The Sprint Cup Series coverage from Charlotte wrapped-up the 2010 season for the NASCAR on FOX gang. This is the tenth year FOX has covered the sport.
Chris Myers anchored from the Hollywood Hotel. Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond joined him. There was no Slice of Pizzi feature.
Mike Joy handled the play-by-play with Waltrip and Jeff Hammond. On pit road were Steve Byrnes, Matt Yocum, Krista Voda and Dick Berggren.
FOX used the formula featured this season that uses very tight camera shots of one or two cars mixed with in-car cameras and some low angle speed-shots. Several times the announcers were asking for coverage of an incident and the director was slow to respond. This included on-track accidents and pit road incidents.
The pictures and sound were fine. FOX has been super this year from a technical standpoint. Graphic look was fine and there were no music issues. Digger was not used and there were no long movie promo's played over the action.
On this post we are asking for your comments on the Charlotte race and the FOX season in general. There has been quite a discussion on this topic since February and this is a good time for a summary.
To add your comments on the NASCAR on FOX topic, 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 stop by The Daly Planet.
56 comments:
im glad the DW show is over, fox should show us the race and explain it to us not let dw do whatever he wants to do and show clips of him winning years ago to boost his ego, also they need to get a better producer/camera crew, with all the zooming in and not showing all the action, and with a few laps to go having one box showing kurt and jmac and the bigger box showing ganassi, hmm maybe racing should be in the bigger box. but since i am just a fan fox doesnt care
Its Over! Until February :(
Fox did a good job tonight--it's always tough to handle a long race & time commercials...after watching the side by side on the Indy broadcast-I vote for this as the way to go when your televising racing
It feels like Christmas morning right now knowing that Fox is done. Bring on TNT!
The pictures they produce are great. Its a shame that they provide no substance or context for the race fan. Wide shots! Wide shots to show me the race and someone to CALL the race.
the booth announcers have been a source of irritation all season long. They simply aren't calling the race. It's a running stream of consciousness deal every week and that isn't what I tune in for.
Listening to DW blather on and contradict himself very other lap makes me question if it isn't time for him to retire. Plus his inability to be professional and unbiased. In the vernacular of broadcasts, he's a "homer". If he was doing the "local" broadcast, that would be fine and expected, but on a national level, it isn't.
I do not understand how the Fox team is winning Emmy's for this type of broadcast. I would give them the Razzy.
if not for trackpass and the radio, I'd have no idea what was going on during the race.
after watching the indy broadcast earlier today...i truly am disappointed in Nascar On Fox. all i can hope for is improved broadcasting/camera angles/commentators for the rest of this season...now that we no longer have to listen to the endless prattle...pointless chatter...and get back to some real race coverage! at least during the indy broadcast...even during commercials...i knew what was going on. at the end of the indy500 i knew what had transpired and where the drivers i was following ended up. Usually after the Fox broadcast...I have to go check other websites and twitter to find out where the rest of the field ended up! And I just heard DW say he thought this was the best season they have had...NO WAY! you will not be missed Nascar on Fox!
The coverage this year has made me look forward to ABF (anybody but Fox). I am looking forward to better directing and better booth work. I want the booth to tell us about what is happening on the track and for the video to match the commentary.
I have been very disappointed with the Fox coverage this year and the memory of the good work they did several years ago is getting harder and harder to remember.
Ding dong... FOX is gone.
All this self congratulatory stuff on themselves??????????
Does NOBODY watch the "race on tv as the fans see it" ! It stinks. I haven't watch an entire race on face in months except I tried Talladega. Wow.
Let's hope NASCAR suits haven't corrupted Mike Wells fabulous TNT Race direction.
After INDY500 last couple years, just can't sit thru another 600 miles of camera NON-SENSE.
Stevie Wonder could do better at camera selection work.
That's my MAIN GRIPE. SHOW US THE RACE.
AAARGH. Didn't even listen online to radio today..JUST LOST INTEREST NASCAR.
