The night race in Darlington this year should be outstanding. Chris Myers will start the day from the Hollywood Hotel with Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond. This pre-race show is only thirty minutes long. The green flag is 7:44PM ET.
Mike Joy will call the race with Waltrip and Larry McReynolds. On pit road are Krista Voda, Dick Berggren, Matt Yocum and Steve Byrnes.
Darlington is a track where the speeds have continued to climb, well beyond what the track was designed to accommodate. This means the action is always happening very quickly. Bottom line, it is tough to cover on TV.
Aerial shots are great, as well as the famous speed shots of the cars running right up against the outside SAFER barrier. Good directors keep the cars coming around the corner in the camera shot and stay wide while the leaders run down the straight. This lets the viewers watch the race for the lead and monitor the corners, where the action usually happens.
Pit road is going to be key at Darlington as never before. Tire strategy may come into play at a track where teams were formerly forced to take four every single time. Kyle Busch said earlier on TV that teams may take two tires in order to pass on pit road.
FOX had a tough outing last week, but Darlington may be just the place to recover. Issues last week included using in-car cameras while missing the action and the lack of updates before restarts. The big issue, as it has been this entire season, is the incredible amount of commercial breaks in the races.
This post will host your comments on the FOX coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race from Darlington. To add your TV-related comment, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking the time to live blog the race with us tonight.
601 comments:
1 – 200 of 601 Newer› Newest»I don't know what hass been worse too many commercials or too much commentary from DW and Larry Mac and not enough pxp by Mike Joy.
Let's hope that Fox gets it right tonight.
Hey folks, this should be fun! Welcome.
well, "fun" is one word for it, i suppose, jd! will join everyone at green flag. see ya then.
Speed has set the bar pretty high tonight. Hope the Fox boys found their A game! Thinking positive!
Got big MO from a great RaceDay show.
What's MO??
momentum.
RaceDay rocked it today!
I agree though, Joy needs to take command of this broadcast though that may be asking a bit much. Long runtime for this race at close to 4.5 hours. Could see alot of commercials and could have alot of banter in the booth.
Lets see what DW calls as the winning strategy today.
Does anyone else miss the camera angle at Darlington where they used to shoot across the infield to the old backstrech (now frontstretch) and show the cars going into then turn 3 (now turn 1)???
That camera angle really seemed to show the difficulty of that turn a lot more than what they use today.
True, the flatter angle now just does not show it. Wonder why it moved?
Didn't take them long to direct folks to the ballgame. Quite diff than post-race on Speed.
Wow! That was a new one!!!!
RaceDay > FOX pre-race
I was pleasantly surprised by Raceday today...Hermie & Wendy were in fine form, and Kenny was less annoying than usual. Kyle's interview with Pierson was great. Enjoyed watching them find the moms, as predictable as it may have been.
2nd directive to the game, 3 if you count the scroll...
Kyle was starting in the back anyway, right?
The prerace on FOX so far has been fantastic. Could use a bit more DW though.
yes, young mr busch was already starting from the back tonight. not watching prerace but from what i read on twitter, he told the hollywood hotel that he's starting from the back b/c he missed driver intros to do their segment? perhaps his attempt at humor?
Yup, 35th. They were junk in qualifying. Did they go to a back-up? Or just severely work on the car.
3rd directive.
This is already embarrassing.
Red, they apologized to him for running long so that may actually be true
FOX did just confirm for me that they were ready to use SPEED to start the live pre-race if the MLB game was in progress earlier on FOX.
Things in the land of FOX and SPEED are just changing by the minute.
Post-race should be interesting!
I thought we would see a crawl for the MLB game, but they seem to be settling for the mentions.
That must've been why Kyle was looking to the side when they first went to him. Lack of coordination there from someone.
I don't think the MLB updates are that annoying. It's letting me know if I want to watch the end of the game, I can find it on FX. Much better than how they handled the same situation in Phoenix a few years back.
david: i thought he was already starting at the back regardless of missing driver intros. again, i didn't see iwhat he said or how they reacted but he most certainly did NOT get sent to the back for missing intros: he was already there.
