The entire day of action from Chicagoland Speedway has been on SPEED. At 7:30PM, NASCAR fans have to change to ESPN for the live Nationwide Series coverage.
It's Allen Bestwick back in the Infield Media Center with Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty. Up in the TV booth is Marty Reid, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Down on pit road are Dr. Jerry Punch, Jamie Little, Dave Burns and Vince Welch.
ESPN has the "A team" together this week as this is the final rehearsal before ESPN takes over the Sprint Cup Series coverage at the Brickyard in two weeks. It should be fun to watch this newly revamped line-up work together as a unit. It will absolutely serve as a good preview of what ESPN will offer Cup fans this season.
Chicagoland is not the most exciting track, but the Nationwide Series race is shorter and there are a lot of conflicting agendas on the track. Cross-over Sprint Cup drivers are there for fun while Nationwide Series regulars continue to try and squeak out a living with a good result. No need to comment on the "start and park" wars going on at the rear of the field.
Chicagoland makes good pictures and the high speeds are even more powerful when the director uses the low angle cameras live as the cars are running under green. The facility has an outstanding pit road, which should make for solid pit stop coverage.
Reid is the new face of ESPN's NASCAR Sprint Cup coverage. He replaces Punch after three years of his work in the play by play position. Bestwick and Reid have been clicking this season to add the kind of excitement and insight to the telecasts that Punch simply could not provide.
Credit goes to ESPN for rolling out this new line-up on the Nationwide Series races this season and letting everyone settle into their new roles. Perhaps the most impressive comeback is Punch, who has been fantastic on pit road. This new combo could be just what ESPN and NASCAR need down the stretch.
This post will serve to host your comments on the ESPN coverage of the Nationwide Series race from Chicagoland. 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 taking the time to stop by!
181 comments:
Happy Friday everyone! Race time!
Excited about an ESPN race, what a difference a year makes!
Bet your thrilled PRISM DNQ'ed for the Cup show though!
Ummmmmm....DW....it was fun while Bill had him quiet...
DW went out with a bang. LOL!
Happy Race Night Planeteers <3
Looking forward to some good racin' tonight :) <3
Hope everyone had a nice Friday :)
Rusty works sooooooo much better in the infield with AB.
"LeBrad" love it! LOL!
Fastest Danica's been all weekend!
david! ROFL
*giggles* David! Hey she had the pole today but just couldn't hold on to it! Gosh darn it! OK so she was the first to go out :p *giggles*
It was too easy to pass up JD!
Anyone, expectations for Morgan in the 21? Not an overly well prepared car, but a chassis that ran decent earlier...a used ECR engine Harvick won win so I am curious to see how it goes
"Bee's Knees" ?!?!? How old is he?? 75??95?? Sheesh!
Would've been nice if Morgan had been able to get some more track time ...
Would've been nice if RCR hadn't pulled JWT out of the car and lost some of the sponsorship money ... Everybody who's been in that # 21 car this season has had problems ...
JD, isn't LeDanica more fitting given her history?
lol
Enough of Rusty already
Tia, it was costing them money to run JWT though. Only can do so much when a guy bring a check. If he wads one or two up every week before too long your spending more than the check is worth. I did think they pulled the trigger a little early and it would have been better if they were on the up and up and just said he wasn't going to get back in the car rather than say a bold faced lie that he'd be back later on.
I guess Steinhouse shows that maybe you gotta stick with a guy a little longer though...
AB is such a great infield host. Great breakdown of the Morgan Shepherd situation!
AB just rocks this season. LeDanica! LOL!
David - I know he was costing them money ... But, Bowyer / George / Austin / Wimmer / Riggs have all wrecked or severely damaged the car when they were in it ... They also changed the crew chief AFTER they pulled JWT ...
Sitting on the bench has (so far) helped Ricky and Colin with Roush ...
Richard knows it takes time to mesh as a team and for a driver to learn ... Austin's not exactly had the best luck so far in the Trucks, but we won't be seeing him pulled out (because he's family) ...
I hope Mr. Jesus does well. He's good people <3
Could be a S&P-rich field tonight. My prediction...
S&P: 56, 90, 91, 37, 49, 89, 43, 92
Maybe: 27, 09, 21
tia, I thought Riggs did the best since he got away without wrecking but one car.
