The Monday Night Party Crew Returns

Life is a lot better for the gang producing This Week in NASCAR on SPEED Monday nights. It took a while, but SPEED has solved the TV problems that included audio issues, bad lighting and amateurish make-up.

Finally getting that "TV stuff" out of the way has resulted in some fun shows. Monday, it was the Chad and Mikey comedy tag-team back on the air. This season, Knaus and Waltrip have both been making NASCAR news and luckily for the program, that news is almost always good.

While Jeff Gordon winning after a long drought was the lead story, not far behind was the amazing recovery of the Jimmie Johnson team from running poorly to finishing second. Knaus once again was worth his weight in gold for this show. Waltrip chimed-in with his driver, David Reutimann, starting from the pole and having a great season.

Steve Byrnes has been good-naturedly trying to prod Knaus to share some team secrets, but to no avail. This trio has proven to be the right combination for this program. The only thing missing, for old school fans, is the wisdom and wit of someone like Kenny Schrader. The yin and yang of Knaus and Waltrip makes for good TV, but perhaps having a third voice next season might add a new dimension to the program.

Content is king these days and for NASCAR fans the choices seem to be almost endless. TWIN is battling the NASCAR websites, Twitter and amateur blogs who have access to race video and operate without the issues of footage rights or professional accountability.

Byrnes has taken the role of leading the discussion and his choices of topics normally result in good information coming from Waltrip and Knaus. Each of these two personalities have a wealth of information for very different reasons.

The analytical Knaus may be the top crew chief in NASCAR and Waltrip has put in his time with a long history in the sport and a very diverse journey. Aside from the race-related info, the program also offers a very human glimpse into the reality of a NASCAR life and the very different kind of lifestyle that results.

At the beginning of the year, TDP readers lobbied for a format change in the show and were ultimately rewarded by the SPEED executives. Waltrip has recently been lobbying for more airtime for the wonderfully edited features from The NASCAR Media Group that combine the TV, radio, scanner and natural sound of the races with all the best footage. Next Monday, he gets his wish.

During the Sprint Cup off-week, TWIN will be on at 8PM with the best NASCAR Media Group features from this season. From the dramatic to the hilarious, this is the type of content that SPEED will hopefully present as a weekly series before too long. With all the drama of an NFL Films-style presentation, these features really give the behind-the-scenes peek that many fans love.

The heart of the Sprint Cup season is just around the corner and TWIN has once again put itself in a strong position as a fun and entertaining Monday night NASCAR TV series.

As we approach the break, what are your thoughts on TWIN this season? To add your opinion, just click on 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.

New Sprint Cup Series Not Generating TV Excitement

The change to the COT fulltime has resulted in many positive things for the sport from cost savings to increased safety. This weekend in Texas, the memories of the 2008 Michael McDowell qualifying accident were still fresh in the minds of many.

That said, the Sunday TV challenge for the NASCAR on Fox gang was simply to generate excitement on this high-speed track. Once again, as the teams struggled with the COT on the track, the announcers struggled on the air. It was an all too familiar scenario.

Jeff Hammond dressed up in his Western apparel and received some good-natured grief from both Hollywood Hotel host Chris Myers and some of the Cup drivers. There is nothing wrong with having some fun on TV and Hammond continues to be under-utilized in these telecasts.

Darrell Waltrip has become increasingly frustrated by the new breed of drivers now racing in the Sprint Cup Series. Sunday, Waltrip's emotion boiled-over in a feature aimed squarely at some of the top drivers in the sport.

Although sometimes making great points, Waltrip missed with this one. The days of brawling and outspoken drivers have been ended by the media and the sponsors. They will never return. This is a new generation.

The race quickly took on a personality that fans know all too well. Single-file COT cars on a 1.5 mile track slipping and sliding carefully between pit stops. The extended green at the top of the race took the wind out of the TV crew's sails and it never returned.

Larry McReynolds is always trying his best, but sometimes the lack of action on the track and the continual integration of sponsor elements just over-rides anything he can contribute. From the "Cheese-It Bite of the Race" to the continually useless sponsored racebreaks, Fox was overloaded with awkward sponsorships during the event.

