Good weather was a blessing as the NASCAR on FOX team covered the Sprint Cup Series race from the Phoenix International Raceway.
Chris Myers returned to lead the Waltrip brothers through the pre-race show. There was no outdoor stage, but the guys in the TV booth began their portion of the telecast with a liveshot from the roof of the PIR tower.
While the Daytona 500 is always an exception, PIR is the beginning of the long TV grind. FOX returned almost immediately to the formula the production team has used for years. Tight shots mixed with in-car cameras and replays used for incidents.
The coverage took several hits as the caution flag came out repeatedly while the network was in commercial. This actually became funny as time went by, FOX just could not buy a break.
PIR offers some of the most scenic camera views from high above. Once the racing settled in, FOX chose to focus on the formula of showing designated cars rather than the best racing on the track. This has been an ongoing fan debate for years and is the way the network feels they should present this product.
Mike Joy still directs traffic in the booth, but Darrell Waltrip is the show. Once again, there were times when the brothers Waltrip were talking back and forth during race action. It made Larry McReynolds seem a bit out of place.
Michael Waltrip is enthusiastic, but his role as a multi-car team owner in this series makes interpreting his comments tough. No matter how pure the intention, his words have to be filtered through the reality of Sprint Cup ownership.
After the halfway point of the race, the FOX director fully committed to showing the race in what we call "hyper-tight" style. Despite Joy in the booth trying to point out the racing on the track, the pictures viewers saw at home were of small clumps of cars without any larger perspective.
Since 2007, replays have become a central part of the FOX coverage. The downside of mixing tight shots with in-car cameras is that the vast majority of things happen outside of the two or three cars chosen to be on-camera at any given moment. This was the case again in Phoenix.
FOX went side by side with commercial breaks at approximately 5:30PM ET. The telecast was scheduled until 6PM and we were originally told the side by side commercials would be for the last hour of scheduled coverage. In addition, FOX executives said the network would try to expand this format during the season.
Down the stretch, the FOX team focused on the chase for the lead and continued to update the situation on fuel. The tight shots continued until the final lap, when a nice wideshot famed the finish line as the top five cars were shown finishing.
It's been a "hyper-tight" world for FOX and this style of production continued. The post-race was 12 minutes long as the network was beyond the scheduled coverage. Three of the top four finishers and the current series champion were interviewed before the network signed-off.
We invite your opinions on the NASCAR on FOX coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race from Phoenix. To add your TV-related comment, just click on the comments button below. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.
47 comments:
It was a long day trying to watch a short race. What was being said had no relation to what we were seeing on the track. Most of the time, the cameras seemed to show random cars that were mid-pack or worse that were just ridin around. The phony fabricated "excitement" from the Waltrip brothers was hard to take. Going to be a long year.
I thought that there were too many commercials whether it was on the FOX television network or even on MRN radio.
I am even disappointed that I had RaceView problems during the last two laps of the race, this is after I upgraded from the regular priced RaceView. Let me say that as a loyal NASCAR fan, it frustrates me that the NASCAR leadership cannot promote the sport as it should be. There is so much that the sport could do to promote the sport to others who would be interested, but it seems like it wants to remain in the early `90s in technological advances.
Got home from Plant City Strawberry Festival today - got to TV Turned on Fox13. And the stinkin ticker shows only 20 cars on the track. Really? Really?? Checked online & found out what happened to the # 14 & 15. Thanks for no info Fox.
You know a few years back we would have gone to the festival on a Sat. with the grands and all.Sunday used to be race only. No more - I can't wait for the comments to learn what the rest of the race was like.
Jojaye
This track does not interest me much; too much parading around; but as a broadcast it was not objectionable; especially in HD (which I get ONLY from FOX or those on ABC).
The pictures were above average IMO and the shots (most of them anyway) seemed wider. Not wide enough, but better than last year.
Also there was, to my absolutele delight, NO Digger or any of Diggers excreeable compatriots. Maybe they are gone and not a moment too soon if so.
Of course there was too much Waltrip & Waltrip but There is the radio so I did not notice them as much as I might have.
My one complaint with the audio I did hear was the mid-race report. The music bed was so loud I could barely hear the reports/opinons.
