TNT chose to hold the breaking news of AJ Allmendinger's suspension until ten minutes into the one-hour pre-race show. The arrival of substitute driver Sam Hornish was documented, but no NASCAR or Team Penske spokesperson was interviewed. Instead, a statement was read on-air by the TNT announcers.
The racing involved the typical superspeedway struggle of an outside line of cars trying to get up and pass the lower lane on a track with fresh pavement. Most incidents happened not from real racing, but from blown tires, a pack of cars trying to pit and even on pit road. The big mess happened very late.
Racing aside, TNT's "Wide Open" coverage was perfectly timed. Fans had been screaming about full-screen commercials and the loss of racing action all season long. The final hour of side by side commercials on FOX had turned into a disaster when the director framed the cars being featured in the TV ads. TNT had no side by side commercials in the first four races, but offered the online RaceBuddy as an alternative.
Saturday night's coverage featured commercial messages, many of them custom-made, played in a video box on the screen that let fans continue to see the racing. Only the local commercial breaks from the cable TV companies were still full-screen. It was the type of video presentation that NASCAR needs to adopt quickly.
Adam Alexander's style is not to call the traditional play by play, but to lead Wally Dallenbach Jr. and Kyle Petty in a casual discussion. Perhaps, the call of an experienced lead announcer would have served to establish a level of excitement during the race that Alexander simply cannot build. Petty and Dallenbach are both former drivers, so the vast majority of the race is spent agreeing with each other on opinions.
TNT had a rough night with the graphics and the sync of the show. There were a ton of graphics in the show and the overload probably contributed to the situation. The sync of the pit reporters and commercial elements was not quite right. This is sometimes called "lip flap" in the business because the sound being heard does not match the lips of the person saying it. Tough technical night.
Update #1: Being told the HD feed on TNT was in sync. Seems the SD feed was experiencing the problems. Hope to get this updated shortly.
The sprint to the finish started with 13 laps to go. The pit reporters tried to contribute excitement, but going back to the TV booth was like throwing a wet blanket over the coverage. Alexander never raised his voice as the snarling pack came around with 10 laps to go at Daytona in the July night race. 8 laps remained when the first of two big accidents happened in the race.
The final restart resulted in a typical restrictor plate finish of pushing and shoving until a crash happened. Coverage at the line was the standard wideshot while the accident unfolded. The post-race was subdued and moved to the NASCAR website as it normally does with the TNT races.
The positive thing to take away from this telecast is that commercials can be inserted into a live race with only minimum interruption of the racing action. The TNT design of graphics and the commercial video box works well on TV and the screen remaining for the live race keeps viewers watching. It makes sense for NASCAR and the advertisers.
This post serves to host your opinion on the TNT coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race from Daytona. Comments may be moderated prior to posting. Thank you for stopping by The Daly Planet.
71 comments:
My audio sync for the entire 2nd half was off. Audio ahead of or behind camera
The Good- The commercial presentation was excellent. You could see the race well during the commercials and I noticed the commercials more than with the full screen ones. Both Nascar and the advertisers should insist on the ad format we saw tonight.
The Bad- The booth was a disaster. They had no clue as to what was going on and they refused to tell what they did know. The commercials contained more information than we got from the booth. Everything other than the commercial presentation was a mess.
I should have listed to the audio on the radio while I watched the race on the TV.
This was considerably better coverage than what we've seen before on TNT. I thought the booth did well with not a whole lot of action happening on track. The wide camera angles make the race much better to watch. The wide open coverage impressed me, since they had the racing in the larger wcreen, and didn't just show the leader running by himself...or the car sponsored by whomever was running the ad. All in all, a much better effort than we've seen. Good replays on the wrecks and updates on involved drivers.
Just imagine how Ken Squier or Bob Jenkins would have called this race.
I almost feel sorry for NASCAR. A thrilling restrictor plate race would have been just what the series needed after the not-quite-thrilling product we've been watching all season. Unfortunately, this year's plate package is the least competitive in at least a decade, especially at the narrower Daytona. Like at the 500, the big story will not be something that happened under the green flag.
At least the TV coverage was good. A couple of times, when the racing was entertaining, I thought, "oh crap, what if they go to a commercial NOW?" but then I remembered that I'd still get to see the action. Great and refreshing coverage, except for two blips: not updating Jeff Gordon's status after his first accident (for about 10 laps, until the ticker showed where he was running, I had no idea whether or not his damage had been enough to make him lose a lap), and missing Kez's spin because of a full-screen commercial (probably should have aired under a previous caution).
Terry Labonte ran a decent race for a part-time driver, and while I missed the first half of the race, I sure didn't catch his name when he was running solidly in the 13,14,15th position.