That team has really diminished from where it was a couple years ago.
I hope they can land some legit sponsorship soon though, too many NW teams are crumbling under this economy between the mainstays of Baker-Curb and RCR
Ouch. Brutal anthem.
MV I expect all the maybes to run, I agree with the listed S&P's though.
49 is usually a wild card though
HORRIBLE ANTHEM! Good grief. Looks creepy with the plethora of tats but not good voice. Ugh.
NASCAR really needs to get the Van-Dells. They sang at the Red's games and were FABULOUS. Harmony, respectful, well done. Better than the people these tracks pick out. Disgraceful imo some of these 'singers'.
@David - I think the 49 usually parks, even with a sponsor. It's when they run the number 70 for ML Motorsports that they go the distance.
Lofton was assigned to the 27 very late, so that's why I included him. I hope Morgan runs the whole distance, but I'm not 100% sure.
Did anyone else get tired of the booth monkies spending so much time telling us fans why all the 1 1/2 mile tracks aren't 'cookie cutters'? Someone need to tell THEM that, individual quirks or not, the all tend to RACE the same.
True, but at times they have thrown me off.
Lofton will be interesting for sure. Shame BCR can't get a sponsor even when they are offering up a guy like Biffle to race.
The used engine in the 21 does concern me, anyone recall if Harvick did a burnout on it? lol
Why did they already have TB on? Had to mute the anthem, my ears couldn't take it. JD I really like the picture of Marty too. Why does the booth bother trying to talk to the driver as half the time we can't hear them. Wonder if they'll show DP a lot tonight?
Miss Sally, I was thinking that SAME thing when Larry Mac was talking about it on SPEED! I understand why he would argue it since he is a crew chief and no 2 tracks are alike, but yes...similar design = cookie cutter
Glad that I'm not the only one! I get so tired of being lectured on why I'm wrong and they're right all the time!!
Just another of those, 'fans are too ignorant to have a knowledgeable opinion' moments that make me crazy!
They said earlier that the plan was for Morgan to run the entire race ... as RC wanted to keep the car in the top 35 ...
Will someone take the energy drinks away from Jamie Little ??
According to Jaime, DP's hardest week of her racing career! Give me a break!
Tia, yeah Jaime needs to start on the decaf.
Sally-heard Biff say the same thing today. Okay, if you're in the car, I can understand why you would say that, but we're not. We watch on TV & they ALL look the same to us, which equals sucky racing! Cookie cutters suck to watch from home...:(
@Pamm...I get so tired of them trying the hard sell on how great these flatter 1 1/2 mile tracks are, when the races tend to look the same on all of them!
I had qualifying on mute most of the time -- fortunately my guy went out early so I didn't have to be subjected to DW for too long.
Boy the weather looks pretty there in Chicago.
I do like Marty calling the race and having DJ and Andy in the booth. Yay
@tia - RCR's #21 is 317 points ahead of 30th position in owner points, so they can afford to S&P a time or two if the car wasn't well prepared.
pretty funny when 26th is a good day....
Ummm, ESPN messed up on that. Go into commercial showing top 3 under a blanket then come back from break and the guy in 3rd took the lead?! Couldn't hold the break an extra minute to see the pass live?
That's been my main gripe with all 3 networks for a couple years now. Not very often should we be missing passes for the lead live especially when you know its coming
Startin and parkin begun?
Sally, yes, I sure do. Maybe the tracks "feel" different to the drivers but for the fans, I don't think it makes that much of a difference. The cars get spread out - there's a high speed parade -- which you see already happening at lap 22!
lots of start and parkin from the look of things.
and lots of commercial breaks
89, 92, 91, 49, 37 so far
and 90. 6 start and parks
Pete Pistone says NASCAR is discussing more weeknight NNS and truck races.
so do you think they were told by NASCAR to talk about the young up and comers?
That sounded way too much like a scripted piece to me.
brought to you courtesy of NASCAR and Brian Z France.
danica about to go down a lap
Saw a blurb about that on jayski earlier in the week JD....not sure how I feel about it yet
Gina I agree with you about Nascar requesting report on "young 'uns".
