This is a tough weekend for the NASCAR TV gang. Rain washed out almost everything on Saturday and left Martinsville a muddy mess. There are three hours of pre-race shows before the 1:43PM green flag.
NASCAR Now on ESPN at 10AM will feature Nicole Manske with Boris Said in the studio. Reporting from Martinsville will be Marty Smith. Perhaps, Said is not the short-track expert one might like to discuss Martinsville, but maybe his testing experience will serve him well.
Manske has lots of topics to choose from as the NASCAR news this week has been all over the map. From Elliott Sadler in a Ford at Talladega to the continuing dominance of Hendrick Motorsports equipment, the hour should be easy to fill.
Smith is in Martinsville and it will be interesting to see if he responds to the Jeremy Mayfield appearance on ESPN's Outside the Lines this morning. Smith has been solid for ESPN all season long and continues to navigate his way through the twisted world of the NASCAR garage.
This preview program is better when Ricky Craven is in the studio, although Said has certainly improved his TV skills. Craven is the outstanding studio analyst for ESPN and the network better lock him up for next season.
The franchise is up next for SPEED. RaceDay is as close to a Sprint Cup Series points race as the network will ever get. The Daytona twins and the All-Star race are nothing compared to an entire season of two-hour pre-race shows.
When this program was moved an hour earlier to avoid TV network conflicts, it changed rather dramatically. There is now little opportunity to build-up the excitement as the race gets set to begin. Instead, lethargic drivers step out of buses for interviews and the driver's meeting is often the highlight from the infield.
This put the focus back on the main panel that consists of host John Roberts with commentators Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace. As we documented last week, things are fractured right now as the panel does not know whether to have fun or address serious issues. The resulting mix is a mess.
One minute Wallace is table dancing and the next Spencer is calling NASCAR out on a very serious issue. Both men have good opinions on various racing topics, but they have stopped interacting and now speak individually to the fans. "Let me tell you something" is heard by Wallace almost every time he tries to change the tons from comical to serious.
Wendy Venturini and Hermie Sadler continue to be the foundation of this program in terms of NASCAR content. Venturini is long overdue to increase her time on SPEED, but has not been seen on Race Hub, TWIN or The SPEED Report. Sadler did a solid job as an analyst on SPEED's Nationwide Series coverage of practice and qualifying. It seems he has an eye on the TV booth for the future.
Rutlege Wood is also featured on the program, handling the entertainment and sales features. Wood has made himself into a character and now often seems to be trying to keep his TV image intact. It's been quite a while since he was a fresh face on the scene.
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29 comments:
Chase Chatter with Jeff Burton. Ever wonder if he is going to go over to TV soon?
The Virginians (Burton and the Sadlers) have a lot of potential in television in the years to come. Hermie may already be better in some aspects than many on-air personnel.
How many more times will we have to hear the word "Paperclip" when referring to the track today?
@SolakNC said...
"How many more times will we have to hear the word "Paperclip" when referring to the track today?"
Until these people discover thesaurus dot com.
My favorite description of Martinsville is 2 dragstrips connected by u turns but it take too long to say unlike paperclip.
Wow, what a crowd for RaceDay!
And how many times have they shown Jeff Gordon's interview talking about Jimmie Johnson. I've seen it at least 4 times this weekend doesn't any show have something different to offer?
Now they are picking on hermie-JS called him dumb. What's dumb is the lack of news on this show anymore. OMG, they are going to talk about something besides JJ, Chadster & the chase! Silly season, here we come!
Not exactly what it used to be from the panel.
Oh the horror, JJ qualified 15th!!!! How will he ever overcome this?
More of the same from BSPN?
I don't watch Race Day anymore, and never used to miss it. If there is any news that has not been reported several times, it will be on TDP.
I hope JJ crashes @ Talledega and gets a 39th, so everyone quits polishing the trophy for him. These interviews and sounds bytes from the drivers sound like Kevin Costner in Bull Durham telling the rookie how to do an interview. They all say the same thing. It's really getting old.
I'm glad they played the entire clip of MM, I wonder who the Mike was he was talking too because that was the colsest to Mark looking POed that I have ever seen
nrf, pretty sure it sounded like Mike Mulhern-he's the biggest pot-stirrer in the media center, him & Eddie Hinton.
More Wendy & Hermie...less Kenny & Jimmy. I use the FF button a lot.
OT...didn't have a chance to post yesterday. NW race was a lot of fun. Even Rusty didn't drive me nuts.
Can you imagine how much better they would be if they did all the NW races and had the time to gel as a team?
This team & the Speed guys are light years ahead of the A team on ESPN. Just no comparison.
PS..once again I will be using HotPass even though my main guy isn't one of them and he has a pretty decent starting spot.
Pamm that was my guess too I've actually stopped reading a lot of his stuff lately he seems to be more off the mark than on it
yep, don't read MM much. not surprised he had to start his own site.
Why in the world are they having 2 tracksides next wk? JD, any idea?
I tried to watch both of the shows this morning but I didn't make it through either. I'm so sick of the Jimmy Johnson worship I could throw up. I neither like or dislike Jimmy but this obsession with him could change my mind. I guess the media has to have a constant obsession with a driver and since Jr. has tanked, I guess they have substituted JJ.
Hey all, new live race post is up for today. Join us anytime!!
JD
Yes, Pammmmmmm. I will talk about that during the week.
Talladega is going to be a biiiiiiiiiig show.
ABC just snuck their "MW cleared of charges" reference in under the wire there, hm?
- RA Eckart from Texas -
hey, that worked pretty good.
He wasn't cleared of anything, just got a ticket for an accident while impaired. We got it...
The booth guys are going to have a long day. This is one tough track to cover on TV from the announcer perspective. Esp when pitstops start to shuffle the field.
Look for the caution flag pitstops triple split. This is the curved pit road that makes it so hard to do.
This is going to be a scramble from the start. Here come the in-cars!
Did the start green flag come as a surprise to these guys? The start of the race is suppose to be something special. They sounded like an afterthought to me...Also, Waltrip was "ticketed for failure to yield" after a collision with a motorcycle. This has nothing to do with DUI, DWI. I understand he blew a .06 which was below .08 standard. He was not cited for any impaired or intoxication defense. A MICHAEL WALTRIP INTERVIEW ON ALL HIS ODD OFF-TRACK "MISHAPS" WOULD BE THE INTERVIEW I WOULD HAVE LIKED THIS WEEK. Just some thoughts...
Did anyone else notice on Race Day the custom song they used, I heard it towards the end of the show, had the lyrics "North Carolina, Martinsville" then goes on the sing about Tums and the fact they're racin' for the chase. All good... 'cept last I checked Martinsville is in Virginia. It's CLOSE to North Carolina, but not in it. The audio clip is here Audio From Race Day on Speed" for your listening pleasure.
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