The Saturday script was Danica Patick. The pre-race show featured Katie Couric interviewing Danica. In the race, Danica started in the back of the pack and eventually crashed out in a self-induced moment that her crew chief Tony Eury Jr. called stupid driving. So much for the script.
The Sunday script is yet to be revealed, but it is believed to rotate around the prestige of the race. There is no Danica and no clear-cut favorite or emerging storyline this season. Former Indy 500 winner Sam Hornish Jr. is in the race, former Brickyard 400 winner Jeff Gordon needs a win and ESPN TV darling Carl Edwards is having a terrible season. Those are likely candidates for mentions.
Nicole Briscoe gets Ray Evernham, Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty on the pre-race show. Allen Bestwick has Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree up in the TV booth. Jamie Little is off, so Mike Massaro will be joining Dr. Jerry Punch, Vince Welch and Dave Burns on pit road. There is no more Tim Brewer or his Tech Garage.
TV coverage can be wide and inclusive at this big track or it can be myopic to the point of madness. Focusing on individual car battles to the exclusion of the bigger picture can lose TV viewers any perspective of what is happening on-track very quickly. The TV cameras can make beautiful pictures of the long backstretch and the scenic run into Turn 1. The question is will the director use them?
ESPN has been harsh in trying to make this race into NASCAR's version of the Indy 500. For these drivers, it is all about making the Chase for the Championship. This is only one in a long string of races that can put them in position to accomplish that goal. Taking a risk at Indy can only result in an accident that will end the day, affect the Chase and rile the sponsor.
The pit reporters are going to be key if this race settles into long green flag runs. Updating strategy may be the only storyline in progress unless there is an incident. The season to this point has featured conservative racing and battles that involve track position being decided on pit road.
ESPN will highlight a super slo-mo handheld camera on pit road to try and get some fresh replay angles. The "bat-cam" returns on a wire above the pits and will be zooming along at 80mph as it follows cars down the frontstretch and out of pit road. Once again the in-car camera technology will feature two different camera angles from the same car on the screen.
Bestwick is great at directing traffic and keeping things in perspective, but he does not pick the images being shown to fans or integrate the commercials and features. The ESPN Non-Stop commercial format does not start until the Chase, so the telecast today will have full-screen commercials from start to finish.
This season there will once again be a SportsCenter scheduled right after the race to allow for an extended post-race show. This has been a positive step, but often the SportsCenter anchors chosen to fill this slot have a low regard for NASCAR and have been happy to let it show on the air.
The real story of this race may be the fans in the stands. Reporters going to the track this morning were amazed that there was little or no race traffic. The Nationwide Series race yesterday drew a very small crowd as did the Friday sportscar event. Keep an ear out for how TV deals with the attendance issue.
The weather is good, the field is full and there have been no tire issues. NASCAR clearly explained the restart issues in the AM driver's meeting, so the only thing left to do is race. We will take your TV comments here today as well as on our Twitter live stream using the #TDP1 hashtag.
Thanks again for taking the time to stop by, there will be a new post up for your "Race Wrap" comments after the Brickyard 400 today.
86 comments:
Hey i want to ask which you think is better overall,Hotpass or Racebuddy?I want to preface that by saying,that's if Racebuddy worked great and never skipped.Which is better?BTW i got bummer news last week that they would start having Hotpass in HD only,so i may have to go without it after this race.Hopefully i can haggle with Directv and get a good deal,i hear if you work hard enough you can get discounts and lower your bill.
Coffeeshop42
Well, Hot Pass and RB both have in-car cams with radios. Just depends on what drivers are chosen.
For us Race Buddy has been more frustration that another angle to watch the race. For at least the last three weeks the picture freezes several times a lap and even jumps back a few minutes.
I hope that next year with NASCAR controlling the race buddy feature it will work properly. It's ureless right now.
Yeah,i like racbuddy(working of course) a little better but Hotpass is just more convienient,Let's hope i can strike a deal and get HD so i can keep it.Another thing(i dont know if you have HD or not)have you noticed on the SD telecasts that almost all the sports networks and Fox have went to letterbox?They are doing it to(what a surprise)save money but who wants to watch a sporting event with two big black bars on the screen?That's another reason i'm hoping i can get HD so i can return to watching sports in fullscreen.
Coffeeshop42
OMG OMG OMG AREOSMITH IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!
Coffeeshop42
I heard NBC inserted commercials into their live Olympic soccer coverage earlier, with the ball in play. If this is true (can anyone confirm?), then I can say with confidence that there is no way ESPN can screw up their NASCAR coverage as badly as NBC has already done for the Olympics.
