ESPN begins the stretch of the Sprint Cup Series season that has posed the biggest challenge for the Worldwide Leader in Sports. Now that the NFL is in season, the NASCAR Countdown pre-race show is moved to ESPN2. Then, the live race coverage will begin at 1PM over on ESPN.
The first race of the chase is today at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Allen Bestwick will host the pre-race show with Ray Evernham, Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty from the Infield Pit Studio.
It should be interesting to see what topics other than the Chase ESPN chooses to present. This is the time of the year where drivers outside of the Chase suddenly fall off the TV radar. Brad Keselowski is on the pole today and non-Chase teams normally begin to make changes at this time of the year.
Calling the race today is Marty Reid. These longer Sprint Cup Series races are new for Reid, who has a history in NHRA and IndyCar events. Reid often seems to talk just to fill air time, rather than let the action unfold and keep the facts coming for the fans.
Joining Reid will be Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. These two have been working in the politically correct mode which seems to be the NASCAR theme for this season. Comments have been polite, but perhaps not exactly reflecting the action and the intensity of the racing.
Tim Brewer will be in the Tech Garage. Dr. Jerry Punch, Jamie Little, Vince Welch and Dave Burns will be the pit road reporters. Pit stops may well be the key to this race, so the TV challenge is to document them under both green and caution flag conditions.
ESPN is going to roll-out some graphics and technology that was used last year to analyze pit stops. Each crew member will be timed on every movement and the results will be used to figure out who did a good job and who caused the problems. This should be interesting to watch.
Loudon is a classic flat track where tempers start to rise as the cars fight for position coming off the corners. Taking the low line often results in contact in the corner and a mess on the racetrack. Using low angle cameras is the way to keep the feeling of speed in the telecast and not just follow the leaders from the high cams in the tower.
This post will serve to host your comments on the Sprint Cup Series race from NHMS on ESPN. 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 The Daly Planet.
166 comments:
Here we go from Loudon! No rain and a nice day.
Anyone else having a problem with the ESPN2 HD picture freezing for a couple seconds every so often? I'm not sure if it's the broadcast or Comcast or something else. Had the problem on NN earlier this morning but didn't see a problem with RD for two hours.
Happy Race Day Sunday Planeteers <3
ESPN just loves Carl Edwards!
No HD break up here in Florida.
I know we should never acknowledge trolls, but just this once.
I was at Loudon when Kyle Petty's son Adam lost his life by plowing into the third turn wall.
Such comments are always offensive, but particularly at this track. For a flat one mile oval it has a surprisingly tragic past, if you're "new to Nascar" as they say on TV.
I thought our troll got a girlfriend. Instead, he is pretending to be one. Wow.
I think he is like 14. Pretty funny actually to watch our little troll grow up.
Wonder if there is a troll college? Troll State U? U of Troll?
Pretty good pre-race today. Less BS and more from the analysts.
JD, I agree about the pre-race. It has held my attention so far.
Hoping for a good race and an improved broadcast.
The one good thing for the race is a pretty weak early game schedule in the NFL today.
Can't say I'm too interested though, New Hampshire doesn't produce much good racing and ESPN is going to be in All Chase All The Time mode.
Dish is having those same problems on ESPN2 HD in Nebraska.
Thanks Travis, I asked them to check it out.
Lots of sports fans about to make a big TV decision at 1PM ET.
I've switched to ESPN early to see what Berman says about what's coming up next . . .
Was nice of Boomer to do a direct throw to Allen without any NASCAR slams.
It worked out very well.
Some of the junior SportsCenter colleagues could learn a lesson from the veteran.
I am going to watch the Packers football and record the chase.
Have a good day all.
Travis, are you having a problem now on ESPN HD? I watched a half hour of NFL countdown without a problem and then as soon as the race broadcast came on it started to freeze again.
Thanks for checking into it JD.
John In Va
The Original, as I sometimes call Boomer. He is a 32nd-year ESPN staffer (almost since Day One). Some ESPN anchormen weren't born when Chris Berman was first on ESPN.
