Bad Weather Again Rocks The Midwest

Note: Due to watching and discussing the Midwest tornado outbreak last night on social media channels, there is no new column Monday. We will be live blogging the NASCAR Hall of Fame Monday night on SPEED. Join us then.

Go to news-leader.com for updates on the MO tornado damage and information. All the best to our readers who were involved in the bad weather Sunday night.

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Live Blogging Nationwide Series In Iowa (ABC - 1:30PM ET)

The good news is that the Iowa race is a stand-alone weekend for the Nationwide Series racers. Away from the hustle and bustle of Charlotte, the series regulars are ready to race on broadcast TV to a much larger crowd than normal. The bad news is that All-Star race winner Carl Edwards boarded his plane and flew to Iowa for today's race.

Marty Reid is off this weekend as he preps for the Indy 500 telecast on ABC next week. Allen Bestwick is filling-in and will be joined by Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. This trio often presents a much more cohesive on-air presence than with Reid in the mix. Bestwick's knowledge of the sport is the difference.

Nicole Briscoe is not happy about being away from her IndyCar husband Ryan, but she is in Iowa and will host the NASCAR Countdown show from the Infield Pit Studio. Rusty Wallace has other duties this weekend, as he is the designer and partial owner of the Iowa facility. Jarrett and Brad Daugherty will join Briscoe on the pre-race show.

One story of this race is the fact that Kenny Wallace is making his 500th NASCAR start. Wallace is one of the series regulars who is rarely heard from once the green flag drops. This series is the playground of the Sprint Cup Series drivers who bring superior funding, equipment and experience.

This should also be an opportunity for ESPN's production team to respond to Bestwick's presence and present the race with a broader perspective. There are some diverse stories to tell, even if Edwards and friends are running away with the race.

This post will serve to host your comments on the ABC production of the Nationwide Series race from Iowa Speedway. To add your TV-related comments, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Your Comments On The All-Star Race From Charlotte

Update: There is no TV Police post as this was not a full-length race. We welcome your comments on the SPEED coverage of the evening of racing on this post. Thank you.

It's a big night for SPEED as the network produces the All-Star race from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Kyle Busch won the truck series race Friday night and is clearly the story of the evening.

Detractors say SPEED is not the network to expose new fans to the sport. Nothing could be further from the truth. Week in and week out SPEED is the NASCAR network, doing the heavy lifting that the other NASCAR TV partners cannot handle.

Mike Joy is going to call the race. Folks thought that perhaps Rick Allen was going to get a shot after all his hard work on the truck series package on SPEED. This is not a FOX production, but SPEED executives kept Mike Joy in the lead role.

The debate on who is joining Joy in the booth began to rage from the moment SPEED announced it was again going to use Darrell and Micheal Waltrip. Larry McReynolds is filling-in for Kenny Wallace and working on the RaceDay and Victory Lane programs. Wallace is racing in Iowa.

Having two drivers in the booth loses the crew chief perspective, but SPEED likes the feedback it got from the earlier appearance of the two Waltrips on a Nationwide Series telecast. So, it's going to be all Waltrip all night long.

SPEED has a tough task because the All-Star race is always a mess. Rules change, tempers flare and the racing is very different from a longer Sprint Cup Series race. The night consists of two races and it is often the case that the earlier qualifying race is more interesting than the feature.

Look for a hyped-up production with more bells and whistles than normal. In the past, things have been a little over the top but this has been a solid production year for SPEED as the network continues to mature on the air.

Steve Byrnes, Matt Yocum and Dick Berggren are the pit reporters. This trio can deal with anything and brings exactly the type of experience needed for this one-off race. Byrnes is another name that has been discussed in terms of an eventual successor in the FOX TV booth. Krista Voda hosts the pre-race show.

Don't forget that NASCAR.com has a free RaceBuddy for this event. More camera angles and in-car cameras should be a perfect addition for this race.

This post will serve to host your comments on the SPEED production of the All-Star race from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. To add your TV-related comments, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.