Kentucky Speedway turns to NASCAR TV

By the time Monday rolled around, it was very clear that the Kentucky Speedway traffic story had gone viral. Even the mainstream media had clamped onto the story that thousands of Americans had been trapped in traffic for many hours and were angry at everyone from the Kentucky State Police to the speedway owner.

The subsequent response from the facility and its parent company, Speedway Motorsports Inc., fell flat. Hazy statements expressing regret and passing blame were exactly what SMI did not need. This situation was heightened when NASCAR Chairman France put out a strongly worded statement saying bluntly that this cannot happen again.

Both ESPN's NASCAR Now and SPEED's NASCAR RaceDay had pre-race shows on Saturday. The ESPN show was long gone by the time SPEED came on at 4:30PM ET with RaceDay. By then, the traffic problems were all the talk of Twitter, Facebook and the wonderful world of social media.

Produced by the NASCAR Media Group for SPEED, RaceDay shook off any temptation to chase the traffic story and instead followed the company line of simply promoting the inaugural race.

The boasts of panelist Darrell Waltrip, whose own Kentucky roots were profiled in a TV special earlier that day, now seem incredibly ironic. As Waltrip and RaceDay partner Kenny Wallace carried on, thousands of NASCAR fans were hopelessly trapped in a logistical nightmare that defied explanation.

TNT followed the RaceDay lead and never actually reported on the developing story. Despite being on the air for more than four hours, TNT chose to focus on what was going on inside the track rather than outside. Tweets from TNT on-air personalities did made it clear, however, that they were aware of the disaster that was unfolding.

It is often left to the two Monday NASCAR TV shows to sort-out the details of the weekend. Monday's NASCAR Now was up first as host Allen Bestwick presented an hour of highlights and conversation. Despite several mentions during the show, it was 48 minutes into the program before the traffic story surfaced.

Bestwick spoke by phone with Kentucky Speedway General Manager Mark Simendinger after showing some soundbites of angry fans and recapping the statement from Brian France.

"All I can tell you is that our traffic plans failed miserably," said Simendinger. "Hearing the stories that you just played makes me sick. I don't know what to say other than the fact that we totally blew it. I really feel badly for what we put our fans through."

Simendinger updated the offer from SMI for Kentucky Speedway fans affected on Saturday to redeem their Sprint Cup Series tickets for another race at the speedway or any of the SMI-owned tracks.

"Today for us is about connecting with those fans that we injured," Simendinger continued. "There is no excuse for it and we are totally to blame."

The advantage RaceHub has over NASCAR Now is that the SPEED studios are literally a short drive down the road from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. It was SMI President Marcus Smith, son of Chairman Bruton Smith, who stopped by to speak with show host Steve Byrnes.

"It's really tough to say what happened or what could have been different," said Smith. "In hindsight, we can see where we need to make adjustments. We have been hard at work on this since Saturday and we are going to make a big difference next year."

Smith then echoed the earlier comments of Simendinger about the SMI ticker redemption policy. Smith's comments were more specifically directed to the fans who never got into the race track as that was the topic being discussed.

"We really pride ourselves on being the best in racing with fan amenities and customer service," said Smith. "So, for something like this to happen is very unusual. We are sad that it happened and really want to try and make it right."

It would have been nice if Smith looked right into the camera and apologized, but the fact that he appeared with Byrnes was a positive move. It clearly was not as personal to Smith as it was to Simendinger, but the appearance and the refund information was made clear.

The item left on the table by both TV shows is what becomes of the fans who never made the race and cannot or do not want to attend another event. The word "refund" has never been mentioned and seems that it will not. It should be interesting to see how that topic sorts itself out over the next couple of weeks.

The rumor going around ESPN is that in September NASCAR Now on weekdays will be moved from 5PM Eastern back to 3PM in order to make room for ESPN's homegrown hit Sports Nation.

Often, as with this Monday's show, the big one-hour 5PM "roundtable" does not re-air. NASCAR fans have one shot to see it at the scheduled time or record it for viewing when they get home. This shift to an even earlier time in the heart of the NASCAR season is not a good thing for anyone except ESPN.

It seems the SMI group turned to TV on Monday as an integral part of cleaning up the public relations mess of the weekend. Once again, it's nice to have two NASCAR TV partners producing programs that can get the job done.

We welcome your comments on these topics. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for stopping by.

"Enhanced Audio" Has TV Viewers Buzzing

Since the "Wide Open" coverage from Daytona was done, TNT came back with another special feature for Saturday night's first Sprint Cup Series race from Kentucky Speedway. It was called "enhanced audio."

Here are some quotes about this special feature:

TNT Countdown to Green host Lindsay Czarniak explained the audio-enhanced coverage: "We are using special affect sound by bringing you something we call 'Inside Trax Enhanced Audio.' We’ve added 40 microphones all along the track walls, through the turns and down in pit road to get you closer to the action on the race track.”

This from a TNT news release:

The network’s exclusive prime time coverage of the race will be a special audio-enhanced telecast with 40 additional special effects microphones placed in multiple positions around the track, including pit road, the front and backstretches and the turns, to boost the listening experience for NASCAR viewers.

On average, TNT uses approximately 50 microphones for their race coverage on a track this size. The network also will utilize increased audio from in-car communication between the drivers and race crews and will continue to mic-up select crew chiefs and their teams through Inside Trax which will provide fans with inside access to the sounds and strategy of racing.