A very pathetic national anthem. When names such as Stallard, Will, and Hill are in your wheelhouse, and what this 11-year old kid did, it made you ask who hired this bloke.
didn't do too badly for a kid
I vote Marie-Christine Depestre (who sang the anthems in Montreal) to sing the American anthem every week. Sad when a French-Canadian singer does a better job with a national anthem that's not even her own.
S&P this week: 64, 87, 55 & 46
Maybe: 13, 36 & 71
anyone having issues with trackpass scanner?
It's all about SMOKE today! Follow that leader boys!
Looks like lots of empty seats up in New Hampshire today. Was only partially listening to pre-race show but didn't see my fav. Anyway lots of shuffling going on already.
It is a little early to go the in-cars.
It is a little early to go to commercial, also.
8 laps in before going to commercial.
Looks like there a lot of empty seats on this beautiful day.
Got the same feel as last week. Commercials interrupted by racing.
Why do they go to commercial after the first 8 laps and come back and then back to commercial :( so annoying!
And they get the wreck only on long distance replay.
OK Track pass is on, MRN check, at least I get to "hear & see" the race. Looks like its typical espn race coverage today = more commercials - less racing
Commercial overload is slowly bleeding the life out of televising this sport.
Killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
well if this become a commercial fest I don't think that the remaining Nascar fans watching the race will have a problem changing the channel to a football game.
Gonna practice what I preach, and watch the Lion's game, (almost as depressing as the race coverage, but not quite) I will stick around here though because it's fun.
Without side by side commercials, the Chase is tough to watch.
When we were there last year, the majority of the empty seats were in turn 3. It still looks like 90% full.
Really appreciate PRN during TV commercials.
It would be a good idea for Nascar to use the side by side commercial thing for the chase.
These commercials are brutal.
Mr Editor, just remember Berman is one of the few left who remember the beginingsof espn - so he would be respectful. He is a class act usually.
I started at ESPN one year after Berman. I am ooooooooold!
JD, if you think you are old you can imagine how old I am (and feel)!!!! I remember Chris Berman starting at ESPN also, and he's also one of my son's favorites! But I remember when ESPN started so many people said - who is going to watch sports 24 hours a day????
Why does every ESPN/ABC broadcast of a Nascar Sprint race boil down to the voice of Charlie Brown's teacher in my ear! What is wrong? really? What is going on? UGH!
So now we are regulated to chasers & non-chasers? Can't they just show & talk about the cars in the context of THIS race? That's why I hate the friggin' chase....grrr.
We're getting the JJ show. I would bet they have dozens of prerecorded tidbits of JJ to show us as the "Chase" proceeds.
Is ESPN still avoiding the race?
Too much showing JJ although we just saw a glimpse of Jr passing KyBusch. Guess that's all we'll see him today since he's not in the chase.
Same problem as last year. Viewers slowly lose track of the actual race while ESPN talks about Chasers.
No excitement already. Marty Reid confused. Not good.
Total agreement with PammH. When you let the Championship be bigger than the race, you totally lose focus of why you're there in the first place. The end result is a bad broadcast.
JD, the last few races Marty has seemed confused to me, and he didn't even have to do the NW race this weekend. The other day he said that Martin Truex was a relative of MW. Wonder what's going on with him.
So, we get side by side...as long as it's just chasers we see? Gee, thanks for nothing.
Still no scanner. As usual, no other cars except the Chasers, unless it's an incidental mention.
*sigh*
This is perhaps one of the most competitive Loudon races ever, and all I see are commercials. And this "warm and fuzzy" stranglehold placed on the announcers makes me want to gag. At least they haven't killed Race Hub yet.
It's either commercials or the 48, with a few of the rest of the chasers thrown in and a slight mention of the 88.
Marty Reid is confused by the voice in his ear that tells him he is not to call the race, but to follow espn's narrative and fulfill their agenda. The resulting chaos is not good for NASCAR or what few fans NASCAR has left.
Vicky, he does not have the depth of knowledge of AB. Been off in NHRA and IndyCar land for years.
When ESPN passed by AB again, we knew it was an improvement but going to be a struggle with Cup.
That sure is what we are seeing.
At least we're getting a 'thru the field before lap 90. Does no one realized that many fans aren't as concerned about who wins the title as just seeing a good race? Nevermind. I know the answer.
