Wednesday TV/Media Notes

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a primetime TV moment on the Shaq vs. show on ABC Tuesday night. Love to get your comments on how you felt this worked for Junior and also for the sport.

Jack Arute informed us that he will be calling the play-by-play on the new NASCAR Modifieds TV package for VERSUS. The surprise was that Jimmy Spencer is going to be alongside of Arute providing the analysis. Click here to read the details and take a look at the rest of the Mods schedule on TV.

Saturday's Pocono truck series race on SPEED wound-up #2 in basic cable for that timeslot, only losing out to King Kong on TNT. The ARCA rating was also good on the weekend where SPEED announced it had extended its agreement to televise ARCA races through 2011.

Rutlege Wood is off to Los Angeles this weekend to work on the new Top Gear program that is coming to the US on The History Channel. Wendy Venturini will take his place on the infamous NASCAR Smarts program. Click here to review the details of the new 10 episode series. SPEED's Tanner Foust from Supercars Exposed and Adam Ferrara from FX's Rescue Me are Wood's co-stars. The series is slated to debut this fall.

Next week SPEED's Race Hub series goes on the road, but not very far. The show is stepping out of the studio so it can be revamped with a new set. The schedule is Monday at JGR, Tuesday at Roush Fenway, Wednesday at Penske and Thursday at Hendrick Motorsports. This show has come a long way and now with the new one-hour format, it deserved a better studio set.

Despite the strong performance of Ricky Craven and Ray Evernham, ESPN will not be taking a second set of announcers to Watkins Glen. Marty Reid, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree will be handling both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series duties. In the past, that has made for some tired announcers by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around. This trio will handle practice and qualifying for both series in addition to the races. Coverage jumps back and forth between ESPN and ESPN2, so reference the TV schedule on the left side of the TDP page.

ESPN executive John Skipper has said in recent interviews that changes are coming to ESPNEWS and ESPN Classic network. Once again this past weekend, ESPN Classic was used to host the pre-race and early race portions of a NASCAR telecast. As the college football season closes in, viewers know the Nationwide Series telecasts will once again be sandwiched in between football games. Hopefully, ESPN will identify a viable television or online source that can present the Nationwide telecasts from start to finish for fans of that series.

Fans should note that Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series qualifying sessions this weekend are back-to-back on Saturday from Watkins Glen beginning at 9AM ET. This is the road course format, so things should be a bit more interesting. Don't forget, there is also a CWTS race from Nashville on Saturday night. Pre-race starts at 8:30PM on SPEED, the race is at 9PM ET. No early coverage is offered.

Please feel free to leave us your comments on the topics mentioned above. To add your 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 The Daly Planet.

Your Turn: Sprint Cup Series From Pocono On ESPN

Update: We are leaving this post up for one extra day. Getting great comments from fans on the Pocono coverage. Thanks.

It was a long day in Pocono for the ESPN team. After a thirty minute delay for rain, the race coverage began with long green flag runs and little racing.

Allen Bestwick started the pre-race show over on ESPN2 as women's golf was live on ESPN. Bestwick was with Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty. The pre-race show featured highlights, several edited features and some interviews.

Marty Reid called the race with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the TV booth. Dr. Jerry Punch, Jamie Little, Mike Massaro and Dave Burns were on pit road.

Pocono is either feast or famine. Race coverage was straightforward and featured recaps, pit road updates and good information. The original problem was there was not much to cover.

Several caution periods closed the field and resulted in periods of hard racing. The TV coverage struggled to cover the many races for position on the big track. ESPN used a split screen effect and also just jumped from one camera to the next.

A big wreck late in the race caused a mess. Kurt Busch and Elliott Sadler had hard hits with Sadler's wreck remaining a mystery on TV. ESPN had no replay of the Sadler portion of the accident on the backstretch. That was rough for viewers.

ESPN interviewed both Busch and Sadler when they were released from the Infield Medical Center. A red flag allowed for more interviews before the final restart.

Rain came with 28 laps and the field under caution. The race ended with a short sprint to the finish without incident.

I will have plenty to say about the coverage of this race once the Your Turn comments are completed. To add your race recap of the TV coverage, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting.

Live Blogging Sprint Cup Series From Pocono (12PM ESPN2 - 1PM ESPN)

It's an overcast summer day in Pocono with a good chance of rain. The Sprint Cup Series has some fireworks at the last race here, so today should be interesting in many different ways.

There is golf on ESPN this morning, so ESPN2 will host the NASCAR Countdown show at 12PM ET. Allen Bestwick has Brad Daugherty and Rusty Wallace alongside. This will also be the location that provides the "rain fill" should weather come along.

Marty Reid will call the race with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the TV booth. On pit road are Dr. Jerry Punch, Mike Massaro, Dave Burns and Jamie Little. Vince Welch is recovering from a Thursday car accident back in Indy.

Pocono is a huge three turn track that has been a source of controversy for years. Safety issues at the track and the lack of the kind of racing that fans have come to expect from other tracks makes it tough for TV.

A short truck race on Saturday with several restarts showed that the track can be exciting, but if the Sprint Cup guys get strung-out and long green flag runs are the order of the day this one is sometimes tough to watch.

Long camera shots down the frontstretch and low angle shots from the infield as the cars go between turns one and two make for good pictures. The pit road is wide and straight which makes for easy coverage of both green and caution flag pitstops.

Last week, ESPN cut away from the finish and focused the cameras on the winner, his pit crew and crew chief. Hopefully, Pocono will bring a decision to show all the lead lap cars race to the finish line for fans of those teams and drivers.

This post will serve to host 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 The Daly Planet.