@SolakNC
Maybe the bad audio sync had the unintentional side effect of making it sound like the booth reacted quicker than they really did to the wrecks. :P
I thought the booth was okay. Not great...but okay... Cameras were okay. caught the action. I just hate this crap, it's not actual racing. Not TNT's fault.
Thanks to TNT for the Wide Open coverage once again. The broadcast came off considerably better thanks to less awkward interuptions of the racing. Kudos to the pit reporters for making the first 40 laps of 'racing' tolerable.
Not really much else I want to say right now. The racing is damned if you do, damned if you don't. It was disheartening to hear Kyle Petty talk down to the fans as complainers for not liking the tandems or the parade.
Audio was way off. Not the first time either. Commentators couldn't get their act together. This is the time of the season I dislike......when races are on TNT.
The bar on the bottom was too big. While it was nice to see almost all of the race, running a commercial every 3 minutes is still annoying. I also don't appreciate being talked at by Kyle Petty. We aren't stupid. Explain things like you're speaking to adults.
I should add a huge THANK YOU to TNT and Turner for offering the Wide Open coverage. I applaud their effort to give us at least one race where we can see the vast majority without a serious commercial interruption. That much is worth a pat on the back.
The racing was lackluster, guess the promoters got enough clips of wrecks for the next promotion at their track to use...
The booth was a bit off at times, did not like missing some of the first cycle of green flag stops but they made and effort all night. Audio sync issues were my biggest concern the second half of the night.
I'd give TNT a B- for this race. While I like the wide open coverage, the amount of commercials was absurd. The booth was okay, Adam did a pretty good job for what he was given, Wally and Kyle as well. What really rattled me was that local break they took with under 20 to go. It's wide open for the boring first half, but the second half, when things get good, you go to full screen??? Unacceptable. It was made much worse when Brad spun and there was no way to break out of it. Unbelievable. I probably won't watch Loudon next week because, no doubt, mac and cheese and mashed potatoes will be back. Looking forward to ESPN in a few weeks. Really like their coverage, especially with AB involved. Love the blog, keep it up JD!
I loved the Wide Open as usual. Booth sounded like they were having fun but yea, could give us some more info.
Sync was fine for us all night on the HD tv. Never made it into my room to the SD. I DID notice for the first big 1 they either called it a bit soon or saw all the cars in all the directions when I just saw 3 cars wrecking...On replay there was stuff going on all over.
Hated all the wrecks and Gordon stuck in it and Jr...glad Tony won but the wrecks a drag.
COT might be safer but handles like a bus on these RP tracks.
Also said about AJ and will know more on the update.
PS LOVE John Roberts gray hair! He should've gone natural years ago. VERY flattering :)
Well Saly where did you watch the race. Here in Canada the race was stuck in the small screen in the corner. It was still hard to see and still too many commercials. If this is what we have to look forward to then they might as well stop televising NASCAR and give us a private channel where the users can pay per race without commercials.
While I would rather take the trade-off, I found the graphics on the bottom of the screen to be too tall and it hid some important action...either that or the camera operators were not told to adjust for it.
This was TNT's second-best effort of the year but, for me, was still full of problems. These mainly stem from the booth as there were long stretches where all three seemed to be completely clueless. I'm not sure I would go as far as one person in the #TDP1 Twitter stream that tweeted he would rather have Dr. Jerry Punch doing PxP, but I a completely of the opinion that AA is terrible and should be replaced. His talk-show-style of making a quick comment and then handing off to Kyle or Wally (who are still talking over one another far too much) is no way to present a proper picture of what is happening.
At this point, I'm not even sure I will bother watching New Hampshire next week as I fear TNT will cram in every last commercial they have sitting on the shelf. I might just take another vacation and then come back for the season debut of ESPN to see if I can keep going with this or decide to just fold up my tent.
Massive graphics difficulties at the beginning of the race - wrong positions reported, listing a start and parker who had parked (Stremme) during the "moving backwards" list, LOTS of "graphic collisions" during the sponsor breaks (which at least seemed mostly sorted out by the second half of the race).
On the plus side, they managed to ID McDowell as the driver of the #98 - nascar.com still has Bliss listed (using Paul Menard's stylized 98 from 2010) in their leaderboard.
It's always amusing (or annoying, depending) to see people surprised by Wide Open Coverage given this is the sixth year in a row we've had it.
On the "criminally neglectful" side, the TNT folks NEVER made notice of the fact that the caution was thrown prior to the "race to the checkers" - it's a little mind-boggling that at least we didn't hear Larry Mac talk about going to the video tape the one time it would have been good to inform the television audience - sorry, I should use the TNT vernacular and say "the folks at home..."
