TV Networks Ready For Some Racing

The two remaining NASCAR TV partners are on-the-air again this weekend from Pocono and Montreal.

The good news is that SPEED has picked-up the Sprint Cup practice sessions that were not originally going to be aired. The bad news is that SPEED will not televise the Saturday ARCA race from Pocono in which Chrissie Wallace will be driving.

Friday's TV coverage kicks-off with SPEED at Noon Eastern Time. This will be the recently-added coverage of the Sprint Cup Series practice at Pocono. Steve Byrnes will host the telecast with Larry McReynolds and Jeff Hammond alongside. Wendy Venturini and Bob Dillner will report from the garage area.

After practice, SPEED continues with a thirty minute version of NASCAR Live at 1:30PM. Byrnes will host and Venturini and Dillner will continue to report on the stories after practice. It makes a lot of sense to let these reporters follow-up on the issues they detailed during the practice session.

Things switch gears at 2PM as NASCAR TV moves over to ESPN2 for Nationwide Series final practice from Montreal. It will be Marty Reid on-scene with Randy LaJoie alongside. Reporting from the garage will be Vince Welch and Jack Arute.

Now that everyone in Pocono has finished lunch, the Sprint Cup Series qualifies on ESPN2 at 3:30PM. This will be the "A team" of Dr. Jerry Punch, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. The reporting crew consists of Jamie Little, Shannon Spake, Dave Burns and Mike Massaro.

At 6PM, things get interesting. SPEED will present a special last-minute version of the popular NASCAR Confidential program. This show will look at the Indy situation from the viewpoints of the teams and officials right in the middle of the experience. This show was added to the SPEED line-up out-of-the-blue and should be interesting to watch in terms of content and agenda. This program will also re-air at 11PM Saturday night on SPEED.

Over on ESPN2, it will be the thirty minute version of NASCAR Now at 6PM. This show will be hosted by either Ryan Burr or Nicole Manske and will review the day's activities and preview the remainder of the weekend. Please note there is no West Coast re-air of this program.

At 7PM, Byrnes returns on SPEED with Trackside. He is joined by Hammond, McReynolds and Elliott Sadler. This is a one hour talk show that has two guests who remain throughout the show and interact with the entire panel on a wide variety of subjects. Kevin Harvick and Scott Speed are the guests.

This ends the NASCAR portion of the night, but for those wanting to see the Montreal road course, the Rolex Sports Car Series race from Montreal is on SPEED at 8PM.

Having the early Sprint Cup practice televised is going to make a big difference for the fans and for ESPN as the stories from this session begin to tell the tale of the race itself. Kudos to NASCAR for making this available and to SPEED for covering the action.

This post will serve to host your comments about the Friday NASCAR TV on these two networks. There will be a fresh column up shortly after 7PM reviewing NASCAR Confidential and asking for your comments.

To add your opinion to this post, just click on the COMMENTS button below. The rules are on the right side of the main page and thanks so much for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Click On The Title To Read The Latest
Anonymous Sources Rule Wednesday
Will "NASCAR Confidential" Answer The Lingering Questions?
Jarrett Speaks His Mind On The "Total Disaster"
Sprint Cup Practice Sessions Finally Get On TV

TV News:
Here is the link everyone has been sending me. Krissie Newman sounds off on David Newton without ever saying his name.

Chad Knaus will be back with Michael Waltrip and Steve Byrnes on Monday's TWIN. All 4 ESPN pit reporters on NASCAR Now.

44 Sprint Cup Series cars entered for Pocono, TV contract requires 43.

Marty Reid, Rusty Wallace and Randy LaJoie call the Montreal ESPN2 Nationwide Series race. Mike Massaro hosts NASCAR Countdown from pit road. Massaro and Wallace then fly to Pocono for Sunday.

No TV coverage for Saturday's 1PM ET ARCA event at Pocono. SPEED showing multiple episodes of Hot Rod TV. Chrissie Wallace driving in race.

SPEED's Tom Jensen on Tradin' Paint with Kyle Petty, who is not driving at Pocono. Kevin Harvick guests on Trackside. Kiefer Sutherland on RaceDay and is also Grand Marshal.

We have opened this post to comments. Just click on the COMMENTS button below. The rules for posting are on the right side of the main page. Thanks.

Will "NASCAR Confidential" Answer The Lingering Questions?

There are almost no NASCAR-related TV series on-the-air aside from the programs produced from the Sprint Cup Series tracks. Fans searching the 500 cable TV channels on weekdays find a daily news show on ESPN2 and one Monday talk show on SPEED.

Chomping at the bit to provide more long-form NASCAR TV programming is the official TV and media arm of the sport, called The NASCAR Media Group. This season, they have been walking a very thin line with SPEED by providing that network only one limited long-form programming series. It is called NASCAR Confidential.

This behind-the-scenes look at the sport deserves to be on SPEED after every Cup race. But, instead of 38 episodes SPEED ordered only 6. Now, after the unprecedented problems at Indy, it will fall to a special newly-added episode of NASCAR Confidential to show fans the reality of that difficult Sunday. Somehow, there is a large dose of irony in that fact.

“NASCAR Confidential continues to deliver a viewpoint never before offered to race fans on a regular basis,” said SPEED SVP of Programming Steve Craddock. “The scale of what happened last weekend is unique and required quick-thinking and pressure-filled decision making from everyone involved. This program will show race fans just how complicated the process was and how everyone rose to the occasion to pull off a complete race under incredibly adverse conditions.”

In other words, this type of programming series has value, but only once and a while. NASCAR Confidential is one of those point-of-view programs that uses a background announcer and features the real people in the real circumstances as NASCAR events unfold. This season, the characters featured on the series have been just as diverse as the sport itself.

The first airing of this special program, titled NASCAR Confidential: What We Learned At Indy, will be on Friday at 6PM ET. It will be re-aired on Saturday at 11PM. The key to this show is that The NASCAR Media Group has all the original footage from all the angles during the entire weekend. In addition, they have exclusive footage that has never been seen before documenting the growing problems as the Indy weekend went forward.

This is a great response by NASCAR and SPEED to the growing unrest among the fans and shows the power that NASCAR TV has when it is used effectively. Nothing can substitute for showing the fans first-hand what went on at the track, be it a positive or a negative experience. Fans are willing to forgive, but only when they believe the truth is being presented.

This announcement comes on the heels of SPEED adding live coverage of the Sprint Cup Series practice sessions for the rest of the season. The network already has the TV franchise when it comes to the weekend SPEED Stage programming that fans have been watching for years. In addition, the Monday night This Week in NASCAR series is finally back-on-track and creating a buzz.

Nothing would be better than watching SPEED continue to open the doors to some quality NASCAR programming and help get this sport back-on-track in this difficult time. Our review of this program will be available on Friday, shortly after the program concludes.

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thank you for taking the time to stop by.