Why are people surprised they are mentioning the game being on FX. The game got delayed because of rain you had to figure they would try to tell viewers where there game went. Hard to knock anyone for that.
35th is better than 43rd though red...
Especially with the start and parks...
Though they will probably opt to drop back and fall behind him anyways
Pete, is that you? How are you doing tonight?
No RD or FOX pre-race for me again. Check in at Green Flag.
I'm kind of surprised because Fox isn't known for taking that kind of initiative to mention the baseball game.
Denny & Brad in the same truck! LMAO!
bevo you missed a fantastic raceday.
FOX pre-race has been typical
I thought the RaceDay show was above average tonight. I enjoyed the KP interview with David Pearson and Ken Squires narrated a great piece on Awesome Bill from Dawsonville and gave a great recap of how he won that million dollars.
RaceDay just killed it. They must be having a great post-show meeting right now. That was really a good show.
Got that Pete?
david, it's darlington. once you're back in that part of the field, those 8 positions don't matter. if the car isn't junk, it won't matter.
if it is junk? those 8 spots won't matter either!
as much as i hate to say it: he'll be just fine and will work his way thru the field, whether he starts 43rd or 35th.
btw, the baseball game's on FX if you missed it...
:)
not a big deal, but a bit of overkill....
Hey guys, ease up. They are just trying to keep the switchboards from being swamped by the stick and ball folks
Kyle Bush qualified 39th. Maybe that is what he calls starting from the back. If he is starting last I am sure Fox will tell us why, maybe.
Hey guys, Randy Pemberton from Showtime will be waving the green flag tonight.
Does anyone think that tires might be a problem again tonight and if so will the booth mention it?
@David- Even a broken clock is right twice a day :)
One good show a year isn't a good enough batting average for me.
I'm not a Kyle fan, but if he missed intros, I'm sure it was his own choice (you do get your sponsor on TV). We've seen plenty of times where drivers just say 'gotta go' and walk away and we all understand.
Windy there.
Glen,
I know what you mean, but if the start of the race was on FX because baseball went long I bet you would want them to let you know where it was.
Kyle's starting in the back because they had to go to the backup car AFTER qualifying ... He pretty much keeled the sucker on his qualifying runs ...
rick,
KB said earlier that believe it or not, there might be some two tire stops tonight.
He said track position is to tough some guys might just take two.
That hurts my brain at Darlington!
Hey Anon, best you express your thoughts rather then continue to try and moderate. OK?
Happy to have your opinion!
If I remember correctly, it was hard to pass on this track last year. So, some teams may go with the idea of winning this race in the pits.
Did Kyle Petty sound a little funny on the SPEED pre race show? Or was it just my TV ?
thought i'd join in time for the national anthem -- sorry to say i'm reconsidering that choice.
lol thats why i love having you here bevo.
RD still beats the FOX pre-race though.
Should be an interesting night.
Red, thanks for the confidence in my driver lol.
I'm actually rooting for Super G tonight though...it would be cool to see him break through here.
Going to monitor the 18 and 42 team communications tonight, as usual. Will update as well as S&P. No MV so far so projected start and parks are
#36, Wave is on the car but the car they wrecked was blank and red. Also, used up a car. Don't expect them to go the distance
#55, Usual.
#66, Usual, though this is their car they ran all day in Las Vegas with. Should be interesting to watch but with a high tire bill tonight, the will probably park.
#87, wrecked in practice, will probably run just long enough not to be the first car out.
#32, No sponsor, yellow car = start and park. Probably helping fund the NW #10 program.
Question marks:
#46, Never can tell with this team, they tried to race a few times but parked at Richmond
#64, Probably will try to race but again, never know.
#26, close enough to 35th to give it what they got. Early in the season start and parking killed them.
Good opening ceremonies thus far
Wasn't trying to moderate, thought we were just discussing a topic posed =)
boy red, I didn't want to say that because they are servicemen, but YIKES!
Thank you tia, a friend and I at work debated if Kyle would go to the back-up since he was in utter disgust after his run yesterday.
