SPEED Takes Another Swing At "Trackside"

Updated: Some folks have been asking about all the changes to the Trackside show on SPEED. Here is our post when those first happened. Feel free to update or leave a comment. Thank you.

One of the most popular email questions over the last couple of weeks has been about the continuing changes to the Trackside series on SPEED. The programs over the last couple of weeks hosted by Rutledge Wood have been very different from the show format that viewers had seen for years.

The show originally had host Steve Byrnes with Jeff Hammond, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds as panelists. It featured two NASCAR personalities on each program being interviewed. When the NASCAR on FOX portion of the season was over, Elliott Sadler replaced Waltrip.

That combo changed when Steve Byrnes moved into the studio to host the Race Hub series for SPEED. It was a big change. Byrnes is a versatile on-air talent who has a long history in and out of the studio. SPEED rotated several hosts through the position in the standard format, but it was very clear things were not clicking without Byrnes.

Another change was the removal of Larry McReynolds. He supplied the serious and focused questions on the show. That often interrupted the flow of conversation and brought things back into a hardcore racing perspective. Sometimes, he got great answers, but there were times when his serious nature was a "show killer."

Over the years, all kind of gimmicks had been tried on the show to make it different. Side-sets included one-on-one interviews with both parties in recliners and ultimately lots of goofy nonsense that filled an hour on Friday nights for both the fans at the track and the TV viewers.

This season SPEED and its new management team have been swinging for the fences. As part of the effort to rid shows like Trackside of the standard questions asked over and over again, there are new faces in new places.

Rutledge Wood has been working as the host and using his rather unique style to make the show as casual as possible. Wood has been paired with Kyle Petty on many TV shows over the years and SPEED seems to think Trackside fits that bill. Wood is a low-key and almost submissive host.

Petty is a rising media star in NASCAR and he splits his time between TV, a live NASCAR.com series and the social media outlet called Twitter. Petty keeps a running conversation going with his fans while he is on TV via social media. His following is strong and his opinions are perhaps the most pointed of the current TV personalities.

The odd man out is Jeff Hammond. Once a key part of Trackside, Hammond now sits alone in a tight t-shirt on the set surrounded by a different group of TV personalities with a very different approach to doing business on the air.

The most recent addition is reporter Marianela Pereyra. This bilingual dynamo is a rising star in the Los Angeles TV scene and a University of Maryland grad. She has been working on a wide variety of TV series, but this is her first NASCAR appearance.

Originally scheduled for only four shows, she will now continue on Trackside through the end of the NASCAR season. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that when a person is flown in from LA to appear on one show for only a few minutes as a reporter, there is a much bigger agenda at work.

This Friday, Byrnes returns as host and steps into the new format and personalities. The new Trackside is a long way from the SPEED Stage, the classic TV desk and the darkened crowd of fans. Now things are up close, personal and driven by a clear desire to inject an entertainment slant into the series.

Guests this week are Austin Dillon and Brian Vickers. Dillon is a driver on the rise in the sport with strong family connections, while Vickers is seemingly heading in the opposite direction. Vickers will be replacing Reed Sorenson in the Saturday Nationwide Series race with rumors swirling that Vickers will be fulltime in that series for 2012 since it appears Red Bull Racing will be folding after the season.

It should be interesting to watch how all these pieces come together. Byrnes is great friends with Hammond and may well be the guy to draw him back into the show and get a healthy mix of conversation going. Trackside from Kansas Speedway airs at 7PM ET on SPEED.

This post will serve to host your comments on the changes to this series and also reaction to the Friday night program. To add your opinion on this topic, just click on the comments button below. Thank you for taking the time to stop by.

All SPEED Friday In Talladega

ESPN's Dale Jarrett picked a good week to have his appendix taken out. ESPN is out of action Friday and SPEED has the truck race on Saturday. Despite his surgery, Jarrett will be back in action for ESPN Sunday covering the Sprint Cup Series race.

SPEED starts Friday at 2:30PM from the big track with Sprint Cup Series practice. John Roberts, Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds on the call. NASCAR Live is next at 3:30PM during the break between sessions with Krista Voda, Jeff Hammond and Bob Dillner. The Cup cars return to the track at 4PM for final practice.

