We have to begin this pre-race programming post with a picture of the bus race champion from Lowe's Motor Speedway. Last season it was Jimmy Spencer, but this year he was crushed by fellow SPEED announcer Wendy Venturini. She held-off John Roberts, Rutledge Wood, Spencer, Kenny Wallace and Hermie Sadler to claim the victory.
It will be NASCAR Now on ESPN2 at 10AM Eastern Time that kicks-off the Saturday pre-race action for one hour. This show features Ryan Burr and Nicole Manske hosting with multiple ESPN reporters checking-in from the Chicagoland track. NASCAR Now has bounced back from a tough Tuesday show on Richard Petty to recover quite well with wall-to-wall coverage of the Tony Stewart announcement and reactions.
Fans will have to take a break as RaceDay on SPEED does not come along until 4:30PM. SPEED does have Tradin' Paint at 3PM with USA Today reporter Nate Ryan as the media guest along with host John Roberts and regular panelist Kyle Petty. Larry McReynolds brings his NASCAR Performance show to the air at 3:30PM and Adam Alexander hosts NASCAR In A Hurry at 4PM.
Roberts then comes along with his big cast of characters for RaceDay at 4:30PM. This week at Chicagoland the program will have Casey Mears, Carl Edwards and Jay Frye who is the GM at Red Bull Racing. Venturini's Real Deal segment will be taking a look at Brian Vickers. News will include a review of Stewart's announcement, the most recent NASCAR penalties and a video highlight package of the bus race.
TNT is up next with NASCAR On TNT Live! hosted by Marc Fein. This season, Fein has finally gotten himself comfortable with NASCAR and being joined on the stage by Kyle Petty and McReynolds really has helped. This show will feature Richard Petty on his anniversary week of 50 years in NASCAR. Tony Stewart will also be along to update his 2009 team news.
Popular CNN Headline News anchor Robin Meade will be acting as a race official and riding in the pace car, so there is no doubt viewers will see her during the pre-race show as TNT and CNN are sister networks in the Turner Broadcasting family. Fans may remember Meade taking a ride on Wally's World a while back and loving every minute of it. She seems to be slowly becoming a NASCAR fan.
Allstate Countdown to Green is next at 7:30PM with Bill Weber and Wally Dallenbach up in the TNT booth hosting the program. This is the final race for TNT, so look for Weber to talk about the overall TV package and his experience this season. This program leads into race coverage at 8PM.
As usual, SPEED is going to hold the airing of Victory Lane until 8PM on Sunday night. If you feel strongly about this topic, I would urge you to contact SPEED through the contact link on the SPEEDtv.com website. Perhaps, next year the network will make a commitment to the fans instead of the schedule.
This post will serve to host your comments about the pre-race shows from these three NASCAR TV partners. To add your TV-related comments, click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thank you for taking the time to stop by.
24 comments:
How many more Saturday night races are there this season? Come on SPEED, give us fans what we want. I rarely watch VL when it has been almost a day since the race ended.
Yes, no Victory Lane. After Daytona on Saturday night, watched all I could after the race. But as I usually watch VL on Sunday night after a Sunday race. This time I did not, I had by then read, listened to all I needed by the time VL was on Sunday night. If the reair of it was or could be on a Sunday morning after the race that would be ok. When I say Sunday morning, anytime before noon. But then again I always could record it if it was on after the Saturday night race live and watch it when I want on Sunday. Just set recording time for sixty or so minutes.
Hey JD are you going to do a post on Trackside, I just watched and it was fantastic, all Richard Petty and everything that ESPN's show was not.
I unfortunatly will have to DVR all of the pre race and race (attending a wedding) so it's a good thing that VL isn't on until tomorrow or I wouldn't know when to set the DVR for since it would depend on the finish time.
nrf,
I normally do not post on Trackside just because it is the same formula each race weekend with one or two guest.
I did put up an advancer, sending folks over to watch it. You would be surprised how much email I am getting with people asking "who is Richard Petty?" Lots of them also have no idea of Kyle's past.
We really need more classic and historic NASCAR programming on both SPEED and ESPN Classic. The past is slipping away.
JD
daly planet editor said...
We really need more classic and historic NASCAR programming on both SPEED and ESPN Classic. The past is slipping away.
can i get an "AMEN!"? one of my major complaints about corporate nascar is the reluctance to showcase its own history. we get bits & pieces but so many of the pioneers of our sport are unknown. and the fact that anyone could email you about "who is this richard petty?" is testament to that failure.
i've said it repeatedly: these men and women who created nascar are getting older and will not be with us for much longer. we need to get their stories captured in a systematic way and we need to get their voices heard by today's fans. so much of where we are now came form those who raced and owned teams and ran the sport before today and their stories are largely unknown.
we've tossed around the idea of an "all-nascar " channel and some felt there wouldn't be enough programming available. i believe that, if some media group makes the time to interview these men and women, there will be an abundance of programming! the stories are fascinating, the voices authentic and honest and we should do everything possible to capture all of that now.
SPEED keeps missing the bus with the putting off of VL this season. Sorry just too much PRE race before the race. so don't watch but bits and pieces.
Shocked that any regulars here do not know who Richard Petty is??? My gosh. I wonder if that's generational thing. I have only been watching NASCAR since 2004 but know most all the well known big names of the history...Jr Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Allison Brothers, (sp?) Harry Gant, Petty, Earnhardt Sr., etc. But I love history in this sport and enjoy hearing/reading about it. Interviewing the ones still left to listen to the old days is great which is why I had hoped HUMPY's show would continue (with less gimmicks like 'Humpy Cam' and interaction between modern drivers and the guys that raced back when it was hard work and much less money and sponsoring going on....and more colorful characters.