Once the race got underway, another element of the "enhanced audio" not mentioned by TNT was made apparent very quickly. That element was silence.

During restarts, pit stops and other select times that the special effect was used, the announcers stopped talking. This is nothing new, as other Sprint Cup Series TV networks have segments called things like "Crank It Up" to feature the sounds of the track.

What was different with TNT was that these segments were frequent and often seemed to cost viewers valuable information. Pit stops seemed to be especially tough for some fans to digest when all that was heard was the sound of air guns, engines and tires.

The pit reporters were given an opportunity to update the field once the stops were done or just after the race returned to green, but it certainly was a very different viewing experience. It quickly showed the importance of getting information in a timely fashion.

The pauses from the announcers led to an awkward feel from the trio in the booth. It certainly wasn't the type of flowing conversation-style commentary we have come to expect from Adam Alexander, Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach Jr.

NASCAR fans also had NASCAR.com's RaceBuddy available to them during the race. This online video and audio component features 4 in-car cameras, 2 battle-cams and views of the backstretch, pit road and corners. Several of the cameras have only the sound of the cars as the audio provided to users.

In TV, the actual sound of the sports event is called "natural sound." Nat sound is the short version used by folks in the business. The process of mixing the nat sound with the announcer audio and other playback sources is the job skill that keeps good remote audio mixers working nationwide.

Whether it is the sound of sneakers under the backboard in college basketball, the pop of a fastball into the catcher's mitt in baseball or the grunts and hits in an NFL game, today's sports TV fan has come to expect the entire audio experience.

TV viewers in our live race chat asked if this was just a gimmick for the last two TNT races. Others were upset that the "enhanced audio" portions seemed to be tied to the director showing in-car cameras almost exclusively. One late arriving fan wondered if he had stumbled into an IMAX movie.

As the race went on, the trill of "enhanced audio" seemed to be gone for many. There was a rush to find the local PRN station for a full audio feed from the track's radio partner. Folks on Twitter started trading online apps to get PRN stations.

All of it seemed to come down to one simple thing. NASCAR fans like to be informed. Not informed only about the race leaders, but about their favorite driver regardless of position. The search for information other than the ticker at the top of the screen was perhaps made a bit more difficult by the announcers and their periods of silence.

There is no information yet as to whether the "enhanced audio" feature will return for New Hampshire. That is the final race in this season's TNT package. ESPN then takes over starting in Indy at the Brickyard and handles the final seventeen races.

We welcome your comments on TNT and the "enhanced audio" experiment at Kentucky Speedway. To add your opinion on this topic, just click on the comments button below.

TV Police: Sprint Cup Series From Kentucky Speedway On TNT

There was trouble in horse country. Kentucky Speedway had one story unfolding outside the track and another inside. It's going to take someone a little bit different to sort-out the real issues.

Adrian Monk used to be a policeman. Now, after some tough times he works as a private detective. The key issue is that he sees things very differently than most folks. That is going to be very important when we discuss the Sprint Cup Series race on TNT from Kentucky Speedway.

Perhaps, someone with his perspective can talk about two things happening at the same time over many hours both with incredible twists and turns. That was the situation in Kentucky on Saturday.

Lindsay Czarniak led Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds though the pre-race show. Tony Stewart was the on-set guest and Terry Labonte was the Pride of NASCAR feature. It was a very normal show, except for the passing references from Czarniak to the issues with fans still in traffic and trying to get into the race.

Adam Alexander, Petty and Wally Dallenbach Jr. knew they were going to have a very different kind of night in the TV booth. They were right. TNT called it "enhanced audio" and it featured the announcers taking long breaks and letting the fans listen to elements like pit stops and restarts. It certainly has been done before.

This absence forced pit reporters to offer info well after the stops and the booth talent to go back and try to review how some teams got into different positions during the announcer silence. It was very different.

The pit reporters were Chris Neville, Matt Yocum, Marty Snider and Ralph Sheheen. This veteran team, including NASCAR rookie Neville, offered solid info when allowed and sometimes sounded rather frustrated at having live pit stop calls taken away.

The new approach by TNT clearly sacrificed some information during the race, but TNT settled down with 25 to go and handled the rest of the race in normal style. As many suggested, the track proved to be a rather calm single-file racing affair dependent on track position and fuel mileage.

The big issue that is certainly going to continue until the early morning hours on Sunday is the traffic. Fans reported being trapped in traffic headed into the speedway for over six hours as it creeped along. TNT pit reporter Ralph Sheheen, perhaps out of frustration, tweeted that fans were still trying to come into the track with only 90 laps left in the race.

This issue was broached only by Bruton Smith on SPEED's RaceDay. He complained about the state roads. It was never treated as a story or updated amid the hype for this first Sprint Cup Series race. After the transition to TNT, it was mentioned in the pre-race and then really never followed-up during the race.

Now, due to social media, the fans trapped in traffic were able to relay the problems via Twitter and Facebook. They took pictures, detailed the awful situation and told NASCAR reporters about the developing situation. That information never made it to the TV coverage.

Adding insult to injury, TNT missed the late Clint Bowyer spin due to a Sprint in-program sponsor plug that featured the in-car cameras that had been shoved down TV viewers throat's from the green flag. It was a rough night in TV land.

We welcome your comments on the TNT coverage of the Sprint Cup Series race from Kentucky Speedway. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below.