Zetona, they can hop between programs and put commercials in whenever they please.
Elliott Sadler is going off on Twitter after the footage on ESPN of Mike Helton talking about restarts in driver's meeting.
It was embarassing to see ESPN just drop the Sadler story yesterday.
Admittedly, he has a bit of a bias but Hermie Sadler said it beautifully on Twitter:
"If it takes 20 min to explain something to a room of professionals, it's probably not as simple as they say it is."
End of argument.
Nicole and Ray have kept this pre-race show together. Brad and Rusty are useless.
I wonder if the Sadler brothers will find a secret fine in the mail from their good friends at NASCAR.
Just to remind everybody i will be giving Jr updates and scanner throughout the race for those that are not forunate to have Hotpass/Trackpass/or any other way of keeping up with it.I know they wont be showing anything back in the pack even if it includes Jr,so i want to help out.I know that the crowd is on twitter,but i'm not on it and i can also put more than 140 characters here.I take full responsibility for any mistakes i make.
Coffeeshop42
Coffee, this is a NASCAR TV blog so I appreciate that, but I would rather know about what you think of the telecast, including the lack of Junior updates!
I wonder how ESPN will deal with a bye-week, as there is no racing today? I heard they are going to cover a parade at 11:00 a.m. MST. Can anyone confirm? I'm not too fond of parades, but if they have nice floats, I might watch a little...
Thanks, i will try to inlcude comments on the telecast.
I want to do this for all the Jr fans that dont have the all-acsess and i also want a challenge,to see if i can take it on.
Coffeeshop42
I just can't share the disdain for Brad. Rusty - yes. He adds nothing.
At least Brad has good enthusiasm and seems real. He's a fan and understands the fan angle. Does he add a great amount of insight or technicality? No. But he speaks to us in a manner that's usually from the fan side.
Remember when AB used to call him the voice of the fans? Since then he is an owner. Just a convoluted role.
Getting pictures sent to me by fans on Twitter. The joint is empty.
Getting started here,He'll roll off20th,TJ briefing him on Pit road.During last years race Jr got upset and said that "the whole ------ pit road is for Indy------cars".Like many drivers he will be using a second spotter on the backstretch,some guy named Shannon,dont have full name.
Coffeshop42
This weekend, every time ESPN shows the booth on screen, someone is a basket of nerves. Today it was DJ.
Im gonna give Nicole Manske a Cleaveland Steamer
Uhhh, looks like ESPN is playing with being "cutting edge" again as far as graphics go...
Let's hope he doesn't get taken out on the start by a 1-bar,you always got to watch for them.What is the hold up?ESPN trying to have the first night race ever at Indy?
Coffeeshop42
Coffeeshop42 I don't need you doing the Dale Jr update here.
This blog is about the Telecast not one certain driver.
Steve tells Jr to keep his white switch closed for the start,then open it when it gets strung out.
C42
Well, here we go. Just a reminder that RaceBuddy is available at the NASCAR website.
I am enjoying how their designated crew guy is on a start and park team
Ill keep the updates occasional,not a constant feed.
C42
My sole source of internet connection is a Verizon JetPack using 4G LTE. RaceBuddy working perfectly on it with an iMac.
ESPN again choosing to have commercials right up to start,at least its not the race but it sure ain't good for building suspense.
Coffeeshop42
LOL at the people behind Dave Burns.
Nice wide shot of the backstretch on lap 1,wish they would do that the whole race.
C42
Roof cam already at lap 2. Sigh...
Everyone is strung out at lap 5.
Looks like things settled down quickly.
Already with tight shots and digger cam early on.
C42
anybody got lap 8 in the commercial pool?
C42
Other ways to refresh this page. You can press F5 or Control R if you have microsoft stuff.
I guess Apple R does it for Apple systems but I can't test that.
I was guessing 10 laps C42
Danica yesterday, Edwards today. There must be a lot of furious people in Bristol.
Looks like Carl Edwards may be driving one of those Ford recalls.
Return from commercial at lap 12,back on break at 18.Jr p14 on lap 20 after being 24th,little loose,trash on the grill small concern.
C42
Rough guess the first commercial break we missed laps 8 - 12.
This commercial break we left at lap 18 and came back lap 21.
More Carl coverage...I know hes a chase story and their boy but this is supposed to be a full telecast.
C42
Where is Tim Brewer to show me a broken header?