For all the times Kyle Petty talks down to the audience, it's not right that I keep feeling like I know more about what's going on than he does - and, given the lack of angles and coverage I'm fed, it's very HARD to know more about what's going on than he does! - but you'd think any idiot (including ones in the booth) can point to a yellow light...ESPECIALLY since they managed to do just that covering The Biff's penalty. I guess by the time the checkers fly, they've already checked out.
Oh, forgot to mention - TNT DID make one positive change I first saw suggested here last week - in the race reset graphic, the wave arounds were identified by number this week ("27,29,31") instead of with an uninformative, generic "3 cars"
All you FOX haters must be missing them by now. TNT is just as boring as watching paint dry, and their camera work is not any better. I like Kyle Petty, but that is about the only good thing about this broadcast team.
I thought the race and the telecast were terrible. It's bad enough that plate racing doesn't involve racing, but you need to add tandem racing?? Is it racing when Stewart, Harvick, Logano, Brad,etc. are riding around at the back of the pack? Have you ever seen that at your local track or with F1 or Indy cars? The Wide Open approach to commercials was way overdue. Double A was a little better tonight but Ralph Sheheen would have been better. I just couldn't stand Prtty and Wally. Petty had to give you his opinion on everything. Not to be outdone, Wally would chime in on his opinion of Petty's opinion. Meanwhile, lots of things are happening on the track we're oblivious to if we're only watching our TV's. Someone reported a 'vibration' which could be caused by a million things. Off goes KP about carbon fiber seats, contact points,etc. Unbelievable. The booth kept commenting on the outside line not being able to pass the inside line. Once, they commented that the outside line led by Junior had a head of steam and was coming. What did the Production truck do? They cut to replays of a pit stop where Brad locked up the wheels and blew a tire! It's just mindless. It's the same with all the Networks.
From CRZ:
"For all the times Kyle Petty talks down to the audience, "
Which I felt he did last night when he told the audience, "So, you (the fans) didn't like 2 car drafts. How do you like this racing?" By the tone of his voice he much preferred 2 car drafts and had complete disdain for this audience.
I don't like this kind of racing on the big tracks, but it much preferable to the 2 car draft
It does not take much to make me happy with respect to a televised race. Put simply I want to see the race. Last night I could see the race unlike a week ago when I could not. The Wide Open coverage worked and it should be adopted by all broadcast partners for all touring series races because happy viewers buy stuff. I feel good about Coca-Cola today and that is good for them. I still feel less than enthusiastic about KFC and that is not good for them.
My quibble from the broadcast was the handling of the AJ story. It was the big deal of the day and waiting ten -very long- minutes before even mentioning it was appalling at least to me as I was saying to myself "WTF? What about Dinger? Tell me about Dinger!"
Loose Wheel, I noticed it starting to happen during the JPM interview.
The booth was excellent (at least Kyle and Wally were).
There was a graphic "Moving back" early on which showed that Kenseth had dropped 31 places and Elliott had dropped 32 places. They were running 1st and 3rd at the time. That was wierd.
Tony Stewart moved from 43 to 17th before we ever could visually verify that his car was actually on the track. The "booth babblers" talked about him quite a few times, but the cameras apparently could not find him because they were too busy showing us the nose of an unidentified blue Ford from seven inches away.
The director loves to look at the bumper of one car viewed from the bumper of another car. As a fan, I have never wanted to see the race from the perspective of sitting on the bumper of one of the cars. Does that mean I'm wierd?
Almost 12 hours since TNT signed off from the race and I'm still parked in front of the TV waiting for them to interview Bobby Labonte.
TNT was awful all of it. From the people calling the race, the pictures from the heii,
I really enjoy the open wide coverage with commericals....this way, I see the commercials instead of SWITCHING the t.v. over to another channel.
Audio was off, I could see lips moving then words coming out.
Didn't care for Petty's comment about telling the fans "this is what you wanted." No Kyle, that's not what I wanted. I liked the two car tandem, what I don't like is follow the leader, and I saw that last night, alot.
TNT still beats Faux and the boogiemeister hands down.
I think the broadcast was okay. The space at the bottom on hd was a bit tall but I think the sponsors deserve some space even on wide open coverage. We had several full screen cut aways for local info but they were only 90 seconds. That did not really irritate me. Excitement from the booth? I much prefer the calm and steady reports but each of us has a complaint or a favorite way of what we would like to see or hear. All of us cannot and will not ever be satisfied no matter who broadcasts the races because we are human and different and humans are hard to satisfy. TNT gets a B+ from me and I have learned to chalk it up to being human and prone to err no matter what any announcer says. The thing that bothers me the most is the favoritism they show and the lack of mentioning all drivers by name.
We got home & I turned on the TV to find Tony in the lead so I watched the end & Victory Lane & Media Center & then watched the rest of the race I had missed.
