What a concept! Imagine a sporting event where the event is the star of the show! This to me is the TNT difference this year.
It seems someone out there has been listening to your complaints and relayed the memo to the network producers. Right off the bat, the broadcast team is committing themselves to “through the field” coverage. While it seemed they were trying a little too hard in the Pocono race, at least we knew the field had more than 10 cars in it. Since then, the happy medium has been reached.
I also like how the broadcast flow much better this season than last. This team of Ralph Sheheen, Wally Dallenbach Jr. and Kyle Petty works, well…like a team. On numerous occasions throughout the Coke Zero 400, Sheheen would take note of the action, Petty would add analysis and Dallenbach would build off of it. The truly wonderful part is I wasn’t hearing the same old, same old. I’m not sure why, but it seems last year, the announcers spent way too much time apologizing for stepping on each other. That’s gone now.
Sheheen has done a commendable job jumping in to the play-by-play spot after the sudden “suspension” of veteran Bill Weber. I will refrain comment on Weber’s reputation as a bit of a diva, but I will say this: Sheheen’s insertion to the broadcast booth has been a good fit with his two partners. Whether it’s true or not, I don’t know- but I get the sense Sheheen’s wants to be there, whereas Weber just didn’t have the same energy.
With this network, Larry Mc Reynolds shines in his role as the “tech guy.” Opportunity is also given for Larry Mac to chip in as needed throughout the race. I have no problem with his work on FOX or SPEED, I just think he’s better in his role at TNT.
Memo to NASCAR, the networks and the sponsors: the “wide open coverage” TNT provided at the Coke Zero 400 in Daytona is what the fans want. Fellow fans, if I were you, I’d highly encourage dropping a line to the networks and sponsors telling them how much you appreciate them “signing on” with their commercials being broadcast in this fashion. As one who has spent a large portion of his radio and TV career selling air time- I can tell you they’re paying attention to your comments regardless of whether or not they act on said comments immediately.
At the end of the day, people tune in to a race to watch the race. The day and age of the media superstar- if it ever really existed- is gone. The best thing a broadcast team and network can do is let the event be the star of the show. There will be plenty of opportunities for the broadcasters to share the information the viewer can’t get by not being at the track, like they say in tennis “Let the game come to you.”
FOX has gone over the top. I’m a generally pretty accepting sort, but the “huckstering” went over the top this year. I was beginning to think that Chris Myers had morphed into Bob Barker and that Darrell Waltrip had discovered a new career path as a carnival barker. Don’t get me wrong: I am not a D.W. To me, he’s kind of like a favorite uncle. I don’t harbor the dislike for Waltrip that his detractors do. I just think a good thing has been “overtweaked” and perhaps an infusion of new energy and getting away from the gags that were old in 2006 would be a step in the right direction.
A lot of the blame for this I lay at the feet of David Hill. I often wonder how many races he’s actually been to. Even at that, I didn’t care for a lot of what he brought to the table with the baseball coverage either. Some of this stuff is akin to mom making you eat your vegetables. Actually, it’s worse. It’s like when mom would limit your intake of sweets, and then when she splurged, she bought you something you hated.
In this observer’s opinion, ESPN could learn a lot from what TNT has done. Technically, ESPN is superior, and there’s no doubt their “off-track” shows are great. Their productions are second to none. When it comes to their race coverage, I see three things going on that leave me cold: 1) They’ve got a lot of talent, but it seems like chemistry is lacking. I think what I’m trying to say is that while I don’t need a lot of amatuer comedy, it WOULD BE NICE if the team acted like they actually enjoyed being there and they had some fun. 2) Perhaps part of the problem there’s too many moving parts. Frankly, I just wish when the race coverage returned from break they’d just go back to the track. I’ve never really understood the need to transition from commercial to the studio, to trackside. It’s the sportscasting equivalent of a guitar player needing a 5 minute solo on every song. 3) To me, it’s a crying shame that after all this time of watching Nationwide coverage, I know quite little about series regulars Jason Leffler, Mike Bliss or even Steve Wallace for that matter. Can we get some back story on somebody besides the “Buschwhackers?”
Back to TNT, it will be sad to see them go after Chicago. While there’s plenty of improvements to be made from a technical standpoint, I really thought they took their game to the next level. Speaking as one who has watched sports for 30 years and spent several others working “in the business” (admittedly on a much smaller scale), TNT’s coverage had an “old school” feel I’ve really appreciated.
Now if they can avoid that silly gag where they sawed Larry Mc Reynolds in two, we’d be near perfect.
{ 35 comments }
The last two broadcasts have been the best cup broadcasts ever. It is like watching the race with a few friends that know when to add something and when to shut up.
It was refreshing to finally watch a race where they didn’t stuff advertisements after advertisements down your throat. TNT has hit on a good thing with the “box” ads. What they need now is a better pair of announcers. Wally and Kyle just aren’t the right combo. They aren’t professional enough. Overall though i give TNT an A+ on their concept.
I agree it was the best coverage yet, but why do we need three people in the booth? If they would dump Wally, who just repeats what Kyle says anyway, it would be unbelievable.
