Great racing from Bristol yesterday with the Mods and the Camping World Trucks. Nice to see a good crowd on hand for a Wednesday show. Here are some TV and media notes heading into the racing weekend:
Regan Smith crew member Kenyatta Houston will again be the over the wall crew guy wearing the live camera. Last time Houston was in this role, ESPN's Marty Reid was perhaps a little off-base with a comment. Good move by ESPN to make things right and get Houston some TV time.
On Wednesday, SPEED made it official:
Voda, host of NCWTS Setup, SPEED’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series pre-race show, will anchor the energetic Friday night program for eight of the remaining 13 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series weekends. Her duties in the Truck Series remain priority, so John Roberts, host of NASCAR RaceDay Built by The Home Depot, will fill in on Trackside for the weekends when the Truck and Cup Series are not companion events to each other.
Voda moved into that role when Steve Byrnes came off the road and joined Race Hub as the fulltime host. This also opened the door for Rick Allen and Mike Joy. Those two will be handling the practice and qualifying sessions for the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series on SPEED. Allen is first with the shows from BMS this Friday.
I'm not a big fan of the NASCAR Smarts show on SPEED, but this weekend Kyle Petty and Rutledge Wood take on the team of Larry and Brandon McReynolds from the SPEED Stage at BMS. The show airs on Saturday at 4PM ET.
Lots of interest has been spurred by a group that is set to invest millions in building a road course in the Austin, TX area. F-1 has already indicated that the series would come to the US and race at that facility when completed. The head honcho, Tavo Hellmund, is going to be Dave Despain's guest on Wind Tunnel Sunday night at 9PM ET.
Just a friendly reminder that the Saturday night Sprint Cup Series race from BMS is on ABC, not ESPN. Ray Evernham is also going to be joining the usual group in the Infield Studio. That makes 12 on-air announcers for ESPN this weekend.
The new NASCAR race schedules for 2011 are out, we will be updating shortly what changes that means for the TV networks in venues and times. Next season will certainly have a different look in both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series.
We will update this post with more info, please check back during the day. In the meantime, please feel free to leave us a comment on the topics above. 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 stopping by.
I know NASCAR Smarts is a dumb show compared to what they *could* do with that half hour, but I just can't help myself from seeing if I can answer the questions. Thanks for the heads up, I might like to see Larry & Brandon.
ReplyDeleteI don't always agree with Kyle, but he always has an opinion, and you'd think they could work that into an interesting show.
I love "NASCAR Smarts". I'll make time to watch that before I'll watch "Race Day". Lately they have had some really fun match-ups, like Max Papis and Bootie Barker, or Scott Speed and Jimmy Elledge for driver/crew chief pairs, as well as Mike and Angie Skinner.
ReplyDeleteIt really is a fun show, and I recommend you give it another chance. I know you still miss "Tradin Paint" but you've really gotta let it go - ;)
NASCAR has now announced the new schedule for next year. How is the changes going to effect the Television Broadcasts the networks and the fan attendance? Going from Daytona to Phoenix is probably a good idea but then jumping all over the USA and back makes no sense. Heading to Las Vegas after Phoenix is not a bad jump but then to Bristol then back out west to Fontana then back East to Martinsville then West again to Texas and again back east to Talladega seems quite a waste of resources. Whew, make me tired just thing about it. Fuel, travel expenses, moving people all around wearing them out is going to be a challenge. When will NASCAR learn to route the races so it make sense to not only the participants but also to the fans that like to follow the route? I'm glad I don't have to do it anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe "new" schedule - wow, what a snoozer after the hype that BZF was talking - impactful change my foot.
ReplyDeleteI still don't understand why there isn't some logic applied to it -- look at the map, look at the calendar and weather patterns and figure it out from there.
for those of you living near Chicagoland, congrats on getting the first chase race, but I just found my own personal "off weekend" in September since I may not even watch that one on TV. Yawn!
2011 Sprint Cup Tv Schedule:
ReplyDeleteFOX: Daytona to Kansas
TNT: Pocono to New Hampshire
ESPN/ABC: Indy to Homestead
TVTrucker--it does seem illogical, but the teams are going to go home no matter what, except in some of the extreme cases where they bring out a second hauler and replace the cars (western swing, etc.). Otherwise, they're going to have to go back to the shop to change them out anyways. Mostly the reason for the schedule is weather, plus many of those tracks like the dates they have for various reasons. I doubt there are many fans who are NASCAR groupies like they're following the Grateful Dead (maybe a few, but not a lot.) They have Pocono just before Watkins Glen, then to Michigan--it makes sense, but they still go back to Charlotte. Perhaps not the merchandise haulers or the gypsy trailer people--but that's just kind of the life they have, I think. And the TV people probably have to 'reload' equipment so to speak, although I'm not an expert on that. But I just don't think a 'connect the dots' schedule is ever going to happen.
ReplyDeleteallisong...the Smarts with Mike & Angie was funny, but my favorite was Gil Martin & his son Ford.
ESPN at their best! Tennis preempts NASCAR Now on the eve of racing at Bristol....
ReplyDeleteAnd they wonder why their ratings are down?
Jayski - Michigan TV Ratings down: ESPN's live telecast of the Carfax 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway earned a final national household coverage rating of 3.6, averaging 4,916,636 viewers, according to the Nielsen Company. The rating was down from the 4.1 for last year's race that also aired on ESPN.
No re-air of NASCAR Now that I see.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Kenyatta is on Regan Smith's team not David Ragan. My mistake.
NNow was on at 6:30 on ESPN 2--did they put that on the scroll? I was playing on the PC & might have missed it. I just happened by looking for PTI. Missed the first 10 minutes.
ReplyDeleteRace Hub keeps moving ahead of N-Now, except on Mondays. A show that can't be found can't be appreciated.
ReplyDelete@ glenc1, The only things I saw on the crawl were the Clemoms' indictment and Harvin's health issues. I kept flipping back and forth so I may have missed the programming alert.
ReplyDeleteWhy couldn't they preempt the shows on BSPN? Or their other channels? CL was showing LLWS from 1998.
I can't blame them for showing live tennis (the match[es] today actually meant something in terms of the tournament they were playing) over a news show. Do we love NASCAR Now? Of course, but real sports should always have prominence over news shows/practice sessions.
ReplyDeleteJust because you may or may not be a fan of tennis doesn't mean that tennis fans shouldn't get to enjoy their sport so that a news show or a practice session could be aired.
Imagine if ESPN decided to show batting practice for an Minor League Baseball team instead of the end of a race. A few weeks ago, that's pretty much what I saw some people here saying, when tennis ran long and pre-empted Nationwide practice at Watkins Glen. If it were a race, I could see it going either way, but practice doesn't really matter that much in the grand scheme of the race, and Nationwide practice is even less of a priority, and that's how it really should be.
I wonder how ESPN expects Nascar Now to find an audience when they continually move it around and don't let viewers know. Apparently I missed it today. Great planning.
ReplyDelete