This week was 100% better than last week. The only KFC spot was a local break & only saw it 1 time.
TNT - thank you for wide open race even if it is only 1 race. I may be the only person to like the far left graphic during the side by side commercials that showed the drivers positions. It was much easier on my eyes than the crawling ticker.
I did notice a lot more wide shots and IMO that was a good thing.
If only next week is wide shots it would be nice.
AA is definitely not a play by play guy.Wally & Kyle did mention the drivers in the back that had moved up, first mention of the 14 was when he had moved up 12 places early on, the soon to be here network would not have acknowledged drivers moving up unless its in the script.
TNT coverage of the 48 hitting the inner wall was good, no inside shot of driver till they were sure he was OK. Thank you for that too.
Great broadcast on my HD and I had plenty of watch area on top. Calm reporting pleases me more than the frantic way fox does it with dw and staff.
B+ from me.
My only complaints are that they don't mention every driver by name and sometimes showing favoritism by not placing blame where it should be placed. Since we are all human, all of us will never be satisfied because we all think "our way" is better and most of the time we are too impatient or selfish to understand that others feel differently.
Thank you.
GA Red
I was unable to watch the race live so I just got finished viewing it this morning. I waited to get on-line here or anywhere so that my opinion of the program would not be swayed by others.
I thought the entier program was great! The coverage by the cameras and replays was super! The wide open coverage was fantastic.
I know what is going on so being able to watch the race was perfect. I rely on the booth to add tidbits and additional info, not to tell me everything that is happening.
The booth was perfect for me. If someone wants something further from the booth, learn more about the racing and watch the screen. It was as close as possible to being there!
Kudos to the entire TNT Team!
JR
TNT's camera coverage was awful, I use to be able to identify cars on the track, camera would follow car around track, not stay fixed and watch cars go by. I could clearly make out paint scheme and car number.
Never thought I woulda said this 7 weeks ago, but Kyle Petty can join Darrell Waltrip on the pay-no-mind list. I appreciate your opinion, but dont tell me my opinion is worthless.AA sounded like he was calling traffic leaving a mall lot. I had much respect for Petty as an announcer.Not anymore....and that ad bar on the obttom of my set took up a quarter of the screen, Yes Im bitchin,,,,but there wasnt much positive last night.
Great coverage...for TNT.....too bad the booth announcers are so out of it. Is AA watching the same race we do? KP has soured into a bitter old man. And Wally, as always, is just a momentary visitor to the NASCAR world.
At least TNT can restrain themselves from going to a live in car shot during an accident.
I absolutely fail to understand why Wide Open Coverage means the scoring ticker has to move from it's usual top position, and you have to chop off 25% of the screen for the entire race.
If you're going to show ads in a "picture in picture" format, then do that. You don't need to waste space when there's nothing to show.
Although, compounding the fact for me personally is I'm in Canada, so thanks to CRTC rules, that bottom bar is just a grey "NASCAR" graphic for the entire race. And when it came time for ads, TSN cuts away to a pathetic excuse for side-by-side commercials.
In short, I've never gotten the "Wide Open" experience as I think TNT intended.
Now, the coverage. Speaking from my 24 fan point of view, the coverage was pathetic. After the Hamlin wreck, not only did they seem to not notice the 24 missed 98% of it, instead choosing to imply the damage he got from wreck #1 was a result of wreck #2 with a camera shot of his left side. They also completely failed to mention a flat tire was the result of him dropping from 9th to 17th before things went back to green.
And then the gigantic mess at the end. How long did it take for them to give us a finishing order? There was no attempt to try and figure out who finished where whatsoever.
Adam Alexander just drops one announcer cliche after another and his attempts to sound excited fail miserably. The resulting output rivals Marty Reid for stiffness. Speaking of, Reid's favorite phrase to overuse was always "in the mix". After last night, AA's seems to be "make it happen". He also overuses "on the point".
Overall, another unsatisfying RP race. The repaves have absolutely killed any of the skill that was once necessary for these races.
Certainly the best race broadcast of the TNT season so far. A great broadcast was ruined with full-screen break with 16 to go, but TNT did everything they could.
If this type of race broadcast could be used for every race, it would be a step in the right direction.
Thank you TNT for the wide open coverage last night. Why this format is not used as the standard coverage is difficult to understand. Due to the many changes in the paint schemes of the cars this race is extremely hard to determine what car was what, the booth did little to help. Two drivers exchanging opinions of a car neither is that familiar with and a game show host as a PXP man do not make for an informed race call. Not as bad as FOX, but after a while Larry started sounding smart and he cannot even speak AMERICAN. It was very hard to follow. I again did appreciate the commercial change, but after last week to start off with the Mash Potato and Gravy KFC spot was almost too much!
