Unfortunately, it's been a tough week for the NASCAR on FOX team. Chris Myers lost his teenage son in an auto accident in California and has returned to deal with that situation. John Roberts will step-in and host the pre-race show.
Darrell Waltrip will join Roberts and it should be interesting to see how this dynamic works. Waltrip will transition up into the TV booth to join Mike Joy and Larry McReynolds. In the ARCA race late on Saturday afternoon, McReynold's son Brandon ran out of gas coming to the checkered flag and was caught-up in a subsequent accident.
On pit road will be the FOX team of Steve Byrnes, Krista Voda, Matt Yocum and Dick Berggren. All of these four worked shows earlier on SPEED and Byrnes hosted the ninety-minute RaceDay show that aired before the live race coverage.
FOX is going to use this race to show fans that NASCAR has figured out how to break-up the tandem racing. That might not be the case. In fact, the rumor is that the teams have figured out how to tandem race and we may see the same show as last year.
We are starting year six of this blog with a reminder of the key points on FOX. Tight shots that lose the racing, failure to show the cars on the lead lap finish the race and falling into the trap of letting Darrell Waltrip dictate the focus of he coverage. It's a tense start this season after last year ended with some serious anger on the part of the fans.
As always, we start with a clean slate. This is the first show and we give FOX the benefit of the doubt. The same production team behind the scenes is going to be giving us the pictures, but this year there are alternatives. MRN is now streaming online and fans have continually threatened to take a walk if Waltrip dominates.
There have been significant changes behind the scenes at FOX, including the senior management at both FOX Sports and SPEED. This race telecast may be a good example of what NASCAR fans will be seeing from this group for the season. Here we go.
To add your opinion to our conversation, just click on the comments button below. Thank you for taking the time to stop by. You can also follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/thedalyplanet.
207 comments:
1 – 200 of 207 Newer› Newest»Hi folks, here we go. Also follow us over on Twitter or Facebook.
Hope you feel bad for all those times you made fun of Chris Myers.
Thoughts and prayers with him and his family.
Do you what time the race actually starts?
Half past the hour.
Marc, how are you connecting those two things? Not sure what you mean.
We have held the same line for years. Myers is a TV pro who has to "act" like a clown on the NASCAR coverage.
Worked with him for years at ESPN when he did a daily interview show.
JD
Weren't we switching away from blogger to, among other things, have more power to put a lid on the trolls?
ouch! the NASCAR Bud Shootout on radio just turned into another sports show...what the heck happened?
I just heard Tony Stewart & JJ interviewed...now it's turned into some other talk show? Some host with an annoying accent...Mike somebody ? :( What happened to MRN
I hate auto robo radio stations :(
I see we get raceview free for tonight's race.
I don't see a scanner with raceview or am I not seeing it.
Welcome to the Bud Shootout! But first let's talk about DW some more! And then a cute chick that isn't even going to be in this race!
Goddamn. Wonderful priorites, FOX. Going to be a looooong night.
wth are they interviewing DP?? She isn't even in this race...smh.
Has anyone here ever met Danica? Wondering how she treats fan and if she is a "nice person".
2 minutes into the show and we are already into Danica overload. Afraid it's gonna be a long season
holy crap
the worst first segment since the advent of color television
what the hell was that?
Hi
Darrell Hall of Fame
Danica blah blah
Crap music act
Nice job Fox...not
To paraphrase Chad Knaus "Youve got to be freaking kidding me". First up they give DW time to talk bout going in the Hall, then talk to Danica, who isnt even in this race. Now were listening to Little Big Town. It would be nice to talk to drivers who are actually in the race.
On the plus side John Roberts is doing good. Being very professional. And Im glad the NFL music is back. But so far this show has been a failure in my book.
JD,
In the original post you say "MRN is not streaming online." Don't you mean now streaming?
That was PATHETIC!!!!
So they start the show talking about DW going into the HoF and then Danica and I hit the mute button.
My season got off to a good start when "Cheatin' Chad" got caught right off the bat. Some things never change.
Made me cry seeing Christopher Myers photo after DW's words :-(
A tragedy no parent should ever have to face. . .
Thoughts & Prayers to Chris & his entire family.