I wish they would go back to running trucks and Busch series on the short tracks for the majority of the races. Packing the stands at smaller tracks makes more sense, makes getter races, AND would make it harder for the Cup guys to poach.
JD, the trouble is at least for me is that most of the NNS and truck races are run during my "travel" day to get to a cup race.
i understand them wanting to separate them from teh cup stuff but if they run them midweek wouldn't that still allow the cup guys to do double-duty (14 guys according to Marty) because they could make it work more easily in their schedule?
That should have been 'better' races. Oops.
Marty always calls out the start and parkers. And good for the shout-out to Morgan Shepherd -- could there be a more opposite driver than the chicken man?
Vicky, yeah that had much to much the feel of a public service announcement to be spontaneous.
14 cup guys in this race and they are dominating it as always. Bored now.
I could go for some Wednesday night truck series races.
Shout out to Willie Allen in 16th!
David - It's poss that the 3 under the blanket commercial was a "Hard Break" ... one that they couldn't control ;-)
If you want to switch it up, run the trucks and bush races from September to April, people may actually sit inside and watch them when it is cold outside.
Gina, already on lap 50 and the drivers seem like they are just riding around and around and around. You get the picture!
wow, that was a long pit stop!
same here JD <3 the Wednesday night Bristol race in August <3
#43 is our 8th S&P.
If you could set up some proximity-based races for one day shows with races Thursday night and Saturday night, that could save money. Would not work many places, but for example, run at Gateway the Thursday night of the Kansas Sprint Cup weekend.
Yet they can't figure out why fans get bored with the cookie cutter tracks. The races are all the same...parades. BUT...'La Brian' figures he can just tinker with the final 10 races and make fans happy? What a joke!
I really liked when the trucks were the bull ring series.
Vicky - yes, I do, I do -- it's a cookie cutter track -- what we fans keep saying and NASCAR and the media still want to tell us we're wrong.
But wait, let's move some races from the tracks that are a little different like Martinsville and Darlington to, wait for it, cookie cutter tracks.
then they wonder why the fans aren't showing up OR watching on TV.
My biggest problem with the Kentucky for New Hampshire proposal is Loudon, like it or not, is not a cookie cutter.
Maybe they're afraid that putting the 'minor leagues' on the short tracks would just show up how dull most of the larger track races are?
I'd go for the truck series being on the smaller tracks -- it's fun to watch races there.
you may be right, fans would notice the difference and that scares NASCAR.
Ooopps penalty
Maybe Kyle thinks the speed limit doesn't apply to him?
Agreed JD: Trucks, if my memory serves me, used to run at places like
Evergreen Speedway
The I-70 Speedway
Mansfield Ohio
Flemington N.J.
There was some talk about Jack Arute's Stafford Motor Speedway
and come to think of it, didn't Marty serve as ESPN2's announcer for some of that?
Kyle left his brain in his motorcoach
Unfortunately alot of the smaller tracks that can accompany these cars have closed up. Nazareth, Memphis, Milwaukee....all either are gone or not in operation.
=(
Flemington would be good -- except they closed it because the newer upscale folks didn't like the noise! So sad, they never knew what they missed. I never saw the trucks race there, but when I was a kid we went and saw them race the modifieds.
Marty and BP called a lot of truck races in the late 90s. Dave Despain before them.
Sally, maybe KB thinks since he's a cup driver he doesn't have a speed limit on pit road.
I like the Bristol Truck race on Wed night ...
But, I think if they were to make more weeknight races that they'd lose more fans ... A lot of people get confuzzled as to where/when the races are on tv and there's the other stuff on mainstream tv that the races would have to compete with ...
Jerry Punch actually tried to do PXP on the trucks waaaaay back when.
That did not go over well either....
Isnt it great. We get all of the
hideous horrid announcers who will
be talking a blue streak .. never
will shut up for the next 18 races!
Can that be right? Jabber Jarrett
marty reed and the other guy.Plus
of course Worstwick and the Doc who
was basically fired.
18 weeks of jabberJarret. I dont
want to think about it./
I find those "cause its racing" commercials for NASCAR on ESPN kind of weird. Anyone else?
I don't like the way the booth gets giddy talking about Kyle making up his time on the track and will soon be up front.