The very empty seats are an example that the fans are not happy, I really enjoyed BZF's overview, talk about rose colored glasses. It looks like NASCAR has choosen the path of the IRL, I am just waiting for Bruton to form his own series. To state he is not in favor of gimicks? GWC finishes? The Chase? The COT? The imspection process? The drug testing? The cut in race winnings? No, he is not in favor of gimicks, just fairy tales, like his attendance figures.
Sorry but even with the commercials being less obtrusive, this was still a poor broadcast. I hate having no PXP. I switched to the radio feed so I could augment the information that was coming thru on twitter.
Why didn't NASCAR redflag the race? BZF said they didn't want to use gimmicks to manufacture excitement, well, that's exactly what the stupid GWC deal is - a way to manufacture excitement or at the very least to wreck some more race cars.
When they were using the blimp shot, I got a good perspective on the field. The trouble is that this pkg brought back the packs but the cars overheat and there still isn't any real racing except at the end when it is just madness.
I've been to Daytona a couple of times. Based on what I've seen on TV for the past 3 or 4 races, I'd never waste my $ to go back.
I agree with MortonGrove about Kyle Petty's comments. He, DW and Kenny Wallace can all join hands and be pleased with themselves about how the fans are so stupid.
Unfortunately I think I am stupid or insane, I keep watching and expecting something to be different (i.e. better).
@Maverick24
I do not have that problem but you are right the CRTC rules suck. I don't use TSN except for Tire Series but I'm lucky to be in NS across from ME. Signals coming from space do not know from borders and over air TV signals do not either
@GinaV24
Hang in there, kid. :)
Look its def better than commercials so I cant go nuts.. One thing I felt was so useless was the track facts, etc on the bottom of the screen.. It was way too much and distracting.. Also at one point when they showed the stat about drivers going to the back, they had Kenseth going to back on the screen when he was in the lead the lead the whole time.. Not sure if anyone saw that.. My other complaint was finally toward the end when the racing got good, they went to a station break, which meant they leave the action live for a break.. Well not only was the racing starting to get good, but they missed the caution.. That was frustrating. Also, and this I hate more than anything on this earth, is the constant tight shots and in car camera's. When are these networks going to learn when there is a pass happening just show the regular view.. For the love of god please just show the regular shot.. NO one cares about the in car camera view anymore.. Its so useless.. Its serves a purpose at times for sure, but NEVER EVER during a pass.. It's every network that does this.. They do this every single time.I know this has been discussed but please someone listen.. Ill never forget when I believe SPEED had Dale Sr in the stidio discussing his last win at talladega.. he was narrating it has he was seeing the replay and he basically said I have no clue why you guys used the in car camera shot as passes were happening.. Now if that didnt wake the networks up, nothing would. Anyway, sorry this is so long, but It drives me nuts.. True race fans miss out on alot of the racing action because these producers have zero clus what real fans actually want to view
This may sound like you can't please everybody but here it goes...They gave you better viewing coverage, but it was really clever of them because you were still held captive by the stupid commericals, and that box was way too high. The verbal coverage was erroneous or non existent, extremely poor..just a general mess. The most maddening thing is at the end they showed Tony Tony Tony, nothing of the melee, got the guys names wrong in the wreck, and not a ticker until 15 minutes later, so you know how your drivers faired. I know it was a mess to figure out but 4 or 5 cars came clean across the checkers and they didn't even list or name them. TNT is causing confusion to the at home driver...I DO NOT miss any Waltrip in the booth and I do like Kyle Petty's calming presence.
Somebody made the comment about ever changing paint schemes by alot of cars, you are correct, it was very had to know who was who who and the booth did nothing to help, it was just a mess.
I thought the broadcast was rather good. Not great, but rather good. The scaled down commercial inserts allowed me to watch the race, and glance at the advert if it was of any interest. The "local" commercial breaks, on the ATT U-verse, consisted of ads for TNT and its shows.
However, the race was dull. Thank goodness for pause and rewind. I fell asleep several times during the second half of the event.
I wish the wide open format was used all the time By TNT. It's the only thing about their coverage I find appealing. Great pictures all night long. But AA needs to leave. The comparison to Marty Reid was spot on. He brings no excitement at all. I'm just looking forward to my annual visit to NHMS! Cannot wait!!!