This crap is on tape!!! Maybe short turnaround, but not LIVE
And they still screw up
Mute button is working well. Thank you, MRN, you may save the evening for us.
With you Sophia. A horrible thing, handled well by DW.
Glad to see I'm not the only one with the SMH reaction to Danica being on. LOL
Soooo glad MRN is streaming online this year. No more searching for an affiliate streaming online.
got word on twitter 1360 AM cincy area was working on going to some mike guys talk radio show. (Love my local tweeps!)
And sure enough, radio on air again :)
Now a official NASCAR commercial with Footloose. Could it get any worse? Oh wait it does. Not a single interview with a driver who will be in the race. I feel cheated.
Good anthem. Nice harmonies. Knew the words.
That didn't take long. I'm already tired of Ole DW
where did the 2 car draft rumor come from jd, i dont see how they can do it, plus the pack is nearly as fast as the 2 car draft is
Similar to ole TG sheppard
The coverage may not be exactly what I want but my heart is beating like I've just had a pot of coffee.
It's been a long winter off. There is still snow up here in southern Ontario but I'm ready to go racin'!!
I don't see tandems being the way to go tonight. The pack alone now turns 200 plus. Ahhh and we get our first taste of Michael Waltrip. Great
I found the scanner on raceview. It was at the top of the page under Listen To
Yea !!
Glad to be back..... I have an iPad now, so no more reading in the droid phone during the race! Maybe I will actually get an ID this season.
Besdies the other Waltrip, have they talked to a single person actually in this race about to start so far? No. Oh hey - the command. Now it's too late!
Unacceptable.
I have no problems with DP in studio, can't get a driver in the event this close to race time. Don't understand the decision but, not vile about it.
John is hotpass coming back in 2012, any changes you know of?
OK how many times are they going to get the drivers confused....call the 22 "Busch" like they called it Harvick last year.
No driver to driver communications....looking forward to this!
If he's going to be "anywhere and everywhere" around the track, that means Jeff Hammond is the Tony Siragusa of Nascar on FOX.
I take it the rights to Footloose were cheap...but at least it's a fun song so I'll take it. Course I have tv muted at times & radio on...tiny transistor.
Old school soph with a landline
(yet tweets from her laptop!)
and proudly talks on my cell ph rare times i use it...i no text.
Jr looked so serious in his car...hope he has a better year so folks stay off his back.
Is Danica going to be there for the whole race? She's never been in the Shootout before and can add nothing but hold the gas and turn left. It's pretty obvious she is only there for ratings. It cheapens the role of an 'analyst'.
Haven't been paying attention all winter, is Larry Mac back now? Wasn't he let go part of last season?
I found the scanner but I don't hear a thing.
Bummer.
I see it is the Waltrip show.
Oh. No. Not this. The DW & MW show
Why do the pit reporters have jackets on? I thought it was in the 60's. In the North East where I live that is spring not winter.
WOW.....DW called out to his brother,( how didn't we see this coming)....lets hope Rusty can do this for ESPN with Kenny.....NOT
Yea I'm a little disappointed fox has her as an expert analyst. She's raced in four restrictor plate races in her whole carrer I believe
I see you are moderating, feel bad you had to do this
I'm not getting any sound at all on Race View. Doesn't matter which "channel" I choose.
In car camera before turn one and in car camera again before turn 3.
What a way to show the group of cars on the first lap.
Earlier radio was ahead of tv which was good...now tv was ahead which is bummer...was going to try & sync up tv/radio. No can do if tv is ahead.
wait a minute...maybe I have that backwards...am confused. Zoom cams alread...might stick with radio :)
Good to hear Mike Joy & guys as well as MRN!!
DW just said the 56th time in the last 17 minutes that "Larry did you see my HOF ring?"
Man I missed me some pack racing.
And we already crashed. Well that was fun while it lasted
1st accident of season still prefer tandem racing
6 cars left
For me the raveview scanner does not work.
Oh well, it is free so maybe the scanner is not included in the free package.
hope this doesn't mean we will see Mikey with a head set on the rest of the night......
Not a great start to the season for David Reagan.
This pack racing is going to lead to more riding out the back for the 500 which to me is boring
seriously
DW and the booth called the 56 car "Mikey"
Man its gonna be a long seasoon
Just catching up, but you notice that DW called "Mikey" coming to the front when it was actually Truex in the NAPA car and MW was still back in 16th?