We should JSUT be able to relax & ENJOY the race & not multi task to "see" what we are missing on camera.
Lather, rinse, repeat the same gripes for 3 years. Camera work gets worse.
actually digger was used once coming back from commercial
i saw a few times where mike joy would mention something for example when regan smith got real loose then saved it and the director was very slow to show it
the graphics are great
DW's schtick is wearing thin and chris myers is just a clown
I am going to hopefully save you trouble by giving you the whole FOX story in two words: EPIC FAIL!
Ok TNT. Fox set the bar pretty low. Now it's your turn.
My head hurts. Excedrin headache #89. DW babbling on all race.
The co-operation?! Really?!
-sigh- FOX was just one long commercial all season long. The last few races have been riddled with the woes of an ESPN-esque production truck that is just off it's game and in turn the booth is off theirs. DW flip floping about everything, I swear if you told him the sky was pink he would find a reason to say he saw it coming.
I wish Mike Joy a great offseason as I hope he can return to his former glory for 2011. He struggled all season which made DW even worse. Larry Mac, please be better on TNT than you've been on FOX. He never quit trying but DW is rubbing off on him. Catchphrases and demanding commentary galore!
What "Bizarro World" do we live in where Fox is horrible & ESPN is setting the standard for TV coverage.
WOW. Their last race of the season & they can't fill 10 minutes after 600 mile race to go up to their alloted time at 11pm here?
SHEESH. Fox Fail. Went to my local news early. What's the deal. Who's making these insane decisions? Nothing to say in post race interviews.
Shark jump after shark jump not just for FOX but NASCAR & other modern sports. Sigh.
I feel like half of the 2010 season was stolen from me because Fox never really fully covered a race. Instead, they gave us nothing but video game camera angles, commentary that all too often did not match what was on the screen, and the constant yammering of a man who has obviously lost any sense of what makes for a good sports telecast. If it does not change, it is only going to continue to hurt our beloved sport. My casually-interested guests tonight were confused and I was depressed to see Fox pat itself on the back for this absolute worst in their ten years of having NASCAR. This year on Fox did nothing to gain the interest of any new fans and, from my personal observations, is doing nothing but help to drive them away.
Fox SUCKED!!!
I'm very thankful Fox is done. They do a horrible job and I'll be honest I've never really enjoyed their time in the sport. I don't need to be treated like I'm 5 years old every race. I know what the deal is. Football and baseball broadcasts don't show me what a ball or a sideline is every week.
Bye Fox. I find it very humorous they congratulated themselves for that four months of kindergarden grade work.
I forgot if there was a Jamie McMurray interview, I know they talked to Chip...
I feel like Fox has done more to drive fans away from attending races than the economy. Most people don't follow the races on a computer and they only know what they see on TV. What they experience on TV is a poor product that appears to be a waste of time and money. As a result, they are staying away from the tracks in droves. The big money NA$CAR got for the TV contract is quickly going out the back door due to it. The contract clearly did not have adequate performance requirements for the networks and we are all suffering as a result.
The bad:
The camera direction was awful, started bad and really got worse throughout the season. They can't even show what the booth is talking about most of the time. Crashes, your lucky if you get replay. Pitstops, might as well drive to the track to figure out what happened, the booth or cameras will never tell you.
Announcers, worse than the camera direction. DW is just intolerable and over bearing. He brings the whole broadcast down. Mike Joy used to be the best play by play guy but he can't get a word in edge wise anymore. Larry Mac, nice guy but time for a new job. The same 5 things you mention every race are old.
To tight of camera shots, to much use of specialty cams (in car, in ground cam, ect..), lack of a race flow. It really seems that you talk about your predetermined stories, not explain the race as it unfolds.
To much emphasis on sponsorship placement, ie, show this cam for 5 seconds cause the sponsor paid us to, rather than taking advantage of the oportunies presented.
The obvious lack of coverage to teams that didn't pay you a fee. Sorry but that is like a wide receiver needing to pay 10 grand for you to show his receptions.