Finally, the Tweet thing works pretty good, but what does not work well -- or so it seems to me -- is Twitter itself. I just do not think it has the capacity to serve its global audience and, so, is slow to respond to mouse clicks or post. But that is is Twitter issue not a #HASCAR or #FOX issue.
Pretty standard for what I have come to expect (or not expect) from FOX. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Commercial overload, tight shots, missed pit stops under caution due to commercial, missed wrecks during commercial, short post race that didn't even carry to bottom of hour. Yeah, pretty standard.
Lots of oddly placed Jeff Hammond features too. The Roger Penske interview was recorded and replayed during green flag? Really? Missed passes for 2nd on a couple of occasions. No update on the 99 and 78 running out of fuel that I could recall. Just a 1.5 star day from FOX.
Phoenix races are short, but they're not short enough for anyone to reasonably think that you could get in a race starting at 3:15 and a full post-race show by 6 PM.
The worst bit of coverage had to be Newman's wreck, where Joy called the wreck while the camera looked out the back bumper of the guy spinning him out.
@Joj—I only noticed the top-20-only ticker late in the race, when it makes more sense to only show the frontrunners.
First off, it was good to see Chris Myers back. He was tremendously solid today all things considered.
Other than that theres not much good to say about today's broadcast. So many times there would be something happening on screen and they would jump to another camera focusing on something else. Also several times stuff would happen on the screen and the announcers wouldnt pick up on it for a couple laps, then of course there would be a full screen replay. Couple examples of this were the JJ/Brad K bump going into turn 1, and the Ambrose blown engine. Between full screen replays, commercials, and other useless crap such as the At&t race break and Sprint full screen takeover and Radio Remix, there weren't very many green flag laps that were covered in their entirety. On board cameras were over used. Production truck was sleeping when wrecks would break out. They continued with the Carl Edwards onboard for a good 10 seconds after he wrecked Newman. Of course they missed most of the cautions in the first half due to being in commercial.
The at&t midway recap just makes me want to find a new hobby on Sundays. I do not want to see the announcers during the race talking about the same crap they talked about in the pre race. Show me the cars please.
Im on twitter, I use it for information, it is a valuable tool to have during races, but it is being shoved down our throats to the point where Im starting to really dislike its popularity. Everywhere you turn someone is shoving it down your throat. Its just really getting old. Now I know how Brad D feels. FOX/Speed really needs to take it down a couple notches on the social media stuff.
On a more positive note, NASCAR Raceday is actually worth watching now. Can't believe Im saying that. Now Kenny Wallace is still screaming and Matt Clark is awful but everyone other than that is doing a great job. The show has cut out some of the childish skits and has come out of the box with in depth interviews and good discussion between Kyle and Larry. That show is on the upswing.
I watched some races from 2008 over the past couple weeks and the FOX coverage was so much better then than it is now. Im amazed at how good we had it. Its a shame that a team that has the potiential to bust out awesome coverage instead just seems to not care anymore.
I believe it is time for ol' DW to step down out of the booth...
DW - "There's nothing teams can do to save gas with the new fuel injectors"
Larry Mac - "No, they can still control it with the throttle"
DW - "I don't know about that"
20 laps later...
DW - "These teams are learning to save fuel by letting off the throttle"
Silence from Larry Mac as he considers ways to dispose of DW's body in the Sonoran Desert.
@Zetona - Don't know when they did - we had just walked in the door -I would understand if they ran a short ( like top 12 or whatnot) & alternated it with a full ticker. Its the point that to get info I could not use the network showing the actual race. I probably could have worded it better.
The coverage just didn't have any magic to it. Too many voices, too many cameras, too many graphics. All this excess just drowns out the race.
I was excited FOX allowed Mike Joy to run through the first 12 rows of the starting lineup before another useless radio chat with Carl Edwards consisting of well wishes and sponsor plugs.
By lap 9, I was already missing RaceBuddy. FOX wasn't chasing the best racing. Nobody was covered outside the top 20 except Dale Jr. My frustration started to increase when the FOX director missed Kahne slamming the wall because of poor camera choices. I’d rather see the perspective of the fans and the stands and save the in-car/fisheye/Digger shots for a weekday NASCAR special.