JD wrote:
"Aerial shots are great, as well as the famous speed shots of the cars running right up against the outside SAFER barrier. Good directors keep the cars coming around the corner in the camera shot and stay wide while the leaders run down the straight. This lets the viewers watch the race for the lead and monitor the corners, where the action usually happens."
How many years has it been since we last witnessed any of that?
Now that is the way to sing the National Anthem and let's hope for a good race with better coverage tonight.
Told Kyle has some dry throat problems at the end.
Didn't he just come off the first part of the Charity Ride?
WOW - we may be making progress. NASCAR trumps the MLB Yankees vs. Red Sox game.
Director already stinks ... Cutting away from the flyover (bad far shot too) to show Jimmie & Chandra
pammmmm, the two voices just didn't blend & if you're going to do it accapella, the voices MUST blend. hate to not be complimentary of two servicemen but just wasn't good.
IF DW can tone it down (unlikely) we may have a good night.
It has always seemed to me that any amateur willing to sing the National Anthem before 50,000+ fans and on TV deserves an award.
Anon 7:34PM,
If the game had not been in a rain delay, FOX said they were going to start the pre-race and maybe even the race on SPEED!
That network was not even in the mix last year.
A lot has changed since David Hill was put in charge of SPEED and the regional sports networks.
I've had my network moved many times, my friend anon--I'm a *race* fan. And I simply looked for the scroll, or checked the usual alternate channels. Baseball has rain delays all the time, I would think they're used to it.
I also put a smiley on it and said it wasn't a big deal. geeeez....
Sounds like adult humor on the JPM radio...
If you take a moment to get a blue nickname, it let's us know you are in the conversation. FYI.
What's with all of the far shots on everything? Flyover / nat'l anthem / grand marshals ...
So nobody thinks tires might be a problem???
I think the other point about the crawler with the ball games is that, twice now Fox has had extended post race coverage on Speed (or so I heard), and not bothered to let fans know in a crawler, an announcement, or any other way.
btw, I thought mentioning Nashville & the Red cross was a nice gesture. As much as people complain about DW, I'm sure we all understand it's personal for him. I did disagree with what Roberts said on Raceday though...I've been reading & hearing stories every day....
@JD- I get the Hill stamp on FSN before every Rangers game - a Digger ad.
red, my comment about singers was without seeing yours and was not meant to disagree with you.
JD, did not hear the full exchange, but I got the impression from Race Day that Kyle came in for Race Day and was going back to the Charity Ride.
rich, they fall off equally but no clue about blowouts.
Got the thumbs-up that all the NASCAR.com stuff is working.
All those black suits....looks like the guys are ready for a funeral.
Rich, no different then they always are at Darlington.
right fronts will fail, guys will cut them down on contact, if you get sideways, your probably toast.
Jeff Burton hit it on the head Friday, if you get a little sideways now your gone.
Setups are going to be the problem over tires
Well did you see that FOX is doing a prime time baseball game vs. the All Star Race on SPEED? That sure seems shady. Yankees vs. Mets at the same time.
bevo,
Major changes coming to SPEED during the Hall of Fame week.
As in......major! Nothing to tell yet, they are playing it close to the vest.
We know Spencer's show was cancelled and that Race Hub might be going to an hour...as we suggested months ago. That show has big potential.
I thought that at least at Talladega, they said to turn to speed for postrace coverage...
I find it interesting FOX introduces the grid now in reverse much like radio...
I was at the track yesteday. Showtime had a huge display, banners all over etc. Great marketing. They were giving everything away - except free Showtime subscriptions. They were showing the most recent show on big screens.
Anon, that did surprise me since that is the only Cup race on SPEED other than the Daytona twins.
Guess it's part of the MLB contract.
Rich, to be honest...no. I think a lot of times we find out later these cars are stretching the limits of camber and such. I agreed with JD last night on the Nw Race, someone should have at least asked the question...but when they're talking about taking 2 instead of four, and how they fall off so evenly you can't pass...I guess we'll find out soon enough.