Good point, that is for sure.
Thank God for picture-in-picture and a free preview of NFL RedZone. This race can happily stay in the lower right-hand corner of my TV and I'll listen to NFL highlights.
JD, you are probably right about MR, the NW races he can call the race like he wants, for the cup he's got to follow the script.
OK..new drinking game. Whenever ESPN mentions Jimmie (with an ie) Johnson, take a shot of whatever you like! Don't drink and drive, don't miss the "Porcelin God" and ENJOY! ESPN can't suck enough! Just sayin'!! Hey, ESPN, IT'S A RACE BEFORE IT WAS A CHASE. GET IT!
Dara, We wouldn't be able to stay upright if we took a drink at every mention of JJ. May be able if we do it every tenth time.
Dara & Osbornk you are killing me!
Man, there is a pretty small crowd here today. The NFL is really the big TV gorilla right now.
Cool! They added Brewer to the discussion! Is that new?
But Dara2k, it's ESPN they really get us. They know what we want in stock car racing coverage, and by God their going to give it to us no matter what!
I'm here, JD!
Just watching (or trying) the race and catching up on the comments every few commercials. :)
Nascar is NEVER going to displace the NFL. Wake up! Too many 'home teams' to watch. In the last 10 races, unless they are in the top 12,you can't even watch your favorite ('home') driver!
As you say, it's a race BEFORE it's a chase. Well said!
Has Bobby Labonte parked or is he having legitimate problems? Guess we're not going to find out from ESPN.
We get a football reminder at most of the commercial breaks. It reminds you of football and that is enough to get some folks looking for something more interesting.
Mike in Detroit - yes ESPN is showing us what we want to see and we should be happy about it no matter what!
Oooo, green flag pit stops. Long green flag runs. NFL is on the other channel. Time for some DEBRIS CAUTIONS!!!
I'm also here! Doing work while listening to the race on tv. Lots of babble on air and very little content.
Booth said, "something happened in the pits, I don't know what it is."
Well I would help you but all I saw was what ESPN showed on TV. Sorry.
In-car cameras are certainly getting a lot of airtime today. Not good for us watching at home.
At least Marty is asking questions....that's a good thing...right???
Yes, a pretty good summary of the 'coverage'...something happened in the pits there, I don't know what.
Marty is play by play. He should be answering OUR questions! WRONG!
LOL @ Anon. Perhaps they could get one of their pit reporters to do a little work and find out for us.
What did that demonstration show? Tim Brewer leaning on a tire?
Same feeling as last year. Old radio replays, Tim Brewer, in-cars, lots of commercials.
Deja vu all over again!
Tried to get the stage manager to be on Twitter this season for ESPN in the booth, but no go.
Okay, I've seen enough of Tim Brewer today for five seasons! STOP ALREADY! They're killin' me, I swear.
It's bad enough that Nascar and it's joke scanner isn't working.
I am truly in total frustration now.
And another commercial...
Lord, help us.
If they HAVE to have a tech segment, when DJ Cobb gets off pit road duty, he would be terrific! I ALWAYS learn abot from him.
No one at ESPN needs any feedback. Omniscience.
I almost believe that the people paying for the commercial time have more control over what is being shown (and how it's shown) than ESPN or NASCAR
Did Nationwide change their phone number just so we could hear Junior's pronunciation of the word "fifty?"
Yeah, what was TB talking about. On the show this AM DJ Cobb showed the brake system and made it understandable for me.
Bill I'm laughing so hard that is good dude!
Why double tickers?
Why would I want to hear comments from Kurt Busch rather than watching the race on the track?
Vicky D - Exactly! I would not mind Brewer if he did something useful. Posing next to a tire and talking about air pressure is pretty useless.
I wonder how the points would stack up if the race ended now? Anyone?
Anon @ 2:31 - If the race ended now, everyone would come back to the track tomorrow to finish the race.
Wow. Calling out Sliced Bread for too much bumping? Hmmmm. Guess he's not Kyle Busch or Carl Edwards so it's worth mentioning?
