The NASCAR on FOX gang made no changes in the off-season and is bringing back the same on-air group of announcers. Some folks find that makes a lot of sense while others wonder why no changes if the sport is struggling on TV.
Darrell Waltrip is the leader of the pack and has the high-profile assignment of being on both the pre-race show and in the booth for the race. Waltrip is one of those love him or hate him kinda guys. There is no middle ground with DW.
Mike Joy had a tough year in 2011 for one reason. Waltrip was given the green light to talk over top of Joy anytime and he certainly used that right on a continual basis. Joy wound-up fading into the background for the first time in a long time.
Larry McReynolds is a lightning bolt for fans these days. Two years ago he gave an interview critical of NASCAR and then got rebuked by the powers that be in the sport. Since that time he has been nothing short of a public relations employee. During this season's media tour, McReynolds took the time to tell the assembled reporters to make sure and keep their message positive. It did not go over well.
Jeff Hammond has been great on SPEED in several different roles but on FOX he is shoved into the Hollywood Hotel and hung-out to dry when the race starts. Hammond has a lot of offer and it should be interesting to see how much he joins the telecast during the racing action.
FOX has a great group of pit reporters. Dr. Dick Berggren, Krista Voda, Steve Byrnes and Matt Yocum are all stars with the fans. It's a shame that FOX does not use them much because Waltrip is a constant source of conversation during green flag periods. FOX suffers without field recaps and regular updates from pit road on key stories.
The Shootout is a small taste of what NASCAR on FOX will be bringing to the table this season. Look for some new graphics, a new in-car camera angle and the continuing emphasis on dramatic storylines. After the rough ride of last year, it should be interesting to see how the fans react to the coverage tonight.
We invite your comments before, during and after the telecast. To add your opinion, just click the comments button below. This chat is geared toward the telecast, not the teams, drivers or racing action. TDP is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for joining us.
359 comments:
1 – 200 of 359 Newer› Newest»Alright time for the Budweiser Shootout!!! Budweisers all around ;P This should be GOOD
Hi, Jonathan, I'm skipping the pre-race gabfest so I don't get ticked at DW and Larry too early on, but I'll be here for the green flag!
I'm a Yuengling girl myself! and it finally warmed up enough that I might enjoy a beer, rather than a hot drink.
Cannot wait to see the new FOX graphics. Maybe new music too?
Christina Agulara singing tonight?
Should be the new graphics package. Amber Heard GM and Laura Bell Bundy singing the anthem.
Offtopic: I went to nascar.com to see the shootout lineup, since I skipped Kenny as usual. You'd think it would have been pretty easy to find, but I gave up and went to Jayski. On an even less related note, my ad blocker looks like it has to work overtime on nascar.com
I notice this year, that outside of next week's Daytona 500 and Talladega in April, all of Fox's pre-race shows are only 30 minutes long, unlike the hour long that it used to be for most of their races. Which I feel has to be an improvement of sorts.
DW was actually tolerable in the ARCA race. Hopefully it continues on FOX.
The new NASCAR.com still has some sorting out to do. At least they stepped up and made some changes.
Hey FloridaMatt, in defense of crappy nascar.com, the lineup is on the right hand side of the page about mid way down. But it should be more obvious.
The problem with nascar.com is it's more of a commercial website trying to sell things than it is that of a newsworthy website.
It (NASCAR.com) doesn't work too well for the ipad
They got caught out like two years ago and still have not caught up. Be fun to watch them continue to change.
Bill, they are trying to get alternatives to that flash stuff.
Ahh, found the lineup on nascar.com. Thanks, RobertMerrill. I'd been distracted by the nascar store ad right below it, which adblock hadn't quashed. (fixed it, though. gotta love adblock on sites like that)
I totally understand Matt. NASCAR.com is a total mess with ads all over the place and news scatterd everywhere. I don't get it. Turner runs both the PGA and NASCAR websites and both of them are total junk. I think this is NASCAR.coms 3rd or 4th redesign over the past 5 years. And they still have yet to get it right. :/
The good thing about NASCAR.com is that they are changing. Lots of blog stuff, social media and links on the new site.
