NASCAR is back on broadcast TV as the race from Richmond is carried on ABC. This is going to be a night that will start off with many 9/11 tributes and then hopefully lead into some good racing. NASCAR needs a good primetime showing right now.
Nicole Briscoe starts the telecast with Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty from the Infield Pit Studio. The theme of tonight is the Chase and this is going to give us a hint of how ESPN will handle the topic after four seasons of struggle.
Allen Bestwick will call the race, which will start at 7:47PM. Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree will be in the broadcast booth. Petree continues to speak his mind while Jarrett is still working on balancing his perception of being polite on the air with the reality of needing to provide sometimes critical comments on the action.
Dr. Jerry Punch, Jamie Little, Vince Welch and Dave Burns will be the pit road reporters. Tim Brewer will be in the Tech Garage. Richmond is known for hot tempers and hot brakes. Expect both stories to be told tonight.
This is clearly the first "race within a race" challenge for ESPN of the season. There are two very distinct storylines that will begin once the green flag flies. The challenge for TV is to keep track of the race and keep track of who is making the Chase at the same time. It has not been easy.
Tonight will also feature some one-time paint schemes, including the one pictured above on the Kyle Busch car. It should lend some continued feeling of patriotism as the racing action slowly simmers to a boil.
Look for ESPN to keep the cameras wide to give fans perspective on the actual racing action or fall victim once again to the temptation of zooming in to one or two cars at a time. It's been hit or miss this season. If the video framing is super-tight, that will indeed be a shame.
NASCAR is about to take a huge kick in the teeth from the NFL beginning next weekend. It is going to be very important tonight for ESPN to develop and follow-up on the emerging stories from the race tonight. Getting viewers to decide to follow NASCAR next week is the challenge for tonight.
We invite your comments on the ABC coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race from Richmond. To add your TV-related comments, just click on the comments button below.
498 comments:
1 – 200 of 498 Newer› Newest»As I said on the other post, the strangest sporting event of any kind that I have ever attended was the Nascar season finale the day after Thanksgiving at Loudon in 2001.
The race had been postponed because of 9/11.
So PLEASE enlighten me...I read in Thurs press release that Snookie creep would not be waving the green flag, but Max Papis is still griping about her doing it.
I thought they found a person connected to 9/11 victim to wave the flag?
Listening to Reds, but reading Tweets on everything ..Reds, NASCAR, local tweeps :)
Sophia, Snooki is the spokesperson of the race sponsor. That sponsorship gets the Grand Marshal.
Since the original announcement, changes have been made. Snooki will now pass of the green flag to a 9/11 connected guest to wave.
Watching the end of the Georgia game (just took the lead over South Carolina) and then switching over. For once, I won't complain if ESPN shows us point standings "as of now".
From Jayski, I just found that the green flag isn't scheduled until 7:43. Timing should work out just about right.
Tx JD. What a pathetic sponsor choice to choose such a low class creep. Max Papis just RT'd the perfect description of her.
SHAMEFUL she is GM...this is what the sport has come to, but thanks for the clarification.
I shall not ever buy that product :(
Where ya been trollster? We missed ya for the NNS race. Folks wanted to know if you were OK.
Troll is in his mom's basement early tonight.
Hey, he had a tough week at school!
WDAY is preempting Countdown for the 6 PM news.
According to yahoo:
But Richmond International Raceway has announced that Snooki will instead give the honor of waving the green flag to Frank Siller, brother of a firefighter lost on 9/11 and the founder of the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation. That foundation honors Siller's selfless sacrifice on 9/11; he was off duty but grabbed his 60 pounds of gear and ran through the tunnel from Brooklyn to Manhattan. He died at Ground Zero.
Daly Planet Editor said...
Hey, he had a tough week at school!
September 10, 2011 7:00 PM
Certainly missed his English class again
So far Pittsburgh, PA and Fargo, ND stations showing local news and preempting Countdown show.
Bad night to do that.
Thanks Mike!
Ah Nicole. Yet another person incorrectly calling this a 400 mile race.
Hey @ptschett ... you're in Fargo too (or area) too, huh? I've given up emailing WDAY trying to get them to air the pre-races. They obviously don't care about the NASCAR fans in this area ... and I know we're out there.
