Sunday, June 27, 2010

Sunday TV Notes


Things get underway early on Sunday as both SPEED and ESPN2 offer NASCAR programs at 8:30AM.

Mike Massaro hosts NASCAR Now on ESPN2 with reporters Angelique Chengelis and Marty Smith checking-in from New Hampshire. Meanwhile, Larry McReynolds hosts NASCAR Performance on SPEED with Chad Knaus, Bootie Barker and Doug Richert.

At 10AM, Jimmy Spencer returns to RaceDay for two hours of pre-race programming live from the SPEED Stage at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. John Roberts hosts with Kenny Wallace on the expert panel. Wendy Venturini and Hermie Sadler are the reporters. Darrell Waltrip returns to this program next week.

TNT opens with the Countdown to Green pre-race show at noon ET. Lindsay Czarniak hosts with Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds. Czarniak takes some laps around NHMS with Jeff Burton while Denny Hamlin joins the gang in the infield for an interview. The Pride of NASCAR feature will focus on Dale Inman, the legendary crew chief for Richard Petty who won seven championships.

The popular RaceBuddy online application returns as does the Million Dollar Challenge. Both of these are accessed through the NASCAR.com website and are free. No one has yet won the million dollars, which involves picking the top ten finishers in order. No info yet on which driver will carry the RaceBuddy in-car camera.

Adam Alexander has been coming into his own during this first swing at handling the play-by-play for the TNT races. This week, the challenge of the flat New Hampshire track is going to be huge. There is little passing, the pit stops tell the story and in the Sprint Cup Series tempers are hot after Sonoma.

Petty and Wally Dallenbach Jr. give Alexander lots of room to operate. Unlike the NASCAR on FOX gang, the two analysts stick to commentary and opinion. This has really helped Alexander to get comfortable quickly. Things seem to be falling into place quite well with Daytona right around the corner.

The TNT crew will again move to NASCAR.com after the checkered flag for some extended post-race live programming. This can also be accessed by clicking on the RaceBuddy button on the NASCAR.com homepage.

SPEED will offer The Speed Report at 7PM with Leigh Diffey and Rick Allen co-hosting. At 8PM it will be John Roberts with Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace on Victory Lane. The night ends at 9PM with Wind Tunnel where Dave Despain's guests are Jamie Allison, the Director of Ford Motorsport and SPEED's own F-1 guru Steve Matchett.

We will live blog the Sprint Cup Series programs on TNT, please feel free to use this post for comments on any of the Sunday morning NASCAR TV programs. To add your 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.

7 comments:

red said...

GREAT clear, concise, intelligent explanation just now on nascar performance in re: rotating, sprung, and unsprung weight! man i love this show!

Paul said...

Had no idea how ingenious that valve cap was. I thought it was just an off the shelf bleeder. These guys really had to work to cheat!

OSBORNK said...

I just saw Mr. Spencer and his bobblehead Wallace buddy on Raceday. Jimmy said last week's race was the best road race he had ever seen and he is enjoying NA$CAR more now then ever. Mr. Wallace totally agreed with him. TALK ABOUT IN THE TANK!

GinaV24 said...

Good news is that DW isn't here, but Kenny the Klown still is so I'm having to watch with the sound turned down.

Wow, the best road race ever? Was that because there was so much wrecking? Cuz I sure didn't think it was the best race I'd ever seen.

I don't think double file restarts belong on a road course, esp not Sonoma where its so narrow.

I hope that TNT continues to do a good job of broadcasting. I saw a little of the N'wide race yesterday before I left the house and caught a bit more later in the race -- it seemed very disjointed and the camera work was awful. Makes me nervous that we will have that in a few weeks when TNT gives over to ESPN.

Cool veriword -- taxicar!

Charlie said...

They keep talking about 10 more races until the Chase, like it is almost done. That is two and a half more months. Five more months until the season is over. With smaller crowds at the track and less viewers on Tv is there really a reason to have such a long season. Start the season in April and end in August. Less just might be better.

Daly Planet Editor said...

The live race blog is up! Just head back to the main page.

Thanks!

JD

Anonymous said...

I thought the pre-race shows on both networks were yawners. Kenny was insulting(again) on Raceday. I can't believe they'll retain him next year. The race was quite good.