm here, first time live for me in some time. Having fun so far
AMEN Charlie, I would settle for just using them for wreck/ almost wreck replays
Need some wideshots for perspective. I am lost a bit.
Do they have nothing but in cars to cover this race? What's the deal here?
charlie i was saying that EXACT same thing to myself a few seconds ago lol
Boy, I just love watching one truck at a time on the track. I can really get a feel and perspective for what's happening. Riiiiiight.
Still no start and parks!
I just have to ask. On the ads for that stupid 'fast track to...', they ask who is going to be the NEXT superstar. Sooo, who was the first one? And no, Mikey doesn't count...even in his own mind.
Jacques Debris on the backstretch.....
OMG! They actually found and showed the debris! Mark this day on your calendar!
Sally, the FOX boys from LA are producing that. Looks like it, huh?
Waterbottle? Rollbar padding? Wonder what that was?
I was thinking, wad of tape...lol.
I'm really surprised at the coverage so far. Spoeed usually does a great job of showing more of the racing...I mean, not one car at a time the was Fox usually does. And in in car overkill tonight...I might need Dramamine before this one is over.
Little different than Martinsville for sure so far.
really seeing the haves and the have nots tonight.
More wide shots, please. Liking that Mikey has calmed down tho.
What fool decided that the best way to show a pass was from the car/truck camera. Everyone seems to do it and I totally lost perspective.
Seems to be the cool thing to do these days. Really overkill.
A little disappointed in the overuse of in-car cameras.
So much for the theory Cup guys bring fans to the race. Small crowd. Shrub and Harvick need to cut back and give others a chance.
We didn't get to see how Kyle was caught by Ron either. We were watching an in-car cam instead.
Even used an in-truck cam going to commercial! Geesh...
Is Speed just going to show Kyle, Ron or Kevin? I want to see some racin!
Race Buddy / Live Leaderboard / MRN/PRN would be nice to have this weekend ... but noooooooo ...
The booth monkeys seemed totally shocked when they saw the lead change. theyt don't seem to be paying attention to the race.
Boys are a tick off tonight.
"TImothy {eters passes Hornaday for the lead!!!" By the time the camera gets there, Peters is 500 feet past him. Real quick.
Yeah, maybe Rick is drinking the same koolaid that Mike Joy has been drinking lately. Broadcast off just a tad, but I wish they would show more trucks besides the cup guys.
WAIT! I've got it! All the regular guys in the booth are off for the holiday. they left the interns to run the truck for this race!
Showing one truck at a time on the screen does not make it race coverage.
I just can't believe that none of them say Hornaday had been passed until the cams got there.
Something weird is going on!
Man, where did the mojo go?
A new truck is lighter than an old truck? I thought only living things (like fans) got heavier as they aged.
definitely hard to follow tonight. I keep thinking I'm not paying enough attention, but it's partly that they aren't hitting the action as it happens.
Covering it like practice. Just jumping around radomly other than the leader.
Seems odd rick allen didn't take over the announcing when the pass for 1st was going on.
Arethese the same guys that usually give us stellar coverage of the trucks? Or is this their idea of an April Fool's Day joke?
Sally, looks like the track has thrown them for a loop.
I agree that, at times, Darrell Waltrip doesn't know when to stop "cheerleading" from the announce booth.
I do disagree, however, with some of the people who believe that Mike Joy isn't quite up to snuff this year.
Watching the Martinsville race, for example, Joy did the best he could to highlight all of the on-track racing/passing. The problem was the truck not showing what Joy was excited about.
I thought the FOX broadcast was good on Monday ... there weren't many commercials, the racing was good, and I thought Joy, Larry Mac, and Waltrip interacted well.
I was very upset when some posters said Mike Joy was no longer the voice of NASCAR. He can only do so much, and, unlike on ESPN, when Marty Reid would verbally tell the truck to switch to wide shots of racing/passing, FOX doesn't seem to want to show what Joy's telling us. That's not his fault, and he probably gets frustrated quite a bit by it.
As for the last lap of the race at Martinsville, it's hard to tell if Joy was telling Waltrip to be quiet or if Joy was on the verge of saying an s-word. I don't mind excited announcers, but sometimes Waltrip sounds extremely emotional ... he just needs to tone it down a little.
Anthony,
There is only so much that Mike can do when DW and Larry Mac are yelling overtop of him.
Waltrip ruined the final laps of the Daytona 500 this season!
I think things are off because there was no practice / qualifying coverage ... So, they haven't switched their brains over to race mode ... LOL ;-)
But, the sound was "off" with Krista on the Setup ... and the video / color was out of whack too ...
Other than the booth and on air voices, it appears the regulars were given the holiday weekend off and the production is being handled by backups.
I'm underwhelmed that they actually showed the lucky dog!
This could be a pretty good dash to the finish, with Kyle and Harvick side-by-side. Hopefully they capture it.
Nice of the booth boys to tell us what lap the caution came out on ...
Oh waitaminute ... They didn't ... And neither did the non-existent ticker
I think "t" has a valid point. No pracice or quals on TV. Tough to just jump in the deep end.
JD, hey have been doing this for several years now. It shouldn't taked hours of practice and quals to be ready. It's not like they only do this for 6 races a year. TNT could have that as an excuse.
Good racing and they go to commercial. bummer
The fact they went to commercial while a battle for the lead is going on tells me they have another commercial break to get in after this one before the race is over.
I so love seeing those side-by-side breaks on the IndyCar races.
What a difference!
That...was...awful.
JD...side by side in IndyCar...one after the other in NASCAR
Oh no, don't want to see another smashed guitar if KB wins.
Man, there is no one on the lead lap. Geez.
Thanks Mikey just what we need to hear - KK might be in the 90 truck the rest of the year.
This could get real interesting.....
The fabricated excitement and acting as if the race was close is sickening. Who are you going to believe, the booth or your lying eyes?
That was just bad. Coverage, race, winner.
It would have been really interesting to see how the race developed without Shrub & Harvick.
Seriously, what a weird race on TV.
The broadcast was pretty bad only 8 trucks on the lead lap. Seems like most of the telecast, Speed only showed the cup guys.
8 on the lead lap and 2 cautions ...
Sorry, but that's not a good race ...
And not a good racecast ...
And that commercial for boxing was just awful. Couldn't understand a sentence of that but then again, we don't normally watch boxing.
Get the sense, without any practice or qualifying coverage, that everyone showed up about an hour or so before broadcast and just went through the motions and now they can go back home for the evening.
If I'm not mistaken this particular race was put on the calendar to ensure the Truck season had a 25-race schedule when Dover Motorsports closed down Memphis. This race had that kind of feel to it....as if it was a "fill-in" race.
That is correct Mike!
Harvick hired Schrader ?!?!? Guess I missed that press release ...
Thanks for stopping by everyone, just wish it was a better show for the fans and the TV viewers!
Saturday afternoon, Nationwide Series! See you then.
JD
Apparently Time Warner Cable never got the memo as I was never able to get Showtime free last week in central NC.
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