I have hope!
That's actually a grown man doing that. Got to wonder how sad his life really is. Oh well, we move on.
DW has had a long day, in the past that was not a good sign for a late night race.
We will see shortly.
Looking forward to another year. Would like to see what Fox's graphics package looks like. In other sports they finally ditched the limitation of the old style 4:3 SD TV sets. Hopefully they make much better use of the space HD gives you on the sides.
Go ahead and laugh, but the only time I go to nascar.com is when the weather is questionable for the race. I check the site for the track weather! Lol. DW seems subdued today which is good. Two minutes into Race Day with Kenny and Kyle with endless references to "race fans" and it was like last season never ended. I guess we're going to have to accept that Nascar will not allow criticism of its sport by the Nascar Talking Heads. The gang at Race Hub reviewed all the new rules changes a week or so ago. Not a word of any kind of negative thought. It was naturally, all ambrosia! I'm looking forward to tonight's Race. Hopefully, I won't be disapointed. We shall see!
First time checking in here after the 2010 season. I hope they put on a great show.
P.S I don't like the two car draft breakaway. It throws out the intensity of pack racing away.
The Fox broadcast crew wore out their welcome with me long ago. I watch their broadcasts in spite of them, not because of them.
Mike I agree with you about Nascar.com but I think the same thing could be said about Nascar itself.
Just change your wording a bit -
The problem with nascar.com is it's more of a commercial website trying to sell things than it is that of a newsworthy website.
and say this -
The problem with Nascar is it's more of a commercial trying to sell things than it is that of a car racing corporation.
Kenny needs to go I cant stand him he reminds me of the 5th grade class clown!
Oh and hi Gina cant wait to get this season started! Did you ever decide if you going to Phoenix in 2 weeks? Ill be there I know you were thinking of it so
Is Fox going will the all widescreen format like they use for the NFL now?
I just turned on Race Day and had to do a double-take when I saw John Roberts.
It is good to have racing back!
I enjoyed the ARCA race, and I'm looking forward to the Shootout especially since my eldest sent me four little firesuits for my cats (This Cat, That Cat, Another Cat and Lap Cat) They seem quite pleased with them.
I wish after the ARCA race when they interviewed Bobby Gerhart they would have asked him why he ran a bit high in some parts of the track.
I hit the mute button when Kenny is on. Jeez is that guy annoying.
@AncientRacer - pictures of the new firesuits please!
I'm looking at Nascar.com and it says Raceview is free for the Shooutout, but it takes you to the sign up page. So is it free or isn't it?
All the NASCAR.com stuff is free, but you need to sign-up for a free trial so you can get an account name. No money involved.
Why can't we watch this intro and listen to the track announcer???
NewRaceFan, it is free. Right under the main header where it says Next: Cuprace with a picture of Dale Earnhardt Jr, there is a Ford advertisement that says "Free For Speedweeks" click on that and scroll down to launch RaceView.
Found it thanks and it actually loaded which is a first for me, usually locks up which is why I won't upgrade to it.
NFL on FOX music?
Did Fox can the theme song they used the past two years?
Why does Turner have to use the bloatware? Last year was Octoshape, this year Unity Web Player. Unless it'll play on the iPad, I don't want to have to load another program.
Yippee. Country music.
Oh right . . . "new" but very familiar theme music.
Start the race already..
JD, were you right about DW being allowed to talk over Mike Joy, and that will continue this year?
umm, I tuned in for this?? When is the friggin' race gonna start? On the plus side, theme seems fine to me because I don't watch football!
The NFL music will be the theme for all FOX sports in 2011.
29 after is the green flag today.