If anyone is really missing great racing analysis, follow Darrell Waltrip (AllWaltrip) on Twitter. He makes some very good commentary and it's smart and relevant. The Daly Planet blog and Twitter are great sources for real-time race info. Remember when we could just turn on the tv and watch a darn race and enjoy it?!!
Some of the split screen long distance shots are difficult to see on my 52" TV. Must be terrible on a smaller screen.
AB is doing a recap. Now we find out what happened during commercials.
Another dismissal of showing the TV viewers the debris that caused the caution.
Halfway = good time for a competition yellow in the early years of the Truck Series.
That truck up in turn 3 is a street sweeper. So unless I hear otherwise, the "debris" is and and speedy-dri?
OSBORNK Good point. Of course this could be on at a drive~in (remember those?) and still be hard to see. (step awyay from the control board and pull the camera back)
The debris was 33's eight second lead.
Does anyone else notice that Tony's scanner on PitCommand keeps getting "cut out" by someone keying over his transmissions? It's happening way too often for it not to be intentional, maybe? Or perhaps I am just AFFECTED and P.O.'d by the race coverage today...(Insert pouty and angry faces here!) Or maybe I've had too many "They said Jimmie with an -ie Johnson Again" shots? ha ha ha
"Debris" cautions serve so many purposes--they allow the cars to come in for service and adjustments, they tighten up the field, they keep viewers from switching over to football, and most important of all, MORE COMMERCIALS!!
Sheesh!! They spotlight a close racin' battle for the Lucky Dog spot, then go to commercial. Then when they come back from commercial it's a debris caution. Do they tell us who got the Lucky Dog? NOOOOOOOOOO!! Do they show us the debris?? NOOOOOOOOOO!!! DOUBLE FAIL!!!!!
I think I saw AJ going around the track all by himself, which would mean that he did manage to pass Logano and got the lucky dog.
OK, just came back from commercial after pit stops almost missing green flag and FINALLY mention that AJ got the Lucky Dog!
Why doesn't NASCAR just call a spade a spade, and call them "Boredom Cautions?"
not watching/listening to the race: suffering thru the eagles instead. not b/c i necessarily WANT to watch the eagles but b/c i chose NOT to watch the race broadcast.
from what i'm reading, it's what i feared it would be today: too many commercials, poor camera work, weak booth work, chasers, chasers, chasers.
between twitter & TDP, i'm getting the info i need. no visuals but also no agita.
Ann_Ominous: Nice coverage on the lucky dog, your getting good at this NASCAR coverage.
That really was a big moment in a Chase race. Caution and nothing shown on TV. Just feeds the perception of phony races.
@Bill - If NASCAR did that, they'd be admitting there's something wrong with the sport,... when we all know there isn't.
Content is still minimal. Radio transmissions, pit reports on the radio transmission, driver fireside chat segment, various discussion among the announcers. Oh, and commercials. Does anyone even care about the race?
It is worth noting:
Mike Joy could not get a word in on FOX, Marty is the exact opposite.
Is anyone else sick and tired of the bottom ticker with the NFL score alerts? I am.
The only thing keeping me awake is gout in my big toe.
Good thing for us the Redskins game is in the 4 o'clock window today. Otherwise, the moderator might leave.
Dolphins and Redskins back to back up against NASCAR. It's a nightmare!
ESPN shows a ticker with NFL scores during the commercials. Obviously the commercial buyers are ok with this.
WHY DON'T THEY SHOW THE RACE TICKER INSTEAD??? !!!!
@Ann...that would imply that someone, somewhere might car as much about the race as a football game.
Osbornk, sorry you've got gout. Without it, I was able to sleep through the last 170 laps or so. My wife's still lightly snoring away, though.
I love these ads for the diversity program, when it hasn't yet put one of the drivers on the track in one of the major series. Yeah, it works great.
ESPN's raison d'être is a ball. Baseball. Football. Basketball. There is no ball in racecar. There is no ball in NASCAR. ESPN is lost.
Loved Reutimann's hand signal to Harvick a few laps ago. Nice guys sometimes do finish up front.
It's kinda like Wizard of Oz, "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtains"
There is no ball in NASCAR, I'll go for that!
A caution for a simple flat?
