This is a little bit of a different week in NASCAR TV land, so here are the latest updates as the circus heads to suburban Richmond, VA.
Friday night ESPN2 will be covering the second and third rounds of the NFL Draft from New York City. The network will have no event production presence at RIR and SPEED will produce the Nationwide Series practice, qualifying and race.
Lead Reporter Marty Smith and reporter Shannon Spake will be in Richmond to provide news coverage for ESPN's networks. Nicole Briscoe will be hosting NASCAR Now on ESPN2 at 5PM ET Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday's show is at 10PM Pacific, 1AM Eastern Friday morning. The one-hour Sprint Cup Series preview show will be at noon ET on Saturday.
Rick Allen, SPEED's play-by-play announcer from the truck series, got the call to work the Nationwide race on Friday night. That was the good news. The other shoe dropped when SPEED announced that it would be Michael and Darrell Waltrip joining Allen in the TV booth. Allen may have his work cut out for him keeping the telecast on track with all that Waltrip family enthusiasm in the booth.
SPEED tapped Krista Voda, Hermie Sadler and Ray Dunlap to cover pit road and handle the reporting duties for qualifying and practice. SPEED's solid coverage of the truck series should serve as a great foundation for this weekend's Nationwide production.
Before the SPEED folks head to Richmond, there is a full week of Race Hub shows at 7PM ET. Tuesday features Nationwide hot shoe Ricky Stenhouse Jr. as the in-studio guest, but Wednesday packs a surprise. Kyle Busch is stopping by the studio to chat with host Steve Byrnes. Certainly, SPEED would like nothing more than to get Busch comfortable with the concept of "just dropping by."
Thursday night at 8PM ET SPEED is going to cover Denny Hamlin's late model showdown from RIR live. A diverse group of drivers is going to participate in this charity event. Formerly held at Southside Speedway, the closing of that track this season put RIR in play and SPEED just happened to be there with all the TV equipment.
Mike Joy is going to host the telecast with Kenny Wallace and Ken Schrader in the TV booth. Both of the Kenny's have a long history of late model racing and should make it fun. Bob Dillner and Dick Berggren will handle the reporting duties.
On Friday from Richmond SPEED will produce two new Trackside shows. Matt Kenseth will be the guest for the live show at 7PM ET before the Nationwide Series race. At 10:30PM, David Gilliland will be the featured interview in another thirty minute show. Regardless of Darrell Waltrip's desire to be featured on endless SPEED TV shows this season, Trackside is just not the same without Larry McReynolds.
SPEED continues to record the Victory Lane show after the Sprint Cup Series races that happen on Saturday nights and hold it for airing on Sundays at 8PM ET. This is the schedule for this weekend. Even if the race ends at midnight ET, there are certainly fans who would like to see an hour of interviews, comments and highlights. Especially the ones in the Central and Pacific time zones.
Click here for a peek at the new Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame website. It's a nice group of TV veterans from different sides of the business. In addition to having voting representatives, NASCAR also has the likes of the late Jim McKay, Keith Jackson and George Wensel who directly affected the early TV days of the sport.
We invite your comments on these topics. To add your opinion, just click the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.
For the adults viewing this blog, I propose a drinking game for Friday's Nationwide race:
ReplyDeleteEvery time Rick Allen is prevented from finishing a sentence, take a drink of your favorite adult beverage.
If you can still remember how good or bad the race/telecast was on Saturday, you win.
well, that news spoils my plans for watching the nationwide race.
ReplyDeleteJD did us all a big favor with the detailed run down of a busy week on TV. Unfortunately, I'm going to choose to avoid quite a bit of it. Personally, I'm just tapped out listening to those two opportunists named Waltrip. What's interesting, is that if you listen to those two, they would have you believe they're joined at the hip. I believe it was Speed that did a special on Michael quite a few years ago. Michael said that because of their age difference and the fact that DW was off racing all the time that he was never close to his brother. Additionally, he said he did not get a lot of support from his parents as he tried to follow in DW's footsteps. He said his parents had sacrificed so much to further DW's career that they weren't willing to do it all over again. Maybe I'm cynical, but they now give you the impression that they were inseperable. If you listen to DW, he can add a lot of valuable insights into what's happening out on the track. Unfortunately, it's often lost in a ton of BS!