The race became more frustrating to watch as green flag racing was lost after being mixed with the FOX clutter. The live action was mixed with advertisements (for the third time, we know Las Vegas is next week), replays, the Hollywood Hotel, reading the news (that Penske interview was out of place), mid-race winner picks (why can't this be done in the pre-race like the last 10+ years?) and commercials. When the live racing was covered, there was a lot of single car shots and car-hopping until the last 75 laps or so.
By lap 200, I lost all my excitement and waited for the end. The last ten laps were exciting, but that's about it. The FOX and NASCAR I love was too muddled for enjoyment today.
TV missed several passes and we got to watch on replay. So many commercials too and I noticed the 20 cars on the ticker but that was near the end of the race. And we had to listen to Mikey talk about his drivers ! I was also glad to see Chris Myers back he did a great job.
What Fox missed today thanks to commercials and in car cameras:
2nd place Kahne crash on restart
Mears hard crash
McMurray/AJ/Menard hard crash
Newman/Edwards hard crash
many lead changes
race winning pass in turn 4 after late restart
What DID we see? 1 Busch-Harvick lead change maybe? THANKS FOX!!!!!!!!!!
I had a chance to visit a friend so my sister & I had lunch there and I DVRd the race.
But, once again, after reading the comments, I won't bother watching.
I'm weary of the horrid, tight camera shots. Lather, rinse, repeat.
We gripe for year, nothing changes. Let me know when TNT Begins!
Don't know why it is both Fox and ESPN are so tight on the track shots. I do have issues with them. Phoenix is an especially important place for wide coverage with its unique features. I've been pretty vocal about my dislike of the brothers Waltrip. It's not been QUITE as bad as I anticipated - YET. I'll cut them some slack for a couple more races, but anyone who takes time from Larry Mac is screwing with quality of the product. Larry’s solid, informative and wonderfully passionate in a good way. The show’s never about him unless he has something to mention from his days on the box that relates to the moment. (I can even overlook him being an Alabama football fan.)
So far, I like Hammond's new roving assignment. It’s been interesting thus far and I’ll take him 100 times out of 100 over ESPN’s Brewer.
BTW, hats off to Chris Meyers returning in his professional form after what he's been through. I can't even imagine what it must be like for him, and I wish him the very best.
After that couple more weeks has passed the product should have shown itself more fully. I will seemingly ALWAYS have Darrel issues, but will wait to be more critical until then beyond what has already been said. At least there was good post-race coverage, ESPECIALLY compared to ESPN. No complaints there.
DW's missed calls started early, on the 10th or 11th lap, when Kahne had JUST got passed and his remark was to the extent of, and I'm paraphrasing here, "Kahne's chasing so & so" He just got passed but the guy in the booth that talks the most doesn't know it? FOX needs to get a handle on him. That was only his first miss of the day.
One thing I will give FOX credit for, as AncientRacer pointed out, No Digger! that was definitely an improvement, so Thank You for that, FOX.
And JD, like you said, they had a field day with untimely commercial breaks. Not much they could do about most of them, except the first one, which I thought was quite early.
On a side note, I wanted to join in on the twitter conversations, but it's hard to do that if I pause my DVR for a while at the Green Flag to skip thru the commercials. I can't have both. Next week I'll go live and chat with you all.
One other comment: Fox is indeed really commercial-heavy. I'm also an F1 fan and they carry four races - played on a several hour delay in mid-season which kills the drama if you are any kind of Twitter or Internet comsumer. After watching the several races before Fox picks up their four after ending their Nascar contract races, it’s painfully obvious. It takes away from the excellent commentary by Matchett, Varsha, Hobbs and Buxton. They ruin the one thing Speed, their property, does so extremely well! The @FormulaOneOnSpeed team is excellent from the men at the mics on through the production crew. In fact, it's hard to believe Speed's Nascar coverage and their F1 coverage are actually on the same network. They could learn tons from the F1 team!
I wasn't sure if I was watching a race, a seminar in race stragedy, or a racing infomercial. I actually dozed off about 1/4 of the way into the race. Show the race!
I missed about the first third of the race, but I thought Fox was decent today.