Myers reads the highlights of the race and is often wrong in his summaries. Hammond gently corrects him and sets the scenario for the guys in the booth. Missing during these summaries are the pit reporters, who know the reality of what each team has been going through. Myers slows the telecast with every racebreak.

Returning this week was the pre-race Digger cartoon which made no sense at all after being gone for the past several races. Luckily, the animation of Digger was not intrusive to the race and Fox mostly used the Digger logo under green flag conditions. One final animation with ten laps to go was a bit much.

Also back on the TV screen was the use of four big video boxes for pit stops. This effect fills the screen and loses the perspective for the viewer of who is where on pit road. After two races of seeing Fox use the triple-split that allows for a live view of pit road, this transition was tough to take.

After seeing teams like Scott Speed, Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Riggs miss the race, Fox did not follow up with either Mike Bliss or Dave Blaney as those cars left the race right around the first pit stop. The "start and park" issue is larger this season than ever before and perhaps should have been addressed.

"Slow and steady," said Joy as he talked about the COT progress. He could have been talking about the telecast. It is rare to hear periods of silence on the Fox NASCAR coverage, but that was certainly the case on Sunday. The bottom line was there really was nothing to talk about. Sometimes, it looked like practice.

Several times the Fox team tried to go through the field, but they started from the front and did not get back very far. Once again, comments in the TDP chat reflected the fact that many TV viewers had chosen to go and listen to the radio coverage of the event.

Teams in the back are not suddenly less important than teams who happen to be in the front during a specific gas run. How many times in the telecast did drivers like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton or David Stremme just suddenly appear on the TV screen after having driven through the field to get back to the top ten?

It is the perfect right of Fox to concentrate on the leaders, to use the Racebreaks and to focus on the high-profile teams. They have been doing this for years and the Sprint Cup coverage is now a formula that the network is comfortable producing.

The flipside of this scenario is that NASCAR TV ratings are down and the sport is very different from the racing of five years ago. What needs to happen is the toughest thing for established TV networks to do. That is change.

Fox polished off the broadcast with good coverage of the final 25 lap sprint. A split-screen showing the winner slowing down and the field crossing the line was new. It certainly was better than simply showing the winner alone as the network did last season at this track. Several good interviews ended the coverage.

One week off and then Fox returns to racing at Phoenix. There are six races remaining in the Fox package before TNT begins their portion in Pocono.

TDP welcomes comments from readers. Just click on 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.

Live Blogging The Sprint Cup Series Race From Texas On Fox

There is an unexpected twist that has been thrown into the mix for the live Sprint Cup race today. The Texas wind has kicked-up and gusts of 40 mph have been blowing everything around at the speedway.

This should affect the race in several ways. First, the COT's at speed are bothered by cross-winds. Secondly, the big bump on the track where the tunnel is located should now upset the cars even more with the wind blowing. Finally, the trash from the fans will be blowing onto the track and the COT is notorious for overheating when the grill is blocked.

Fox is going to have to adapt from the scripted opening to deal with these issues. All the other stories concerning Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and the potential closure of the 8 team have already been discussed on NASCAR Now and Raceday.

Speaking of NASCAR Now on ESPN2, who from NASCAR is going to make the phone call to get things straightened out for the rest of the season? This Sunday morning, once again NASCAR Now refused to promote the start time and TV network of the very race they were on the air to promote. Instead, the network again promoted the NHRA races...simply because they were on ESPN2.

Chris Myers and Jeff Hammond start the day at 1:30PM from the Hollywood Hotel. Darrell Waltrip will appear on the show and then move upstairs for the 2:16PM green flag to call the race. Mike Joy and Larry McReynolds will once again be alongside Waltrip.

Down on pit road will be the best group of reporters in the business. Dick Berggren, Steve Byrnes, Matt Yocum and Krista Voda will hopefully be used a lot more often to recap the field and follow the stories of the day.

This race features a tough pit road entrance, a dogleg on the frontstretch and a big bump over the tunnel. The challenge for the production team is to track the progress of the teams as pit strategy and gas mileage scenarios play out. Accidents at this track take a while to clean-up, so expect to see the Hollywood Hotel during extended cautions.

This post will serve to host your comments about the TV coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race from Texas on Fox. To add your opinion, just click on 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.