This is a huge race for ESPN. The first night race at Atlanta for the Sprint Cup Series is going to be key determining the line-up for this season's Chase for the Championship.
ESPN made a radical change on Saturday night with coverage of the Nationwide Series race. Gone were the endless in-car cameras and extremely tight close-ups of single cars. Gone were the bumper-cam shots that made no sense and the singular focus on the leaders of the race. The ESPN Director who provided the pictures changed the entire feel of the telecast for the home viewer. It was great.
Now, the question is will that return to the focus on racing continue or end? These seventeen Sprint Cup races are the only ones on ESPN and the pressure is tremendous on the entire ESPN production team.
In the past, this week has meant an endless pounding on the TV viewers about the Chase for the Championship. "Points right now" are words that ESPN's NASCAR viewers have learned to hate. Who cares? NASCAR fans understand the racing, they know the drivers and have been watching this series for seven months. They have a clue.
Saturday's Nationwide Series telecast also confirmed Allen Bestwick as the true leader of this TV team. Bestwick again controlled the "Backseat Drivers" and showed fans again that his ability to direct traffic on the air is just what ESPN needs to right this NASCAR ship.
Atlanta has a new tire from Goodyear and the race may well be dominated by tire strategy. ESPN's pit reporters are going to have to keep up with these stories all night long.
The starting line-up for tonight is Allen Bestwick in the Infield Pit Studio as the show host. Joining Bestwick will be Brad Daugherty, Ray Evernham and Rusty Wallace as his expert panel. Tim Brewer will be in the Tech Garage.
Up in the broadcast booth will be Jerry Punch along with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Punch will be calling on Shannon Spake, Jamie Little, Vince Welch and Dave Burns to cover the action on pit road.
This post will serve to host your comments on the TV coverage of this race on ESPN. To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking some time out of your holiday weekend to join us.
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Weed, Vickers and the Chase.
Chase drivers positions.
Last but not least, Carl's foot.
I'll get a head start on my S&P report. With Bobby Labonte in the #71 and the #08 and #13 in the race, that leaves just the #09, the #66 and most likely the #87 as S&P teams for tonight.
71 has taxslayers on the car so they will run all day.
terry will run unless they have a major issue or lose several laps.
out till the end of the race guys, hope its a good broadcast and a great race
23 minutes until ESPN is supposed to hit the air for Countdown...Mississippi-Memphis still has 6 1/2 minutes left in the fourth and they're throwing the ball a lot.
Any guesses on if they'll come on the air on time??
Tom
@Tom - I think we'll just barely make it. *knocks on wood*
@David - I get a feeling that TRG will not be a start and park team in any race that they have Bobby Labonte in the car. I think Bobby wants to do more than just start races and he might help attract new sponsors for the races he has coming up in the #71.
Someone figure the math for me on this...it's now 10 minutes later, and the game has lopped off exactly 1 minute, 10 seconds. 5:15 left, Ole Miss up BIG.
Losing faith in how ESPN will join Countdown and how quickly they'll do it.
Now you guys know how I made my living at ESPN. Managing the live on-air operations.
Tums and coffee...this one is going to be interesting.
What is on ESPN Classic right now folks?
Classic is showing the Pat Tillman episode of SportsCentury.
JD,
Classic has a Sports Century show as part of the "NFL Kickoff Marathon."
MV, dont forget TRG gets help from RCR whom Bobby was rumored to have gone to this past season...
No way they S&P.
Later, for real now
Thanks a lot. Hey, is Bobby Labonte a start and park tonight or are they going to race?
ESPN's production team stepped up on last night's telecast (minus a strong PXP, of course) ...let's see if this part of the show will maintain the standard set Saturday ...as for JP, "Hey, Doc ...crank it up" ...you're so toned down you seem more ready for elbalming rather than PXP on one of the world's top racing series ...JD, I saw the blimp at ORP today, will there be aerial coverage at AMS?
The "Race Day" theme song is just about as bad as "Let's Go Racing Boys"!
I hear it both ways, that is why I am asking...
JD- Is it possible that some tech personnel was off doing football Sat. and might be back today to operate bumper cams and other tech toys?
Walter, we will find out shortly if it's in the budget. As the first night race in Atlanta, I would certainly hope something with a live cam would be up.
@Richard - Let's hope not.
The football fan in me would like to point out that the SEC is 11-1 this week.
The NASCAR fan in me would like Ole Miss to just hurry and up and end this thing.
