Sprint Cup Series From Richmond On FOX

It's a cold and rainy night in suburban Richmond, Virginia. The Richmond International Raceway has the jet dryers going and it looks good to get the race in tonight. Nothing official yet, but things look like they will be delayed a bit.

Chris Myers has Michael and Darrell Waltrip in the Hollywood Hotel. Mike Joy calls the race with Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds. Matt Yocum, Steve Byrnes, Krista Voda and Dick Berggren are on pit road. Jeff Hammond is the roving reporter.

Richmond is fun to watch when TV viewers can see the field and the racing. Keep an eye on just how tight FOX decides to shoot the race and how much of a "zoom-in" factor we will see tonight. ESPN had a rough outing last night with "hyper-tight" shots and blown coverage at the finish.

We will be running the  #TDP1 live stream on Twitter beginning at 7PM ET. There will be a post up immediately after the race for your full-length comments. Thanks.

ESPN2 Returns In Richmond

Kevin Harvick is on the pole as the Nationwide Series hits the Richmond International Raceway track under the lights on ESPN2. Danica is getting upstaged by the new mullet king Travis Pastrana.

ESPN gets back in the mix with Marty Smith in the Infield Pit Studio for the pre-race show as Rusty Wallace has the weekend off. Smith has been great and his opinions and comments are exactly what this telecast has needed. Wallace has his son Steven running at RIR in a Roush-prepared car, so it should be interesting to keep an eye on how much air time Steven gets, despite his position on the track.

Allen Bestwick is going to be a welcome voice as he leads Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree through this telecast. This race has all kind of drivers in the field and the action may be much more intense than the Cup race. Remember, those drivers seem to be "points racing" this season in almost every event.

ESPN has struggled with production on short tracks and Richmond's action is intense. We will use this post for your TV comments on this telecast. Just click the comments button to add your opinion. Thanks!

Day Two: NASCAR On FOX From Kansas Speedway

The weather was the story in Kansas as cold temps and a green track from rain Saturday night made things pretty interesting. Teams were fooled on gas mileage and set-ups early on, while favorite son Clint Bowyer suffered engines woes and ultimately retired.

NASCAR on FOX began with a pre-race show that featured a focus on the promotion of the speedway, the sport and the series. It was a tough sell. The truck series race on Saturday showed fans exactly the issue facing the Sprint Cup Series today. Passing was going to be at a premium and "aero" was a word that was going to dominate.

Michael and Darrell Waltrip are exactly what FOX ordered. They invite controversy with their statements and together on the pre-race show are a walking conflict of interest. It gets TV viewers riled up and that is what the FOX executives enjoy doing.

The downside of all this pre-race gushing about the sport is that the kind of content presented by Jeff Hammond is missing. Darrell and Michael are from different eras, but both speak primarily from a driver's perspective. What has been lost is the crew chief perspective. Michael cannot provide this even when speaking as a current Sprint Cup Series owner.

Hammond once again tried to present a variety of interesting reports from different locations, but since there were few caution periods it was awkward at best. This new role has proven to be tough to integrate into a telecast. Surprisingly, Hammond is rarely seen in the garage following up after a key competitor has engines woes.

Mike Joy had an opportunity to flash the magic he used to show regularly on the older FOX telecasts. His calls of the restarts were stellar, but eventually the familiar routine of Waltrip dominating in the booth returned. TV commentary is now conversational instead of exciting, it's just the nature of the beast.

The pictures told the story. Tight shots were so frequent that when one aerial shot was used on a restart it was almost shocking. FOX has a style, they are going to stick with it and once again they did. Pit reporters were stellar, but again not used down the stretch. That is Waltrip time.

FOX continues to use the wideshot at the finish and ended the coverage with some of the lead lap cars finishing the race. There were no technical problems and once again the pictures and sound were solid. In many ways, this was just a repeat of a familiar formula that is being used for the TV coverage of this series.

We invite your comments on the NASCAR on FOX coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race from the Kansas Speedway. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button. Thank you again for stopping by.