3 non-race fans are watching this with me. i'm thinking of just muting it & answering any questions they may have about racing.
by the way, i'm attempting an experiment next sunday: will be watching the race without my laptop so no TDP or twitter or anything. all tv broadcast all race long.
this could be interesting!
Alresdy pichtey
red, you will make it 50 laps!
Bet she really studied the words before she sang it. Whew! made it through!
Even a country singer thinks they should sing the Star Spangled Banner like a Motown singer. Who gave out this bad information? Oh wait. It's FOX. Home of the Idols.
I'm waiting for Digger!
ordinarily, i'd agree, jd, but this is the annual daytona party so i'm going to the home of the folks who first hooked me on nascar and the laptop is staying home.
(at least, that's the plan right now.)
Had enough of DW already,will watch
the rest in mute mode.
Tks.JD Ron Il.
Anthem was okay, not great but not awful...and she knew the words!!
I should have known better than to tune in at 8pm. 45 minutes for the pre-race, 15 minutes of parade laps, and already too much DW.
Id rather barf than watch NASCAR on Fox with DW and the three stooges and digger too.
Big speeds tonight in the cold weather. Going to be interesting to see how FOX shoots it on cam.
These guys are going to be hauling the mail.
Purely coincidental that Junior got the pole. Purely coincidental.
Great Anthem! Puts the Super Bowl version to Shame!
LETS GO RACING BOYS! :P
Did you see the ARCA race? DW was actually decent because he did not have to suck-up to any NASCAR owners or brands. Weird.
I'll bet the Hulman family wishes they had trademarked "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines"
Myers, were you paying attention? The command to start the engines was already given.
DW is decent especially when he's not around Hammond. Hollywood tires to steal the show with his good looks and fake tan. He know very little ab out what is going on down on the track.
JD I agree hope DW brings that to the broadcast tonight and through the rest of the season! I like the new Budweiser commercial looks like there taking this very seriously like they did Dale Jr! I think this is going to be a big year for Nascar I just do! Oh and that Arca race was a single file parade most of the race I wasnt into it
JD
Here is the million dollar question.
Who will be singing the national anthem?
They are playing it low key, but wait until the speeds get going.
Wonder if we will see 205?
for the Daytona 500 that is
Have not seen that yet SBTF.
the good news is this is a short race so listening to DW and Larry blather on doing their happy happy joy joy routine may not have time to get on my nerves.
Jonathan, we had to change our plans for the spring Phoenix race so I won't make it this year - maybe next year.
LOL, I thought the same thing about the Racehub show where they went over all the rules -- they all held hands and sang kumbaya.
OK, I just had to mute it. I hate the whole talk to a driver deal before the race starts deal.
Hopefully David Hasselhoff!
Oh BTW, who is 205
Take a look at what the AP Twitter account just sent out. Nice timing.
Jonathan, at least Harvick looks like a guy who drinks beer. I like Kahne, but he looks more like he should be selling hallmark cards than budweiser.
I really can't believe that Derrike Cope and Kevin Conway are in this race. what a joke!
Sure hope the lights don't go out tonight during the race!
Sally you are bsolutely right they should not even be in the shootout.
Does anyone else find it ironic that, with Nascar and the networks all a flutter about losing the 18-34 male crowd, that one of the top drivers is sponsored by AARP?
Chris Myers is a major fail! The grand marshal just gave the command to start your engines, and a pretty good one at that, and Meyers followed that saying, "in baseball it's the opening pitch, in football it's the coin toss, here, we're waiting for those words we love to hear this time of year, gentlemen start your engines. That's straight ahead."
How he missed that, escapes me.
Looks like we're in for a long season with these clowns on FOX.
@Sally
Agree with you about Conway, but I'm old enough to remember when Cope actually did win the 500.
No "reach up there, and pull them belts down tight?"
Sally, it's a fun game! How soon until Cope loses the draft?
Oh and I am thinking of our very dear friend Vince. He's probably watching the shootout muted because he's no fan of DW.