Good news...
Looks like they'll get out on time! Just six seconds left in game!
Yay...there is hope!
what a culture clash ...Wendy just excused herself to step past Jeff Gordon to interview Logano and Reutiman ...who woulda thunk it? oh, that's right this isn't ESPN, is it
Rich, nope. They also feed the International and other sources.
NASCAR Media Group runs the TV compounds at the Sprint Cup weekends.
Hooray!
Game is done, and Countdown is right on time!
Wow, they started early so everyone who tunes in at 7PM missed the open?
Wonder why they did not do a quick game recap and send it to NASCAR on time?
Walter, that was a good Junior interview with Wendy.
My guess...direct orders from truck.
Maybe they didn't think a 60-second recap was worth much. I thought they might have had a commercial set to lead in, but no dice.
@JD - I was wondering that. Maybe to annoy those fans coming over from RaceDay? Kinda like the 1 minute extra on prime-time shows these days?
Reference the earlier comments from
today, I just checked my DirecTV
and my classic has changed tiers
also. Guess ESPN must have wanted
too much money for all those reruns.
JD, whats happened to your Jayski
link?
Has ESPN forgotten to change the logos in the infield studio or is Degree V12 sponsoring the broadcast of the Pep Boys Auto 500?
Same camera ops, all the time. Noone worked football and is coming here. Same director tonite as last also.
Okay, I'm already officially sick and tired of hearing any and all scenarios about getting/staying in the chase. I can't get as excited as these media guys are.
Good old Smoke - got a guy to lean into Jamie's shoulder while she's talking. :D
I love DR :)
I like their segment in Smoke's DVD :)
I have a link to Jayski on my main page. When I have a new story for Jay, I forward it to him.
He has been great to me since the beginning.
If we have the same director tonight we have a great chance of getting all those good wide shots that let us catch more of the action (or lack thereof last night) as last night. HOORAY!
Degree v12 is the so]ponsor for the show.
Sally, its the same director every week.
@50Yr - ESPN convinced a number of operators to switch Classic and ESPNU; if they all switch(ed), it'd triple the number of homes getting ESPNU. While ESPNU is a far more successful channel than Classic, it's still unfair for NASCAR fans.
Evernham talking about any female racer just sceves me out.
@real tv...then his choice of camera shots last night was outstanding!
@Anon7:08 - Well, he's married now, so there's theoretically less to worry about. ;)
Man I Hope ESPN doesn't just Focus on the chase guys and ignore the rest of the drivers racing.
Andrew, that is what my Comcast system did. I have ESPNU on my old ESPN Classic channel and I have to order ESPN Classic now and pay for an extra tier. I could not believe it.
Should make for a fun three months on Saturdays.
Anon 7:10, that is the question of the evening. So far, so good.
Anon 7:10, me too! But I'm afraid we're going to get pounded with 'updates' on whether someone is 'in or out' continuously during the race. I'm sure the rest of the field will cease to exist for most of the race.
I can't fathom why Comcast/ESPN would do that (whoever's to blame...) when the value should be going down....they'll be prying my DISH remote out of my cold dead hand before I go back to cable....
Why would this yr be any diff than the previous yrs? Race to the Chase is THE story. After the Chase is set, no focus on any other drivers, unless they win.
I'm just baffled what changed with last night's broadcast all of a sudden. Orders from supervisors? Did they figure they'd be better off with wide shots since there's no PxP guy to be the "storyteller" to go along with all of the normal tight shots? I have a bad feeling tonight will be business as usual for ESPN. I hope I'm wrong, but I fear I'm not.
JD -
Wendy and SPEED reporters do nice work; always genuine interest ...ESPN crew questioning seems staged, repeated questions coming through earpieces ...wonder what we'd hear with Marty Smith, Ed Hinton (et al) handling pre-race and pit road?
anon 7:10- I'm another one who gets sick of all this chase talk. It's enough to not watch.
Hate this time of year.
@JD - I guess that's the trade-off for NFL Network winning its battle to get off of the sports tier?
ahhh the "The Broken foot story".
(And yeah, I know it's not run by ESPN, but since when has Comcast used logic in programming decisions?)
I understand it being a story... but it's not the ONLY one.
The first commentator to say "IF the race ended now..." to talk about the chase should be slapped silly.
I'll be watching the US Open while I have the leaderboard on the computer.
