This is really the final telecast that can be used to judge the ESPN Nationwide Series team. Next week in Homestead there will be lots of extra bells and whistles, along with special TV programs and lots of ESPN executives on hand.
Today at PIR there is just the hardcore crew that has worked on these telecasts for the entire season. This is the only NASCAR series where the ESPN family of networks handles the races from start to finish all year long. Daytona to Homestead, the races are all on one media source.
Allen Bestwick anchors the coverage from the Infield Pit Studio. Bestwick is solid and has been a master at dealing with his duo of Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty. Wallace is a walking conflict of interest where this series is concerned and Daugherty continues to be a NASCAR cheerleader on any topic.
Marty Reid cut his teeth on the Nationwide Series before stepping into the bigger and longer Cup races this year. In Phoenix, Reid is going to be happy at PIR that he only has to track the race since the NNS championship has been decided.
Dale Jarret and Andy Petree have been doing double-duty again this season and it is the Nationwide Series that suffers. Rather then bring in Ricky Craven and the still suspended Randy LaJoie to generate some excitement down the stretch, the network continues to use the announcers now focused on the Cup Series telecasts.
The good news is that PIR is a great track for the Nationwide Series. The drivers and teams are going to be running all out for this win and the series has lots of good things happening for next season.
ESPN is again working with the NASCAR Media Group to make great pictures and deliver outstanding audio. The lack of any technical troubles in the Nationwide Series telecasts this season has been a fantastic tribute to the television engineering and technical folks involved.
This post is going to serve to host your comments on the ESPN2 telecast of the Nationwide Series race from Phoenix International Raceway. To add your TV-related comment, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for stopping by!
203 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 203 of 203two thoughts...is it me, or are the drivers making extra efforts to thank the fans (just made me wonder if they were encouraged to do so?) Not that they aren't sincere.
Also--is someone telling the booth to push tomorrow's race? I mean, they should, but it just seemed more than usual.
Thirdly...is that a word? I am female but DP and the Go Daddy thing doesn't bother me in the least. In my mind, women should have the freedom to do what they want. I don't feel it demeans me of someone else wants to use their sex appeal. And it goes both ways--I think Junior and his PR folks know he looks okay in those Wranglers, too...
I thought the entire broadcast was 'flat'. Marty was just terrible, as usual. He just says the craziest things. Yesterday, I was so mad at Espn during qualifying. They'd start scrolling the qualifying order across the top of the screen and then remove it when they got to about 15 positions. They'd go to commercial or show some full screen image they didn't want cluttered up with those useless qualifying statistics. They must have done this at least 15 times in a row. Obviously,there were no people with Nascar knowledge in the Production truck.
Guess they won't be interviewing the 25th place driver.
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