Wisconsin - yes, I think they are weird too -- almost as weird as the post by that troll - I mean Anon.
actually one of the things that really makes me feel physically ill is that crew man cam thing they do. causes me to have a dizzy spell -
Vicky, KyBu seems to have that effect on them -- you mean he doesn't do that for you? LOL
@Gina...me too! I always wish I had Dramamine when they do that!
Snohomish County's looking for a new promoter to run Evergreen Speedway ... Plus, the county's being a bunch of cheap asps and not making improvements on the track (and it severely needs a SAFER barrier) ...
Just a theory . . . Nascar wants to find a time to run Nationwide races when there aren't college football games to contend with. Which would count Thursday out since that's a huge series for ESPN (starts with Southern Miss at South Carolina this year).
Sally - I know somebody thinks its really cool, but its not for me.
Wake me up when they talk about someone else besides cup drivers.
If they were willing to cut the NW schedule back to about 30 races and run some Wed night alternating weeks of NW and Trucks for a "summer series" of sorts that might be a neat idea. I just don't see it working late in the season because school starts back up so count families out from making those shows
Geez, Kyle has NO shame about it and the fact that the booth thinks that its funny too doesn't impress me either.
LOL @ Kyle. Love that guy
Kyle thinks it's funny getting a speeding violation on pit road, I guess he doesn't realize the reason it was implemented was for safety and wellbeing for the pit crew members. Yeah, Kyle, it's really hilarious!
so essentially the pass through penalty had NO effect on the 18? How could be restart 4th?
#43 Brad Baker back on track, not a S&P,... yet! My bad!
#1 Ryan Newman off, #09 Landon Cassill out
GinaV24-My goodness how does anyone root for that moron??? Sorry, David-I know u do, but for the life of me, can't imagine why. He's such an ....
Hey NASCAR fans check these 2 sites out
http://www.saladandchips.com/
and
http://www.thepounder.com/pink/
Man, this is kind of um.....BRUTAL!
Martin Krissie Newman tweeted Ryan is done for the night.
So much mention of the cup guys tonight well and Danica, of course.
Sorry-I'm taping this, but will prob only watch the last few laps :( DP, DP, DP has SOOO turned me off to this, among other things.) Let me see, Kryle or Denny or Bad Brad wins these races. Why should I watch again???? No reason, imo.
That's it ... I'm done. Only 2 non-Cup drivers in the top 10, over half the field at least a lap down. KyBu leading by over 4 seconds.
I'm more upset by the fact that there's only 2 non-Cup guys in the top 10. I really hope NASCAR makes changes to limit the number of Cup guys in each race (to something like 5) and only let Cup rookies run full seasons in the Nationwide series. I don't tune in to watch Cup guys practice or play or stroke their egos or whatever.
Only in Nascar can you break a rule twice and only get one penalty. Ugh!
I'd be much more interested in this race if it were Allgaier, Bayne and Leffler racing for the win. Maybe its just me...
PammH - I can give KyBu credit for being able to wheel a race car, but he's too rude and arrogant for me to be able to like as a driver.
I'm not sure how much more of the race I'm going to watch since it is a fine example of Cup Lite being run on a cookie cutter track, so honestly I'm not interested in watching it flag to flag.
I just put a load of laundry in the dryer which is why I was delayed
Got to give it to ESPN, they are tying to make something out of this deal.
A fuel mileage race? I hope Jacques Debris was in one of those many start-and-park cars.
Becky, plus the cup guys are taking the $$$ winnings away from a full time NW team too. Not to mention tv time!
It has to be horrible to be a young driver, constantly getting your butt kicked by the Cup teams. Talk about getting beaten down! Nascar has killed this series. And, if all those Cup guys are supposed to pull in the fans, why are the stands so empty for most of the races? Does BZF even watch?
Nope, WiscSteve - I'm right there with you. No reason to watch the rest of this race
Did I mention BRUTAL?
JD, hard to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear
ESPN is getting a good warm-up for Indy. That race is usually a yawner, too.
Was that a chunk of rubber?
You know there's a trust problem when ESPN actually feels compelled to watch a pickup truck go out and find a piece of debris.
JD, we are all right here with you - and BRUTAL is a good word.
