Live Blogging Nationwide Series From Dover (ESPN2 - 3PM ET)

Once again this week, the normal college football scenario is in place. Once the noon ET game is over, NASCAR will start on ESPN2 from Dover.

Nicole Briscoe will have Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty in the Infield Pit Studio for the pre-race show. Daugherty has reduced himself to a cheerleader this season while Rusty continues to be conflicted between his own personal feelings on topics within the sport and his desire to function as a TV analyst.

It's Marty Reid with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the TV booth to call the race at 3:30PM ET. Reid is not having a very good time since being removed from the Sprint Cup Series package in favor of Allen Bestwick. NASCAR is not his sport and it's very clear ESPN made the right move.

Nationwide Series qualifying was carried on SPEED earlier in the day and SPEED analyst Elliott Sadler is on the pole. The field is diverse and this might be the best race of the weekend. Lots of different agendas at work on the track.

Dr. Jerry Punch, Jamie Little, Vince Welch and Dave Burns are on pit road. This group might be busy as Dover has a nasty reputation of big wrecks in the Nationwide Series races. There is no room to spin into the infield and no mercy on the highbanks.

ESPN continues to offer what they designed several years ago and that is "hyper-tight" coverage. Accidents and passing on this track happen so quickly TV networks traditionally kept the camera angles wide and simply worked to cut the cameras ahead of the pack. It should be interesting to see if ESPN uses the coverage today as a test for Sunday's Cup production.

This race is available to Time Warner, Bright House and Verizon FiOs users through the Watch ESPN app and there are free team scanners for fans at the NASCAR.com website.

This post will serve to host your comments on the NASCAR on ESPN coverage of the Nationwide Series from Dover. To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Hammond Out Waltrip In At The Hollywood Hotel

FOX Sports president Eric Shanks apparently liked what he saw when he teamed brothers Michael and Darrell Waltrip on several NASCAR telecasts earlier this season.

When the 2012 NASCAR on FOX season opens in Daytona, it will be the Waltrip brothers in the Hollywood Hotel. Jeff Hammond is out and will assume a new role as a roving pit reporter. Michael will also take Hammond's previous role of commenting from the Hollywood Hotel during and after the race.

Chris Myers will remain as the infield host with Mike Joy and Larry McReynolds also keeping their current roles in the TV booth next season.

Here are some excerpts from the NASCAR on FOX media release on the subject:

Bonded by blood and their limitless passion for NASCAR, Michael Waltrip, driver, owner and pitch-man extraordinaire joins the FOX NASCAR SUNDAY prerace team next season, taking a seat in the famed Hollywood Hotel alongside big brother Darrell and host Chris Myers.

And in an innovative new role for NASCAR’s No. 1 prerace show, veteran analyst Jeff Hammond takes his extensive experience as a former championship-winning crew chief to where the action is, in the garages and pit road. Both moves were announced today by FOX Sports Media Group President, Co-COO and Executive Producer, Eric Shanks.

“Michael is simply one of NASCAR’s most gregarious, genuine personalities, and we loved the dynamic between him and Darrell when we paired them up on occasion last season,” said Shanks. “Michael has also been featured in numerous television commercials over the last decade, which makes him familiar to a much broader audience. I expect a lot of ‘gotta see’ TV coming out of an all-Waltrip Hollywood Hotel next season.”

Shifting to Hammond, the plan is to use his extensive experience as a former NASCAR crew chief to work the pavement and mine the grease pits for the latest news and go wherever big stories develop all race-day long. Having a former crew chief serve in this role is a first for network television’s NASCAR coverage.

“We’re excited about Jeff’s new role,” said Shanks. “It’s a first for televised NASCAR coverage, and no one knows more about cars than Jeff does. Now he’ll be in a much better position to cover and humanize that side of the sport for viewers.”

Well, there you have it. Change happens just like this in sports TV. It's wrong to assume that Hammond is the odd man out here. His role in the Hollywood Hotel once the race started was limited. Now, he gets an opportunity to chase the kind of stories that the pit road reporters sometimes cannot follow-up.

You may remember that when the Waltrips were together earlier this season it got positive reviews. Instead of the huckster personalities that both can display at times, it was intstead two analysts comparing opinions on the racing action.

Some have suggested that this move is the beginning of a transition to ultimately moving the younger Waltrip into the TV booth when "Ole DW" decides to pack it in. It actually feels a lot more like a new TV executive realizing that the NASCAR on FOX package needs a little shake-up.