Fantastic Coverage and Presentation. I do plan to send a thank you note to all who helped by giving the fans what they want and plan to support them when a choice of a product is available.
Cheers to the Broadcast team.
I disagree with the statement concerning professionalism however of one of the posters here. Wally and Kyle provide insight as to the Racer’s perspective and if they lack the scripted style commentary, Good. Most race fans are down to earth people looking for honest statements and that they do.
Kudos. NASCAR, I know in the past you have rejected the idea of Side by Side coverage, but listen to the fans and I can assure you, this will bring people back to watching the entire race, not just the last 20-30 laps as a lot of my friends have now resorted to.
I’m stunned anyone liked this coverage. I really am. We turned off the tv for the first time in 35 years. The racing was horrible, the graphic at the bottom of the screen was outrageous. It had to be that big all the time? It’s bad enough having the usual cover up graphics and mentions of sponsors all race long but commericials in the race that often? Plus regular breaks beside?
I detest stats as it is, my gorgeous big tv should be filling my room with racing not useless trivia or cartoons I could careless about. I can’t recall the last time I saw a race “called”. I so tired of the announcers pit and booth thinking they are the show. You aren’t and your bending over to ISC is pathetic.
I’ve been a fan through thick and thin and I really have had enough. IRL and F1 have become the places I have to turn to see racing and decent coverage.
I think the coverage on TNT is great! It’s nice to watch a race without the stupid “digger” graphic popping up every time they show that camera angle, and the stupid banter from Darrell Waltrip, and all the other annoyances FOX throws in their coverage. I think Larry Mac is much more in his own element on this coverage. Also, the booth is a good place for Kyle Petty.
Between the three networks, TNT has done the best job by far. There’s more than ten cars shown during the race, we have some actual commentary instead of the constant shilling that has become a trademark of Fox, we don’t get talked down to like we’re morons which is also another Fox trademark, the camera work seems to be much better, and we actually get to see more of the screen on a weekly basis than we do with Fox and their annoying graphics covering 1/3-1/2 of the screen. Plus there’s none of the annoying varmints being shoved down our throats every other minute. While TNT wasn’t perfect, their coverage was a major step up from what we’ve been served up on a regular basis by Fox on their Cup coverage and ESPN on their Cup Lite coverage. Hopefully somebody in Daytona is serious about listening to the fans and if they are, then they need to give TNT more than just 6 races because they’ve put Fox and ESPN to shame with their limited schedule.
Wonderful job, TNT! Loved the article, agree with every word! ESPN, please sit up and pay attention!
There were places that needed improvement but I thought the coverage was the best I have seen. I think the sponsors got more bang for their buck with the side open coverage than with traditional commercials because we sat through them as the race continued. I really dread the dreadful ESPN coverage. If the ESPN executives were forced to watch their race coverage from beginning to end, I think there might be changes. they won’t because they obviously aren’t race fans.
People act like this is new from TNT regarding the summer Daytona race. They have done this the last two years. Though great coverage, this in no way can make up for their continuous shortcomings over the years. Missing wrecks, restarts, piss-poor coverage by Bill Weber and Wally “Still-in-back”. There is a reason they were negated to only 7 races folks. However, I have been saying that Fox and ESPN could definitely learn a thing or two from this wide open coverage. If TNT can pull this off, what is the hang-up with the other networks? Notice we have been without Bill Weber? Not a loss in my opinion. He forgot where he came from when ESPN was the NASCAR superpower in terms of broadcasting, and just really dropped the ball over the last two seasons. Bring on more wide open coverage, but TNT still has a long way to go.
Unlike the reponse from #5 I thought TNT has hit it on the nose. I set there watching a real race and I couldn’t get over seeing the whole race. The chatter between the three announcers were honest and for a change we didn”t need to listen to DW who spend more time selling his family and items. GREAT job TNT and maybe ABC is watching how its done.
I turned in late and it took me at least a half hour before I found out where my driver was at. They would show about the first 7 drivers then flash something else on the screen.
The coverage was good,i miss Bill Weber and his strong voice that you can hear. Not the weak of whoever that is. Just one thing .They need to get a little more volome in the cars when they go buy.The cars are muffled in the background.
OK, I will admit that the broadcast improved without Bill Weber. I would still like to see Wally gone from the picture. However, it was hilarious during the Infineon race when Wally actually argued with Larry Mac about fuel mileage (who just happened to win this race with 3 different drivers), which ended with Larry chuckling while saying, “O.K., Wally.”…Comedy gold.
Commercials. A necessary evil, but do you have to show an IN RACE commercial every 3 laps, plus breakaway commercials? Not to mention that it takes up (along with the other unnecessary graphic) a third of the screen. There were many times when I missed half the pit road action, the second half of the field, and just a lot of good racing, due to a commercial. I think next time I’ll just turn the volume off and listen to MRN while watching. What’s left of the screen that is.
I’m completely OK with the lack of ‘polish’ displayed by Kyle. If I’m looking for perfect grammar I’ll tune into something on the Discovery Channel. If I’m looking for a good race broadcast I’ll tune into TNT for Chicago coverage.
