It's a conversation we have had before, but now some things have changed. The Camping World Truck Series race from Dover happens at 5PM on Friday. SPEED tape delays the race and airs it at 8PM ET that night.
The issues are pretty easy to understand, but that does not stop the debate over delaying the race for TV. Dover has no lights, so running the race live at 8PM is not possible. NASCAR and SPEED want the greatest possible exposure for the race, so they hold it until primetime on Friday.
So, what has changed? The answer is pretty simple. Social media is a tidal wave of information that comes at NASCAR fans who choose to participate. Twitter will have live updates, Facebook will have pictures and updates. Internet websites and blogs will have wrap-up information posted before the race airs on SPEED.
What most emails and tweets from fans are asking is why SPEED will not air the race live at 5PM and then simply re-air it at 8PM. The answer from SPEED is simple. Television is their business. You can only see CWTS races on SPEED. In order to get the widest possible audience, they are going to air it at 8PM.
Both sides of the issue make sense and have valid points. This is a good opportunity to let us know your views. Are you a hardcore fan who wants the TV broadcast to be live like the radio and online coverage? Maybe you can understand that SPEED is a business and wants the biggest number of eyeballs on the first airing of this event.
How about giving us your opinion on this topic? To add your comment, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.
22 comments:
The biggest issue is not the tape delay of the race. The issue is the fact that the track doesn't have lights. EVERY Cup series track needs to be required to have lights.
It is 2010. Every major sporting venue in America has lights except certain NASCAR tracks. Cost is not an excuse. If NASCAR really wants to do things for the fans, they would require lighted facilities.
Road courses would be difficult and possibly unnecessary, but for a 1-mile track not to have them (especially .5-mile Martinsville) that is unacceptable.
I wish they would air it at 5pm then reair at 8pm. I'm going to listen to the race live on MRN Radio but I hope it rains out like last year so SPEED airs it live on Saturday after Nationwide race.
Plz Plz Rain! lol
Mother Nature might have her own say in the matter ...
http://www.weather.com/outlook/events/sports/weather/tenday/19901?eventid=35623&epc=WXAR
The past few years, the race thread over on the SPEEDtv.com boards has always had the name of the race winner listed prior to the tv air time ...
Maybe NASCAR should run a double-header on Saturday of N'wide & Trucks ... or do the same thing that Talladega does ... run one series in Spring and the other in Fall ... Or practice the Nwide cars on Thurs & qualify on Friday as the Trucks are already doing that ...
It's a lose-lose situation for NASCAR / SPEED / Dover / Fans ...
Morning JD, I'm a hard core Cup fan and a causal Nationwide and Truck fan. Sounds like a fun Friday night on Speed to me. After work we will be able to have a nice dinner out, take our time. Go home, kick back after a weeks work, tune in Speed and watch a truck race "live to us" on Tv.
Again this year - we won't bother to watch. Between Twitter & friends who will/are at the track we will know the outcome. Why bother? We are not "fans" who want to see wrecks, we want live racing. Unless our friends tell us its an instant classic why bother?
I understand they want the most eyes on it so put it in prime time. Yet any more TV is not the only way to "see" a race. Same for the NNS race that gets moved/delayed to make espn happy.
Only the forms of racing we can never/rarely see live do we watch on taped delay.
I beg to differ with their audience numbers with a tape delay. I will not watch for sure when the race has already been decided. Truck racing is fun, but not on tape...
This is the one race that I have almost gotten used to being delayed every year. Not that I like it, and most often miss it as a result of already knowing the outcome. They really should get a clue on this one, as it is too good of a race to miss.
I consider myself a hardcore fan, but I also think I'm a realist. I would love to see it live, since I am at liberty to do so -- but I also like being able to relax after supper watching a race. It really won't bother me if I know the outcome because there will be happenings during the race that will keep me interested.
While I understand people's desire to see things live, I also understand SPEED's desire to have eyeballs watching the TV. TV is a business --- without eyeballs and sponsors, the business doesn't succeed.
This is a classic Hobson's choice.
I'm with Eric! Rain, baby rain! Blame it on SPEED.
No reason not to show live and then again at 8pm.
Last year we got a rather large group together at Beef O'Bradys to watch and have a nice Friday evening.