See if FOX ever mentions the title sponsor, Showtime.
If FOX ratings aren't up for a race like this at Darlington - they might as well hang it up.
Think that it is interesting that we have drivers in the field from Italy, Columbia and Tasmania and it is not a big deal. If you are fast, you race
David - Kyle had banged up the car in Happy Hour ... but then pretty much schmacked the snot out of it in qualifying ... Probably messed up the A-arms or something similar to what JuneBug did ...
red - Yeah, it wasn't a very good rendition of the National Anthem ... esp from USAF Sgts ... The MSgt lady had trouble last night too ...
JD, Richmond did start on Speed Channel last year due to a baseball game running long on Fox, but point still well taken that things have changed.
If I remember right the last two races that they went to speed for the post race, they only told you about it when Fox was signing off. Not before.
I think they eluded to it about 20 minutes ago JD when Hammond was doing a semi-teaser about Inside NASCAR asking who hosted it...
Aren't SPEED & FOX kissing cousins? They must not get along if they are doing an MLB game vs. ALL STAR race.
I did check the charity ride--they are nearby. I think it was Asheville, NC) Not far to go.
So question for you all- Is David Hill good or bad for the sport? It seems like he is making some good changes at SPEED lately, and things are getting better there. Maybe a sign of things to come for Fox?
Top ticker was still saying lap 1 way past the first lap.
Annon, The All-Star race has been on SPEED for 3 years now, even if they are sister networks it means diddily since FOX has the contract with MLB and SPEED has the All-Star. That is sport vs. sport more than network spitting on another.
Joy solid on that first lap battle from the get go.
FOX has several TV divisions. David Hill ran FOX Sports, the broadcast TV guys while another guy ran the FOX cable networks, like SPEED, FX and the FSN group.
Recently, Hill was given SPEED, FoxSportsNet and all the FOX regional sports networks to run.
The changes are coming fast and furious.
Gonna be interesting over the next few weeks.
@richard in nc: no problem but thanks.
sorry i didn't respond earlier but fox has been crashing my laptop every time i try to log in to the leaderboard. gonna stick with the less-than-satisfactory one on nascar.com for now.
How about the Tv picture. No top or bottom ticker. Looks nice.
Well I did notice on F1 coverage that they are now directing us to speed.com instead of speedtv.com. Hope they redisign that train wreck of a site while they're at it.
How many times will we hear the terms" "Darlington Stripe", "The Lady in Black", "The track Too Tough to Tame". "The Egg Shaped Oval" ??
Drivers already saying tight
$5 says caution after this commercial
So, are there any other cars besides HMS cars out there??
TDP- That's what I'm saying... IT seems like the changes he's making at SPEED are improving things. Maybe it's a sign of things to come for Fox too? Or do you think it's just a new toy for him to play with?
anon 7:52...maybe it's time for a drinking game...
and another one for Hamlin's knee mentions...
ugh. gopher sighting...
Talking to FOX, going to ask about the All-Star race night.
Vickers and Kane are coming hard
Any chance SPEED will grab some future races from FOX if contract details can be worked out?
Do you think the number of commercials this year are related to the ratings being down? Maybe they need to have more spots for less money in order to pay for the telecast? Do you think Fox will start producing SPEEDS's coverage of practice and qualifying with David Hill in charge?
Rob,
David is a strong willed guy. He brought in the director who did the Academy Awards and the Super Bowl halftime show to handle the HoF inductions.
He does not mess around!
This must be a great track to shoot from. We have some great camera shots tonight.
Nope, the current NASCAR TV contract runs for several more years.
Lap 26 and we already have nothing but tight isolated car shots
Maybe NASCAR will purchase or take over SPEED, Hill will work for them, and it will become THE NASCAR CHANNEL ?
Rob,
Rights fees and production for these races are off the chart.
Commercials are the only source of revenue for FOX. Unlike ESPN or SPEED, the cable companies are not paying a lot for FOX. Money is a huge issue right now.
32 and 64 off the track.
SPEED becoming a NASCAR channel has been rumored for years yet still hasn't happened.