Well, Wendy and most of the SPEED gang are fulltime in Charlotte and are involved in all kinds of real life NASCAR-related stuff.
The ESPN gang is different. They come in for the final 17 races and are faced with a pretty big challenge to bring this sport home every year.
I am going to be very interested to see how things go once the race begins.
If Jody Lawrence's story didn't touch your heart, then you don't have one. Great piece.
@JD--Jay seems to be a great guy. One time I couldn't find something and he was very helpful in helping me find it.
I hope the next tier isn't a lot JD :(. I remember having to pay $6 extra so I could get whatever tier had I think it was the Outdoor Channel so I could get Raceline. Joe does a great little show there. Still have my Mechanix gloves I won from when they picked my answer in their weekly contest :)
What a brave little girl! Hanky alert indeed!
@PammmmmmmmmmH--I agree! it's going to be overkill I don't see anything being different.
thanks for Bootie info earlier, folks. :)
tear jerker story of that little girl with Carl's car design.
@ Karen 7:21, I agree. Now I really want Carl to win.
There is your aerial answer Walter.
I'm not going to speculate on what bad things MIGHT happen in this telecast. I am optimistic, if last night was any indication.
Didn't Brewer do a similar piece last night, that didn't quite pan out in the actual race?
Sorry, still optimistic about the race to come.
@Gymmie - For Comcast, it's an extra $5 per month for the sports tier. On the plus side, if you're like me and don't have the digital-only channels (in the 100s), it gives you ESPNU, ESPNEWS, and NFL Network as well as the "advertised" networks.
that was one story (Jody) that I don't mind seeing a 2nd time...
I'll bet it helped Carl keep things in perspective.
I have to say, this has been an outstanding pre-race show with very little of the phony hype we saw last season.
@real TV guy ...thx for the follow-up, much appreciated ...give 'em another Nos, 5-hr or Amp for me
Dot, I'm not a big Carl fan, but it would be nice to see Jody do a handspring for a victory.
@ Karen same here. Only tonight I want him to win.
Mr. Announcer never got his Ricola!
Who is that announcer? Is he from WWE?
The WWE announcer is back! Have we always had him and I just don't remember or is he new?
I got it! it just came to me listening to the PA guy
he sounds like Hulk Hogan!
Whatcha gunna do when 24 inch pythons run wild on you BROTHA!
@Dot - Someone on twitter suggested it might be Jesse Ventura.
Is this race sold out or better than previous times?
Oh good lawd. Look at that shirt on the far right of Diamond Rio. Did he lose a bet?
...Wait, was that James Dobson?
Now, that's an anthem. Never mute Diamond Rio.
if SheDaisy's listening...*that's* how you arrange the anthem in harmony...
ha! you tell 'em Mark
i wish they would quit cutting away from the jets to the drivers...only heard last 10 seconds of anthem and that was great harmony. least we got three glimpses of the jets but we are big on planes in this house...and a longer camera time is appreciated :)
Tell ya what (Rusty-ism), this has been a fun pre-race and I am really ready to watch some NASCAR.
wish I had heard more of the anthem but we have SReport on second tv.
ROBIN MILLER interview with Will Power and his broken back coming up.
been saying that since 7pm...hope it's soon. we have pre race muted for the most part...except the jets got our attention!
JD -
With flyover out of the way, aerial shots can make this a strong broadcast ...and they're moving in now ...overhead platform seems very stable, but have they credited blimp, heli or what?
I agree. One of the better pre race shows so far. Now, if they cover the whole race field, keep with fewer in car and bumper cams like last night....
Hey, i heard a rumor some driver in the field has some sort of injury to his foot. Would be nice of ESPN to cover this issue
(btw, terrible command...dont plug sponsors)
OK, time to make the donuts.
When did it become necessary to try to burst a blood vessel giving the command to start engines? Painful to watch/listen to.
@ Sally, ever since Kevin James.
@Sally, Lenny Kravitz holds the record for the best command ever. Charlotte race a few years ago
It still wasn't as bad as Jimmy Fallon.
Well Doc you, sir, have proven yourself useful
bevo
even on smaller tv--SD 20 inch, as opposed to 31 inch last night, the truck race videos on the corner shots had that funky thing some of us were seeing last night...I still think it's the new catch fence.
AP needs to bounce back tonight
Well...booooooooooo....I got an error message and lost my post!