Do you think reminding Nascar that there is no 'ball' in racing would make Brian the Brain dump this stupid chase? Or is he going to be even stupider and make it an elimination format?
Jamie Mac too fast entering. Let's see if we get the wave arounds and the lucky dog this time.
I vote NASCAR requires all drivers carry a baseball bat in their cars.
JD....I'm having a real problem posting today!
I'll try again-
I'm fine with a caution for a blown tire. When the tire blows, NASCAR does not know how much debris came off the car. In the past, we have seen bad wrecks following a blown tire with no caution.
Cut to Edwards in-car live. Seriously.
Or baseballs to throw at other drivers and produce debris cautions?
Why the heck did they switch to an on board during that wreck? 11 could have been piled up by half the field and we're stuck looking at aflak logos.
LVI56 Thats the thing that makes me think NA$CAR and ESPN are not in control "We're stuck looking at an Aflac logos"
Aflac must have a PPV contract with NASCAR.
Thank goodness for replays!
Now, that was funny! The booth was saying it was Jeff Burton's fault and Kurt on his radio accepting blame. Hey, I have to find bright moments where ever I can with ESPN! :)
Ann--as Bill aka racedog would say they don't show the race ticker because what's happening in the race is NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! That's the attitude TPTB seem to have :(
The 12 car just keeps making friends.
Don't think that one was his fault. Tho', if the #99 was in there....
GEEZ MARTY!! Talk about the points!! Do NOT talk about the change in who's leading the race!! TALK ABOUT THE POINTS FOR JJ!! Oh yea, almost miss the wreck except the rest of the booth starts hollerin'!!
oops got his twitter name wrong PRESSdog not racedog
You know, this has been a pretty good race for NH. If itweren't for all the emphasis on just the chasers, I think it would be a fun race to watch. Oh good. Single car shot of the 14, and JJ's pit stop.
Sick of the terms, chaser non-chaser, enough already
They are doing more of showing shots of the entire field for several laps on the restarts. Gee, I guess they have realized there could be a crash then!!
It's been almost impossible for ESPN to handle mixing the Chase, the race and the actual stories of the teams themselves.
This race is solid for action, but the amount of info not relayed about the actual race is mind boggling.
Lucky dogs, wave arounds, start and parks, pit road penalties, cars out of the race, etc....
Not a lot of people sitting on the hill even today.
The only important thing is if JJ gets to the lucky dog position? Oy.
I'm surprised by the empty seats. Just another reason why some tracks don't deserve two races. Did he just call Hamlin, Danny???? If your driver isn't in the Chase, forget ever about him. Heck, even last place teams still get on TV.
JJ is a lap down and ESPN is still showing him - why haven't they shown more of MK?
So, the 'non chasers' can 'take valuable points away from the chasers'? Hello, aren't they out there to try to win a race, the heck with the chase? Sheesh!
Go AJ!
Guess those Childrss cars (esp. the #29) may have a better shot at the title than eveyone else gave them credit for!
Nice that they got some stories for the media in the closing laps.
Thats cool that Clint won. Nice job JD, great group of people here.
The finish line camera was better than it has been for a long time. Tony may regret his gamble.
Thanks Mike, small crowd today. Lots of folks gone to NFL. At least the race was good. Thanks as usual to the NASCAR radio partners for filling in the gaps.
And Jr. finally had a car than ran well all day. Between the 'drak horse' winner today and Jr. running well, Nascar must be thrilled.
Yea, I thought he called Denny Danny, too...
and the bumper shot from Tony's car of Clint's burn out was funny!!
If you are scooting off to football, leave us a race wrap comment on the "Your Turn" post first! Thanks.
Five of the top ten finishers were not in the Chase: McMurray 3rd, Earnhardt 4th, Reutimann 7th, Newman 8th and Hornish 10th.
So much for all the negative comments about drivers not in the running for the championship not being able to run up front.
Darcie, NH has always been successful at selling seats. It's just a sign of the economy, that's why my wife and I didn't drive 9 hours to go to the race today. The decent crowd and the great action today is the reason NH deserves two dates.
OK, please post your comments on the race review "Your Turn" page that is up on the website.
Thanks for stopping by everyone!
JD
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