Hollywood hotel needs to be demolished.
YOU COULDNT EVEN FILL 10 MORE MINUTES OF POST RACE COVERAGE DURING YOUR NORMALLY SCHEDULED TIME. THANK GOD YOUR DONE
The good, the HD quality of the pictures is nice.
Overall I really hope Fox never broadcast another race. I hope DW is never on TV again, I don't care where he goes as long as I never hear from him again. Mike Joy finds a play by play job with a good crew, and Larry Mac helps his son grow into a great racer, just not talking on TV while doing it.
This year of Fox coverage was the worst ever seen, even worse than ESPN last year. Please get out of your contract and never put us fans through this again.
Thank heavens thats over. I did not watch tonight, since I get to "see" more of the race with Raceview & radio than I got from Fox. Its as if every bad thing espn did to annoy us fans (& stopped so far this year) Fox thought was good ideas & used them.
I hope next year DW is on Valium or whatever so he isn't so talkative & Mike Joy can actually call the race.
I hope next year we get even less in car, bumper,rodent,roof & sidewall cams.
On to RaceBuddy!
Not sure this would solve anything, but do you remember way back when CBS transitioned Ken Squier to a voice of god role from the announcer booth. Sort of like the position that Brent Musburger has at the Indy 500, actually.
Mike Joy making that transition might solve multiple problems. A new, reinvigorated booth and the retirement of the Hollywood hotel.
I don't think FOX was quite so bad. One thing I notice criticized is SAFER barriers taking up camera shots a lot. There are two things to remember. 1) They are trying to get close to the action here and 2) Advertising. I don't think there was one soft wall shot this year that didn't have advertising on the wall itself. Money is important, especially in this economy.
As for the broadcasting, I kinda had an issue with the commentary. This team has been together for 10 years now, and perhaps it is time for a mix-up. Maybe Chad Kanus should take a year off and replace Larry Mac in the booth and Larry could join Jeff in the Hollywood Hotel and do what he does on TNT. I sure hope FOX, TNT, and ESPN are all working on the side-by-side deal, because I think that's one way you can get fans back to the TV set. I blame the other problem ratings problems on Earnhardt Jr. His success = better ratings. When he made the chase in 2005, ratings in NASCAR hit an all-time high. Junior's success = NASCAR success. If NASCAR needs to fix the cars to his liking, do it.
I am also glad that the Fox portion os over. The ones that think that Fox did a good job must have been watching a different race than I was.
What can I add about DW that everyone hasn't already said. Larry Mac also. Just am happy that we don't have to hear DW doing a race for the rest of the season. Next year though he is going to shove it down our throats on why he needs to be in the Hall of Fame. Just a thought...
I am not a director, but tonight several times they screamed problem and the camera was way slow to react. Too much going on on the track or was someone not paying attention. When DW screams do they have a directive not to follow it?
Nascar needs to worry about the racing. At times it can be boring, but it just might be the way Fox presents it.
Overall watching what ESPN has put together so far with the Nationwide series, i am hopeful for the rest of the season. I am really excited about Wally and Kyle next week. I am hoping that I won't be disappointed.
JD great job as usual...
I keep hearing how great the racing has been this year. I certainly can't tell by what I see on my television. The 'coverage' by Fox is so narrow and so ADD that I find it impossible to becfome involved with the race. If I wasn't participating in the blog, I would have no idea what happens with 3/4 of the field, since Fox seems determined to cover only 10 drivers per race. DW thinks his role is to fill every minute of air time with blather about anything, whether it pertains to the race or not. This far into the season, presenting 'Nascar 101' comments for every race is annoying, and wastes time. Narrow camera angles keep viewers from having any sense of what's happening on the track. DW may have been tearing up because he's done for the season, but I was tearing up in relief. Fox has been a huge disappointment, and isn't doing anything that will keep viewers watching races. I can only hope that TNT and ESPN can imporve the situation. Every driver has fans, and they deserve the chance to know what their driver is doing as much as the 10 drivers Fox chooses to cover.
