Saturday, May 22, 2010

Live Blogging The All-Star Night From CMS (7PM - SPEED)


This is the only night where Sprint Cup Series cars race on SPEED. The network carried the Gatorade Duels in February, but the All-Star race is the big deal.

Since this is not on FOX, it will be Krista Voda hosting the telecast from the Hollywood Hotel with Jeff Hammond and Darrell Waltrip. Once things get underway, Waltrip will join Mike Joy and Larry McReynolds in the broadcast booth for the coverage.

One big challenge of the evening is keeping viewers informed of the format and the schedule of the various events. So many things are very different in this win or crash style of format.

Steve Byrnes, Matt Yocum and Dr. Dick Berggren are covering pit road and will have the tall task of trying to explain the wildly varied strategies that teams use in this event. Pit road has always been a very interesting place on this night.

Joy has been dealing with a very emotional Waltrip this season on TV. From his amazing outburst at Daytona during the final laps through his flip-flops on issues concerning race winners and strategy, Waltrip seems to be trying to please everyone. That just does not work on TV.

On this night, action happens quickly and there are usually several stories in progress at once. It will be tough to continue to use the very tight single and double car shots mixed with in-car cams that has become the NASCAR on FOX trademark.

Voda's star is on the rise with SPEED and FOX. Her performance tonight on a very big stage may go a long way toward determining what her future brings. The FOX head honcho David Hill is now also in charge at SPEED. It should be interesting to see if Voda eventually heads onto having a presence in other high-profile events on FOX.

This post will serve to host your comments on the All-Star coverage on SPEED. 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. Thanks for dropping by.

Live Blogging "NASCAR RaceDay" On SPEED


We have the three hour version of RaceDay on SPEED today. John Roberts leads the on-air team with Kenny Wallace and Kyle Petty on his panel. Hermie Sadler and Wendy Venturini are the infield reporters. In this extended show, other SPEED personalities including Jimmy Spencer will appear.

This is a big deal for SPEED today. The All-Star race is really the highest profile event on the network. While SPEED also televises the Gatorade Duels in February, the All-Star race is the network's only Sprint Cup Series race.

This post will serve to host your comments about RaceDay during the show. 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.

"NASCAR Now" At The Hall Of Fame


Just going to take a minute to tip the cap to ESPN2's NASCAR Now TV series. This show has come a long way in four years and has now reached an entirely new level.

Mike Massaro hosted with Ricky Craven and Greg Biffle alongside from the Hall of Fame in Charlotte, NC. Marty Smith and Shannon Spake were the reporters. Many other NASCAR on ESPN personalities were featured in soundbites on various topics throughout the show.

The program featured a tremendous amount of features and updates on topics from the All-Star race to the Hall of Fame inductions. Ryan McGee profiled Richard Petty as ESPN wrapped-up the inductee features.

A new weekend series is profiling interesting NASCAR fans. This weekend, deaf NASCAR fans at the track were profiled in a feature that focused on Ann Howell-Davis. Click here to see her Facebook page. This was just the type of inspiring and informative feature that NASCAR needs to get fans back to the sport.

If you watched this show, leave us a comment. Thanks to NASCAR's Ramsey Poston for the image.