Looked like Montoya got the wall in front of Johnson but camera was zoomed on Jimmie it missed it
interesting shot on the 48 hitting the wall: notice how he just kept the speed in the tires? looks as if he never even let up after bouncing off the wall. gotta be hard to overcome the instinct to pull off the throttle in that circumstance.
great replay, by the way.
@JD- Production costs for Fox could be cut drastically by eliminating all the fluff. Put the focus back on racing and forget the gee-whiz toys.
Have they got a pretty good crowd there tonight?
#66 off
No NASCAR TV until at least 2015. Contracts....
Revising my start and park list, I had Nemecheck on there for some odd reason, guess I figured he made the race. Replace him with Papis, guessing they have Geico money today and will run all day
Yeley off, caution on track
A ton of cars down a lap already?
Those Danica ads still make me shake my head.
18 took 2, made up a couple spots. Kyle feeling like they could have gotten 4 and been alright.
ya know, when there's a caution during commercail & thebroadcast comes back, it would be nice to NOT have to get a piece of history, no matter how great the footage is. i mean, there will be another series of commericals: maybe do that piece then instead?
of course, to be fair, it was a quick replay of the wall hit and the cars hadn't hit pit road yet but it's still annoying to read on twitter that we're under yellow and come back to the broadcast to an in-broadcast commercial followed by a brief history piece.
perception is everything.
When will Nascar.com revamp their timing and scoring leaderboard to be like F1's or IndyCar. It's always at least 2 laps behind which be understood for a short track, but there's no excuse for it to be behind at bigger tracks.
timing red!
The next step is for the networks to incorporate twitter directly in to the live broadcast more so then ever.
Contracts ? We all know how can be torn up or re done.
RW, it was very live a couple years ago, but I am not sure what happened since. Pitcommand works perfectly though
FOX has a MLB game already in the contract on the night of the All-Star race on SPEED.
Thanks for FOX for the info.
I think they purposely delay the leaderboard on nascar.com. Otherwise there would be no incentive for people to purchase Pit Command. I think, though, in the next year or 2 Pit Command will become a free service.
Joy skipped McDowell and Yeley
I now have the perfect description of Fox's NASCAR coverage thanks to Stewie on the Family Guy promo - "a casserole of nonsense"
/Brilliant!
Is the NASCAR.com leaderboard normally behind TV?
That is the way to do it. Take that shot early and let them file through.
Joy solid with the PxP so far. Loudly calling out incidents as they happen and describing 3 wide action with excitement.
jd, so does "timing" mean that they had it keyed up for that moment in the race broadcast regardless of what happened on the track? as in: "at this point in the race, we go to this short commercial lead-in after returning to the broadcast then the darlington history segment and then back to whatever's on the track."
trying to be fair here: it wasn't a big wreck, it was a wall hit & if i didn't have twitter up, i wouldn't have known. but just . . . interesting.
Brendan,
Totally agree. Very different from last week huh? Few dead spots. We have a lot less DW tonight and he is not stepping on Joy.....yet.
red,
Producer decision during the break. Easy to delay till later.
I just hope they can keep it up for 3 more hours.
no yellow on bobby spinning and down to the apron, but a yellow on logano..he bumped off the inner wall and kept going.. why a yellow
red, I think some of the breaks are flexible and some are hard. The hard breaks are done by the computer and happen regardless of what is going on.
McMurray restarts on inside - interesting.
Calling of the race good so far. Not crazy about most of the camera work, however.
That is why I keep pushing for wideshots during the live race.
It's the corners at this track.
Good switch to Menard!
how much of a delay are they running? Gluck tweeted the spin at least 10 seconds before it happened
has to be a different director tonight. We are seeing live spins.
There's the "egg shape" minnow pond reference - take a drink !
And Showtime is mentioned!!
I'm wondering about a delay as well. On the leaderboard, it showed earlier that Gordon had put Edwards a lap down....and then about a minute later, might have been 2 minutes later, Fox is showing Gordon lapping Edwards. Strange.