@old/new...I remember that too...but really, should he be racing in the shootout?
bad camera work on that first lead change.
How many laps until Cope parks it? I'm betting on 10.
@Charlie...and you're surprised?
Judging by these first few laps, I'm going to predict a big wreck early in the 500. It's already nuts.
Are we going to see nothing but 2 car drafts at the plate tracks from now on?
What are the speeds? Anyone on Raceview?
Like it or not, they put "Past Daytona points race winners" in the field. That means Cope will show up.
"Past rookie of the year winners" creates the Conway problem.
Graphics are nice and clean.
and the fans go wild, Jr in the lead! LOL
I just saw the in car cam and in front of him the extenze car.
No onder NASCAR is losing their luster and TV IS ALLOWING IT AS WELL!
No credibility in NASCAR
None
Zero
Get the damn camera off the front row!
There's noting happening there. I wanna see how spread out the field is. I want to see how the middle of the pack is sorting out.
You know, an unexpected 'benefit' of the Ethanol just might be putting reliability back on the table.
Kyle Petty said there could be some blown engines tonight. Is Kahne the first victim?
205 from JJ and Logano! Holy cow!
Great...the brief wide shot shows cars closing fast, 3 wide, and we go to the in car camera. Nothing changes.
Honestly, I think Fox is doing a good job.
Conway has managed to not finish last. A victory for a man of no talent.
Couples racing is supposed to be exciting?
this is not a very interesting race so far - or am I missing something?
Mikey and Kyle Busch just hit 208 going into turn 3.
If you have groups of two you have to zoom out to see more of these groups as they interact with each other.
Ugh, I hate that new Bud commercial. I have changed the channel, seeing it during the superbowl was enough for me.
The 3rd guy messes the rhythm up doesn't tell me anything about why three cars don't work as well as two.
The action isn't very thrilling so far.
BUT, the booth is doing great so far. Joy is back in control of things.
God, their ticker is laggy, it's like its running on a Pentium 2 processor.
I think there are a lot of drivers out there who don't know how to pair up and draft right. Gordon was trying to get his spotter & Smith's to tell the 78 how to do this.
pathetic!
GinaV24...so far, it's like watching one of those gimmick races at the local short track where they tie cars together, isn't it? :-D
junior during an interview talked about that the reason they can do this is that nascar slowed them down too much, so they are able to push through the corners, he said "they made it easy", thought that was interesting... gluck had the whole intereview good reading
I hate the camerawork. They hardly ever hold a shot for more than three seconds. I have to keep readjusting my brain to see if we're seeing the same cars or a new set.
Mike just said mark was teamed up with kevin harvick when the go daddy car and the Penzoil car went by.
Look quick! A long shot that showed almost half the field!
Told Waltrip want 210 on the computer. That is off the daggone chart.
The scroll has nothing to do with what is going on on the track.
Nascar gotta do something about the two car draft. What happen to pack racing?
Alright, my man Derrick is ahead of Casey!
I swear, they always pick the worst times for a bumper cam shot.
Wow decent pics except for that lame triangle stacked view?? Cars were tiny on the 52 inch tv! R U kidding? Folks with smaller/normal SD TVS would see specks.:-(
On another note, Housemate is GONE, sound is good but I can't turn on the stupid SURROUND SOUND. 3 remotes say Sony & one is TW DVR one.
I feel like that episode of Modern Family where only the husband could run the tv. I don't know anything about this LR tv except basic stuff.
And it's the sign of my Honda.
My tv is SD in my room.
SPOKE TOO SOON :-( Going too many bumper cams
KoHo, yeah or like slot car races. This is awful.
gordon has been complaining that he is on the chip.
closing speeds are scary fast.