I LOVED this TRACKSIDE. One of the best ever. The Michigan fan crowd was quieter, the guys did not goof off or waste time with stupid stuff and just let the King talk. It was FANTASTIC. I enjoyed hearing how sometimes they had no fancy paint jobs on the cars if there were two races in the same week...and how he and the drivers would drive with wet rags in their mouth to keep the dust and grit out (especially on the dirt track days)
I like the guys on there but had missed some shows and the show with Dario Franchitti was just painful with the stupid antics forced on him with the guys and Guitar Hero and graphics on my screen for SEVERAL MINUTES that had nothing to do with racing. Dario lost his job and so did a bunch of Ganassi drivers.....been nice to hear where Dario's mind was that night. THANKFULLY that had been written here and I got a heads up for the repeat showing.
I like Trackside when they let the guests talk. Frankly, I like the guys on the show ok but there are too many cooks. If you want the show to be those guys talking about things, that is fine. But when you jam in a guest or two or one of the Legends like Petty, it's hard to let the focus be on the guest.
The boys did a good job of letting the King be the focus. Well done.
Sorry for the manifesto. still say VL and NP should be on Monday night before the Twisted Twin. As in backtwist, or back flip or however one describes the sequence. LOVE the guys on the show, but :-)
There is a new post added for those of you who would like to make a comment about the Friday night Trackside show.
JD
I am wondering if NASCAR is doing this so that we will watch the Jack Daniels show on-line following the race. I watched it last week and it is not a bad show.
I will let SPEED know that VL needs to be shown after the race, not the next night.
However, as long as Kyle B keeps winning, I will not watch it. It's bad enough during the race to watch the Kyle Busch Show.
I would love to see a new post-race show that strictly plays the FULL feed of the post-race driver Q&A in the media center. No panel, no commentary, no opinion - just good some closure from a hard day of racing. Fans, including myself, will eat this up. Right now after the race, I tune into NASCAR.com for their Jack Daniel's post-race show, but I would much rather watch it off the tv rather than the computer plus those tv personalities are bozo's. That Q&A seems largely untapped. ESPNEWS carries some of the post-race conference but it gets bogged down with other sports news and is often played to us strung out over 2 hours.
JD,
I love the blue background.
To inkthatpaints, I like that idea.
daly planet editor said...
We really need more classic and historic NASCAR programming on both SPEED and ESPN Classic. The past is slipping away.
___________
Yes, we need more classic programming of NASCAR.
I loved the piece on Davey Allison on NASCAR Now this morning.
inkthatpaints said...
I would love to see a new post-race show that strictly plays the FULL feed of the post-race driver Q&A in the media center. No panel, no commentary, no opinion - just good some closure from a hard day of racing. Fans, including myself, will eat this up.
---
Ah, that would truly be a dream come true!
I hope that Ric Flair makes and appearance on Raceday, he has so much to do with NASCAR he should be a permanent fixture (sarcasm intended).
Honest to god, how many pre race shows do we need?
diane,
My theory is that when the total amount of pre-race programming (four and a half hours) is long than most races...there is a problem there.
JD
diane said...
Honest to god, how many pre race shows do we need?
July 12, 2008 5:03 PM
1 prerace & 1 full post race. all the rest is repeat repeat
I am still very disappointed that RaceDay has been pushed back - and that V-Lane is not on after the race on Sat. nights. It would appear that SPEED must have a rule that for every good programming decision they make, they must make a dumb one.
JD, someone should do a NASCAR history show with oh say Eli Gold interviewing the giants from NASCAR's past like Richard P, Junior Johnson, the Allisons, Barney Hall, Ken Squier, Ned Jarrett, etc.
When he was unceremoniously retired, I thought Humpy said he was going to be doing some shows for SPEED, which I presumed meant more editions of The Humpy Show.
Well it sounds like Trackside was a pretty good show and we missed it. I hope RaceDay changes Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace next year they are getting tiring. I enjoy Hermie Sadler but when he talks he seems like he's yelling but I like his questions.
VL needs to stay where it is. Its nice to watch when you have no racing action on Sunday. SPEED is right.
That is cool everybody has a hat like the King. what a guy!!
I also loved the BBaker piece....if only SPEED would do more shows on these guys and PROMOTE it...many would love to watch during the week. Monday night TWIN just BEGS for some NASCAR wraparound shows.
I missed most of RD..just too long and missed the bus race darn it..oh, well. Got to see Tomy and Joe...oh, wait,, that was TNT?? lol.
That was good, too but I did notice Joe twiddling his thumbs a lot..wonder if that's a habit or body language one should read something into.
Loooking forward to the last race on tnt..and plenty of promo's for one of my fave shows...sigh
This is a compliment but so far, BW has not made me want to take a hammer to my tv set this TNT season. ;)
Last year, I skipped about half of the NVL shows ... This year, I've already skipped 6 of them ... IF the current trend of domination by one driver/team continues, I may just skip NVL completely ...
The same thing can be said about Trackside ... They wind up having the same guests over & over & over every season ... Mix it up ... Get some of the crew chiefs or owners on the show that aren't the HMS / JGR / RFR / Ganassi guys ... How about the guys in the Nationwide & Craftsman Truck series that get little to none tv exposure because they're being overshadowed by the kid from Vegas or "Sliced Bread" ??
I know the tv pre-race shows are trying to get people hyped up for the race ... just like at the track they'll have concerts or whatever ... But, living on the West Coast, it's a bit hard to watch a NN show at 7am when the race doesn't start til 4pm ... It's hard to watch NN at 7am when the race starts at 11am ...
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