The TV day is capped by the Camping World Trucks qualifying at 5PM. Rick Allen, Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip will be in the TV booth. Hermie Sadler and Ray Dunlap will be the reporters.

Trackside is on at 7PM. Viewer reactions to the changes made to this show has been strong. Rutledge Wood hosts with Kyle Petty and Jeff Hammond as the expert panel. Newcomer Marianela Pereyra is the reporter.

This post will serve to host your comments about the Friday coverage from Talladega on SPEED. To add your opinion, just click the comments button below.

NASCAR Limping Toward Convergence

Another slow step by NASCAR toward joining the modern world of technology was announced this week. Sprint will make the six in-car camera views that fans can see on NASCAR.com's RaceBuddy available on smart phones.

The live video with in-car audio will appear on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile service for the final five Chase races. The service comes free with any Sprint Everything data plan. It's painless to use and has a lot of interactive features. Sprint continues to be the title sponsor of NASCAR's top series.

Here are some details from the company:

Accessed by more than 2.5 million unique users in 2010, NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile is a wireless application that provides unique access into the world of NASCAR at no additional charge to Sprint customers with any data plan on capable devices. To download the application, existing customers can text NASCAR to 7777 (standard rates apply) or visit sprint.com/speed.

This move comes only weeks after the giant glacier of ESPN creaked and moaned and actually moved one inch. The result was a trade of content between Turner and ESPN. Happily, it was NASCAR fans who benefited.

The Watch ESPN service for laptops, tablets and smart phones got live NASCAR racing access while the Turner folks got ESPN's live camera views for NASCAR.com's RaceBuddy Chase edition.

All of this is part of a much bigger technology shift now in progress called "convergence." Click here for a TDP column on this topic from back in January of 2008 when it first arose.

At the time, SPEED was rolling out it's new website that was loaded with all kinds of video access, including a 30 minute weekly Wind Tunnel Extra that has developed almost a cult status. Kevin Annison, SPEED's online guru had even bigger things in mind.

"This is just the beginning in the evolution of SPEEDtv.com and SPEED Interactive," said Annison. "Where the environment is more conducive to broadband vertical initiatives and digital brand extensions for the linear network."

Got all that? There may be a quiz later. Here is an explanation of all this technology stuff from the 2008 TDP column.

Step back for a minute and look at sites like ESPN.com, NASCAR.com and SPEEDtv.com. Think about what they have in common. Look at the direction in which they are going and what they are investing time, money and technology in building. If you squint your eyes, it's easy to see. They all want to be your TV.

The term for this is "convergence." The definition of a technological convergence is "the modern presence of a vast array of technology to perform very similar tasks." We have websites wanting to be your video source, TV networks asking for your email, and telephones and hand-held devices that you can use to watch the entire technology battle unfold while group texting your fantasy racing club.

While ESPN paid to provide the "finished" television coverage of the Chase races, the desire of many fans is to have more online interactive options available. More camera views from on-track, in-car cameras with audio and live timing and scoring are the most popular discussion topics.

Ultimately, no matter how it is divided, the bottom line is that NASCAR needs the same kind of technological integration as other professional sports. A single TV network feed and a single radio broadcast is simply not going to allow the sport to grow.

One of the biggest complaints since 2007 has been the complete lack of Sprint Cup Series races available for live online viewing. Fans don't care who produces them or whether they contain ads. The desire is to utilize laptop, tablet and smart phone technology to enjoy racing where ever and when ever the consumers want to do it.

This season NASCAR Chairman Brian France and the ESPN public relations department have been promoting the fact that the first five Chase races attracted almost five million viewers each. Here is a point to consider with that in mind.

A recent survey from the Wireless Association concluded that in the last year the number of active smartphones (and PDA's) was over 90 million. There were also 13 million laptops and tablets in use with this category skyrocketing in popularity.

Think how many millions of connected consumers could be "watching" this year's Chase for the Championship if it was made available online. As the laws of "convergence" preach, ultimately we will have multiple devices that can access the same content throughout our day, our lives and the world.

For now, it's just six in-car cameras on a Sprint phone. As a wise man once said, every journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. As NASCAR fans it may be a single step but our journey is normally half that distance. Here we go.

We invite your comments on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.