JD - did you decide not to make a change on the blog, or are you still considering options?
had radio in other room & DVR messed up right as I replayed wreck !@#$%^&missed who all was in it.
too frzzled for twitter...forget what radio guys said..mikey, & 7 others.
Probably going to be moving live comments to Twitter and leaving blog for post-race.
Most of my followers/readers have migrated to Twitter. Lots more info, it's instant and it's portable.
JD
Hi, JD. Marc, it was the "act" that Myers put on that I personally didn't like, not the person.
Got sound using the Trackpass Listen Now button on the home page.
Thanks. I haven't ever used Twitter, but I'll go ahead and sign up this week and get familiar.
anyone besides me not able to hear the scanner feeds on the new and obviously unimproved trackpass?
I don't want you to do that at all. You will not have my presence or people who refuse to get Twitter.
Also, Hi All. Welcome back to Big One Central.
Adam,
Sorry, but almost all of my traffic is with the same folks on Twitter. We also have access to drivers, NASCAR officials and drivers.
It's an amazing interactive time for the sport right now.
@Adam, Twitter is pretty straightforward, its Facebook with its secret tracking and selling your data that many of us object to.
Hi Adam
The troll kept using your name hence the moderation
Adam
You don't have to use real name on Twitter or Fbook for that matter. Twitter is great for instant info once you get used to it!
Much better than FB. Try it.
I use Tw for everything these days (sports, news, weather, recipes, etc :) )
What? Is Danica now the permanent commentator? Or is this the start of all Danica all the time?
I couldn't get the scanner to work through the listen to tab, so i wound up opening the scanner separately and then going to raceview.
I have muted the TV - even though I like Roberts calling the race.
Looks like the tandem is very strong on restarts, but after half a lap to a lap it's no quicker than the pack. We could see this determined by a big last-turn slingshot by a single car on a tandem.
Sorry to hear that, JD. I won't be with you there, either. Oh well. It's been fun.
New NASCAR drinking game, each time DW says Danica, Hall of Fame or JR. We need to drink.
Told NASCAR.com and Sprint Mobile both struggling with tech problems tonight.
Sally, this is also online technology. It's just old. Twitter is just new stuff, much easier to use and more info.
That's all, nothing personal. Still offer daily stories for comments, just not live blogs.
Adam, I went to twitter at JD's suggestion and I used his "favorites" list to start with and then added the rest.
JD, you will probably have to educate me on how it would work with the live blog for comments though since I mostly lurk and don't post all that much.
So is tonights live blog the last?
Tried Twitter, didn't like it. Like I said, no big deal. thanks for the fun.
Twitter is great and all, but it won't be the same. I don't follow everyone who's around here so I won't see their comments/replies. If you do move to Twitter, you should have a hashtag so it's easier to follow the group conversation.
Well, I am done with watching tv. Camera work began zoomed out and only a few switches between cameras during a lap, but now it is zoomed in and constantly switching cameras. Same old, same old. MC
well if they are going to talk to Danica during the break rather than the drivers in the race, I'll watch something else and come back when they restart the race.
I use twitter but it is not like our group here interacting together on your blog.
I will miss being here.
Only way to get scanner on RaceView was to turn on scanner icon before you open race view. I can not get any audio from raceview itself.
for crying out loud this stupid Clear ch radio just went back to some mike norris Fox radio show instead of the race.
I hate robo radio stations :(
Charlie, I used to have thousands in chat, now I have 50.
Between all the networks, sponsors and other social media options this blog is outdated for live chatting.
Sorry about that, but who knew?
Oh no...Digger's back, with the same animations that were outdated back in 2009.
I'm not really sure what to say about the first 25 laps of coverage. It wasn't bad, but I wasn't really into it. Maybe it was the excessive booth chatter, but I felt very disconnected from the race.
*And I'm happy this type of racing is back. :)
Gina, I have PitCommand up and running with no scanner issues(#24 is loud and clear).
I agree with Charlie. And Id like to add that twitter is way more complicated than this. It took me a long time to figure out the language and how it worked. Its very disorganized and hard to follow at times. Im on there but I dont tweet I just follow people, so I wont be making the switch, but I wouldnt mind if you do as long as we still have the TV police after each race.