I agree with Sam, it is time to cease the education of the audience to NASCAR terminology.
As Sam says, they don't stop talking about a Baseball game to teach you the strike zone. I don't need someone telling me during a broadcast that tight is front wheels sliding.
That type of thing should be specialized to the internet or niche programming.
I believe that this would help the flow of the race coverage.
i joined the race at about 8:30 and by the time 9 rolled around, i was finished. i once again turned the tv off and followed the race via leaderboards and twitter.
specifically:
* camera work lacked the flow necessary to create a coherent story of the race. images were chopped off just as they were coming to completion, camera angles failed to complement what was being said by the booth, inappropriate cameras chosen (i.e. in-car camera during a pass when a wide shot would have illustrated the racing more dramatically.)
the reason i turn on tv is to watch the race in a manner similiar to what i see at the track -- not identical, mind you. just similiar. for that to happen, wide, flowing shots need to be shown, the entire field needs to be shown, the higher the shot, the better. it's why fans pay for the highest seats possible at a track: so we can see the entire race field. it felt as if fox wasn't even going to attempt to do that.
* the booth was equally disconnected from the race. i found myself thinking back to the indy coverage earlier in the day & fox failed in comparision. the discussions (and there's problem #!: there shouldn't be discussions in place of covering the racing) didn't add to the race story and instead became increasingly self-indulgent. i continue to believe mike joy is a great PxP guy but his colleagues in the booth need to give him mic time to speak.
* the story of the race itself was never told and that is THE major failure of the broadcast. fox simply doesn't use the tools that are available to them to the best advantage and so the broadcast falters, stumbles and ultimately falls.
and that's just from one 1/2 hour of watching. those who watched the entire broadcast must be livid.
i watched indy 500 & i can tell you pretty much everything that happened thru out that broadcast. i watched 1/2 hour of fox's broadcast almost an hour into a race and i have no idea what was going on.
fox, there's no reason for self-congradulations, guys. you failed with your work this time around and i, for one, am glad you're gone for a while. i want to turn on my race in anticipation of a solid, informative, professional broadcast. instead, i have turned on in dread of a chaotic, disjointed hot mess and have turned off in disgust.
mike joy is a pro and should be valued, not dimished by his colleagues in the booth. keep mike, partner him with more professional talent, lose the hotel and tech center and just focus all your toys on showing me the race.
I have not watched the last few races at all (did tune in briefly last night) because my lawn and my books have been far more interesting than what has shown up on FOX. I do believe that the problem is bigger than FOX this year, but in the interest of fairness I will tune into TNT. I KNOW I will probably enjoy listening to Wally and Kyle regardless of the quality of racing.
Lets hope that they have the guts to do a full reboot on FOX. DW and Larry Mac must go. period. Mike Joy may be salvageable, as he was always one of the best, but he seems so beat down, hard to know if he could get his mojo back with a new crew. This is an opportunity for FOX to reinvent coverage and regain it's leadership role in racing....will it happen?
I hope.
Tom
Inverness, FL
You know, I used to like DW. And Larry Mac (except for the grammar.) And Mike Joy was the best. But somehow, this train has completely derailed. I found myself several times last night thinking, 'when was the last time I heard Mike Joy say anything?' It felt to me like that was what they were being told to do. Now DW is just a shadow of his former broadcasting self. As if he forgot how to be smart & careful, and got so self satisfied he thinks he can say anything. It just all makes no sense. They underutilize a good pit reporting crew to let DW drone on.
David, they did interview Jamie Mac but not til after a commercial break.