ReplyDeleteUnderstatement of the year (so far): "Allen may have his work cut out for him keeping the telecast on track with all that Waltrip family enthusiasm in the booth."
ReplyDeleteHow far was your tongue in your cheek when you wrote that JD?
Wisc Steve -- that might ALMOST make watching the race fun! LOL
ReplyDeleteit would be intersting to see how well everyone blogs while doing that!
I'll admit, I dread watching Friday night's race with both Waltrips in the booth. Don't really know why they didn't just use Mike Joy, Larry Mac & DW in the booth or use Steve Byrnes, Kyle Petty & Jeff Hammond since they usually do the N'wide practice & qualifying on SPEED.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, John, about Larry Mac on 'Trackside'. Don't know why they removed him because I always thought Byrnes, Larry Mac & Hammond had great chemistry.
JD I wonder if you can tell us, who is the executive at Speed that made the decision to put both Waltrips in the booth? I'd like to fire off an email to him.
ReplyDeleteWisconsin Steve, alternate drinking game. Take a drink every time one of the Waltrips say "I".
If you want to go through a case of beer during the race have a slug every time one of the Walltripp's say the word "I".
ReplyDeleteYou will not be awake at the checkered flag I predict.
Sam
Vince, "he" would be named Patti Wheeler. You can use the feedback form on the speedtv.com website. Select programming issue as topic.
ReplyDeleteJD
Although I'm not thrilled (actually far from it) about both Waltrips in the booth for the Nationwide race I must say it is great to see all the promos SPEED is doing for the race. It seems to me like SPEED is going to take this opportunity to "audition" for the Nationwide Series Contract when the time comes.
ReplyDeleteAny word on a race buddy for this race? SPEED likes to do it for their races (Truck and All Star race) so I'm hoping they do it for this race to.
mikey loves playing the victim, just read his book. it pains me to inform all of you that i will have to endure the mrn broadcast over sirius as i truck along friday night.
ReplyDeletei predict that patti wheeler will be fined for violating 12-1, actions detrimental to stock car racing. putting both waltrips in the booth together is truly a detriment.
One good thing:
ReplyDeleteSpeed's pit road coverage should be pretty strong, if they can get a word in from time to time.
BTW: I read elsewhere that Jim Noble will not be back with TNT/Racebuddy this year. Sad to hear: I really liked his work.
Steve,
ReplyDeleteApparently the TNT boys did not like having a different pit reporter serving a different audience on the air at the same time.
In other words, Noble was stealing their thunder.
JD
Quick question: Why does speed continue to underuse Bob Dillner and Wendy Venturini? Those 2 would be great for the Friday night Nationwide race. They both have the talent and are generally well liked by the fans. I enjoy hearing both of them. They would be great additions to the Nationwide telecast as well as the All Star race. Just curious as to why these 2 never get a shot when they can clearly do the job and do it quite well.
ReplyDeleteYes I was sad to see his tweet the other day :(. He's really nice!
ReplyDeleteShame I will not listen to the N'wide race. Or should I say the 2 W's yapping about themselves & their sponsors during the N'wide race. I may watch with the sound off - or maybe not if the weather is good. I refuse to get that stressed with those 2 in the booth. Now over to speed tv to fill in a form, just to let them know how I feel about this dumb idea...
ReplyDeleteWhat they should do is dump Parsons and add Noble to the TV side. I love Phil Parsons in the booth.
ReplyDeleteNot on pit road.
Patti Wheeler obviously subscribes to a viewer research org that tells her what she wants to hear. I'll DVR the race. The FF and mute buttons will get lots of work.
ReplyDeleteRick might as well call out Friday... the viewer ain't gonna know the difference.
ReplyDelete@Wisconsin Steve: Bad idea, we'll all be wasted by lap 12.
ReplyDeleteYou know I really respect Patti for her past work, but this one just baffles me. I just don't get how any sane person would think two Waltrips in the booth is a good idea. At least from a fan's point of view.
ReplyDeleteI have not posted in a while. I do not know if it matters or not, but I do want everyone to know I read this board all the time. Anyway, I refuse to watch anything that has a Waltrip or a Wallace - no matter what else is happening on the show. I have had enough of them and I am just tired of posting the same thing over and over. If someone says it makes a difference and I should post more often, I will. I just want to turn on the tv and watch a race, like I can turn on the radio and listen to a race. Keep up the good work you all do. MC
ReplyDelete