Waltrip Back On TV Friday From MIS

It's been a heck of a week for FOX and SPEED's Darrell Waltrip. At 11:30AM on Friday, SPEED announcer Rick Allen may well be the first to welcome now NASCAR Hall of Famer Waltrip back to the broadcast booth.

Waltrip begins his weekend of TV work with Nationwide Series practice at 11:30AM ET. Larry McReynolds will join Allen and Waltrip in the booth for that session.

SPEED actually kicks-off the day at 11AM with NASCAR Live. John Roberts and Jeff Hammond will set the scene at the track. Hermie Sadler and Randy Pemberton are the reporters. The full TV schedule for Friday is on the left side of this page.

Waltrip is now done with his FOX duties. The only reason he is still on TV is because he is filling in at SPEED for Kyle Petty during the six TNT races. This weekend finds Waltrip in the TV booth, on the Trackside panel and finally alongside of Kenny Wallace and Roberts on RaceDay.

Earlier this year we talked about the desire of senior FOX Sports executive David Hill to raise Waltrip's TV profile throughout the entire NASCAR season. In the past, Waltrip departed after the final FOX race. Elliott Sadler used to replace him on Trackside for the rest of the year. SPEED has no official update on what will happen with Trackside talent after the TNT races are over.

Waltrip has talked about wanting to be more involved in NASCAR TV coverage when the FOX races were done. He began appearing all over the SPEED coverage of the final weekend of racing in Homestead, FL. Things grew from there.

Now, he is with TV viewers all summer and by being around for Trackside and RaceDay he is also available to get into the TV booth for some practice and qualifying coverage. There seems to be a little trend developing here.

It should be interesting to see how Waltrip handles his new Hall of Fame status on the air. There is little doubt it will be a topic mentioned many times throughout the weekend. Life has truly changed for Waltrip and just like being a Daytona 500 winner or a Sprint Cup Series champ, things will never be the same again.

The twist in Friday NASCAR TV is the fact that SPEED is sneaking in live the ARCA race from MIS at 5PM ET. Rick Allen and Phil Parsons do a good job on this coverage.

This post will serve to host your comments about the Friday TV coverage from MIS by SPEED. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Waltrip Part Of An Interesting Hall Of Fame Group

Voting Update 4PM: Well, "ole DW" is in! Here are the new 5 inductees: Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, crew chief Dale Inman, modified champ Richie Evans and Glen Wood. Leaving this post up as the lead to get more comments on the Hall of Fame selections.

Here is the original TDP post before the selection:

It was one of those TV moments that was impossible to forget. Last fall, SPEED allowed nominee Darrell Waltrip to participate in the live telecast of the NASCAR Hall of Fame selection announcement. It was a big mistake.

The selection committee considered Waltrip's career racing stats, his current FOX television work and his role as a high-profile spokesman for the sport. When the names of those selected were read, Waltrip was not on the list.

This from AP NASCAR writer Jenna Fryer : "It was foolish for Darrell Waltrip to participate in the live broadcast of last year's NASCAR Hall of Fame voting day, when he was publicly humiliated by being snubbed from the five-member second class. Waltrip was stoic on the air, but as the color drained from his face as the inductees were announced, his exclusion clearly wounded him."

This from SBNation's Jeff Gluck: "Instead of looking at accomplishments and records, the Hall of Fame voters looked at their own personal biases and feelings. The theory here is that Waltrip, nicknamed Jaws for infamously flapping his gums, rubbed many people the wrong way over the years."

Tomorrow the process repeats itself and Waltrip is again on the list of nominees. This time, however, he is not a member of the SPEED telecast. Mike Joy will anchor the coverage with Ken Squier, Kyle Petty and Rick Allen on the panel. Randy Pemberton will handle the interviews.

While there are a total of 55 people who cast Hall of Fame votes, the TV and radio personalities include Dr. Jerry Punch, Joy, Petty, Barney Hall, Doug Rice, Allen, Dave Moody and Squier. It is widely held that this group is one of the strongest in favor of Waltrip's selection.

The other groups voting include NASCAR officials, track operators, and manufacturer representatives. From within the teams there are retired car owners, crew chiefs and drivers. A few of those key names include Ricky Rudd, Bud Moore and Buddy Parrott.

