Live Blogging RaceDay and The Gatorade Duels (SPEED - 1PM)

After some practice coverage, SPEED offers NASCAR RaceDay and then the Gatorade Duels. RaceDay starts at 1PM and runs for one hour until the race coverage starts.

There is a new line-up for RaceDay this season with Kyle Petty stepping in for Jimmy Spencer. John Roberts hosts with Kenny Wallace on the panel. Wendy Venturini and Hermie Sadler are the reporters.

Petty has already changed the program with his personality and outspoken presence. Unlike Spencer, Petty has learned to speak his mind without insulting the personalities involved in the sport. Kenny Wallace is still trying to adjust to Petty's presence on the program.

It will be Krista Voda stepping in and taking the place of Chris Myers in the Hollywood Hotel as SPEED hosts the Gatorade Duels at 2PM. Voda has been a steady presence at SPEED for years now and the host role has proven to be her strength.

Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds will call the racing action. Joy had a great performance on the Shoot Out and should be pumped-up to relate the many storylines of the teams in the Duels. While there are plenty of teams that will not need to race hard, the stories of those who must race their way into the Daytona 500 should make for a solid telecast.

Fox boasts the best pit road crew in the business with Dick Berggren, Matty Yocum and Steve Byrnes. With Voda in the Hollywood Hotel, these three reporters will have to hustle to cover the stories of the two races.

Don't forget that NASCAR.com offers RaceBuddy free of charge for both of the Duels. This online program offers multiple video and audio sources with social media programs like Twitter and Facebook right on the main page. Click here for the direct link to RaceBuddy on NASCAR.com.

This post will serve to host your comments on both RaceDay and the Gatorade Duels. To add your TV and media-related 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!

RaceBuddy Returns For Gatorade Duels

One lasting memory from the six TNT summer races last season was the online application called RaceBuddy. Simply an Internet program available to all computer users, RaceBuddy lets fans sample more than just the single TV presentation of the races.

This application was created and is owned by the Turner Interactive Group from Atlanta, GA. Since Turner also owns the online rights to all NASCAR video and audio, RaceBuddy is something that must be provided by Turner. In other words, pay Turner to provide the service or no RaceBuddy.

Thursday, RaceBuddy returns for both Gatorade Duel races starting at 2PM ET. You can access this feature by clicking here. RaceBuddy is easy to use and once you get the hang of it, really makes watching a race a lot more fun.

The program has multiple cameras from which to choose, including some not seen regularly on the broadcast. "Battle cam" is a camera that simply moves to the best racing on the track regardless of position. "Pit road cam" is always available to show pit stops of cars that might not make the TV show.

In addition to multiple video choices, there are also several team scanner audio selections. This allows the team audio that once again might not be selected for TV to be enjoyed by viewers choosing to listen. This feature worked well during the past season for TNT.

Finally, RaceBuddy bundles social media programs like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace together to allow users to close those individual windows and simply use RaceBuddy as a complete social media platform. About the only thing it does not have is email!

RaceBuddy is ad supported, so there may be short 15 second commercials played once and a while during the event. But, the bottom line is that the entire feature is free and fun to use.

This week, both the NASCAR on Fox and the ESPN TV executives held conference calls. Both networks confirmed that RaceBuddy would not be a part of their network coverage in 2010. Although talks were described as ongoing a couple of weeks ago, it appears that an agreement to bring this application to all of the Sprint Cup Series races could not be reached.

In this age of evolving technology and social media growth, an application like RaceBuddy is a positive for all the parties concerned. TDP will live blog the Gatorade Duels and include your reactions to using this online application.

Until then, please leave us any thoughts or comments you have on RaceBuddy. To add your opinion on this topic, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks!