Tuesday TV/Media Notes (Updated)

Here are some topics and notes as the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series teams get ready to head-off to road course races in Sonoma, CA and Elkhart Lake, WI.

NASCAR President Mike Helton will be on the Tuesday edition of SPEED's Race Hub at 7:30PM. There are lots of topics to discuss at this time of the season. Pocono winner Denny Hamlin will also be on the show.

Update: Helton will also appear on Showtime's Inside NASCAR series on Wednesday night at 10PM. This show will be simulcast online at NASCAR.com without charge. Helton will be discussing the state of the sport at length with Michael Waltrip, Brad Daugherty and Randy Pemberton. Chris Myers hosts this series.

Neither practice or qualifying sessions are going to be televised for the Nationwide Series this weekend from Road America. This event comes right in the middle of a program time crunch for ESPN that includes World Cup Soccer. There will also be no Sunday morning NASCAR Now show on ESPN2 to preview the Sunday race for the same reason.

ESPN shuffles the line-up again for the Road America Nationwide Series race on Saturday. Allen Bestwick will host the pre-race NASCAR Countdown show and then call the action with Rusty Wallace and Andy Petree in the booth. Dale Jarrett and Brad Daugherty are off this weekend. NASCAR Now host Mike Massaro will break out the firesuit and join Dr. Jerry Punch and Jamie Little to handle the pit reporting.

Darrell Waltrip returns for this second of four appearances on SPEED's Sunday RaceDay show. Hermie Sadler will be joining Waltrip on the SPEED Stage as Kenny Wallace is off racing at Road America. Wendy Venturini will be one reporter, we are waiting for SPEED to tell us who else will be joining the show.

Some fans have been asking about TNT's habit of slowly spinning the infield "rig" during the pre-race show. The network has done it every season, but apparently some fans now have new and large HD screens. The effect is much different. "HDesick" is a term one fan suggested. Those comments have been passed along.

SPEED advised on Monday that the network is on the verge of crossing the 76 million home barrier. The network also continues to roll-out SPEEDHD and will be opening the online SPEED2 broadband channel in two weeks. We will have more on SPEED2 next week in terms of programming schedules and availability. Right now, you must subscribe to SPEED TV or SPEEDHD in order to receive the SPEED2 online content.

The latest questions from the NASCAR Fan Council did not concern TV or radio, but the drivers. There were questions that basically boiled down to which drivers fans liked and which they disliked and why. In the past, this information has been used to affect many changes within the sport. It's kind of interesting that driver popularity is now the topic.

At this time, there are still no numbers available for how many homes bought the PPV live Prelude to a Dream charity race last week. The PPV money is the primary provider of the funding for the various charities benefiting from the event. We will keep up to date on this topic until we get the information.

Just like last weekend, Elliott Sadler will step aside and be replaced by Darrell Waltrip on the Friday night Trackside show. It will be Jeff Hammond who then partners with John Roberts on the Sunday night Victory Lane program. These moves are in response to Kyle Petty being gone for six races while working for TNT.

The Sounds of NASCAR series this season on SPEED has been popular. Starting next week the title of the show will change to NASCAR Hot Wired. That should be reflected in the cable TV listings.

We will update this page with any additional TV/media news that happens on Tuesday. As always, please feel free to offer your comments on any of the topics above. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for stopping by!

Michael Waltrip Talks TV Timeouts

Michael Waltrip has one of the highest media profiles in NASCAR. He is a multi-car owner in the Sprint Cup Series. He is an analyst for SPEED on the Camping World Truck Series telecasts. He is a panel member of Inside NASCAR on Showtime.

Sunday night, Waltrip took the time through a series of Twitter messages to respond to fans upset with NASCAR's late race actions in Michigan. A late caution for debris that was never shown on the TNT coverage tightened the field after Denny Hamlin had worked hard to build up a lead.