I hope tomorrow night's race isn't this boring, but i bet it will be
Hey JD why is rusty still here. Didn't we run him out of town.
The ESPN line up for the final 17 events is:
Marty Reid, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree upstairs.
Allen Bestwick, Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty downstairs.
Jerry Punch, Jamie Little, Dave Burns and Vince Welch on pit road.
Tim Brewer in the Tech Garage.
Make of it what you will!
OMG, I just realized that DP might have her best ever finish in a NW race, a top 25!
How about we ban the Gibbs cars from the N'wide races??
Which Chevy teams are running the new engines?? Must not be anyone since they sure can't keep up with the Gibbs cars ...
And I'm sooooooo NOT buying that Gibbs gets his Nwide engines from TRD ...
I hope we get a decent finish. ESPN deserves one tonight.
Next week at Gateway, Dave Burns gets his turn in the TV booth as the play by play guy.
Stand along NNS race.....
after the anthem, I got a phone call & got distracted doing other things around the house. Can't get into this broadcast & it's the same old Cup names=snoozefest! ZZzzz
My sister could not believe I talked on the phone as the race was beginning!! I'm so not into this sport this year...sad, but bores me. Will be curious if I tune in for last laps on the HD tv or what I will think of TNT tomorrow night.
Would not be a Gibbs issue if Brad Coleman was driving that car and running for the NNS championship.
They are doing their bust to make it sound interesting, but face it...Chicago sucks. And they wonder why we don't like the cookie cutter tracks? Of course, they aren't really cookie cutter, are they?
JD-
I love the lineup, but it would be great to see Kernan or Weber The Magnificient on pit road again.
so long as rusty isn't in the booth doing PXP I can mostly handle it
Could anyone imagine if JP was PXP tonight? We'd all be asleep.
I used to like Brad Coleman ... when he ran ARCA for Brewco ... But he changed when he went to Gibbs ...
and we will have twice as many laps to be bored tomorrow night. Oh joy oh bliss
Oh, a Weber mention.....wow. WE ARE BORED!
Thank you for not feeding the trolls!
boy JD it was OH so tempting though. Something to do during this long nothingness of a race
I remember when the Trolls were the park mascots at Magic Mountain ... along with the Wizard ...
Long before Six Flags bought the park and brought in Bugs Bunny & Co ...
Tia, Gibbs may very well be getting their engines from TRD because TRD has this package figured out. Well, Triad does. That is why NASCAR banned this engine from Cup. Gibbs can't reinvent this engine any better then it is now.
I'm with JD though, you put Coleman and the other kid in those cars and they aren't running away with races. The drivers are great and experiences, the cars are great and well prepared. No different then what Roush was doing in this series about 4 or 5 years ago and RCR before that.
Excited to hear Burns get his shot, has a good voice hopefully can call some PxP.
Agree with the Weber and Kernan thing. Boy would that be a time warp!!!
Hate this tapered spacer though, faster corner speed = emphasis on corner package = Gibbs advantage with this car.
WI, yes the ESPN "racing" promos are bizarre.
Oh lookie debris caution!
A debris caution? I am shocked!!
It's sad when the commercial for "All-Star Auto Glass" (owned by former Mariner/current Phillie Jamie Moyer) is MORE exciting than the so-called race ...
tia, that troll had a very naughty way with words! LOL
Hope Dave Burns does well with his shot behind the mike
I don't think its good for either NWide or Cup to have the same winners every week. For fans of everyone else it becomes boring
Kudos to ESPN for being ontop of trying to find the debris today
Looks like it's been explained why they can't show the debris many times. The cameras are getting ready to show pit stops.
Oh a piece of paper on the track. C'mon guys!
Mike, seriously?
Wow ton of rubber up on top of the track. Best demonstration of marbles ever!
Just got Hose Cuervo Gold Tequila (a liter!) given to me even though I prefer Silver (thought that counts)
I think I smell Margarita's for tomorrow nights race. Not drank much hard liquor in YEARS!! Just need to get some good Triple sec & not the cheap gunk. Will make my own sour mix. I used to have the glasses but will use Wine glasses I'spose.
Least I'll have good camera work to enjoy tomorrow.
Ok just turned on race with 8 laps to go...car cams.
