Friday And Saturday TV Wrap

Kenny Schrader set the tone for a solid presentation of the ARCA/REMAX Series race from Talladega on Friday. It was nice to see Schrader back on SPEED and like many fans I certainly hope SPEED considers adding him to the Monday TWIN show.

The veteran perspective of someone who is not active in the Sprint Cup Series would be a very good fit to balance out the current cast of Michael Waltrip, Chad Knaus and Greg Biffle. Schrader has the knowledge without the on-going agenda of the other panelists to hype their own teams.

The ARCA race ended a long Friday of sometimes tedious and sometimes exciting coverage from Talladega on SPEED. The single car runs of qualifying vs. the door-banging laps of practice made for two very different styles of TV coverage.

The NASCAR on ESPN team returned for the Saturday afternoon Nationwide Series race on ABC and immediately set the agenda by again focusing on Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch as if the calendar said October and not April. This is the time of the season to talk to everyone and feature as many teams as possible on TV, not the time to pretend that a championship is at stake in the race.

The action on the track proved to be the saving grace for ABC. Michael Waltrip was spun by Joey Logano at high speed in what many know as a Talladega-style racing accident. ESPN pit reporter Jamie Little interviewed Waltrip outside the Infield Care Center. Normally, this would be a positive sign that the telecast was improving by following-up on drivers out of the race.

Instead, Little repeated to Waltrip a radio transmission overheard from Clint Bowyer. It was taken completely out of context, just like the incident last season created by ESPN. Bowyer remarked that it was Waltrip in an accident yet again. Little confronted Waltrip who had not yet even seen a replay of the incident.

"What's your defense?" Little said to a puzzled looking Waltrip. This bizarre sequence of events was a reminder that ESPN can and will create controversy when it fits the network's agenda. This is not the question you ask a man who has just crashed at almost 200 mph. Little was off-base and so was the producer who made her ask the question.

Even as the racing continued to be red hot, the ESPN coverage showed the remaining problems in the broadcast team. Remember, this is the group that will take over the Sprint Cup coverage in July and bring the series all the way to Homestead.

Amid the great triple-split video on the pit stops, the wonderful graphics and the fantastic HD pictures there was the continuing problem of Dr. Jerry Punch trying to deal with accidents and spontaneous incidents on the track.

Punch is a reporter and his nature is to observe and then discuss. Mat Kenseth received a shove from his Roush teammate David Ragan and started a lazy spin down the backstretch. Instead of blowing some tires and coming to a halt, Kenseth's car turned over and began to roll violently.

"Over on his roof," said Punch. That was all he said from the time the incident began until the time the car came to a halt. "A wild ride for the Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth," stated Punch once the car stopped. As a reporter, Punch's first thought is to identify everything.

Adding insult to injury, the ESPN Director unbelievably cut to a shot of a pregnant Katie Kenseth crying as she walked off pit road arm-in-arm with Ryan Newman's wife, Krissie. This was before viewers or the TV team knew that Matt was not injured. Why and how this happened is something the ESPN TV team needs to discuss. Whether or not ESPN offers an apology to Katie Kenseth, this was the ultimate in tasteless TV.

As the race came down to a green/white/checkered finish, the duo of Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree had once again saved the day for TV viewers. These two step right in and supply fans with the information that Punch just cannot seem to get out of his mouth in a timely fashion. There was no better example than the final lap of the race.

"Here they go three-wide," said Punch as the TV cameras showed only two lines of well-formed cars. As the pack approached the finish line, there was a mad scramble at the front.

"Junior up high, David Ragan is there," stated Punch. "And here comes...David Ragan."

That was the entire call of the ABC play-by-play announcer at the end of a live Talladega race as it was won by inches.

How much longer can this go on? Punch used to be one of the most respected reporters in the sport, but his return to NASCAR after a long hiatus has not been kind. Instead of handling interviews in the Infield Pit Center and leading discussions among his colleagues, he is expected to perform in a position he cannot handle.

NASCAR fans can hear the excited voices of Mike Joy, Rick Allen and Dave Moody almost every racing weekend. The memories of Bob Jenkins, Eli Gold and Allen Bestwick are still fresh in the minds of many. A good play-by-play announcer leaves a legacy of words that can still produce chills years later.

Speaking of Allen, it was a short appearance by Allen and his telecast partner Phil Parsons as they had the Camping World Truck Series race interrupted and then delayed by rain. The action on the track was good and the coverage solid, but unfortunately the entire team will have to wait until Monday morning to finish the event.

The Friday and Saturday race coverage was interesting and showed the various approaches to producing NASCAR on TV. Did you watch the races? Please share with us your opinion of the coverage from the NASCAR TV partners.

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Live Blogging The Nationwide Series And Camping World Trucks

It's a back-to-back NASCAR TV doubleheader on Saturday. ABC covers the Nationwide Series race from Talladega and then SPEED hosts the Camping World Trucks at Kansas Speedway.

Allen Bestick will begin the TV activity at 2:30PM on your local ABC television station. Rusty Wallace is still on vacation, so Dale Jarrett will join Bestwick and Brad Daughery for the pre-race show.