Afters wastching 1100 miles of racing yesterday I think we are in trouble with Nascar on ESPN this fall, just like last year. During the Indy 500 Marty Reid was lifeless, almost no PxP. With that said, ESPN's camera angles of Indy was much better then Fox's camera angles of Nascar. Fox still offers way to much zoom on one to cars. This offers zero context of the racing around those cars, and why there are doing what they are doing. I use to support Mike Joy, still do outside of the booth actually. But, Joy will not call PxP. McRenolds will not spead English. Waltrip will not stop talking about 20-30yrs ago and himself. Waltrip has enough ego for the the state of Texas, he's become totally usless in the booth. Joy, McRenolds and Waltrip need to go for next year.
I am very glad fox is gone and its sad nascar can't see how bad fox's broadcast hurt the sport - money, money, money. But, I think everyone is barking up the wrong tree. Some one(s) behind the scene has the belief that it is all about entertainment, nothing to do with the race and as such is "coaching" everyone to meet his idea of what to show. More of a reality show broadcast than a race broadcast.
I believe Joy is sick of this situation, but there is nothing he can do to change the mindset. He has to laugh at DW's lame jokes, put up with DW's unprofessionalism, LM's saying the same thing every week. He only has two options - quit or ride it out.
I believe DW could be a professional color commentator with the right coaching. But someone would rather he be a reality TV commentator - it's all about the drama, made up if need be. Unfortunately, he does not see how this makes him look and how this is hurting the sport.
I believe nascar does not have the smarts anymore to choose quality over money. The networks can give nascar a dollar and tell them to shut up, leaving the networks to do whatever they want.
I will not miss fox.
The true definition of insanity is when you have a terrible product but you keep everything the same year after year after year and expect different results. That's what NASCAR on Fox has done and it's time for a major overhaul.
Get rid of the non-NASCAR people that make a mockery of covering this sport, dump the brainless pre-race segments and most of all DROP THE DAMN EGOS and just broadcast the damn race.
Every Fox NASCAR broadcast is about nothing but them, them, them, them, them, them and more of them and it's enough already.
I don't tune in to these races to watch no-name in-house Fox employees get thrown a bone by management (Pizzi and Dickert).
I don't tune in to these races to have Fox merchandise generating cartoon characters and childish catchphrases thrown in my face.
And I damn sure don't tune in to these races to "marvel" at what kind of fancy graphics and video packaging the bored NASCAR-hating production team can come up with to cover up the green flag racing that's going on.
TNT and ESPN actually cared and made positive changes. It's apparent though that this rebellious network just doesn't give a damn because they're not happy unless they're stirring up controvesy and getting their names out there in the media.
The only hope we had was David Hill getting rightfully fired and being replaced by someone with a completely different, common sense, respectful and logical approach to sports broadcasting. Even though Hill has been replaced on paper I'm not drinking the kool-aid that anything is going to change. After all, this new guy was hand-picked by Hill himself and still answers directly to Hill. I'll believe the thought that he's going to make his boss look like a chump and smear egg all over his face by undoing all of his wrongs when I see it.. I'm not holding my breath.
Thanks Fox for being finished for another yr. It was bad enough to listen to Waldrip gush about his brother's race cars, but even worse to listen to him swoon about the announcers. If this was their "best season " yet, I'd hate to see a bad one. These guys are as inept as they get, altho I did enjoy listening to the pit reporters do a fine job during stops.
The "booth monkeys" should have listened to the 500 announcers. They were pretty good, didn't talk over one another, and DID NOT shill over anything. Refreshing for ABC.
Fox's disappointing coverage of the Coca-Cola 600 was on par with the majority of the network's previous races this season . . . pretty lame.
While the critique of TV personalities and production is subjective, so to is the
perception of what is good/bad for the sport of stock car racing as a whole. Fox has not been good for the sport this year, but the sport (NASCAR) has not given them much to work with either.
The lone exception was the spring Talladega race. Why? Because it was a great race, start to finish. Fox used a lot of overhead and long lens shots showing big packs of cars running side-by-side, nose-to-tail, flat out hauling you-know-what, for 3+ hours. First rate, good stuff, TV personalities aside.