How's the cam work been tonight? DP having issues?
hey nascar's version of bread and circuses -- give the fans a GW wreckers finish and they forget all about the fact that 95% of the race was a bore
NASCAR fans are sooo stupid (at least management thinks so)
Gina - Yeah, I saw what the lil stinker posted ... LOL
WHY WHY WHY did I even bother to watch this POS ?!?!?!?
Nice run by Brian Scott. Hope he gets interviewed.
Don't you love the Danica commercial where she says "She's no Tony, she's no Juan Pablo.......". So Danica, you just figure that out?????
Can't stand these stupid cookie cutter tracks. The racing is so boring, no matter what the talking heads say.
I hope Brian Scott gets a postrace interview. Nice run.
Unbelievable!!!!!
SHRUBBY!!!!
Career best 3rd for Brian Scott
THAT WAS ROUGH!
Nice replay of Kyle's fiance....rofl
Seriously?? Do we really NEED to see Samantha jumping up & down??
So if the yellow comes out on the final lap the camera should go to the crew chief of the winner and not show the rest of the race. Interesting.
Joey Lugnuts is learning from the Kyle Busch school of personality.
Sophia, I will most likely join you in the drinking portion of tomorrow night's event. Man this was a pathetic excuse for a race.
Should we have a drinking game ready to go to keep up entertained tomorrow night?
well, being here with you all talking racing is the only reason for watching these races, so hope everyone has a lovely Saturday!
Rest up, tomorrow night could be a LONG night.
WTF!!!!!!!!!!! Epic fail by espn. Kyle Busch took keselowskis place on the restart when the rules say the 3rd place driver would move up to 2nd. So kyle basically cheated. and espn freaking missed it. it was brutally obvious to everyone. thats why joey walked away disguested. kyle didnt win that race. so what does espn do? THEY INTERVIEW DANICA first thing. what a load of crap. god im sick of espn
Random observation: Victory lanes seem too large now. I don't think there are less people in it, just that it is so big it looks empty.
Great interview with Scott! Cool to see!
The rule coming into 3/4 if someone on the front row falls out of position is you move their line up. You do NOT re-rack the whole field. Kyle benefited by a huge mistake in the Keselowski camp.
Now back to LeBron
Yeah ...
How the heck did NASCAR Race Uncontrol ALLOW Kylie to move up to the front row since Joey re-started on the inside ??????
NASCAR GAVE The win to Kylie
Post race started with LeDanica, Sportscenter starts with LeBron....gotta love those hype machine "brands"!
Tia, remember Phoenix when a start and park car was leading and came to pit when they were taking the green flag? NASCAR just advanced the inside row rather than re-racking the field.
I had to quickly turn the channel after the broadcast guys signed off. 45 minute pre-race and three interviews after the race and that's it!
10AM "NASCAR Now" tomorrow morning!
Full schedule on the TDP mainpage.
Going to have to rethink my sport a bit after this one tonight.
Totally and completely manipulated race on a cookie cutter test track.
Not what I signed up to see....
JD
kylie lol
Just proves NASCAR is a bunch of hipocrites by giving the win to Kylie.
The only reason I watched tonight's Nationwide race was to see how the Nationwide regulars and Danica ran.
As usual, the coverage was disappointing.
It is depressing to see all the Cup guys ruin another Nationwide series race.
Pitiful.
yeah Go Get em JD
Gina
Too old for drinking games :) but Mercy! What a weird ending.
Does NASCAR REALLY think they don't fix races?
WHY does NASCAR INSIST we love the cookie cutter tracks?
Maybe I will DVR the race tomorrow ...will try watching live since it's a night race...not sure about being online during it. Eyes are limited these days so multi-tasking is too much.
Drinking might help . . .
I chuckle a little here, people who were the furthest from the fence from calling last week a fix are calling this one one and vice-versa.
Debris cautions are pretty disappointing.
Thought ESPN actually gave it a pretty good effort until the post race "show."
Reid was great at trying to update on people out of the race as well as guys who went from running well to struggling like Willie Allen, etc. The DP coverage during the race didn't seem AS overbearing as it has in other races...at least when they talked about her in this one she was RACING a couple guys even if it was for 25th.
I missed the obscenity someone on the ESPN staff muttered...
Strong words there, JD.
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