I feel sorry for Mike Joy and his role as a play-by-play man these days. He might still be the best of the three PBP men on the Sprint Cup level (Bestwick a close 2nd, Alexander a distant 3rd), but all Fox seems to have him do is present sponsored segments and throw it down to the Hollywood Hotel. It's borderline frustrating.
As for the Hollywood Hotel, I think it may be the best format they've used for it, which really isn't saying much. I know it seems like I'm trolling with this next comment, but I've been presently surprised by Michael Waltrip. I thought it was great that he was able to talk about Martin and Truex without cheerleading, and he knows how to turn off the goofy "Mikey" side at times and just play it straight.
Other than that, it was the same old Fox. Missed cautions, too many sponsored segments (the AT&T Mid-Race Recap about says it all) and too much DW being annoying and Larry Mac sometimes stating the obvious.
I just caught up with Twitter and then read the comments here so far. From my Twitter feed, I was already fairly convinced that I made the right decision to skip this race. Once I started JD's article and saw that Fox immediately went back to "hyper-tight," I was certain.
This is a rhetorical question for my fellow Planeteers as I know we all have our own different tolerance levels for male bovine excrement. Yet, I still ask...
Why watch this?
Fox gives one absolutely no sense of what happens in a regular Cup race. Yes, I didn't watch Phoenix but I didn't have to. JD could take any set of comments from a 2011 Fox telecast, slap them in here, and nobody would really know the difference.
I won't bother with Fox again until Martinsville on April 1st...which makes me wonder if I will be the fool for trying to tolerate it.
Until then, I'll just listen to MRN and PRN when I'm at home and stationary as SoCal still has no over-the-air affiliate that has been willing to pick them up after being dropped in mid-season last year by CBS Radio's KFRG.
I kind of agree with the Micheal Waltrip thing. Once you get him out of playing a "character" (which is true for several FOX and SPEED personalities) he can be quite insightful. The point he raised about Johnson's team adding a wheel spacer and questioning how it would affect their post-race tech was actually a thoughtful question. He was okay, but Meyers certainly seemed to keep him on a leash.
I refused to watch Race Day so my viewing started with the Star Spangled banner. 300 laps at PIR is way too many. Racing on the apron way below the yellow line is just goofy. I watched much of the race with the volume turned down. When I tried to listen to it, the 4-5 guys in the booth ALL iritated me. We're into the second race with EFI and already I've heard 725 references to the "reset" provision with EFI. Rest assured race fans, if there's any point to made on Nascar television, the talking heads will beat it into all season as if you've never watched a Nascar race on television. Chris Myers did a great job considering what his family is going through.
Just something I want to throw out ... I thought the commercial load was heavy at first, but it decreased throughout the race. From 5PM eastern until 6:09 when the checkered fell, there were only 9 minutes of commercials. From 3:15 to 4PM Eastern, there were a good 16, and from 4 to 5 Eastern about the same, but it fell to 9 after that, including 4 that were Side-by-Side. That's not heavy at all. Go watch TNT.
I did not watch.
Judging by the comments, that was a good decision.
After about an hour of DW knowing everything about everything, I muted the TV and went for MRN. The race I listened to and the race I watched on TV were two entirely different things. Actually you couldn't *see* much of the actual racing since the cameras rarely seemed to pull back far enough to show. I remember watching one pass from the rear cam of the car being passed. It was just ridiculous.
At some point we discussed the idea that the tight shots were
due to the fascination with HD. I don't know if that's why or not, but it's irritating as heck, and gives you such a limited view of the race. The radio guys did a far better job of painting a picture than the actual picture...that's really sad.
Glad to see Myers back. I feel for him and his family. I just hope that the producers don't force him back into his clown outfit. I appreciate professionalism, with a touch of humor. It makes me feel like an adult, not a 12 year old. Please, FOX, fire the Waltrips. They bring nothing to the table. as far as coverage: Again, it realy goes back to the type of track. I know FOX and ESPN can't cover a pot hole, let alone a race, but when you have a boring track like Phoenix, Fontana, Chicago, Yawnsas, et al, it's hard to generate excitement. And when there is excitement, they are at commercial. After much thought: Darrel and Mikey, I know you read this post. Please resign your positions immediately.
I've given up beating the drum for wider camera angles.