Perhaps a larger part of the problem with NASCAR TV coverage, stems from the overall product that NASCAR presents on the majority of their tracks.
But that's a topic for another time.
TNT's much needed change of pace broadcast of the Pocono race, along with the remaining five races during TNT's summer segment is up next.
It will interesting to read all the posts here on TDP, a truly unique site for serious NASCAR debate.
Not only was the race really boring because basically one car stunk up the show, but the broadcast was equally as boring and could tell it, by contrast what little I listened to on the radio was exciting even thought the race sucked.
Gosh you all hate on Fox a little to much! While they focus on the leaders way to much at times they still do one hell of a job! I know I know the FOX broadcasts are nothing like they use to be but I think everyones getting older and all the speed stuff takes a toll on everyone! I dont know but I watchted both races and INDY was a snooze fest just as much as the announcers were. While I look foward to TNT I will miss Crank it up! Oh and ESPNS broadcast of Saturdays Nationwide race was ugly if you ask me, and they made us listen to the spotters a few times UGH Not that crap again! Oh well we shall see! Seemed like Fox was off one race on the next and this repeated itself all year long. I still enjoy DW and Larry Mac, but wish Mike Joy would lead more than follow next year! I give this season on Fox a C+ there much room for imporvment but still I do enjoy your broadcasts! Thanks FOX
Just my opinion:
The main problem for Fox has been the camera direction. Whoever makes the final decision on which camera shots are chosen should be replaced. The selection of camera shots and the addition of so many sponsor dictated camera shots has made following the race impossible.
I don’t watch the Hollywood Hotel because I just can’t take the Chris Myers act. I like Hammond and the three in the booth. I have watched these four on other programs and the difference is obvious.
I believe they are all doing as they have been directed. It seems as if they are directed to take turns during the broadcast. There are times when Mike Joy could jump in with play-by-play, but he doesn’t. Mike Joy is so bogged down with sponsor related plugs and commercial intros, I doubt that he can follow the race. Whoever is directing the booth members should be replaced.
I like the pit reporters. Any lack of use or their sometimes puzzling behavior is , to me, from direction behind the scenes.
I believe that all of the problems with the Fox race broadcasts comes from behind-the-scenes personnel. I don’t have much hope for next season unless the new “head of whatever” at Fox changes direction of the directors.
I look forward to TNT if the camera shots and booth are as good as last season.
I watch most races live. I do not DVR or multi-task to follow the race.
I still enjoyed the FOX booth work this year and, while it might not have been up to prior years, I believe it was still superior to anyone else's work in the last 10 years with the possible exception of when Allen B was doing the PXP for NBC. From what I saw, including practice and qualifying, I did not note any conflict among the FOX team.
Camera work is another matter and I wonder whether there might have been some cut-back in tech personnel due to economy and/or different emphasis on more visual "action" to try to hang on to the special 18-34 demographic.
In my view, FOX did have the handicap of having to try to recapture the viewers driven off by EESPN's handling of the last 1/2 of 2009.
FOX needs to seriously reconsider DW next year. He is way over the top, dominates the broadcast, his humor is getting very stale and "the time has come". Boogity, Boogity, Boogity - let's dump DW boys.
Good bye FOX. HELLO TNT!!!! Wally and Kyle will be back on our TVs next week! Whooopppppeeeeee!!!!
when FOX first started covering races back in 2001, they were excellent and always superior to NBC/TNT during their first run. Then it seems like around when the new contract took over, FOX has gotten worse every year for the last 3 or 4. Tighter and tighter shots and more and more in car cameras. This year they have became the worst brodcast crew in history. Welcome back to TNT, now I can finally start seeing some of the great racing thats going on out there this season.
I have to say, as a huge critic of FOX presentation of NASCAR, they must have had new blood in the truck for this race.
The closing laps were well cut, particulalrly the vintage Mike Wells style of directing and using the start/finish line cam to tilt up and pick up another battle on the back stretch.
However, the victory lane interview continued the long line if "dolt-ish" blah blah blah patent Q&A fluff.