I don't do twitter and think the short blurbs are stupid. Can't get a lot info out in a limited number of characters. Sucks to lose this blog.
Gotta give Danica props. I only counted 2 "you knows" so far. It used to be 2 or 3 a minute. Somebody finally got thru to her.
I agree, twitter is not the same as a small based message forum...and not everybody uses smart phones & is on the go so small forums are still nice if you can keep them together.
Trouble makes blog sites a headache tho, esp when live blogging/commenting.
I was avoiding Danica on tv when stupid Fox radio switched from NASCAR to some Mike guy from Chicago on local 1360
Clear Channel's auto robot computerized radio stations stink for these issues if not a lot are listening.
Jr & others complaining of oil in turn 2 I think he said? via MRN
JD, will you do an "instruction manual" for all of us on the blog before you switch to Twitter, please.
I know it would help me.
DPE, Possibly add a live chat app?
PS Yes twitter is confusing because to read tweets after the fact, you get them backwards with newest tweets at top of the list and what they are 'responding to' buried in your feed.
+ as somebody said 140 not enough to get a point across. like shorthand.
Mikey welcome to the booth. I just vomited in my mouth.
Gina or JD - where do I find the favorites list on someone else's twitter page?
Dangit! David Ragan just had to cause that wreck. Now Flapjaws is in the infield studio with JR.
I must say the first 25 laps was more entertaining than I expected. Pretty crazy out there.
lol, Anon 8:40 called it, Mikey is in the Hollywood Hotel. I wonder if he will wear his driver suit all season long.
NorCalFan - you could get pit command? It wouldn't come up for me since nascar is discontinuing it going forward.
I did close out and do as Rich mentioned - I opened the scanner THEN raceview.
The only reason I keep trackpass is so I can hear the 24 on the radio.
Hoping Mikey isn't gunna be in the booth the rest of the night. Its bad enuff with DW. May run outta beer just to cope...
JD-will be very sorry if u give up the raceday blog, but I understand.
Kudzu, if you go to JD's twitter page, you'll see he has a list of favorites -
Each person has the same against their name - it's kind of like live links on webpages, it will take you to the person's twitter account and click on them if you want to follow them.
Pamm, I have already moderated over one hundred racist, sexist and profane hateful comments.
The world is a lot nicer when folks have to use their name or face consequences. Just the way it is.
I sometomes wonder if Mikey is paid by the word. He jams more words into less time (usually while saying less) than anyone except Kenny Wallace.
oh geez, now I get to see a split screen of the BACK of Danica's head watching the race?
get a flipping clue!
OK OK OK..... we now get to watch the back of Danicas head while she watches the race!!
Clint was just waiting for that to happen. A matter of time
It was no steam, DW, thats a windshield tear off.
Too many voices and too many cameras to cover something so simple.
You certainly have your hands full JD. Thanks for all you do. Will be joining on twitter as 57jimm next week
Keep in mind new management at FOX Sports. Clearly, Danica is a vehicle to them to attract more viewers.
Neither of the new head honchos at FOX are NASCAR guys. Both stick and ball men. Good guys, just not racing types.
@Gina - It's going to be a loooong season of Danicamania my friend.
We should have an over under vote on how many times Danica will be spoken during the 500 broadcast.
AveryNH Whatever that number would be, I'm taking the over.
MRn said somebody's side window has to be taped on...the glass is loose? Who was that...i was stepping back into room & missed.
JD
I forgot SPEED has new higher ups. Ugh. all danica all the time. more reason to listen to radio. Shame as she has little RP racing experience & stock car in general, of course.
Shame. I'd rather hear SPEED guys or folks on pit road
busch, yeah, I know it will be DP overload all the time this year. It seems like all the media just can't resist picking one person and beating us over the head with them.
It's sort of like hearing the same song over and over on the radio - makes me want to scream. the end result being I turn OFF the radio. Racing coverage may go the same way.
Great racing, but stupid bumper cam and endless replays are ruining it.
So the Tv is delayed just a bit I think. At least the spotter is telling me stuff that is happening before I see it on Tv.
Hate the finish line shot. Useless.
