Live Blogging Camping World Trucks From Kansas (SPEED - 1:30PM ET)

It's the 400th race in the truck series this weekend in Kansas. Several title sponsors have worked with this series, with Camping World currently paying the bill.

Several TV networks have also televised the trucks, but the series has settled into a very happy relationship with SPEED. The network has consistently delivered a quality product at a much lower production cost for NASCAR.

This week, Krista Voda hosts the pre-race show from the starting grid at the Kansas Speedway. Ray Dunlap and Hermie Sadler are the reporters. Voda has been a critical part of the TV success with her simple and straightforward delivery of news, features and information. Bad puns aside, Voda sets the right tone for the racing.

Rick Allen knew nothing about NASCAR when he made his way from the Midwest to Charlotte to call the truck series races. Allen has "great pipes" and the ability to take a race and crank-up the excitement level. In terms of the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series TV races, this is an element that is sorely missing.

Phil Parsons has been the Andy Petree of the truck series. He flies below the radar, does not promote himself and has been consistently delivering quality analysis for many years on SPEED. Parsons and Petree just keep showing up and getting the job done.

The spice in the truck series telecasts is always offered by Micheal Waltrip. Fans either love his enthusiasm or think he is completely full of himself. Waltrip is a completely different person from the happy-go-lucky driver who used to clown around with Kenny Schrader and Johnny Benson on Monday nights.

These days, Waltrip has a lot going on. He is about to race in the 24 Hours of LeMans, his best-selling book is about to be made into a movie and he continues to run a multi-car Sprint Cup Series team.

When Waltrip is focused and on his game, the partnership in the TV booth works quite well. But when Waltrip is too loud, too overpowering and loaded with sponsor promotions he affects the entire telecast. Let's see just which Mikey shows up today.

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Friday From Kansas Belongs To SPEED

It's an eight hour affair from Kansas on SPEED. Friday at noon ET starts the live SPEED coverage that ends with Trackside at 7PM.

John Roberts will be the first face that fans see. "Johnny TV" is a workhorse for the network. Click here for the 2006 story that contained his now classic line. When he first worked as a sports anchor in the Charlotte market he ran a landscaping business to make ends meet. The rest is history.

"People got a kick out of seeing me on television on Sunday and then waking up on Monday to find me mowing their lawns," said Roberts. Well, those days are behind him now.

The complete Friday TV schedule is on the left side of the page. Please use this post to offer comments on the SPEED TV coverage from the Kansas Speedway. To add your comment, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for stopping by.

Chris Neville Joins TNT As NASCAR Pit Reporter

The countdown to TNT is on once again. Kansas this Sunday is the final Sprint Cup Series race for FOX in 2011. TNT comes into town for a six race TV package that features a unique trio in the broadcast booth, original online offerings and lots of network promotion.

Former truck series TV pit reporter Adam Alexander, NASCAR on SPEED analyst Kyle Petty and current VERSUS IndyCar analyst Wally Dallenbach Jr. make up TNT's trio in the booth this summer for NASCAR.

To say this is a complete switch from the well-connected Mike Joy, the deeply conflicted Darrell Waltrip and the darling of the press corps Larry McReynolds is an understatement. TNT brings irreverence like FOX brings the party line.

Petty is already a star for SPEED and does a very popular live NASCAR.com video chat from each Sprint Cup Series race. Alexander has been busy trying to get the new Speed Center show dialed-in and Dallenbach has been getting his TV feet wet again in IndyCar.

In a way, the TNT package feels more like folks taking a break from their day jobs to work on summer vacation. McReynolds comes along to be the "race strategy guy." Lyndsay Czarniak, a Washington, DC local TV sports reporter, hosts the pre-race and stays to anchor from the infield with McReynolds.

Last summer Czarniak was switched to host from her pit reporter role. That left Ralph Sheheen, Matt Yocum and Marty Snider from the original group. TNT decided to tap SPEED's Camping World Truck Series analyst Phil Parsons to replace Czarniak.

Unfortunately, Parsons has a tough time working the top series. Between the baggage of his own start-and-park operation and his lack of previous interaction with some of the Cup stars, he was left in a lurch. While several of his "moments" were comical, some were downright embarrassing. Parsons will not be returning.

As the Parsons news broke, it was also made public that this season the TNT online application called RaceBuddy will not have its own pit reporter. That put veteran Jim Noble out of action. Noble had done a great job of holding down the online fort and interacting with fans. Perhaps, he upstaged the guys on the TV side.

Since Parsons was not returning, many thought Noble would get the TV pit reporter job after his hard work on RaceBuddy. Instead, TNT stepped out of NASCAR and tapped SPEED's sports car pit reporter Chris Neville as the new kid on the block. That is Neville pictured above talking with driver Scott Pruett.

Although the news is not official, Neville has already changed his Twitter bio and sent several tweets about his new role this summer for TNT. Neville came up through the racing ranks as a driver starting with go-karts and then moving into various sports car series. He has been working for SPEED for ten years and is a solid TV pro.

Neville has worked on ARCA telecasts, but is not a NASCAR TV veteran. This is not necessarily a drawback, as Czarniak has succeeded on TNT using her news skills and personality on the air. Neville may be the breath of fresh air this package needed on pit road.

TNT was caught in a lurch when ESPN suddenly made an announcement about using the side-by-side commercial format for the second half of all Chase races this season. It has consistently been TNT and Turner Sports pushing new innovations both on TV and the Internet for the last several years in NASCAR coverage.

Other than the "Wide Open" coverage at Daytona, the other five TNT races this summer will have the standard full-screen commercial breaks. Daytona will again have the same type of split-screen approach that some viewers love and some really hate. Advertisers get additional time on the screen and while the cars can always be seen, there is a lot of sponsor content rolling by.

There will be an official announcement on all of this from Turner shortly. This summer package rolls by quickly and begins to be overshadowed by the approaching ESPN coverage once the July Daytona race is over. In the meantime, FOX gets one more try this weekend in Kansas to show us some racing.

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