Live Blogging Camping World Trucks In Texas (8:30PM ET SPEED)

This week the Camping World Truck Series stops at the Texas Motor Speedway for a Friday night race on SPEED.

The cast of characters is familiar, but one regular is missing. Adam Alexander is off starting his six race assignment of handling the play-by-play for TNT over in the Sprint Cup Series.

Krista Voda will host the pre-race show and then move to a pit reporter position to work with Ray Dunlap. Up in the booth to call the race will be Rick Allen, Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip.

The trucks are very fast at Texas and the high speed brings a very new level of danger. This track has incidents that happen very fast and that is the challenge for SPEED's veteran TV crew.

We have used the work of this team as example to FOX of what straightforward racing on TV should look like. The CWTS TV team kicks it old school and has done so very effectively for several years.

As we have often seen with the trucks this season, there should be a quick separation into the "haves" and "have nots" where speed is concerned. Hopefully, the number of "start and park" teams will be limited.

This post will serve to host your comments on the CWTS on SPEED from Texas. 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 stop by.

Vince Welch And Adam Alexander On Centerstage

What a wonderful weekend of NASCAR TV. Two familiar faces in new places should make it even more interesting.

ESPN is giving Vince Welch an opportunity to step-up and call the Nationwide Series race from Nashville, TN on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, TNT is giving Adam Alexander the career opportunity of a lifetime. He will call the six Sprint Cup Series races for that network this summer.

Before the green flag, both men will get tune-ups as they step-in to host practice and qualifying sessions. Alexander will call the Saturday morning Sprint Cup Series practice on SPEED, while Welch will work Nationwide Series practice Friday night and qualifying late Saturday afternoon for ESPN2.

Welch is a native of Indianapolis and is known to many motorsports fans for his IndyCar TV experience. Welch has actually been working with ESPN and ABC since 1999. While in Nashville, Welch will be joined by Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the booth.

You may remember Welch working for ESPN as a college football sideline reporter. On a regional level, he has called many college events for TV and even worked in local TV in the Midwest. He has an Emmy on the shelf for his sports reporting.

Alexander has made himself a household name because of his hard work for SPEED. Hustling as a pit reporter on the Camping World Truck Series, Alexander found his hard work paying off as SPEED began to revamp its motorsports line-up.

There is no better motorsports TV program currently on the air than The Speed Report. Alexander is a frequent co-host and he took immediately to the program with his straightforward approach when dispensing information. It just clicked. Shows like NASCAR in a Hurry and Race Hub also began to use Alexander in the host role.

Now, he and Welch need to change gears and appear on the national TV stage in roles that are new. For ESPN, Sunday is a chance to audition a back-up play-by-play guy for Marty Reid. The network likes Allen Bestwick in his current infield role. ESPN's Dave Burns will also get an opportunity to call a Nationwide race this season. Welch is currently scheduled to handle the play-by-play on four races in 2010.

Alexander's baptism by fire comes this week and runs for the next six Sprint Cup Series races, including the big Daytona event where TNT offers "wide open" coverage. Dealing with the strange twists and turns of that assignment may prove the most challenging for him this summer.

Perhaps you could give us your opinion of these selections before the races this weekend. We can then revisit this topic next week. To add your comment, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. We will live blog the CWTS race on a new post Friday night.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

The TV Line In The Sand

We've been having quite a spirited discussion about the recent announcement that Phil Parsons will be the new pit reporter for the six TNT summer Sprint Cup Series races.

At some point, there has to be a line drawn in the sand that NASCAR personalities who want to mix business with TV should not cross. In my mind, Parsons is crossing it with the TNT deal.

We all remember that back in 2007 one huge issue was the fact that Rusty Wallace was calling the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series races for ESPN while owning teams in the Nationwide Series. Wallace tried hard, but his views on topics from Kurt Busch to Ryan Newman were just not balanced enough for TV.

In a move that made sense, ESPN put Wallace in the Infield Pit Studio with Allen Bestwick. Wallace could still contribute, but was no longer the primary analyst in the TV booth. When Brad Daugherty bought an interest in an existing Sprint Cup Series team, ESPN allowed him to remain on the air with the same warning. Offer us opinions from your NASCAR experience, but keep it fair.

While we were coming to terms with those two, the business dealings of everyone from Andy Petree to Darrell Waltrip bubbled up. Even the announcers on SPEED's Trackside series were allowed to sell NASCAR sponsorship space on their official SPEED TV shirts.

So, there is no doubt that most of the current NASCAR TV personalities have business dealings or personal connections to the sport. My issue is just how far is too far?

While SPEED does not ask Wendy Venturini to interview her JGR employed husband, they do permit her to cover the Venturini Motorsports pits during ARCA races. Matt Yocum interviewed Tony Stewart for FOX even as he produced Stewart's Sirius radio show. The list goes on and on.

The Parsons issue is one that has an interesting twist. Parsons has been profiled as building a "start and park" business in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series. He brings fast qualifying cars to the track, makes the race and then parks prior to the first pit stop. At Sunday's Coke 600, Parsons made over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for starting and parking his two teams.

Click here for Terry Blount's story at ESPN.com where Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage accuses Parsons of stealing money and says professional start and park teams should be banned from the sport. Strong words from a veteran promoter.

While Parsons goes about his business of "starting and parking," he also has a TV job. For many years now, Parsons has been the lead analyst for the Camping World Truck Series. Long before Michael Waltrip joined the SPEED TV team on the truck telecasts, it was Parsons working hard and helping to build that brand for the sport.

Parsons has been on other shows on SPEED like Race Hub talking about NASCAR topics, but Sunday in Pocono will be different. As a pit reporter for TNT and a two car team owner, Parsons will literally be a part of the story on which he is reporting. That story will be the Sprint Cup Series race.

Most fans I polled informally on Twitter and Facebook were ambivalent. They had grown so used to conflicts of interest within the ranks of the NASCAR TV crowd that they didn't care. Most just wanted the end product to improve after a rocky stretch with the NASCAR on FOX races.

On one hand, Parsons has worked hard for the sport on the air for many years. His personality and knowledge would be a plus for any telecast. On the other hand, how close is too close? Parsons himself could easily become a part of the story if one of his cars is involved in an incident.

Parsons may be talking to an angry driver who had his championship hopes ruined by one of Parsons' own cars at the start of the race. Perhaps, Parsons will be talking to a crew chief or owner who had a team car sent home by Parsons' two-car effort.

The potential scenarios for trouble just go on and on. In my opinion, things could get ugly fast. This is crossing the TV line in the sand.

How about helping us discuss this issue? To add your opinion, 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.