What a waste of a timely camera shot of cars crossing the line before break!
You'd think in a short, fast race like this they'd have side by side windows w/ the race and the commercial? Nah, what was I thinkin?
Now that's how you drive a race car. I don't like him, but he can drive.
That was absolutely crazy! Awesome save by Kyle
Where the hell are the side by side commercials? Get with it Fox. You guys still suck.
Full screen replay. AAAAHHHHHH!!
i tried to send radio link 1360 in cincinnati but has some iheart app so if you can listen live online, i don't know it...thank goodness for my radio...lots of racing during the commercials....and no annoying zoom shots.
Honestly, the pictures painted in my head are better than the telly!
tape the race or dvr it & try to find MRN online. These guys are the best but I am missing Barney Hall's voice.
Healing thoughts to Mr. Hall!
There are 20 cars on the track, how does FOX miss that?
great save by 18 then another big wreck takes out Jr, Truex, Harvick & Kenseth :-(
Anybody else see Matt almost roll over there. How bout a replay fox?
Wow, and this is so typical of plate racing. One reason why unless my brother really twists my arm I will never go back to Daytona.
Watching cars wreck just doesn't interest me.
They Wrecked-em!
Kudzu, I thought the same thing, I may not be a fan of KyBu, but daggone he can drive.
After 30 minutes on Twitter, I'm hooked.
ok that tandem racing was a drag but there WERE less wrecks weren't there? ..ouch tonight is too many for a short shoot out race.
dreading the 500.
WHY DOES FOX GO TO IN CAR CAM AS SOON AS A CRASH HAPPINS>
Carl, check my followers.
We talk with drivers and TV guys all the time, it's a blast.
Just be respectful, no profanity and treat others with respect. You can get blocked by anyone and not be able to see them again until they unblock you.
Some of the drivers are awesome when you get to chat with them. It's a great technology.
pack style racing sucks, is dangerous because drivers cannot bump car in front on left side and have no way of avoiding it. Tandem style-racing was better. Which fans voted for this crap.
Just said on Twitter I hope FOX does not use in-car cams until we know the drivers are OK.
If you remember last year, they were actually cutting to the in-car cams DURING the crashes.
Stick and ball TV director that loves his drama.
sophia - you DO KNOW that MRN is streaming on line ?
Anon, over 90% of fans responding to NASCAR said they would not watch tandem "racing."
This is the danger of big packs and it's also part of the show.
Been that way forever. Not saying better or worse, just passing that along.
This is going well past the 10PM broadcast window. Bye bye local news!
How is it NASCAR has NO apps?? Surprised they didn't create a race view app or at least leaderboard or something during the offseason.
You're watching RollerBall 1975 brought to you by Fox.
Anon
No but have radio next to me in Lroom with race on when they dont mess up Clear Ch computers.
can turn on in another room this way with small transistor or boombox :)
Big packs make for exciting racing but unfortunately big wrecks. It's just a product of this style of racing. I'd much rather have this over the tandem b.s. You just can't push in the turns. Common sense
I will be at Daytona 500 next Sun and am not looking forward to this type of racing.
so fans voted for watching a demolition derby. Wonderful.
So the shorter spoiler is causing this cars to get loose quicker if they get tapped.
Called it! Hammond is the FOX Brewer.
JD, you are so right to tweet that. Hope the Fox people get a clue.
so lets recap plate racing. They cant race individually- - they cant race dance-partner style and now they cant race pack style. Running out of options.
Watch those Penske cars that have been hiding in the back for over 50 laps.
10 Laps to go.
I don't think drivers should be allowed to talk, to 20 different drivers like last year, but they should be able to talk to teammates.
Anon, the history of the sport is big packs at those tracks. Just what it is...not saying better or worse.
ok is MRN streaming for 500?
Anybody got a link? My stupid clear ch radio just switched to another show mid race...sigh
They are all so close to wadding them up. Two to go!!
my point - wreck fest - demolition derby dangerous racing
Almost a great finish! Daggone it.
the shorter spoiler is not working like it was planned.
yeah, this new package is great. I wanted to see my guy turned upside down.
somebody tell me he's OK, dammit.
mrnradio.com
Wow, OK, he's out.
Charlie your right. The short spoiler has them all bouncing around. It's really unsafe.