Happy Race Evening You Jackwagons <3
@Sophia--a lot of folks were unaware of the change. Apparently word didn't get around very well.
Salts etc
That's the Tweet I saw by Papis on Snookie :) Meow but true.
Salts, you left off one thing about snooki.... wealthier than we will ever be, at least for now, unless she blows it all
Just shows you how classless NASCAR is choosing money over morals.
Never saw her on RaceDay, did you guys? I was kind of watching it...
Snookie - Wonderful Pistacio 400 - that's nuts !
Any word on who will stream MRN, like Daytonasun.com?
Man, lots of ABC stations showing news.
@Becky -- yup, in Fargo. I've also sent them some unhappy emails, especially last year when they dawdled along with a regular half-hour show and preempted all the way up to lap #8. The response I got was effectively that the local news is what they care about and that the operating procedures for the weekend staff don't give them any flexibility.
Well, at least the Richmond ABC affiliate is showing the pre-race!
Hi everybody, time to watch 400 laps of WRECKING not FOLLOWING EACH OTHER IN LINES.
My eyes are on: A.J. Allmendinger, starts 9th or 10th (can't remember), due for his first win.
Philly, Pittsburgh, Fargo, San Antonio, Milwaukee, Birmingham, etc...
Ahhhh we're in football season, anything goes as far as what networks might do. Expect some long running and OT games to screw up the races.
Hey Mike Skinner is in the chase and has one win lol @ ESPN's graphic mistake
I personally don't think we need a pre race show. The telecast should just wing the invocation, national anthem (except for special occasions like tonight).
I think the local news will mostly be telecast in the central time zone. The eastern time zone has already run the local news at six. Local news has priority in most of the country.
Could you believe that? Skinner in the Chase.
lol
I really hope this opening ceremony goes off without a hitch
BTW Not watching except for the National anthem, turning off snooki, and seeing laps 9 to 11, thats all.
I'm paying more attention to Saltsburg football.
Lip sync God Bless America. Oh well.
Still waiting for a Snooki sighting.
SBTF, commercial lap 10! Wanna bet?
what happens if a big wreck on laps 9 - 11 ?
No fly over. That is a surprise.
God Bless America: A+ raised to the upteenth power. That was amazing.
National Anthem: It's a band, do you expect them to be bad?
No fly over? Saw a parashooter land behind a driver during God Bless America. Early?
Ooops!
The flag hanging from the crane was backwards if it was to be viewed from the front stretch grand stand. The stars always go in the upper left corner.
Georgia vs SC on ESPN - great close game - flipping
TV messed that up a bit. Been told TV will hold stay quiet and then got to break.
If there is an accident, commentary will start again.
Get ready for Snooki! meh.
The flag was good, just shot from the backside.
Or not
The race hasn't started yet and already they are talking about coming down to 12 drivers. anyone want to give odds on how many cars will be covered for the last 10 races? and they wonder why so many fans hate the chase!!!
No NASCAR fans cares about Snooki NASCAR brass.
R. Lee Ermie....WIN
Just a nit, but for those who recorded the ABC pre race,fast forward to about 7:20 -7:25 pm where they list those locked into the Chase. In third place is the #60 car with one win driven by Mike Skinner?!?! Silly typos aside, the God Bless America singer hit it out of the park. Hopefully tonight's race won't have some of the brain farts we experienced in the NNS race last night. Here's hopin'!
ESPN is catching some major grief about that Mike Skinner graphic.
How could you not see that one in advance?
I think we can forget about Jr. or Tony racing hard tonight. Their goal will be a top 20. I don't blame them but I don't think Sr.would have done it.
Brad K. has really grown up and matured. Can't help but like him.
Jerry Punch is just so nice to see on pit road.
I felt it my duty, as a proud American. I rewound my DVR to when the they were playing the National Anthem. Its all in the details the flag was backwards.
Always loved jimmies power of pride schemes
Always loved jimmies power of pride schemes
thanks for the tip Anon 7:44 about the Skinner goof. Was walking the dogs before the 730 start. Got it on the DVR
Looks like the broadcast has been de-Snookified.
No Snooki at all.