Fox did a good job when pack racing forced them to fit large numbers of cars in the shot at Daytona. Apparently that went out the door once 'real' racing season started. At Phoenix they were back to shots featuring one or two cars much of the time. Such shots provide no context of where the cars are positioned with respect to those they're racing with. That's fine for publicity photos or computer wallpaper, but doesn't tell the story.
You can tell how heavily Fox relies on replays by the size of their split-screen windows. Replays get the larger window; live action gets the smaller one.
About halfway through I realized that I hadn't looked at the TV since I was using my computer to follow the race. I can only listen to the babble from the booth for so long and the hypertight shots don't really show me the race. I did keep it on in the hope that I might glimpse the racing once in a while.
Between the huge quantity of commercials and the bad camera work, there isn't much reason to actually tune in to WATCH a race since there isn't much racing broadcast.
Hate to be so negative so early in the season. It is what it is, as they say. I'll listen to the scanner and radio feed on trackpass and watch the little cartoon cars run around on raceview - that's about as good as the information I'm getting from Fox anyway.
Tight camera shots, replays,DW's ramble, and Mikey's jabber.....I just wanted to watch a race!
Now, I watch all races delayed via my DVR which lessens the frustration of this NASCAR fan!
O.K. this is my fifth try to "prove that I am not a robot" :)
Raceday has become a battle of the Waltrips with occasional race info by Mike Joy. The hiring of DW was a mistake which was compounded by the extension of his contract. The hiring of Mikey was a catastrophe. Racing has become about the booth instead of the track and the drivers. In other words, the race itself has become an event that allows the Waltrip brothers to put on a Waltrip Brothers Show with commercials thrown in. I'm sorry I ever complained about Larry Mac. I've had enough.
I can't stand the Waltrip show. I feel sorry for Mike Joy because he is a good PXP and Larry Mac, but I can't listen to them with the Waltrips, so I listen to MRN. If you listen to MRN and watch the race on Fox ,it's a completely differant race. So I'll just watch the little racing that they show and listen to the real race on MRN.
Penny
I had to mute 80% of the race to not listen to the 2 Waltrips. FOX must be out of their minds to hire the all self promoting Aarons, NAPA, MWR racing sales pitch person for the booth broadcast team. The Fox producer has got to be family related someway. 6 Billion people on the face of the planet and this is the best they could come up with. I feel for all NASCAR fans that have to endure a half season of this 3 1/2 hour infomercial telecast.
Well im glad I was there!! IT was one hell of a race, great racing throughout the field... But it seems like the broken record is playing again with FOX! Im red as can be but its worth it Az is the place to see a race. Will be back in November! Hope Fox steps up there game next weekend at Vegas cause I will be home watching!
Whoever said Mikey can be informative isn't listening to the same guy that I'm hearing. He's terrible, as well as his older brother. Last week I streamed the MRN broadcast, this week I couldn't, wow did I miss that. The things DW comes out with are often wrong and always irrelevant. I can't believe FOX can't see what is so obvious.
unfortunately, the waltrips are living down to all my preseason expectations. when you talk for 4 hours straight like DW does the chance for contradicting yourself will always exist. DW always has thought of himself as the show and the one thing he does accomplish is make me yearn for ESPN'S team.
Wow after reading the other comments, it seems that most of us watched the same race. I have Directv, so I have my Hotpass on so I see more of the track, yes one driver, but at least I can see more on there than on the Fox Telecast. I usually try not to mute too much, because I want to hear the driver/crew chief/spotter chatter, but on mist channels yesterday, The fox Feed was so loud, I muted it and turned on MRN.
I cannot see how Fox think that having All Waltrip All the time, seems to be working. I cannot listen to Mikey shill and make excuses for his team all the time. I think that its a huge conflict of interest. I can listen to MRN and not worry about getting a biased opinion on what happens on the track.
Overall, I don't have a problem with it when I have the radio accompanying the TV broadcast.
Glad that Denny won.
Also, I was taken aback with the comment a couple before mine, I don't think that John would post that, think that maybe he was quoting someone or its been hacked.
I'm not a producer, but some of the suggestions that have been given, are they really that hard to implement?
Sorry folks, just our resident troll earlier. Remember, those who cannot participate distrupt.