Jarrett will then head upstairs (no easy task at Talladega) and join Dr. Jerry Punch and Andy Petree to call the race. Down on pit road will be Shannon Spake, Jamie Little, Dave Burns and Vince Welch.

This TV production team is looking to recover from a rough outing in Phoenix last week. The entire telecast focused on Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch from start-to-finish. Green flag racing on the track was actually put aside while viewers watched Edwards' damaged car being inspected in the garage area.

Punch could hardly contain his enthusiasm when Busch got a lap back in the race. Needless to say, neither Busch or Edwards won the event. ESPN had egg on its face having wasted all this time profiling the two Cup drivers. All the stories of the other teams and drivers were pushed off the table.

Talladega should offer an opportunity to get back on the right track with long laps and pack racing. Hopefully, this event will allow the ESPN production team to highlight all the drivers and include as many sponsors as possible in this struggling series.

ABC is on the air until 6PM with the Nationwide coverage. SPEED comes on at 5:30PM with the CWTS pre-race show. So, once again NASCAR fans will be asked to choose between two NASCAR TV partners due to a scheduling conflict that should have been resolved long before this weekend.

Krista Voda is in Talladega for the NASCAR on Fox coverage, so Rick Allen will host the CWTS pre-race show from Kansas. Phil Parsons will join Allen while Ray Dunlap and Adam Alexander will handle the pit road coverage.

The trucks have a very diverse field that should result in some interesting racing. The TV crew has a very basic set-up and fans should see the old-style racing coverage that emphassizes the racing and keeps things basic.

This post will serve to host your comments about both the Nationwide Series on ABC and the CWTS on SPEED. To add your TV-related comments, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting.

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What If The Truck Race Rules The Weekend TV?

All the media hype is squarely on Talladega this weekend as the ARCA/REMAX, Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series race at the superspeedway. But, tucked away on the Saturday afternoon TV schedule is another event that might merit your attention.

The Camping World Truck Series is at Kansas Speedway for a race that will take to the air at 5:30 PM ET on SPEED. With the current economic woes, the CWTS is a rag-tag bunch of teams trying to scrape their way through the season. Some teams have fallen by the wayside, but others are continuing with the old racing spirit of operating on a shoestring.

SPEED has been the TV partner of the CWTS for a long time now and the telecasts of the series have developed almost a cult following. Many elements of the TV coverage are unique, from the simple and straightforward pre-race show to the consistent promise to treat every team equally when it comes to TV exposure.

The CWTS telecasts are stripped down and look a lot like the old-style NASCAR races that fans can stumble across on ESPN Classic or some of the regional sports networks. No gizmo's, no hype and no baloney. Just racing on TV.

Saturday in Kansas, the CWTS entry list is very interesting. The familiar faces like Johnny Benson, Todd Bodine and Ron Hornaday Jr. are there. But, from 57 year-old ARCA veteran Norm Benning to 23 year-old rookie female driver Gabi DiCarlo, the rest of the field is full of the very type of diversity that NASCAR has yet to accomplish elsewhere. Click here for a link to Jayski's Kansas race page.

By the time Sunday night at 10PM rolls around, there will have been over thirty hours of national TV programming originated from Talladega on four different television networks. Practice sessions, qualifying, news shows and preview programs will cover the weekend in-depth for the fans.

There will only be one telecast from Kansas of the truck race itself, no coverage of practice or qualifying. The race will come and go like a little blip on the NASCAR TV radar screen.

So, all of this begs the question. What if the TV coverage of the trucks in Kansas is better than either the Nationwide event on ABC or the Sprint Cup race on Fox?

Last week ESPN came to the table with a prepared script and followed Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch in the Nationwide race from start-to-finish. Click here for the TDP story about the coverage. The only problem was that once again racing reality interfered with the network's plans. Carl was eventually parked in the garage and Kyle got in all kinds of trouble. Neither TV hero won the race.

The NASCAR on Fox gang showed-up for the Sprint Cup telecast and were immediately buried in commercials and sponsorship elements from the pre-race show through the checkered flag. At times, it was almost comical in the amount of commercial elements the network tried in every way to force into the telecast. The result was a total on-air disaster and even lower TV ratings. Click here for the TDP column on that issue.

As SPEED returns to action with the trucks, it may well be a very interesting TV moment. The underfunded and bare-bones SPEED TV team will host their own pre-race show without a Hollywood Hotel or Infield Pit Center. Two announcers and two pit reporters will handle the commentary. No Tech Centers or cutaway cars will be in the coverage. There are no animated woodland creatures.

On this weekend with all three of NASCAR's national series in action, TDP readers have a great opportunity to compare the styles of ESPN, SPEED and Fox in producing NASCAR racing on TV.

There is also no doubt that somewhere at the headquarters of several NASCAR TV networks, interested executives will also be keeping an eye on exactly the same thing. What changes may result is anyone's guess.

TDP welcomes comments from readers. Just click on the comments button below and follow the easy instructions. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting.

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