@Andrew--TY! Yup, that was Dr. Dobson :)
@Dot--GMTA :)
@wickedj--yes he does remind me of the Hulkster
@Sophia- I just don't remember seeing that on other races from Iowa
Oh no....Bubble Boy.
Robin Miller interview on NOW on SR
Shame on you, i almost forgot about HotPass
Well, I'm already annoyed with this "bubble boy" junk. Hopefully it'll be the worst thing of the evening!
(Sorry, forgot to self-censor that one. :p)
Gymmie, blogspot is running on seven cylinders tonight. I am hoping that it will now blow before the race is over.
How long ago was that "night" race at Atlanta? Weren't most of the drivers tonight there?
Bad time for a plug wire to come off.
rain on the radar again ...AB mentioned it several times last night, wonder if they'll tell JP to let on that weather is about 3 hrs out
Dot, it was a rain delay that went into the night.
Better now than after the green flag! Stands look OK. Better than the first race.
JD,
Most cable networks switched ESPN Classic for ESPNU on their Expanded tier because of the new, huge SEC contract that ESPN signed for CFB. Just another reason for you guys to dislike CFB (I kid, I kid...).
Nice camera work so far
Man I miss HotPass
@ JD, I know. When was it?
Dang! All the colors on the crawl are annoying.
Uh...bumper cams already :(
SOS
Oh no! The dreaded bumper cam strikes early!
TY JD..yes hopefully it will! Maybe Tim has a fix in his magic toolbox and will tell us all about it! :)
JP is an analyst tonight. This booth is going to be very similar to last night's, methinks.
Yellow on the bubble. I think Reut's bubble burst 2 or 3 races back.
With a track this big, we should be seeing a lot more headlights than tail lights.
im already annoyed by the rainbow ticker... again..
That Montoya move just proves why a longer shot works much better...especially on passes!
I don't get the fascination with the wide shot getting tighter, just keep it wide.
Am I tripping, or do they have Kyle Busch listed in green (in the Chase) AND Marcos Ambrose in the yellow?
You have GOT to be kidding!
8 laps and a commercial - not cool!
So far, we've had pretty good camera angles; even the JPM in-car camera was an okay shot. The bumper cam is still useless. JP is acting as a third analyst instead of a PxP guy. The only good thing about more commercials is that we'll get more AB recaps.
It is more tempting to zoom in than out.
Also, we need to see more headlights than tail lights.
Watch for the Director to try and stay ahead of the pack but get caught sometimes so we watch them racing away from the cam.
@Tom - You're not nuts. NASCAR.com's live points shows Busch ahead of Biffle; he's down five spots in the points but running in 28th. Which just goes to show you why "live points" are useless.
this may be a night where IF I stay tuned, will have to tape the TOP and BOTTOM ticker...this COLOR Explosion is too much.
sheesh
@ Tom
Technically, at the time, that was true. They're updating the colours dynamically. Biffle was out of the Chase, Kyle was in at that time. It'll change throughout the race.
--KarenB
dont care about TOM CRUISE.
only one car on the track. Hey it's qualifying.
z
z
z
Note to ESPN:
Talk to me about the points AFTER the race is over!
Please?
Oh, wait...they don't care about us.
I don't care Tom Cruise is in the #48 pits. Show me the race!
If we absolutely must have a color-coded ticker, can we go back to last year's, where the bubble teams were shown in yellow for the whole darn race?
@ Tom, unless 6-16 suddenly S&P, Marcos has a chance. I'm surprised Jr isn't yellow, just for giggles.
DJ and AP sound more into it tonight.
Battle in front of Tony Stewart & we are watching just Tony by himself.
And Blaney #66 is our sweepstakes winner! Please, stop by the garage for S&P Prize!
I wonder if NASCAR will let only 6 cars be on the lead lap tonight.
Jeff Gordon has passed Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, and Jimmie Johnson. Too bad we have not seen any of those passes.
what's up with the one car shot.
Yep, we are all on pins and needles to see if this dissolves into tight shots, in-cars and hype.
Man, this is tense.
I'm so annoyed with the 'in race points updates', since nothing counts until the race ends. Who cares where they are until then!!!
FOX ticker only showing 42 cars. I think Bobby L is MIA.
Looks like Nemechek is parking too.
Wow. Junior is up to 18th? Wish I could have seen some of that!
Montoya blowing his way up through the field. 10th.
isnt there a way on blogger to show the newest comments first? sure would beat scrolling down every time
If? Don't you mean "when"?