You guys are lucky the race isnt on espn tonight as this SC/G game has ras waaaaaaaaaaay long over its scheduled end time.
In-car cam on lap 2 so they miss the wreck.
Was that "Ring of Fire" as the bumper music?
Whats a snookie? Is that like a cookie?
I wouldn't count out a rare Snooki sighting (look at Hope Solo at Indy).
As a Jerseyan, I and many other residents wouldn't have minded if she had been washed away in Irene.
Also WRECKING. :)
Ring of Fire, Solid Rock S
And we're missing restart!ummer '63!
Sure was! Ring of Fire written by June Carter!
Missed the wreck and now missed the 1st restart.
Restarts. That's what instant replay is for.
Failure. Huge mess
Replays please, you can do that without commentary.
A few year ago they gave flags to all the fans at the Daytona 4th of July race to wave. They had a small tag attached - "Made in China"
Once again these specific lap tribute things are just stupid.
You just have a huge wreck that impacts the chase directly - and you can't even show and analyze the replay?
How idiotic.
Well, this maybe did not go very well. At least the pre-race did.
Big wreck, glad ESPN kept the cameras on it. Junior's chase hopes are done.
My dad and I argued in the car how they would handle Laps 9, 10 and 11. Well, there's the caution my dad wanted.
how appropro ...three laps of caution ...9-11
Wow I guess ti was too much of a burden to remove the bottom ticker during the silent laps. Pretty classless
Caution laps with Junior out of the chase and ratings in October and November in the dumps. Thanks, NASCAR.
So, it's actually a 397 lap race, right?
WOW - Hamlin and Earnhardt, this may get VERY interesting.
Paul Sawyer got what he wanted ...the action track, don't ya know
This is going to be an interesting chase situation as Ambrose was also in the wreck.
Junior, Hamlin and Ambrose (along with Bowyer) are all in the Chase spectrum.
Oh great a Snooki commercial. First of many I'm assuming.
Now I really want this troll's name, because this is border-lining in harassment
looks like R Lee Ermey was in uniform after all ...this one's for race sponsor Wonderful Pistachios
I can hardly wait for the trollster to get his drivers license. Might even buy him a car!
I wish we could hear the commentators over the cars and other background noise.
Adam, don't feed the animals at the zoo...even when it's the kiddie zoo.
Rick Hendrick in the #88 pit.
Heh - dunno about those of you with HD or other TV's, but watch around the cars...more pixelation, more rough 1990's VHS look.
Yuck.
Why is Keselowski in yellow on the ticker ?
Pic is fine in Raleigh, no pixelation and sharp as a tack
Yellow means wild card chaser.
to much background sound
Man, that is a LOT of color and a LOT of graphics on the screen.
what a treat it would be to have
Race Buddy tonight ...yes, indeed
Nice. ABC lets us know thatthe U of M - Notre Dame game is on. Will they notify the footballers that the race is on?
This is so stupid. They are running a program alert for a game thats not even supposed to be on this channel.
ESPN is FREAKING OUT about having nowhere to show the ND vs. Michigan game.
Moved it to ESPNEWS! Awesome.
To make it interesting they should run one of the tickers the opposite way.
Well, a lot of the chasers or potential chasers have already been involved in crashes. Hmmm.
If I didn't know any better I would swear this was a goodys dash race, or a busch series race from the mid 80's.
The boys behind the wheel are sloppy.
Where is this snooky everyone is pissing and moaning about.?
Sally - actually, during the UGA/USC game, ESPN did announce that race coverage was starting on ABC at 7:00.
Is it me or is anyone else having a hard time hearing the commentators?
But did they run a 'program alert' crawl?
I mentioned the noise early and nobody responded. I thought it must be me.
Everytime I switch from football to racing, the race is in commercial. Are they showing any of the race?
So Kahne, Hamlin, Ambrose, Junior, Bowyer all involved in incidents. Meaning Menard, Allmendinger, Keselowski, and on should be watching.
Also, apparently this is Caution #11:
Lap 27 -- YELLOW FLAG NO. 11: Kasey Kahne hard into the wall bringing out the caution. The No. 4 has serious damage. David Gilliland gets the free pass and is back on the lead lap.