Whatever FOX is doing with the in-car cameras, that is not televising the part of the race I tuned in to see. Thanks, pal.
the announcers are not catching the fact that when the lead cars make the "exchange" the other paired cars will whiz by them. basically we are just going to have pairs swapping the lead as they do their "exchange"
New world order is coming for you
p.s. As soon as I THOUGHT the cam work was decent they started getting ADD in the truck & major shark jump.
Shame.
This track is made for LONG SHOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well now, that sure was interesting! What did you guys think of that?
and they go to break JUST as I hear the spotter say the caution is out!
JD - in a word -- awful!
Jr also said you don't want to be the lead car in the pair, because when the back guy pulls out the lead car dies..instantly back to 185.. so it could make the ending interesting if you have two pairs the back cars pull out and there are pairs behind them that close up fast..
It is so nice hear Joy back in charge in the booth. Hope it stays that way. With these speeds & closing rates, expect to see a smaller restrictor plate for the 500.
Junior on radio: This is ridiculous as s**t.
My wife says they look like a bunch of Love Bugs.
I think that, if this is what the 500 looks like, Nascar is in big trouble.
Oh crap...the rodent is back!
JD-What we have seen so far makes the 500 far less appealing.
@Debby
I will upload a couple of pics once one of my kids comes by and shows me how. I learned Twitter during the off season and I thought that was quite an accomplishment.
So far, through 25 this has not been bad. Incredibly smooth surface. The in-cars show virtually no vibration and the speeds are insane.
.. and No Digger. Not even a mention of it from DW.
JD, under normal circumstances, I would cut a sports TV crew a lot of slack for their first telecast of the year. However, knowing this history of this bunch, I already have little hope of getting better camera shots or timely race information. The booth seems better but, as I recall, we said the same thing during the Shootout last year and we all know what happened after that.
JD:
Booth: A
CameraWork: C+
Racing: B-
There are aspects of the 2 car draft I like and aspects I don't like.
I must add the Digger animations do not mesh well with the NFL theme song.
jd think watching the pairs was probably not as important as showing what was happening in the back of the pack. Think dw doesn't understand where you want to be in the pair at the end of the race
I actually like the race so far. Lots of pairs of cars swapping the lead. Cars rapidly coming from mid-pack to the front.
But it's all pairs. So we can assume that there will be two pairs racing for the lead with three laps to go at the end and the back car in each set doesn't matter.
My guess is that this and the 500 will have a runaway winner.
If Nascar announcers were honest, someone would make a joke at Kevin Conway's expense. He looks like he is riding around in a Prius.
Best lap time in the first segment was 43.675. That is faster than 206 MPH for a lap average!
I thought that was fun... Its Daytona I dont expect a race its more of a crap shoot! This is much much better than the Arca race!
Lovebugs! that's a great description. it sure isn't interesting racing.
I think the COT has proven to be an aerodymanic nightmare.
one of my nascar virgins just saw digger and said "oh lord! what was THAT?"
told him it was digger; "only digger i know is digger phelps."
my response: "that's because you're a sports fan, not a fox sports fan . . . "
then i sighed.
again.
don, jr says the front car is the one who will be in trouble that this new pairing brings back the slingshot move but even more dramatically
@ Jon - Wasn't the ARCA race terrible? Single file parade from green to checkers, with the expected big one.
@GinaV24
Whether it is interesting or not is perhaps a matter of perception. I think KyBu moving up from way back to lead is interesting! :)
LOL, A-R, you break my heart! but I'm glad you are happy.
My hubby's theory on pack drafting is the 2rd car needs to drag the brake to enable the 3rd car to be able to push. Doesn't understand why they haven't figured it out.
@Red
You saw Digger? I must have been out of the room. Thank goodness.
Denny had a good explanation of why the trailing pairs of cars catch up so quickly.
Hammond just enlightened us all about spotters. Are you all informed now?
nocalfan.. 3 cars are not as efficient..i wish they would explain why..where's rusty and the draft tracker when you need him?
how long is this little intermission supposed to last?
darn, is that what all those guys are doing standing up on top of the stands?