Bray Kroter
Not real happy with FOX this season, what upsets me most is there was a lot of decent racing that the TV audience didn't get to see!!! Need to find a better balance between NASCAR product & advertising. Pre race shows are still too long, attempt to do better post race appreciated. I predict we'll see even closer integration with SPEED next year with support programming, my opinion is that SPEED Raceday IS the pre race not much else needed. I see a ton of complaints about the commentators, well, I'll never doubt their love of the sport & I still think DW is being paid by the word. I think the "Hollywood Hotel" needs to be revamped to something else sorry Myers. No more cartoons drawn or alive (Pizzi). Proper PxP MUST be allowed, Joy put back.
Onto TNT & hope they still have the same decent coverage. But I bet I'll see complaining about them too. Sports coverage everywhere seems to have dropped in quality, not just NASCAR.
Good riddance FOX.
Caught myself screaming at the flat tube way too many times this year.
One saving grace for this race: No rain delays!
Betcha when this TV contract is up the moola for the next one will be far less thanks in part to FOX's lousy broadcasts.
Sunday's broadcast was a typical Fox broadcast. Wrecks happening that aren't shown until seconds after they happen, missing some obvious things because mouths are running about too many other things, and much more.
The one thing that is a great example of Fox's inemptness is showing Tony Stewart accidentally hitting one of Greg Biffle's crew members and nothing was said because of the jabbering in the booth. It was almost 3 minutes later when they finally mentioned it and showed a couple of replays.
I hope everyone who is blasting FOX takes the time to save this blog and review it after the ESPN portion of the season.
I expect the TNT short season to go well (it's a little easier when you only have a handful of races to show), but I predict that at the end of ESPN's season, there will be at least this many complaints about their coverage as about FOX's.
NASCAR Fan Council just had a "meeting" (through a web survey) on NASCAR on FOX. Topics discussed included commentators, Digger, camera angles, discussion of all drivers, better/worse and pre-race segments. NASCAR is listening....
I watched the Indy 500 and with just a couple of glitches, they produced a very good broadcast. For some reason, directors seem to be more interested in showing wives (Ashley Judd) rather than what was happening on the track during the final lap. But for whatever reason, maybe better racing, maybe the historical aspect of the 500 or maybe the fact that ABC just has smarter people handling the production, they just put Fox to shame on Sunday. I just wish Fox would follow suit.
But, I guess that's impossible when Fox has the aw shucks factor in the race booth. DW is way beyond arrogant with his constant babbling the frustrating way he has to inject himself into every part of the play by play. Larry Mac is OK, but again, he just seems to lack professionalism.
Don't get me started on the production on the whole. The director seems to have graduated from the "Directing for Real, Total and Complete Dummies" school of broadcast journalism. They have love affairs with a few cars and totally ignore other racing going on in mid pack and beyond. They are way too in love with their technology and adamantly refuse to put that stuff away and just show the racing.
Finally, I just want to tell Fox, "IT'S ABOUT THE RACE, STUPID....IT'S NOT YOUR TECHNOLOGY, STUPID ROCK MUSIC THAT TRIES TO ATTRACT THE HEAD BANGERS,IT'S NOT ABOUT OVER THE TOP PROMOTION OF THINGS NOT RELATED TO RACING AND IT'S NOT TO SHOWCASE ANYONE WHO DOESN'T KNOW BEANS ABOUT NASCAR. Do you guys get it, or not?
Nothing could be worse for me than ESPN. Nothing. I can't stand the created drama and the ignorant commentators. The insulting and provoking questions they ask make me feel uncomfortable watching, let alone what it must be like to be on the receiving end. The bouncing around they do with their coverage to accomodate every sport other than NASCAR is pretty darn irritating too.