That is one ugly paintjob on Kyle Busch's car. Looks like the graphics were done by a 3rd grader.
Who's up next if Jr. doesn't finish 18th or above? Keselowski? Yeah, this could be interestuing. Not that any of them below the top 5 have a chance for the championship.
Yes, they ran the program alert crawl.
tonight's much like the old Richmond ...rubbin's racin!
It's not race buddy but http://daytonasun.com/Sports.html will get you MRN.
No pixels, good clear picture on Comcast. Sound good too.
Yeah, cut away from that spinning 9 car. He's not in the chase anyway
Ambrose is spinning and they change the shot? Hel-lo?
The have the wreck on camera and then they go to another shot. Not the first time they have done this.
Didn't realize ARCA was on tonight. Geesch
I agree the natural sound audio is too strong. I am missing some of the announcer words.
Andy that's the same livery run by Schrader in the Dover race after 9/11, Mars wanted to run it again.
I like how they never advertised it.
radio call is for a spin ...no spin this track tonight without some help
This reminds me of an ARCA race I attended at Talladega a fews years back. It took forever to finish due to the accidents.
Looks like everybody forgot how to drive tonight.. Wow.. On another note: I've always thought ESPN's audio has been bad. They did a high school football game a couple of weeks ago and you couldn't hear the announcers.. Their field mics are always up way too much.
Too much background noise. Is is ABC?
People waiting on the Michigan game only missed one and a half minutes of it. I am going there now. Have a good race. And remember camera guy - Zoom Out.
THANK YOU John in Chico....Ive been trying to find an MRN station and I LIVE in NC....imagine....the home of nascrap and no radio around Charlotte....
Hi everyone, I was posting on the other blog, too. LOL, my bad.
9/11 brings back so many difficult memories. I still have a problem with watching the video of all the attacks.
Snooki is a total waste of time - gives Jersey girls a bad name. They should never have picked her for this race in particular.
This has been a very entertaining race tonight and already feels like one were going to be talking about for a long time. But ESPN is failing miserably so far. I wasnt near the computer for the pre race but I noticed they kept using the same annoying song for every feature. Lazy creative team. Running the bottom ticker all night and during the silent laps is annoying and the latter is disrespectful. Running a program alert for a game thats not even on this channel is stupid. Cutting camera views in the middle of a wreck is bush league. What a cluster tonight. The Espn of old has returned. And just as I say it the program alert returns. HELLO THE GAME IS NOT ON THIS CHANNEL GO AWAY!!!!!!
Could Dinger's Pit Crew finally give him a chance to win a race?
Bowyer at it again ...pulled same slide job in turn 4 ...no wreck this time
Rainy228, can you get 95.7 FM from Fayetteville? Raleigh is also Nascar radio free
another wreck for the 4! JESSZ!
My goodness!!
Like I said on twitter ... get Snookie off of the track property and back to the Jersey Shore. She's disturbing the force. LOL
Uh oh Vickers is mad. I smell a trip to the principals office
I tell you what (channeling my inner Rusty) For a Saturday night primetime race on national TV NASCAR is putting on one awesome show tonight. Couldnt ask for anything better
So THATS where the 7 is!
I don't mind football program alerts on the crawl. I do mind that they are also using it to advertise Ron Artest on Dancing with the Stars this week. Give me a break.
Whooee ...ghost of the old Fairgrounds Raceway is rearing its head tonite ...what say you JD?
I don't have any dog in the proverbial hunt for the Cup series, let 'em smash themselves to pieces! 'Bout time I got entertained.
So far, this race looks strictly....wait for it...Bush League!
Sorry. just couldn't resist it.
6abc in philly also pre-empted the countdown so we could see a canned show about the Eagles.
whoopee!
Vickers get pulled off the track but Harvick gets away with that crap last night!!!!!!!!!
This is not going well.....just sayin.
seeing the commercial with snooki telling me to eat pistachios is not the way to sell me on them.
Jr. should race really by taking no tires.
I'm surprised abc went that long without a commercial. Even if it was under yellow
Hypocrisy on NASCAR's part. Leffler and Harvick don't go to the oval office, yet Vickers does? Bull
ANOTHER MISSED RESTART!!!!!!!.....(sorry I yelled)
Harvick wrecked someone under caution?
