ESPN2 is on the air with coverage of the Sprint Cup Series practice, Nationwide Series qualifying and finally Sprint Cup Series qualifying.
Jerry Punch will handle the Sprint Cup Series action while Marty Reid has returned and will call the Nationwide Series activities. Both play-by-play announcers will be working with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree.
This is going to be a long day for Jarrett and Petree. They will also stick around to handle the Nationwide Series race later tonight.
Richmond is a huge race for the sport and the tension level is high in the Sprint Cup Series garage. Keep an eye on the interviews from the pit reporters in these sessions for who is having a good day and who is struggling.
This post will serve to host your comments about the afternoon TV on ESPN2. To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the comments button below. We will update news during the day on this post as well. Thanks!
49 comments:
Is that commercial for some "tax relief" a national commercial or a locally (Seattle) inserted commercial ... on espn2??
It's majorly annoying ... There's a blonde woman that sounds like Nicole Manske in the commercial ...
national.
interesting discussing team orders and such, been a hot button topic on SIRIUS all week.
fun fight to watch Monday though, was hoping some more action would've happened though.
Liked the NW practice coverage when Andy was on pit road. Hopefully he can rebound from a rough last month or so
Interesting segue about "team orders" and John Force / NHRA ... and related it to Jimmie Johnson / HMS ...
The booth boys didn't really emphasize that it was the race results of Cruz Pedregon vs Robert Hight all season long ... as well as the Eliminations Ladder ... that put John Force up against his SIL in the semi-finals on Monday ...
IF Cruz Pedregon had wanted to be in the NHRA's version of "The Chase" ... Then he should've performed better in the previous races ...
Jamie - "Right from SHAM ... Shim ... adjustment" on the 42 ...
Oy freakin' vey!
tiam, remember them showing tony vs. cruz...they raced it out.
I wished though if John was going to throw that race, he would have done a better job doing so. That effort was weak but the remarks by Tony were just there to inflame though what I did find interesting and JD you might as well, was ESPN pouring gasoline on the fire repeatedly and JF doing his best to NOT say anything bad.
ESPN stirred up some of that controversy IMO.
71 will be a S&P tomorrow as I suspected.
Watched Speed covering practice earlier today. Now, ESPN is covering it. Day and Night. Speed covers so much more about each driver and car. I always feel I am with friends who are watching the practice with me, talking about what is going on. ESPN is much more rigid and not always timely.
Are both sets of announcers able to see the track direct? There is such a difference in coverage but I am not sure what causes it.
Please, please - give me Speed coverage back!
They are absolutely fanning the NHRA flames, despite the fact that it is John Force the ESPN fav.
Need a lot more info from the pit reporters. I am missing Wendy and Bob D. on SPEED.
They SHOULD be fanning the flames with this Force issue because he DID cheat and basically admitted it when he said, "these are my race teams and I'm going to do what I want to do".
Force knew the NHRA wasn't going to do anything to him and his team, so he did what he had to and got away with it. Good for him, other drivers in racing have "taken one for the team" as well.
As long as it translates to TV ratings, that is what seems to matter.
Funny that a guy like DJ who has no NHRA connections is put on the spot to talk about it on live TV.
If this is practice, bring on Marty Reid for the Nationwide quals...please.
Every time I see Marty Smith in a suit and tie at the track, I wonder if he has shorts on the bottom. I saw that once, can't recall where.
So hard to hear Allen Bestwick jammed into a couple of minutes on NASCAR Now after hours of Jerry Punch on practice.....
That was the best NascarNow opening ever! Hopefully the show delivers the same quality.
Did you guys see Ed Hinton reporting from the track last week with a polo on instead of a shirt and tie? Interesting.
Haus, last night's NN with Massaro, Smith, Chengelis and others was top notch.
Absolutely one of the worst ESPN programming decisions in recent memory to cancel the 5PM show for almost two weeks right before The Chase...dumb dumb dumb.
Just FYI: Shannon Spake has announced that she is pregnant with twin boys due in Jan.
Congrats to Shannon and her husband, hope all goes well.
Note: OK, no one ask her how she feels about that!!
JD
Does Marty know anything about drag racing?? He thinks John Force "pulled over" for Robert Hight ... Uhhhh, yeah right ...
I think Paul Page should've had a tranquilizer dart in the booth on Monday ... and popped Mike Dunn with it ... Dunn was way way way over the top ...
It's only cheating IF you get caught ... ;-)
We've seen team orders in NASCAR ... esp when it comes to HMS and Roush ... and those bloody lap leader bonus points ...
The NHRA fined John Force $10k for the incident with the official ... How about fining Tony Pedregon for using the F word on LIVE tv??
Sooooo ... When are we gonna see a fight like that in a NASCAR race?? Kylie vs ???
Believe it or not, Marty was pulled off the NHRA to do the IRL coverage and now NASCAR.
Most NHRA fans really missed him.
It should be interesting to see if this issue becomes the script for Saturday night. Who might pull over and let someone else win?
Kyle Busch: "Shannon, how do you feel?"
Shannon: -storms off in Kyle Busch style tantrum-
In all seriousness though, congrats to her on that.
Practice on SPEED was awesome, though credit to Reid he did try to talk about several drivers this morning.
Cup practice is such a mess though.
Love Richmond, please ESPN don't ruin this race weekend for me!
tiam, they can call it "live" tv, but the NHRA even was on tape delay even during that incident.
Force dropped some swears too. They both did.