Wow,ESPN actually showed the whole pit cycle commercial free.it's a small world.Jr p10 after pit stop,no big changes.
C42
6 cars behind the wall at lap 30. Last year last place payed over $130,000.
Field is very spread out, its going to be a tough day for Allen Bestwick.
I'm not saying i advocate wrecks,but will we ever have any real caution flags this year?More yellows=more restarts=more excitement but we just aren't having them this year.
C42
You could put canyons between the cars right now.Better call the TV police.
C42
Whew, this one is getting rough to watch early on and with lots of Olympic channels.....yeesh.
How does Nascar expect to get new fans when they cant even see the race.Missed another caution.
C42
Guess we will have to wait to see who was in third, commercial time.
Jr p9 after pit stop,says the car doesn't perform on stickers,took 2 tires and slight adjustment.Is ESPN going to even bother covering the race?I think they are mad that they didnt get the olympics and are punishing us.
C42
WTH? The leader drops parachute and no play by play for a lap calling anything.
Jr p4 says little tight,needs more trackbar.
C42
Really good job covering this restart. The nice wide shot of the frontstretch shows us the whole field, and ESPN found all the battles until the field settled out.
5 laps after restart,commercial break.Is ESPN trolling again?
C42
Rat:If you could have one persons autograph living or dead who's would you take?Pig:The living one.You must think i'm really stupid
Jr says car starting to get real loose center-off,too much rear bar sticking up the right rear.Decent telecast if not for the commercials.
C42
JD,how do you like the return of aerosmith to live telecasts?
C42
I know they bought that song and it cost a pretty penny!
Maybe Steven Tyler is thinking of making of an appearence on a Nascar show soon.
C42
Nice coverage of pit stops. Probably the most air time Stephen Leicht has gotten all season.
Time for a top 15 or 20 rundown after this lead shakes out
Can't really complain, I think Trevor Bayne and Marcos Ambrose are probably the only guys ESPN has ignored all day today.
Everyone pretty much has the same story, can't pass. So everybody (including ESPN) is waiting for the laps to go by.
The fan attendance is being pegged by NASCAR at over 100K. Yesterday is was 30-40K.
Not.....good.
I'd laugh if Brad Keselowski won this. He went through the whole experience of winning at Indy already yesterday. And the storyline of Roger Penske winning his first stock car race at Indy was used yesterday by ESPN.
Another yellow missed under commercial.
C42
Hope the race picks up, my eyelids are feeling really heavy watching this.
Notice how as soon as it was announced that were holding off the restart ESPN darted to commercial like a fly.
C42
They are just about to miss the restart.
C42
Jr p7 says still too tight on stickers.
C42
Ok, Rusty and Brad are talking over each other.
Based on the grandstands, competition, and lack of online activity, I think the Indy hype might have died today.
It's unbelievable how much more Jeff both wants and needs this race more than Jimmie,but that's not how it gets determined.Go get e'm Jeff!ANOTHER caution missed under commercial!
C42
Steve tells Jr to save gas,very close on fuel.
C42
All I can say is thank goodness for the Olympics...switching to it has kept me from nodding off today. Heck, even the volleyball matches have more action than this 'race'. Looking at the number of fannies in the stands for the 3 races, I'd say there 'bigger and better' idea hasn't had the desired effect. I don't know why anyone would want to attend a race where you can only see half the track! On the plus side, they had one of the best singers for the National Anthem that I've heard in a while. Always a pleasant surprise. Bakc to the water polo match.
Steve tells Jr he's 1 lap short,tells him to run like h---.
C42
Can't believe Greg Biffle just let Jimmie go by.
Some great racing on the first few laps of a restart...And when ESPN follows the battles they catch incidents like this live instead of on replay. Nice job.
Caution,Jr saving fuel,if he stays where he is he will lead the points for the first time since 2004.
C42
I'd say Joey will be driving somewhere else next year. Too bad.
I thought that this was the year he was going to step up.
"This is Dale Jarret, do you copy?" is as bad as "Boggity....."
All I can think of is Convoy by C. W. McCall.
As I type this, just caught a shot of Courtney Force in a t-shirt. Nice!!!!!
"Quick update off camera..."
I guess Allen knows the director is all over the place.
Mr Editor -
Here we go again - Chad and Jimmie just practicing for the chase.
Walter
Even radio and Racebuddy with an in-car of my favorite driver couldn't keep me awake today. Was upset at first about the long radio tangents crowing yet again over Johnson, but then there isn't much else to talk about.
Post a Comment