So far from what I have been jotting down is 16 minutes of commercials, 19 minutes showing the race.
I wish I had the job to paint the walls inbetween races lol.
NAPA must have changed ad agencies - no way these horrible commercials were created by the same guys who did Ron Capps and his funny car ones.
I really liked the audio alert about the baseball game program change during the invocation and singing of the National Anthem. That was a real nice touch. They couldn't just run the crawler without the audio alert? Or at least wait until the pre-race ceremony was finished?
I should add, though, on this spin of Menard's Fox and MRN were both synchronized.
See? Got to get ahead and stay ahead of the pack and keep it wide.
TV has to say the title sponsor once an hour. No Showtime ads on my TV though.
What don't they get? A tight shot of just 2 or 3 cars running together give NO sense of what is happening on the track? We need to see more cars in a shot!!!!
I still like the old Waltrip ones "I'm at the wrong track!"
Really wish they would show the crazy battles in 20-something land...
What is the approximate fee Showtime pad for a one race sponsorship? 500K to 1 mil?
Here comes Denny! Where is the video recap for the baseball folks?
Kevin Conway may be a joke but he stays out of the way for the most part.
All depends on if they bought TV as well. Looks like they low-balled it and went for signage and title at the track only.
Six figs for sure, but no clue how much these days.
I'm sure ISC is just glad to have anything as far as sponsorship. It came together late.
JD, Nashville Fox on directv has the showtime commercials
Rich, looks like they took the economical way and bought the local spots. Can't blame them, they pay the bill.
Caution. Debris
Snakebit tonight on cautions.
if there's a caution, when we come back there is quite a delay going on
Defending champ on pit road, as is Truex
You and me both Junior
martin truex spin
and I LOSE MRN sound!@!&#^!&#^!&#^!
Sychronized sliding. Was something on the track there?
@JD-Think it's a DirecTV thing for SHO commercials. None on OTA in DFW.
So far Fox is doing much better than last week at least to me. Much better camera work, we would never see those shots w ESPN! I also enjoyed very much when they showed the in car camera of Joey Logano when Bobby Labonte spun in front of him and then a stayed w the shot till he spun in the same spot the next lap! Awsome Awsome job FOX! Good job w upstairs as well they seem on there game today
I'm on cable, no Showtime commercials here in Phoenix.
truex caution is out just as fox went into commercial break: 6 commercials later, we're back to the broadcast.
again, twitter reveals the time lag between the caution and the return to the broadcast. however, this time, they didn't go to the wreck replay immediately. and then had to replay the pit road chaos.
so much happening all at one time but hey! that's why they get paid the big money, ya know?
Someone must have said something to DW. He is much lower-key and has let Mike do the PXP without interrupting him.
Showtime is running a handful of commercials on the MRN broadcast tonight. Must've been a ISC package deal there.
If they wouldn't show that crap of the race leader promoting Fox we would get to see more action.
bevo, the broadcast channels are the local stations on satellite so we get what the the local stations broadcast. The commercials vary on each local station.
Way too tight way too early! We missed most of that. Daggone it.
Time for the Dramamine with the camera shots jumping around like an ADHD teenager!
The way Fox is showing this race it is all single file, no passing, just like Taladega. I wouldn't pay a dime to go see this race as it is being shown.
oh yeah Crank it up love it love it!
The FOX guys are NFL football guys, it seems they just have to zoom-in when they sense drama. We want them to zoom-out as fans so we can see it happen.
this is me noticing that, when the 88 took 4 tires on that last stop, he was 18th on the track & dw stated that taking four was a bad choice & would put him way back in the pack.
the 88 is now running in 18th again and his last lap was one of the fastest on the track.
just saying.
The best thang about crank it up is that the booth babble stops for a while.
At least they waited on crank it up..
If Jr kwwpa coming forward, I imagine DW will talk about what a great move it was to take 4. He's very flexible.
In car cameras are Money Shots. No other reason for being inserted like that.
Taht should be 'keeps'. Sorry.
Has Pitcommand and Scanner went out on anyone else?
OK. I give up.
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