It was pretty much a pull over by Force but Dunn had a great analysis of the situation since he spoke from someone who was in the running for the ride Tony Ped had.
Its just a big business now which in many ways is a shame, team orders and big money rule the sport...makes the times when the little guys and underdogs break through that much sweeter though.
JD, you ready for more Kevin Conway?
tia,
Ronnie D is national and a complete ripoff. Just a huge referral service to local attorneys for a fee.
Don't believe anything you see on TV!
Wait, did I just say that?
Seen him once on the overnight NN. Should be interesting to see if the same spots run tonight.
JD -
Marty = Smith, not Reid
I know Reid was with the NHRA broadcasts ... ;-) And they definitely leave something to be desired with Dunn ...
How about that Paul Page?
JD -
It wasn't Ronnie D ... Her ads don't bother me ...
It was an ad that was trying to look like breaking news / stock report ... Not sure "who" it was ... This one's got snippets of obama inserted into the ad ...
I thought it was locally inserted since the sound level jumped up on it ...
i know what ad your talking about...its a national ad.
quite quite annoying.
ronnie d is annoying too.
most ads are
And there's the annoying ad
speak of the devil..
I like Paul Page ... He was good with Marty Reid ...
But, Mike Dunn just sucks the life / joy out of the NHRA for me ... esp after his antics on Monday ...
Guess the ratings will be up for Charlotte ... LOL ;-)
Was I the only one creeped out that the NHRA talking head looked / sounded / acted like NASCAR's guy ??
The drivers really need to slow down when they talk to the reporters ...
Some of them are coming close to sounding like Alvin / Simon / Theodore ... LOL ;-)
Sorry, we normally do not post links because of the potential for problems.
Needless to say, Denny got his car back and thinks that the person who stole it actually lived in it...yech.
JD
They said it was the same guy who took Joe Gibbs' car 8 years ago. Guy just got out of jail and stole Denny's car so its entirely possible he did live in it.
At least he got it back, which is a plus.
Words to remove from Rusty's vocabulary: flat, dead and baby... He's flat bad today!
LOL Denny! Thats classic
Dear Marty: Morgan *IS* a start and parker.
wickedj - Where did you get the idea that Morgan's a "start & parker" ?? He's attempted to finish every race that he's run this year ...
Yeah, Morgan is a S&P-er. So how is it he has been running at the finish in 14 of the 17 races he's qualified for this year?
JP's "if you just joined our coverage" game has already started, some people are not going to be sober to see the green flag tonight.
Isnt it just great.Jabber jsrret
and PunchDrunk - on the Race telecast and double does of chatter
on the qualifying coverage.
They havent shut up for more than
10 seconds .. ever !!
And they have 18 races a year !!!
They cant even figure out how to do
the Full Throttle. Who thought it
was a good idea to have the Spotters on the segment ??
I gotta run .. just the mere thought of espn and nascar is enuf
for one day
Wow! JP is trying to create some drama. "Just announced a few moments ago that Pat Tryson is leaving the 2." "Moments ago in the media center..." Kurt is contemplating his cc leaving. I discussed with a friend almost 3 hours ago that Pat Tryson was leaving.
I love how the good Dr. tells us about Pat Tryson. He comes back from break @ 5:38 and says, "some breaking news from here at Richmond it was released moments ago that the crew chief for the 2 car, Pat Tryson, will be leaving that car..." ESPN is a little behind in the breaking news because Speed told us about it this morning and Jayski had a tweet posted at 5:13.
I really wish that ESPN understood that there are more sources of news and information out there than just them. I wish they would stop trying to make such drama out of every story. This story has been out for several hours, not just moments as ESPN would have you believe.
I think Dr Punch said the "official" announcement was made not too long ago ...
Jayski was reporting the rumor that SPEED was reporting ...
Remember - It's just a rumor until an "official" announcement is made ...
A Radical Idea : Put a microphone
at track level. B. The announcers
microphones are turned off. C Let
er rip. Tell me what is wrong with
that? Every 10 laps or so. What
a concept eh...Like being at the race track.
Based on past EESPN practice I suspect there would have been no mention at all of NHRA at Indy had it not been for the Force-Pedregon run in - and I'm willing to give Force the benefit of the doubt, especially over EESPN analysis.
I don't believe Morgan has done an S&P all season - but might have made more races if he had S&P'd a couple of times to help out financially. My opinion of Phil Parsons continues to decline.
Hi everybody, there is a new post up for the live blog of the Nationwide Series race once you are done watching the grass grow with this HORRIBLE coverage of SC qualifying.
btw - Allen Bestwick at 7PM on Countdown and Marty Reid at 7:30PM for the N'wide race.
JD
I believe that Morgan fails to qualify because his set up is more in race mode. The S&Ps set their cars up to get in, knowing they'll be out a few laps later.
I really hope that NASCAR takes a look at this issue during the off season. I'd rather see cars on the track making a serious effort even if it's less than 43.
Shannon's boyz should be born on Jan 16th. That's mine and AJ Foyt's birthday :D
No Mr. Jesus is not a S&Per and only does it out of necessity. Because he doesn't have the crew to do the stops. And in the past he ran until he needed tires and since he didn't have the money to pay had to leave. Which is why Smoke, Happy, DJ and others have helped with the tire bills and other support. Once they started helping he was there until the end.
TY JD heading over now :)
Speed practice sessions are WAY overrated. Way too much chit-chat.
Thanks for all the great comments.
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