Ha! Glad to know the sync was off...I thought it was me! Seriously! I'd be watching the race and listening..a graphic would go up ...and what I was hearing had nothing to do with the graphic or on track action! I kept trying to pay closer attention..but it didn't help! I do notice the announcers seem more to be talking to each other, like they're sitting in a sports bar watching the race, at times aggravating. But, what really was aggravating, was there was only a minuscule amount of coverage from the middle of the pack on back. Once in awhile they would show a side shot of the field coming..but cut away before the field was 2/3 by. They spoke once or twice about Stewart and Kez being half lap down..but really didn't show much on camera. The scroll of positions was very aggravating too. Because they don't cover the back half of the field or mention drivers in 20th +...I count on the position scroll to keep up with drivers. So I'd watch the scroll..and I'll be darned it'd be getting to 2), 27, 28...and a graphic or commercial woul pop up..and the position scroll would start again at 1! Drove me crazy!
Excellent coverage 2 thumbs up to TNT as far as the race what a snozzer got dega tickets might cancel them now
the race broadcast was good.the wide open format was needed.i hope the broadcast partners wont try to cut back on live race coverage as part of the next contract.
Let's rejoice that tnt has only one race left to broadcast.
GinaV24.... I Dvr'd it last night since it was the first night innearly 2 weeks we could sit outside and not burn to a crisp, and thank you, I forgot what a tool Kenny has turned into as well. Is there another major sports organization's broadcasts that go out of their way to make the fans feel inferior? The empty seats speak volumes to that...
@GinaV24 "Why didn't NASCAR redflag the race? BZF said they didn't want to use gimmicks to manufacture excitement, well, that's exactly what the stupid GWC deal is - a way to manufacture excitement or at the very least to wreck some more race cars."
I was actually thinking about this over the weekend, because restrictor-plate GWCs have become very predictable: top four cars form two tandem drafts, maybe a third runs behind them, no one can get the momentum to get a run from further back, the finishing order is essentially set by the backstretch of the last lap, and then perhaps there is a huge wreck to at least make it slightly memorable. The NNS race was all set for a barnstorming finish before an iffy debris caution with 5 to go (there was a tire carcass sitting on the apron for at least a lap before the yellow flew, though in NASCAR's defense I think there was more debris elsewhere), which ended much as I described above. In the 400, given the size of the Big One with 8 to go, perhaps NASCAR should have red-flagged the race to allow for more green-flag racing at the end, although you could argue that doing that, or not counting caution laps within the last 5 or 10 laps of the race, is itself contrived.
Or—the most chilling thought of all—NASCAR is so enamored with the GWC finish that they will prolong late-race cautions specifically so they can restart with two or three laps to go. That would explain the extra caution laps that sometimes happen at Daytona, creating samey finishes.
Just because you have a piece of technology available to you, doesn't mean you have to use it to excess. That huge graphic at the bottom of the screen was overkill, by a "wide margin", pun intended. A lot of action at the bottom of the track was lost because of those graphics. All we need is a simple crawl at the top of the screen listing the drivers' position.
BTW, I've read a number of news stories in the mainstream media complaining about commercial excess on TNT during NASCAR races. Everyone involved in this issue denied that there is an excess of commercial minutes. Of course, that's what we would expect them to say.
The audio/video sync was off as usual, but I am use to it with Verizon FIOS...
Ancient - I am holding on but only by the skin of my teeth! thanks for the encouraging words.
MortonGrove, I don't think ANY other professional sports has media that denigrates its fans the way NASCAR does. I no longer watch Raceday or any prerace shows because I found I was totally incensed by Kenny the Klowns comments about/to the fans. I've heard Kyle Petty say this sort of thing before. It took me years before I would listen to him again and last night's smart aleck remarks take the cake. Only one more race with TNT so IF I bother to tune in, I'll mute the TV as I did with Fox since I'm not interested in anything that the booth has to say.
Zetona, IMO, your last paragraph hits it on the head. NASCAR WANTS excitement at the end of the race and they are willing to keep cautions going well past a reasonable point to try and ensure it. GWC and doublefile restarts have been used to try and mask the fact that the racing is terrible.
The theory is that an "exciting" finish (wrecks) will make the fans forget that 99% of the race distance was a total bore.
TV can't fix the racing but they can work on their own problems one of which should be having professionals in the booth and in the production truck. Insulting the fans should NOT be part of the conversation, although it is not only TV which is guilty - listen to Sirius radio shows and you'll know that under most circumstances they talk down to the fans and treat us with contempt.
Sorry, JD, I think NASCAR, BZF (the emperor with no clothes)and the whole lot have just finally gotten on my last nerve.
What is going on with NASCAR this year? All of the exciting tracks have been reduced to the same boring non-racing as the 1.5 mile tracks. Yeah, "the pack was back" but the pack used to shuffle around and it wasn't that long ago we were having record number of lead changes at plate tracks. Now we got two rows, no one can move, no one can pass, just going round and round until someone crashes.
I know a lot of people hate plate racing, but I've always loved it. Not this race. This was aero-drag at its worst.