And there's the famous 48/Chad shot!!
"jeff gordon has just passed jimmie johnson" says Petree about 15 laps after Gordon had passed Johnson...only ESPN had already showed Gordon ahead of his teammate even before the commercial 10 minutes ago.
Earth to Petree...
PRN had JJ's '15 on a scale of 10 loose' about 15 mins ago
What happened to Clint? He's a bubble boy.
"jeff gordon has just passed jimmie johnson" says Petree about 15 laps after Gordon had passed Johnson...only ESPN had already showed Gordon ahead of his teammate even before the commercial 10 minutes ago.
Earth to Petree...
18 mechanical problems? Must be September.
#09 to the garage. Third S&P of the night, so far.
@Dot- B Labonte is running in 21st place
Tight shot, pit update, radio transmission, look at leader. REPEAT.
Juan Pablo Montoya has gone from 22nd to 10th in 32 laps. We saw him make a 3 wide pass earlier & that is it.
O lord, tech center time.
Big story going on in the small box and we get TB.
09 - Bliss has parked ...radio doing full rundown
What's up with Fox's tracker? Only 42 cars?
I wish they'd stop showing Tim in the big box and racing in the little box. I want to see the ACTION
@JD- JPM was third fastest as of a couple of laps ago
YAY, caution. MA needed that.
"jeff gordon has just passed jimmie johnson" says Petree about 15 laps after Gordon had passed Johnson...only ESPN had already showed Gordon ahead of his teammate even before the commercial 10 minutes ago.
Earth to Petree...
Junior "banged" the wall. Per #88 radio.
@ Andrew, Bobby L in 21st per bevo. Thanks bevo.
If we didn't see smoke on the screen, we would have never known the #77 spun around. Look out the window!
Patrick, withou you we would be as clueless as ESPN.
Nice of them to put the leader on that pit split there /sarcasm
Nice triple split and they held it!
What has happened to the chaos crew we know and loved?
Watching JPM channel and man they weren't kidding about how dark pit road is
ESPN needs to show the in-car (never thought I'd say that!) from JPM coming in to pit.
Hey, did Bobby Labonte park?
JD - he's running 21st
No JD,
PitCommand say B.Labonte is 22nd
We don't know, since they refuse to reset the field until the green flag drops. Ridiculous.
BLabonte is in 22nd.
--KarenB
Nope B Labonte in 22nd place
@ JD, no. He's showing 21st on N.com.
#09 rolling down pit road again. Re-entering race.
Thanks all. Remember, never trust anything that arrives in email!
Everybody now! B Labonte in 21st :)
Why do they use those stupid tight shots and car cameras on a restart. ARGGGGG
Gilliland running 16th for Wood Bros. Good for him!
I GIVE UP!
Got PRN on radio.
Tv camera work ruining this. last restart in car bumper cams..and more in car cams.
This is NOT the broadcast you PRAISED last nigt is it? I missed 80PER CENT of last nights, too.
Busy doing other stuff.
ESPN NOT worth sitting to watch.
back here late to read for info.
ESPN have completely forgot about guys outside the top 10.
"Mark Martin is 50!"
Take a shot...
Its official:
#66 OUT - "Electrical"
#87 OUT - "Brakes"
Hey JD,
How is it going?
Well, I gave ESPU 40 laps and they could not show me a race. Switching to radio and watch video only.
Just started twisting to all Chase drivers all the time.
One of the many reasons I hate the chase! Everyone but those drivers 'disappear' for the last 15 races or so. Bah! Humbug!
I cannot stand that Full Throttle bunk. All that stupid noise is crazy.
Did you see during the restart up in the top right corner of the picture, they were 4 wide.
#09 back in the garage. That might be it for Bliss.
Gilliland just passed Gordon
Gee, what happened to the other 33 cars in the race. Since we're only seeing the top ten, I guess everyone else has fallen out.
What happened to the great camera work we had last night?
Hopefully PRN is in a race mood tonight and not the morning zoo one for everyone switching to the radio.
Mark Martin being "50" is the worst kept secret in the garage. Try 54.
Sally, I agree with you. I HATE the Chase !!! These guys points race all season, and the drivers have admitted they don't race hard so as not to mess up their chances. THAT makes for boring racing.
Labonte up to 19th
My other driver is not in the top 10 so no coverage for him.
@ TRL, I wrote in Your Turn that the CUP race wouldn't be as good as the NW race.
A rerun?
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