JD
I SURE LIKE THESE 312 MI. RACES. The distance makes the racers go hard all the time. The Waldrips are impossible to listen to and just getting worse. The radio is a godsend, but the question is, Why? If you can get to a TV, can't the broadcast be sensible? Larry Mac is very good, altho his style grates some folks, I'd just as soon hear him and Mike all by themselves.
Glad to read that I'm not the only one not impressed with Mike Waltrip in the Hollywood Hotel. While DW and Chris Meyers seemed relaxed Mikey seems uncomfortable and appears to be chomping at the bit to say more.
Its short tracking so there are missed incidents on the track due to commericials. I don't foresee this to be a problem until we hit up Bristol in 3 weeks. Other than these couple of things I thought Fox did a good job considering they too had to fight a short week.
Sunday, shortly after they tossed the green rag, I lowered the television volume until it was nearly inaudible and snoozed until the last 75. I have few complaints with this.
I recall the days before Larry launched his broadcasting career when some of these racers drove Shivverlays.
I watched the first part of the race. Watched commercials, tight shots, in-car cams. I don't understand if there are 30 some cars on the track why only show one or two at a time.
I then switched to golf, watched that until the end.
I turn the race back on, watched commercials, tight shots, in-car cams.
Next week I will be watching golf and if the race is still on after the golf I may check out the race.
Watching Nascar races on Fox is not right up there as thing to do, not anymore.
After the Phoenix race, I thought I'd warch Monday's Race Hub. Like last Monday, Sadler shows up as co-host. OK, he won a Nationwide race for the first time in 15 years. But now it appears that he's the expert analyst for the Cup race. I mean the guy hasn't won a Cup race since Mobey Dick was a minnow. How is he suddenly the authority on Cup racing? I also noticed that Danica finnishing three laps down got scant notice in the racing media.
Boy that was tough to watch.....so tough, in fact that I didn't.
They lost me after the first hour
Bad track makes bad tv.
John.....I always enjoy reading the comments. Anytime there is the......remote.....possibility of mentioning the Waltrip Bros, I always like to approximate the percentage of like and dis-like their participation in the Fox-called-NASCAR event.
I would guess, JD, however un-scientific my guess is, you probably have a pretty good cross-section of NASCAR fans who read your blog, at least I would hope so!
This column looks like about 1 to 2 in 20, find the Waltrip'seffective during a typical Fox NASCAR race. I would guess, using a larger sample of NASCAR fans, might even find this number even smaller, who support the Waltrip Bros. as being well-liked as TV NASCAR commentators.
I also read other columns (blogs) on the Internet and find little support for either of the Waltrip Bros., especially Michael, in any roll he has, in NASCAR.
The TV-execs. at Fox/Speed must be totally oblivious to the typical NASCAR race-fan, conderning these two!
As always, really enjoy reading your comments [JD] and reading the comments from your readers, especially their views of the Fox/Speed announcers, especially those Waltrip Bros.
West Coast Diane said:
Since we are traveling in motorhome and have a small TV decided to watch network rather than HotPass.
As JD would say..."Oh boy!"
Just seemed like a hodge podge of things. Random, tight shots. Talking for the sake of talking. Too many split screens. Intervals run too infrequently. Ticker showing only 20 cars. If you aren't showing the entire field or using wide shots you need to run ticker. Only way to know what might be happening.
Oh well. Guess we are just too picky!
Ps...I really don't mind some of the "extra" info. I just want to see the racing, which is the primary reason I am watching.
one planeteer wrote:
The TV-execs. at Fox/Speed must be totally oblivious to the typical NASCAR race-fan, conderning these two!
Here's all you need to know
When FOX self appointed genius forst introduced DW, he called him Darrell WALLACE. I'm not making this up
Bray
Havin to listen to both Jaws and POS Waltrip is much too painful, so I muted and trned on MRN as usual. It is the only way the endure a NA$CAR broadcast.
I never really like Nascar until my husband took me to a race after that I strarted to like it. When we were watching it on tv and I saw Digger I thought that was awesome.Now that Digger isn't on anymore I find it kind of boring I was getting alot of my girlfriends into watching it to just because I wore a Digger shirt to work one day. I am going to miss Digger.
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