I say all this because Fox does come in second on annoying coverage. DW's love affair with Kyle, Chad, Jimmie and TRD is so blantantly obvious I'm relieved when I hear Mike Joy talking. That is to say WHEN he can talk and Larry Mac is shouting something he's said 20 times before. Does Larry need to be on every show NASCAR televises? Does he work for pennies on the dollar, is that why we hear him before, during and after the race?
I'm a Junior fan but honestly, I would love to hear about the other drivers in the chase. Other than Kevin Harvick, you would never know it was comprised of 12 drivers.
Not the strongest season of NASCAR on FOX. There did seem to be a bit of a divide between the truck and the booth.
What I would like to see for 2011 is a revamp of the technical crew and the guys in the truck. Perhaps new director, producer and truck crew. Just clean house in that department.
As for on camera I think something like this would certainly shake things up.
Hotel/pre-race/cut-a-way car
Krista Voda
Larry Macreynolds
Booth
Mike Joy
Darrell Waltrip
Jeff Hammond
Pits:
Steve Byrnes
Matt Yocum
Dick Berggren
Wendy Venturini
I only put Wendy in the pits cause I figure they'd want to continue their formula of having the fourth reporter be a female. I think Krista would run a far better show in the hotel and eliminating Larry Mac from the booth would really free up a lot of air time for Mike Joy to interject with PXP. Hammond has great tech knowledge and it showed when he filled in on practice coverage with Joy and Macreynolds at Dover. He doesn't stike me as the type that would try to steal the show in the booth.
I still think when Mike was allowed to talk this season he still showed he was far superior to the rest of the pack when it comes to PXP. Take for example the Sprint Showdown, he totally took control of that race and for a period DW was being an analyst and Larry Mac could hardly get a word in edgewise. However, judging by how the booth dramatically changed when the all-star race started I get the feeling a decision was made in the truck to return to the normal formula.
I'm still not holding my breath of ESPN as quite honestly I've found most of their Nationwide coverage to be just as underwhelming and their booth still doesn't work for me. Marty is miles ahead of Punch and I'm starting to think the problem lies with one of the other two.
TNT should be great as always. The only question mark currently is Adam Alexander but I'm sure he'll do fine.
Camera work. Yes they frame ONE CAR nicely. Too bad there are many more on the track. It's very sad when you have the whole booth talking about a save or a spin or a pass and they do not cut to it because they are currently doing a tight shot of one car doing a lap. Qualifying is usually a day before the race and there are plenty of pictures showing one car going around.
Boy Mikey's team sure has it together... The 56 is really coming on strong lately.... Heard that repeated multiple times throughout the race. Got it you are a Toyota and Brother shill. I'm sure everyone wishes Jr. was doing better, mainly so we don't have to hear you talk about him.
So we have Fox with Agenda commentating and ABC with a storyline to follow. What's funny about the postings. end of last year many of us were hoping to have Fox back because ABC put a big suck in the coverage. Fox spun it to where you wanted to look at a radio because that would give you a better picture of the ontrack action. Part of the problem with the sport is the coverage. The racing 'when they choose to show it' has been improved. I don't know if it's just a mental fake because of going to the blade from the racer wing or what. But when I attempt to watch the racing and get a few glimpses of it, not to bad.
Hopefully TnT does a great job like last year and shows the other clowns what time it is. Because TnT's short comings are far shorter then the other's positives.
Those are some good suggestions Brendan. I never thought about Hammond being in the booth, but that might work.
A new director is definitely needed. Artie Kempner (hope I got the name spelled right) does a great job on the NFL coverage. He just can't seem to keep up with the constant action of a race, hence all the missed shots of wrecks.
Both the races AND Fox are terrible! The "sport" is in a death spiral now.
I've been missing in action, because the fox coverage was just sooo hard to take. But dw needs to get over hisself (LM)-I just can't believe the crap he tried to pass off on the last broadcast-"best yr ever, etc". Good grief, do they even replay the races for themselves? No wonder the ratings are in the tank. Now that I'm kinda w/the 21st century (hi-speed, but still have a VCR) looking forward to RaceBuddy & TNT!
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