Finally a points update. Thank you
Kasey begging for ESPN to show him a replay.
Been watching Nascar since 85 and this crap is something else...after last night with Harvick, I never hate on anyone but Harvick and Wrecker Carl Edwards are one in the same...hope 29 gets his tonight..
Good interview Jamie. Nice to see you didn't do your homework. We learned absolutely nothing.
Ok I got my points update. Get it off the screen
Too many graphics on the screen.
OK, did I mention awful? Come on Jamie, show the guy a replay.
Someone from Rousch with nothing to lose should tap happy HARD for last nights stupidity
Earnhardt in 28th. NASCAR isn't gonna be happy about that.
I'm going on the record now to say that Mark Martin got the call for this race.
Track pass using the MRN audio.
Perfect!!!!! think I'll park it here.
Obviously, Jamie didn't know "what happened out there" either - and didn't have another question ready when Kahne couldn't answer that one.
one tv on the race, one tv on msnbc, 9/11 as it happened, should be required watching each yr so we don't forget
wow, what is ESPN doing? So far this is a mess. I can't hear the announcers and the camera work is the usual jumpy crap that tells me nothing.
Triple screen! WHO CARES?
I grew out of those "games"
ND football update DURING the race? UGH!
full screen sprint commercial means I go back to watching other programming.
This whole production has no clue what they're doing. That was a horrible lead-in from the commercial break. Nicole acted like she wasn't told they going to her after the football update.
Sadly, Jamie at her usual standard - lost ...not her fault alone ...ESPN missing another gret race ...thx Barney Hall & MRN's professional broadcast air and production team ...they care about racing and it shows
I just bet ya that the foosball games have Nascar updates w/video in a pic!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA !!!!
What more can NASCAR screw up? Check the Leaderboard (at NASCAR.com) and look at the lap-by-lap summary - it's LAST NIGHTS NNS race, declaring Kyle the winner!!! I've reloaded 5 times just to besure!
I have no idea where anyone is running....and now another commercial....awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Horrible segment.. They are lost and clueless. Roush-Fenway has more issues with little things than all the other teams combined. Every week one of them either has a brake issue, or voltage, or power steering. Always something.
Junior went a lap down.
It's been that way since the start of the race 60'sKid. I finally gave up on it.
I just have the feeling that the wind is going out of the sails and there is nothing AB can do about it.
I just went to Nascar.com and they had the current race lap by lap
Another incomprehensible report from Jamie.
RWAR, but if you notice, all those little things that are wrong with Kenseth and Edwards will go away toward the end of the race and they will have a good finish.
I think Matt just likes to complain
WOW...Jaime says JR has a broken axle as the Camera shows him AT SPEED on the track...then Andy just confirms her mistake...awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Marty Smith tweeted the 83 was not parked by Nascar, came in for repairs (Yellow car stuck in the door) but warned to stay away from the 9 if he gets back out
Sorry be she's useless as a pit road reporter.
Track noise is intolerable
Could they cut to anymore random crap. I am freaking lost
The sound on my TV is echoing. Very irritating and distracting.
track noise is not that unbearable even in person
Commercials interrupted by random and useless updates with small bits of disconnected racing images occasionally tossed in. I sure am enjoying this.
3rd commercial break in less than 13 minutes...awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now a baseball update!!!!!!! Who is where in the race??????????
No audio issues here. Got it cranked up loud as I can without waking the neighbors
As the camera work follows the bouncing ball, I will now leave this mess. I cannot justify wasting my time try to follow what these people are presenting.
Are they trying to tell us they would rather be showing the ND football with how they are broadcasting this race.
Yellow!
No problems, Roland. TV tries to get a good mix between the "natural sound" and the announcers.
Tough to hear AB when the cars are at speed sometimes. Missing his words. That is a symptom of a bad audio mix.
I see ESPN has developed a method to remove all value from their product.
I question if they notice that, it is loud.
My audio is fine. Running HDMI through 7.1 surround sound.
They are making the track noise louder than normal and it's hard to understand AB and guys in the booth which on some occasions may not be a bad thing.
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