That was Jeff's fault, he was slamming into the #18 through turns 3 & 4 until one of them wrecked.
WOW Scary wreck for Gordon...glad he is ok.
My stupid local radio lost radio at 10pm for over 10 minutes...heidi moment.
gotta change the rules before 500.
drivers wanted the opening to one side so that bumping left front to right rear would result in overheating while bumping on other side would be ok
usually one big one is the norm - n=tonight there were four of em
Busch, you're right, that was Jeff's fault, dammit.
Yes earlier today they said they told ARCA not to push in the corners but they never did say what would happen to someone if they did.
Ok can the short spoiler really cause so many wrecks & different handling?
How can they fix this before the 500?
I hate tandem racing but the plethora or wrecks in the shootout has turned this into a demolition derby :-(
I'd pick tandem if it's safer...can't remember so many pack wrecks in a shoot out.
Gawd, I had hoped our troll would get a GF during the off-season.
Simple physics tells you not to hit a car when its turning. NASCAR need to address that
@ Gina. I know, it stinks. I was hoping he would win. I don't know why he was so aggressive.
wow, did no one notice the insane blocking Kyle was doing the 3 laps leading up to that. He completely deserved being turned, a shame his brother got in the way collecting jeff and the rest of the field. Busch bros off to an early start causing carnage in 2012!
Glad Jeffs OK. Heck of a ride. Dont remember him ever rolling. Back in the day when you rolled they said you "paid your dues". Has Jeff finally paid his dues after all these years?
Thank you troll for being one of the reasons this live blogging of the race will not be here anymore.
Ambrose could shock everybody.
and yes, KyBu was blocking and Jeff probably was trying to move him - of course the 18 is still on the track and jeff isn't, so there you go.
Anon - the troll is the idiot who is USING Adam's name but isn't the real Adam.
Could DW shut up and let mike joy call a finish for once. Great finish what a rebound for Kyle
Busch earned it.
I have a feeling NASCAR will be listening to a lot of private complaints after this race.
my tv did NOT show the last second pass & winner of this race. EPIC FAIL FOX :(
Ancient - your boy wins! amazing how it all works some days.
WOW, what a race! Kyle Busch is unbelievable.
Is Mike Joy tone deaf tonight? I heard a lot more boos than cheers. Certainly not the 'crowd full of cheers' he heard.
Thank you JD for all you do.
Fox used the wrong cam at the finish. We didnt see the finish kine untill they showed a reply, that was bad!
tle159
THANKS for verifying i'm not nuts...we didn't see the end of the race either until the replay.
guess nobody notices that anymore...
Busch, I agree with you. It's supposed to be a race, we know they are going to bang on one another, but this many wrecks in a short field and a short race is not a good sign of things to come.
I don't tune in to see the wrecks, I want to watch a race.
As usual NASCAR has invoked the law of unintended consequences - fix one thing and make things 100 x worse.
JD thanks for the job you did moderating and letting us have a clean blog free of the trolls! I'll be back latter for the post race wrap up.
Glad to see Dick B with Jeff at the end there. At least now I feel better that he was OK.
Fox did screw up the camera work at the end. Big surprise, we see the end in replay!
LOL, yeah, all these guys want to put a pretty face on it - KyBu is the current king of boos.
He's a heckuva driver but he isn't liked OR respected (even though DW tells us we MUST do that). Ha, good luck with getting fans to do that.
Thanks folks, not exactly going out with a bang, but at least you could say you were part of the last live blog on TDP!
Have a great night.
Poor camera angle on the finish I thought.
They have lucky dogs in the Bud Shootout??? SMH at NASCAR...
Kyle was just as much to blame if not more so. He was repeatedly blocking Jeff. That is called begging to be wrecked, intentionally or otherwise.
People freaking out about Danica as an 'analyst'. Much ado about nothing. They weren't treating her as a restrictor plate expert. The line of questioning was more about what she was learning.
thanks for the fun, JD. Hopefully I'll figure out how to keep involved on your twitter path.
Sure is a shame the live blog is going away. Our local topix blog has also been taken over by filthy mouthed kids and has become useless. I don't like Twitter or factbook. I go there when I have to but I avoid it normally. Sure will miss everyone.
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