Love them or hate them, the Waltrip brothers will be the first things viewers see when each NASCAR on FOX Sprint Cup Series telecast opens in 2012. While DW might still be running off to the TV booth, don't forget that Michael will be live in the Hollywood Hotel and may well quickly redefine the role of infield analyst during the live race.

We welcome you opinions on this topic. To add your comment, just click on the comments button below. Thanks as always for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Wednesday TV/Media Notes

Here are some mid-week TV and media topics that are in the news:

ESPN on Tuesday afternoon released a carefully worded update on the TV ratings from Loudon, NH. Sunday's race went up against the NFL for the first time this season, but also featured ESPN's Nonstop commercials for the second half and RaceBuddy at the NASCAR.com website.

Here is ESPN's media release on the ratings:

ESPN's live telecast of the Sylvania 300 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, Sept. 25, earned a 3.1 household coverage rating, averaging 4,235,000 viewers, according to the Nielsen Company. The rating was up 19% from last year's New Hampshire race, which also aired on ESPN and earned a 2.6 rating. The telecast also saw double-digit growth in key audience demographics, including a 28% rise in the Male 18-34 demographic and a 20% rise in the Male 18-49 demographic. The audience also saw 33 percent of growth in the Persons 55+ demographic.

Here is the same topic as reported on the Sports Media Watch website:

Ratings and viewership jumped by double-digits for the second race of NASCAR’s Chase For the Cup, but the numbers were still below par.

Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Sylvania 300 from New Hampshire earned a 2.7 U.S. rating and 4.235 million viewers on ESPN, up 17% in ratings and 15% in viewership from last year (2.3, 3.677M), but down 16% in both measures compared to 2009 (3.2, 5.044M, ABC).

Despite the increase, this marks the second-lowest rated, second-least viewed edition of the race over the past ten seasons. As recently as 2008, the race drew a comparably hefty 3.8 rating and 6.098 million viewers on ABC.

While all of this information is technically correct, it certainly is a very good illustration that there are several ways to present the same NASCAR TV information.

As continuing proof of the New World Order inside NASCAR's marketing and media relations arm, the release of the 2012 Sprint Cup Series schedule on Wednesday will be a coordinated online event.

At noon ET the new schedule will be posted at the NASCAR.com website. Then, NASCAR VP Steve O'Donnell will take Twitter comments and questions from fans and the media about the new schedule. For Twitter veterans, there is a #2012schedule hashtag being used for the conversation.

Speaking of Twitter, Ricky Craven signed-on this week and can be found at @RickyCravenESPN. Nice to have him in the social media pipeline.

Many fans this week have been asking about the changes to the NASCAR Now series on ESPN2. The network has a new emphasis on talk shows in the afternoon and has created a multi-hour block. That pushed NASCAR Now forward to the 3PM Eastern timeslot.

The network also has changed the late night schedule and that has eliminated the West Coast airing of the show. Despite ESPN downplaying the situation, this is the only "support series" for NASCAR on the TV network carrying the final seventeen Sprint Cup Series races.

While the Sunday morning preview show and the Sunday night review show remain, it's a cruel blow for NASCAR fans who watched Allen Bestwick, Craven and others work so hard to make these weekday shows well worth watching. Needless to say, these changes do not bode well for NASCAR Now continuing to be on the schedule in 2012.

This week's double top-secret NASCAR Fan Council survey was focused on the new ESPN Nonstop commercial format. Fans were asked if it made a difference in the way they watched the race. Also on the agenda were questions about the use of social media and online applications while watching the live race telecast.

If you are not a viewer of SPEED Center, you may have missed the Sunday debut of Ray Evernham as SPEED's NASCAR studio analyst. This is a similar role to Craven on ESPN2. Evernham can be seen on the Sunday preview show at 10:30AM and the night time review show at 11PM ET.

It's a very strange time for a TV network to add an analyst, but Evernham brings a unique perspective to the sport and helps to establish another NASCAR perspective outside of the NASCAR Media Group produced RaceDay and Victory Lane shows.

ESPN has a doubleheader this weekend with Marty Reid calling the Saturday afternoon Nationwide Series race and Allen Bestwick handling the Sprint Cup Series action on Sunday from Dover. SPEED has the trucks on Saturday night from Kentucky Speedway on a weekend shared with the IndyCar Series.

Please feel free to post your comments on any of the topics mentioned above. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for stopping by.