It only took one drunk to tell us who won and spoil our "surprise."
The solution is simple - if you don't want to know the outcome before having a chance to watch it - stay off twitter or the internet sites where you would reasonably expect to find the winner or other information you don't want to know.
A non-issue to me.
Speed's logic baffles me. If you added the 5 o'clock viewers with the 8 o'clock viewers, the total would be much larger than the 8 o'clock only telecast. Most of the people who wants to watch the 8 o'clock show will avoid the social media and TV so they can see it like it was live. Most other folks will simply skip the later telecast because it will be old news.
I have no problem with SPEED's decision to delay TV coverage of the Dover truck race.
I wouldn't get around to watching it until later at night, as I TiVo it. I'll have no idea who won when I begin watching it.
I'm OK with it even if I know who wins. I like seeing "how he did it concept". To be honest since there is no live timing and scoring (HINT HINT) I tend to time shift the race anyway.
Putting lights at Dover for the truck race seems a little expensive and I really don't want a Sat night cup race there. I attend the Dover races and after 1 rain delay that lasted for HOURS a few years back the though that it could have gone on longer because of lights option horrifies me. I would also be afraid that it would give someone the bright idea of making it a Saturday spectacular and then dropping us down to 1 race per year.
I'm sorta with anon 10:32...you 'twitter-heads' (with all due affection) do have the capability to turn it off, no? :) During things like the Olympics, I have actually been known to tape over the ticker part of the screen so I don't know results in advance.
I'll be in Dover but don't plan to go to the truck race (although I might try and catch Jamie Mac at Trackside.) As many have said, as long as it's 'new to me', especially in a short time span, it's not a big deal. On the other hand, it would seem to me lighting Dover wouldn't be that hard, though I'm not sure how you'd do around the bridge...
Anon 10:32.. I'm 100% on board with you on that thinking. If you don't want to know, don't look. Curiosity kills the cat. I won't know who won till it's done around 10ish Friday night. And I'm happy about that. Why, because it's fun that way. And this is entertainment afterall.
@Jonathan--I've always heard that Miles can't have lights because of its location in relation to the AFB but Dover Downs has lights so not sure why they can't be added to the track as well. When we were talking about it before it was mentioned that it was due to there being interference with the planes landing at the AFB. So not sure how it was able to work out with DD but can't be done at Miles :(. In my quick search nothing directly came up about the AFB issue but found an old Jayski article that stated that there are various factors that would have to be worked out first in order to even make it possible. Not sure what those factors are? But do agree that *all* tracks should have lights. If it rains there are options to run it later after it stops/dries or let it run until finished if delayed/stopped in the middle.
I have TrackPass so listen to the radio and use the broadcast for 'noise' as I do other things on the web or around the house. Unless something huge happened during the race I don't really pay attention. When $$ won I watched the last few to see his first win in the Pick 'em Ups.
Oh goodness I have no problem with this at all, so you just dont go on the internet for a couple hours and watch the race! Whats the big deal here? its the truck series not Cup so im sure fans wont mind waiting
I can recall when the Indy 500 was same-day delay and the World 600 was same-day delay. In all those years of tape delay racing on MMD weekend, I never concerned myself with those two races and found other pursuits. I concluded that if it wasn't important enough for the industry to televise live, it wasn't important enough for me to watch. I have never watched a same-day delay race unless I was the person who decided it should be tape delayed, and I won't watch this weekend.
Thanks once again, SpeedTV.
Even here in central N.C. I frequently have trouble finding a radio broadcast of truck races.
At least the truck race will be broadcast much sooner than EESPN used to do when it had the ESPY's.
Not liking that I'm going to have to suffer the dreadful inconvenience of not being able to look at ANY websites or social media streams until after the race airs on SPEED ;) Haha
Kidding, I'm going to have to DVR it anyway, whether 5pm or 8pm. But I think a sport is best presented live on TV.
And I agree, there is no longer ANY excuse for any track not a road course to not have lights.
Mikey is even worse than usual.
Rambling like an inmate. And folks
does ANYONE on the planet care who
wins ?? inthe Trucks ???
And by all means dont let us
hear the engines for 30 secons withouT TALKING .. we wouldnt want
that.
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