The only thing I can think of is that all the teams and NASCAR R&D are so busy working on the new branded chassis for 2013 that they don't care to try and solve this problem. "Clean air", "side drafting," and an inability to pass except on pit road is killing this sport.
Honestly I have given up in tv commentators. I follow the race on twitter and have a satellite radio feed (Thank God). The commentators for TNT need to be fired, awful! There was no follow up as to what happened with several in track incidents. Please get rid of the unnecessary in car shots. All those are is a way to throw "sponsor a" a little more air time. We get if, sponsors make the sport, but it is becoming more than a bit ridiculous. Also, love the fact that the commentators could only talk about the top two guys for a majority of the race, never mind who was middle/back of the pack. (also agree with the above poster who mention Kyle Petty is becoming a bitter old man. Amen, please take him off the air.)
Secondly, the racing sucked. 130 laps of boring. NASCAR really needs to stop tweaking these packages. The races already feel too much like a WWE show. Thanks to Brutons comments, makes me wonder how much of things are manufactured.
On a positive note, I did like the Wide Open coverage. All broadcasts need to follow this format. But get rid of the useless stats at the bottom or have an intern who knows how to double check their work post them.
Glad you guys brought up the forced GWC. I completely forgot how NASCAR burned all those laps last night after the caution waved with EIGHT laps to go. Ugh. Of all the things they do these days, that is probably my biggest pet peeve of all because there is absolutely NO reason for it.
Just because they now have the GWC rule, doesn't mean they should be leaning on it every single time the caution waves even remotely close to the end. I don't know why they can't combine the GWC rule with their old rule to red flag the race to ensure a maximum number of green laps at the finish.
That would probably make too much sense.
Only had a problem with the announcers and the video not matching up with the audio. TBH, the broadcast was a 8/10. I saw a lot more racing than usual and less commercials, so I was happy. Plus, it was a good race, even though it turned into a wreckfest in the end.
To those complaining about TNT not telling us who finished where, NASCAR didn't know for a while. Even the transponder finish which is usually correct was screwed up. I do think the announcers should have told us that.
I ended up muting most of the "commercials" during the broadcast. They just got to be too obnoxious. I did enjoy being able to see the vast majority of the racing--and at Daytona this is a good thing.
Someone needed to get WD a bottle of water or something else to drink. The throat clearing got old very quickly.
The booth was pretty bad. Glad the racing was somewhat enjoyable...
I think TNT did the best job they could with a race that saw little to no action the first half of the race.
I like Alexander, but he needs to go.
All races should have wide open coverage. We don't have half time (yet), we don't do timeouts. I really had no problem with the presentation of the race itself.
If TNT and truTV had 6.1 million viewers combined watching Daytona, lets compare.
That number is slightly lower than the 6.127 millon that watched the Daytona race on just TNT in 2010. It is slightly higher than the 6.029 million that watched the Daytona race on just TNT in 2011.
The truTV experiment results don't look that great compared to 2010 and 2011. But Turner might have had another intent with the experiment and didn't expect a ratings boost.
I intended to watch the full race out of curiosity about the wide open presentation. Madame Nature changed my agenda with a brief but tempestuous storm. My power went off around lap 40. It was restored with about 15 laps to go. My observations are therefore limited.
As a rule, I do not have a problem with commercials, although my opinion has been severely tested by TNT prior to Daytona. Without commercials, we have no televised racing. My biggest issue is the apparently rigid commercial placement schedule that seems to disregard the action on the track. All of the networks are guilty of that, although at Kentucky, TNT took it to a new level. In my opinion, when we go back to conventional race coverage, someone who understands both the broadcaster's sponsor commitments AND the dynamics of racing should be appointed to cue the commercial breaks.
After the Kentucky debacle, I was curious to see how TNT would rebound. I was pleasantly surprised. I thought that the split screen coverage worked well. All of us here can pick apart certain components of the broadcast, but in the end, the majority of the race was on our screens.
My biggest issue with TNT is the broadcast team. I happen to like Kyle and Wally. Both are outspoken and spontaneous. However, given their personalities, they need a captain with a strong hand on the tiller to keep the broadcast on course. Adam Alexander is not that person. The actual race coverage is almost whimsical. Perhaps his goal is to create a comfortable fan-friendly conversational environment in the booth. Whatever his reasons, his style is not suited for a fast paced NASCAR race. Fans should not have to scour post race reports to learn why their favorite driver was three laps down.
My personal grade for TNT at Daytona is, surprisingly, B.
fbu1
fbu1, I think you hit the nail on the head about AA...it's hard for an experienced veteran like Mike Joy to harness in DW (not that he's had much success lately, but that may be FOX driven.) Adam is just in over his head...Kyle & Wally could be more effective with a stronger hand. Kyle tends to get too smart alecky (I wouldn't call it bitter, exactly...I think he likes being argumentative)...Wally just gets, I don't know, off track or something. But keep them on task and they can be valuable.