In Victory Lane and on several TV shows, Hamlin had expressed an acceptance that NASCAR had thrown the caution simply to bunch up the field for a more exciting finish. Some fans reacted with anger as NASCAR has continually denied ever putting out a caution flag for anything other than valid reasons. Waltrip has his own ideas on just what defines "valid reasons."

Here are Waltrip's comments:

"I am a huge fan of a late caution. In basketball they just call it what it is. A TV time out. In football its the break in change of possessions. In baseball its either a walk to the mound or the end of an inning. Its sports. NASCAR needs to have those too."

"If you don't agree you probably don't feel sorry for that pitcher who got robbed of a perfect game because MLB is stuck living in the past."

"The last caution today was well thought out by NASCAR. Everyone had pitted and no one was adversely effected by the caution. The 100,000 plus fans that drove to MIS to be entertained I'm sure appreciated the late race reset."

"Crews had to make the right calls on pit road and drivers had to get up on the wheel to close the deal. What's wrong with that? Thank you for buying a ticket and gas and a hotel and etc.."

"I'd bet that if you were offended by my opinion in addition to not feeling sorry for that pitcher you probably haven't bought a ticket to a race lately. As the kids say these days....'Jus saying'. The world is a changing."

The world may be changing for Waltrip, but his statement reflects a radical departure from what NASCAR has been saying publicly for decades. Protecting the integrity of the racing has been one element that has kept NASCAR in the ranks of sports like the NFL and away from the perception that stock car racing is professional wrestling on wheels.

One significant influence on the caution flag decisions this season may be television. While there might be one hundred thousand fans in the stands, there are millions watching at home. NASCAR suffered last season from boring races where aero issues handed the car out front the win time and time again.

This season, we have NASCAR Race Control much more active with decisions in races that seem to be driven by television. Key drivers are often on the verge of being lapped when debris suddenly appears on the proverbial backstretch. Slow cars heading to pit lane bring out the caution flag when the field has become strung-out in the race.

It seems ironic that Waltrip used Twitter to send his caution flag manifesto. This form of instant communication allows media members, fans, teams and even NASCAR to maintain constant contact during the races.

These days when NASCAR throws a caution for debris, fans in the stands use Twitter to instantly verify if there is a problem or perhaps the "Waltrip rule" is now in effect. Twitter even lets them send pictures of the offending spring rubber, body panel or tire liner.

This is certainly going to be an interesting topic at the next Sprint Cup Series race. If NASCAR follows the Waltrip example and admits to throwing a caution flag at Michigan to spice-up the finish, it will open a Pandora's Box for the fans.

Now, late in every race the fans of the drivers not at the very front of the pack are going to be expecting a "show caution" to get that exciting double-file restart for TV and set-up the possible green/white/checkered scenario.

Where do you come down on this topic? Is this old school vs. new school fans as Waltrip suggests? Is this an integrity issue or should some fans just stop taking NASCAR so seriously? Should using caution flags to set-up an exciting finish for TV become a regular practice for the sport?

To add your opinion on this topic, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by and leave us your views on this topic.

Your Turn: Sprint Cup Series From Michigan on TNT

This was race number two for the NASCAR on TNT gang. Lindsay Czarniak opened the show from Michigan as she hosted the pre-race Countdown to Green show.

Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds joined Czarniak for the show. TNT profiled the late Dave Allison in the Pride of NASCAR series and Wally Dallenbach Jr. offered another installment of Wally's World.

Adam Alexander called his second Sprint Cup Series race in the play-by-play role. Petty and Dallenbach joined him in the booth. Matt Yocum, Ralph Sheheen, Marty Snider and Phil Parsons covered pit road.

There were no technical difficulties with this telecast and weather did not play a factor. The race went quickly and finished earlier than scheduled. TNT provided a very complete post-race show. Update 4:05PM: Much to our surprise, TNT left the post-race show and asked viewers to go to NASCAR.com to see the rest of the coverage. There was still 25 minutes left in the scheduled timeslot.

This is your opportunity to offer your own post-race TV wrap-up of the TNT telecast. This is the weekly post that is most read on this blog. Your comments count.

To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to offer your comments.