Live Blogging Camping World Trucks In Texas (8:30PM ET SPEED)

This week the Camping World Truck Series stops at the Texas Motor Speedway for a Friday night race on SPEED.

The cast of characters is familiar, but one regular is missing. Adam Alexander is off starting his six race assignment of handling the play-by-play for TNT over in the Sprint Cup Series.

Krista Voda will host the pre-race show and then move to a pit reporter position to work with Ray Dunlap. Up in the booth to call the race will be Rick Allen, Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip.

The trucks are very fast at Texas and the high speed brings a very new level of danger. This track has incidents that happen very fast and that is the challenge for SPEED's veteran TV crew.

We have used the work of this team as example to FOX of what straightforward racing on TV should look like. The CWTS TV team kicks it old school and has done so very effectively for several years.

As we have often seen with the trucks this season, there should be a quick separation into the "haves" and "have nots" where speed is concerned. Hopefully, the number of "start and park" teams will be limited.

This post will serve to host your comments on the CWTS on SPEED from Texas. To add your TV-related opinion, 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.

Vince Welch And Adam Alexander On Centerstage

What a wonderful weekend of NASCAR TV. Two familiar faces in new places should make it even more interesting.

ESPN is giving Vince Welch an opportunity to step-up and call the Nationwide Series race from Nashville, TN on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, TNT is giving Adam Alexander the career opportunity of a lifetime. He will call the six Sprint Cup Series races for that network this summer.

Before the green flag, both men will get tune-ups as they step-in to host practice and qualifying sessions. Alexander will call the Saturday morning Sprint Cup Series practice on SPEED, while Welch will work Nationwide Series practice Friday night and qualifying late Saturday afternoon for ESPN2.

Welch is a native of Indianapolis and is known to many motorsports fans for his IndyCar TV experience. Welch has actually been working with ESPN and ABC since 1999. While in Nashville, Welch will be joined by Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the booth.

You may remember Welch working for ESPN as a college football sideline reporter. On a regional level, he has called many college events for TV and even worked in local TV in the Midwest. He has an Emmy on the shelf for his sports reporting.

Alexander has made himself a household name because of his hard work for SPEED. Hustling as a pit reporter on the Camping World Truck Series, Alexander found his hard work paying off as SPEED began to revamp its motorsports line-up.

There is no better motorsports TV program currently on the air than The Speed Report. Alexander is a frequent co-host and he took immediately to the program with his straightforward approach when dispensing information. It just clicked. Shows like NASCAR in a Hurry and Race Hub also began to use Alexander in the host role.

Now, he and Welch need to change gears and appear on the national TV stage in roles that are new. For ESPN, Sunday is a chance to audition a back-up play-by-play guy for Marty Reid. The network likes Allen Bestwick in his current infield role. ESPN's Dave Burns will also get an opportunity to call a Nationwide race this season. Welch is currently scheduled to handle the play-by-play on four races in 2010.

Alexander's baptism by fire comes this week and runs for the next six Sprint Cup Series races, including the big Daytona event where TNT offers "wide open" coverage. Dealing with the strange twists and turns of that assignment may prove the most challenging for him this summer.

Perhaps you could give us your opinion of these selections before the races this weekend. We can then revisit this topic next week. To add your comment, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. We will live blog the CWTS race on a new post Friday night.

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