As others have said, the changing paint schemes are becoming ridiculous.
At one time the fans that were hooked would buy every die cast of every paint scheme of their favorite driver. Those days are gone. Now, if you have a favorite driver and they aren't up front, you can't even pick them out of the pack because you can't remember their color de jour.
It might be ok for a sponsor coming on board for that race, but the same sponsor with different colors is dumb. #48 has had 9 or 10 different Lowes designs and colors this year.
I've realized my lack of enjoyment in watching NASCAR isn't so much the TV coverage as it's the racing itself. I'm BORED. Bored with it all. The drivers are either vanilla or jerks. All the big breaking news during the week is about paint schemes. Big whoop. Now at Daytona you can't pass. I normally plant my butt in front of the TV and catch a race flag to flag; NOT ANYMORE. If the announcers, from ANY network, actually had great racing to talk about I don't think we'd find Waltrip-type droning quite so annoying. We want them to shut up and cover the race but the problem is: THERE'S NO RACE!!! There's nothing to cover! NASCAR either has to fix these danged cars or manufacture some TMZ type drama. JD, do you ever hear the post race audio NASCAR posts at their media site? Good gravy are those drivers boring. They sound half asleep and stupid. Would it kill them to perk up so their media partners have some compelling audio to play? Talk about behavior detrimental to the sport! It's not going to be long before I go from only watching the last 50 laps to missing the race entirely to not even noticing the sport at all.
I forgot to mention one of the reasons that I gave TNT an overall grade of B in my previous post: the TNT Race Buddy wrap-up show with Ralph Shaheen & Larry McReynolds. It filled in the blanks for me since I missed so much of the race. The immediate comparison between the booth crew and the post race show is telling.
Ralph should be doing PxP.
fbu1
I just watched tonight's Hub. Byrnes, Larry Mac and Elliott Sadler were bemoaning that they don't know what the fans wanted. They cited statistics for how many cars were involved in accidents at the last three plate races. Let me help them with what this veteran Nascar fan wants. I want RACING! Like when cars pass each other on the TRACK! Like when it's not a strung out parade with twelve cars on the lead lap. I want wider shots where you can get a sense of how the race is developing. I want people in the booth and in the pits that know what they're talking about and aren't preoccupied with self promotion. A week ago, Jamie Little reported that Kurt Busch was driving around with "no oil pressure". I want shorter races that don't drag on for almost 4 hours. It's so discouraging to hear Nascar television insult the fans by thinking we want to see wrecks all night long.
it is really not fair to use Jamie has an example of the average pit reporters' knowledge. Most of them have been at it long enough that they know a good amount, and they can usually find someone to explain to them the rest. They interview & are in the garage during qualifying and practice. Bob Dillner is a racer himself. So that's painting a pretty broad picture based on one person's perky pony tail. But they are not allowed to do what they do well as much as they should be.
Anon 7:37pm - Perfectly said. I don't understand why NASCAR and people like those on Racehub don't understand that.
It's a pretty simple request.
My reference to Jamie in my 7:37 pm post was not to single her out but present her comment as a recent example of the point I was making in the previous sentance. Dilner may have raced as I have, but that doesn't make him knowledgeable from a technical standpoint. I've seen him struggle along with numerous other pit reporters and TV hosts to describe what happens when there are problems with batteries/alternators which is a common occurrence in Nascar. The relationship between those components is not complicated and you'd think the folks making a living reporting on this stuff would try to figure it out knowing it was going to routinely occur. No one's perfect and even Larry Mac has said things that were flat-out wrong. The Rousch system that kills the ignition when both the brake pedal is depressed and the throttle is wide open comes to mind. I gave up on Nascar Now, but there was a national writer who would appear regularly. Elliott Sadler and others running the new Dodge engines a few years ago were breaking crankshafts. The writer speaking on NN twice said they were breaking camshafts. He obviously didn't know that one was much more vulnerable to breaking nor did he follow up with anyone prior to going on the air. A few years ago, there was a woman reporter from the major networks that covered a number of sports who just cracked up DW. Ryan Newman had ignition problems and switched to the backup box. The booth tossed to this pit reporter who twice reported that Newman switched to his backup ENGINE!!! When they went back to the booth, DW was hanging his head and laughing uncontollably. I could go on, but I'll spare you. All TDP'ers have held a job at one time or another. We all make mistakes and none of us know everything. But I expect people at the top of their profession to be knowledgeable. Sorry I beat this to death, but my point wasn't directed to a specific person or group of people. I'm impressed with GinaV24. Twice lately, she's given me an Attaboy! Oops. I hope that doesn't come across wrong! Lol.
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