Digger. Ugh. Where's my shovel?
I am listening to M. Waltrip on the scanner and on the warm up lap Kurt Busch's spotter wanted to know if Kurt and Micheal could hookup together and Micheal said sure.
And this pair had the fastest speeds on the track so far.
I also don't like the background for the pit command on trackpass. It is so dark it makes it hard to read.
The ARCA race was horrible. Glad that kid did not get hurt. Roof first into the wall at full speed....yeeeee.
It's time to retire digger
Please don't hate me but that dancing Digger just made me smile! It reminded me of an old Fresh Prince of Belair episode with Will Smith's dancing to some drums. :-D
No worse than the NFL robot.
Other than that, just keep digger OFF the track.
Worry ADD meds wore off in truck & more bumper cams will commence after break.
Yeah, but he walked away, JD. Just like Elliot did at Pocono.
Koho, its hard to kill gophers with a shovel, I prefer running over them with a race car!
Are Nascar fans really the target audience for Glee commercials?
@Finance Guy
That is THE question of the evening...does FOX's research dept. know something we do not?
all new digger cam! oh joy oh bliss
@ Sophia - At least the toughness the robot is symbollic for matches the theme. A gopher dancing around to that music is just weird
ALL NEW Digger? Oh no.
so, when they re-paved the track, could they not have paved over their "digger cam"?!?
Well, try this: Maybe they think if you like Digger dancing then you will like Glee. Not as far fetched as it seems...
More crap from Fox . . . the more things change, the more they stay the same . . .
bozo..hubby says three cars would be faster but because the 2nd car has to drag the brake less than the first car does, it's difficult to coordinate that in order to make it work. And with some drivers on the track who don't know how to push at all, well, what can I say.
I missed the ARCA race. Glad to hear that the driver in the accident wasn't injured
wow, that camera show showed the 99 run into the 88
"Well, we had 'er zoomed in nice and tight and all, but we missed the wreck."
Naw! You don't say!
Nice going, Carl!
i SWEAR dw & i are not watching the same race.
Carl did not even try to check up before hitting Jr. Just like he did to BK last year. Ramming speed right into his rear end. Sheese, Carl
there is also talk of potential due to dragging it more to lock up with your partner...mcmurray broke a rotor during practice.
that wreck certainly makes you want to be out front in a pair during the race
I hope Joe Nemechek already recieved the check from Extenze. Lots of damage to that car.
Man, how frustrating was that? Missed the entire thing.
Looks like they are going to force us to go to the race to see a wreck as it happens.
JD, and NASCAR wonders WHY the ratings are down? I don't tune in to hear them talk, I tune in to WATCH them race and the truck misses it.
OSBORNK...it must be Brian "Flounder" France's secret plan to boost track attendance.
Will they tell us that a bunch of jet fuel just spilled on the track and it will be a few more caution laps.
Introducing two new camera shots for NASCAR on FOX: Name over door-cam and contingency sticker-cam. Allows us to shoot everything but the race on the track.
You could tell Jr. had more to say about the racing and held it back.
Brian definitely got where he is because he's a "legacy". It sure wasn't merit.
Earlier today in practice on SPEED a jet dryer caught fire and they went to break showing it and came back without ever mentioning it again.
The fuel that the jet dryer spilled caused practice to be red flagged and cancelled.
Not only FOX with tunnel vision.
Ha! At this rate, Cope might win after all! ...Unless he's already pulled it in. Only has enough money for a half tank of gas, right?
Charlie - That'll be the second time that happened today. Earlier a jet blower started billowing smoke and leaking fuel out while they were on the track.
@Finance Guy--not according to my twitter feed after the SuperBowl. Many were saying they were changing the channel & not watching Glee.
What a mess that was :(
Nascar and Fox were frothing at the mouth with Junior on the pole. Wonder how they feel now?
Ugh...Production truck is really dropping the ball tonight.
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