SPEED will begin the day at 3PM with a live preview show that will recap and discuss the nominees. The topic of selection criteria came up on this program last year and the discussion was quite lively. It seems that even among media folks, there are widespread differences of opinion about how to fill the hall.

At 4PM the selection show will begin. It has been Brian France announcing those names since the Hall of Fame opened. France has been very busy reorganizing many of the key pieces of his family business even as he continues to go through a very nasty public divorce. Several new key executives are now in Charlotte and ready to go.

Perhaps, TV viewers will finally get to hear from the new NASCAR PR chief Brett Jewkes. Unlike the comforting presence of the late Jim Hunter, Jewkes has yet to appear on television and introduce himself to the fans. It would be interesting to hear his opinion on the Hall of Fame as an executive relatively new to the sport.

Make no mistake, there is a very real possibility that Waltrip may once again not make the list. First of all, voters are looking at many nominees from NASCAR history long before Waltrip came to the sport. They include Red Byron, Tim Flock and Raymond Parks.

Secondly, while the strength of Waltrip's vote may be with the media, there is no way to gauge the relationship Waltrip has with the other voters. They may not be inclined to consider someone relatively young (64), in good health and still actively working in the sport while much older nominees are on the list.

While everyone will be waiting for the selections, the real drama once again will be whether one of the most high-profile TV personalities in the sport finally gets a Hall of Fame jacket with his name on it.

We welcome your comments on this topic and will use this post to blog about the two Hall of Fame shows on SPEED Tuesday afternoon. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

TV Police: Sprint Cup Series From Pocono On TNT

It's going to take someone with a very good sense of humor to figure out the TNT coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race from Pocono. Detective Dwight Hendricks loves Memphis, his mother and singing the blues. He also uses his positive attitude to get through tough situations. Pocono was tough.

The TNT team broke-out all the bells and whistles for this race. RaceBuddy was online and for the first time available on iPad and iPhone. The TV commentary track was offered online along with four in-car cameras, two battle cams and a lot more. They would need it all.

The race unfolded after a foggy morning with the one hour Countdown to Green show. Lindsay Czarniak hosted Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds from the TNT infield rig in the windy and cool weather. The show featured opinions, interviews and a feature on the late crew chief Harry Hyde.

TNT's pit reporters started strong with Ralph Sheheen, Marty Snider, Matt Yocum and newcomer Chris Neville covering the stories and interviewing before the green flag. TNT uses the pit reporters a lot more than FOX.

Adam Alexander is in season two of his job as play-by-play announcer for the TNT races. Petty and Wally Dallenbach join Alexander for the telecasts. Pocono is a huge challenge for the PXP person due to the long green flag runs and the relative lack of passing.

Ultimately, the only way to make Pocono interesting is to continually update all the race strategies and go through the field. TNT does not use the "hyper-tight" coverage philosophy of FOX and the result was a very different looking telecast. Wideshots for perspective were mixed with close-ups that were selected for a reason.

The telecast viewed with RaceBuddy made for compelling video, especially with the fact that RaceBuddy continued without commercial breaks. Watching the telecast alone told the classic story of Pocono. Engine woes, big speeds and little passing.

TNT does "through the field" rundowns that give fans information on drivers and teams that have perhaps not been up front or in the TV coverage. It's a nice touch and a welcome addition after the reality of FOX and the lack of available information from those telecasts.

The upper-screen scoring ticker for TNT still has the team colors and numbers, but the names of the drivers can be clearly seen in black and white, literally. The ticker moves at a quick clip and additional graphics are often added to it, expanding the available information.

TNT runs a lot more split-screens, but seems unable to put McReynolds in that effect when he is updating on-camera during the race. It's more important than ever to keep green flag racing on the TV screen, so perhaps McReynolds might find himself sharing the screen for the remaining five races.

After leaving the race due to engine failure, Carl Edwards joined Czarniak and McReynolds in the tiny TNT studio used when rain is pending. Edwards even brought his failed engine part and had a brief conversation that detailed his issues. Then, Edwards stayed and continued to comment during the telecast.

As usual with Pocono, the racing action picked up late in the race. TNT continued to keep the focus on the racing action with Petty taking the lead on the race commentary. In this first race of the TNT package, McReynolds had a much smaller role and was not in the mix on strategy issues.

This post will serve to host your comments on the TNT coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race from Pocono Raceway. 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. Thank you for stopping by.