TNT coverage is brutal–they talk over one another and yell all the time when one car gets out of shape or makes a sudden move—turned the sound off and listened to the radio!
I have been enjoying TNT’s coverage, including the wide open version that they did again this year. They have the right idea, cover the race. It’s what I tuned in to see. I don’t tune in to see the announcers, DW, Rusty, get over yourselves. You were great drivers, but you are supposed to be PROFESSIONAL broadcasters now — I don’t tune in to hear about YOU. I don’t tune in to have whatever flavor of the week driver it is that NASCAR is pushing or about whatever manufacturer the people in the booth are shilling for either. With the COT car, all the cars are the same anyway.
David Hill may be something special in TV, but he’s done a terrible job with NASCAR productions. I don’t appreciate missing green flag racing for a cartoon gopher.
I don’t miss Bill Weber one bit – Ralph has done a good job and doesn’t make me mute the TV like I did with Weber in the booth.
I’ll take your thoughts and send my comments to those companies that stepped up and sponsored the wide open coverage we just saw. NASCAR needs to insist on side by side coverage like the IRL. I DVR most races to avoid the commercial interruptions.
I dread ESPN taking over after Chicago. Considering how abysmal their Nationwide coverage has been, I’m not expecting much more for their Cup coverage. They may be the worldwide leader in some sports, but they are awful at covering NASCAR. Poor Jerry Punch hasn’t a clue as a PXP guy. He was such a great reporter, this makes me sad to watch.
This past weekend’s broadcast was one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. After seeing Indy do it, I’ve wondered for a time why NASCAR didn’t go the same route of side-by-side commercials. For years I’ve been hoping that FOX would somehow get the whole year instead of switching up networks because the “others” were so bad. TNT really stepped up the program and will quickly become the new favorite channel for watching Sprint Cup races.
I totally agree with #5. It was like watching a 3 Ring Circus. Too many conflicting images and messages bombarded me as I tried to watch. The broadcast was just plain annoying and a big distraction from the action on the trck.
It was a great broadcast compared to espn, Iam so tired of the the ( will be right back)that fox and espn do every 4 laps.
Wally is great. Thank goodness, no more Boogity Bull! And Darrell always found a way to make every thing about himself. “When I use to race” Blah Blah Blah.
Actually, I thought they went backwards a bit this past weekend.
I enjoyed Ralph last week as he was excitable and like you pointed out, he was obviously happy to be there.
This week he seemed to be the pitchman for the show reading off scripted commercial spots reminiscent of Lawrence Welk introducing his ‘…friends at Palmolive”. I’m sorry but let the ads do the talking, not the guys in the booth.
Great camera angles on ‘the big one’, however I thought the recap of the drivers involved was lacking. I sure would have liked to know how Kasey Kahne was doing after punting Busch into the air – that was quite the hit.
I didn’t much care for the coverage except Kyle and those mini-commercials were awful. I miss BP.
All that I’ll say is this is the first race that I have actually watched the whole race without turning it off from the annoying commercials and even more annoying announcers. Enough said.
I didn’t get to watch the race live, and for once didn’t have to fast forward through the commercials
The only problem I saw, you had to watch the graphics to see what position any car beyond the first 10 was in.
Great broadcast, great announcers, not too crazy about all the graphics but the reality is it pays the bills. TNT gives us a chance to watch the race and recognizes there are more than 12 cars, FOX gives us the Junior update on the quarter hour, or how Waltrip did it or what one of the Waltrip cars is doing on the track, TNT generally gets us a green flag restart even before the Daytona with the side by side commercials, Fox gave us Digger. I am not certain what we will get from ABC/ESPN but I hope they have been taking notes. Kyle and Wally are fine, this is not a PBS broadcast, I appreciate their efforts to tell us how a driver reacts to a given situation, without constantly reminding us how they did it, ad nauseam. Last but not least, their features of who made the sport through the years. Their effort to go beyond the Pettys, Junior Johnsons, and Wood Brothers, all great pioneers and it was good to hear their stories, but frankly they were not the only ones along the way and it is nice to have them go through the field for those in the past as well.
TNT’s coverage was horrible at best. They missed so much that was going on pit road, the track, etc. There were so many situations that we saw during the race that we needed clarified and TNT’s coverage didn’t clarify any of it. They missed so much in the coverage, it was awful & the race itself was awful. Overall, it was a bust.
I was at the 400 and have gone to each 400 since 2003, so I’ve never actually seen the Wide-Open Coverage live on my TV, but the concept is something I wish would take off with NASCAR. I can’t believe it hasn’t, even in the form of ESPN’s “Side-by-Side”, though I do remember TBS & NBC trying it in 2000. Kudos to TNT for working with the sponsors to give fans that kind of broadcast, even for one race.
ESPN & FOX should take note of how TNT’s been able to pull it off. I’m surprised that the IRL broadcasts have been able to make it work but they haven’t done it with NASCAR.
TNT’s also nailed another feature that I think is a huge plus: Race Buddy. Having 4 extra camera angles while watching the race is a nice perk. Having it available FREE OF CHARGE is the icing on the cake. It’s not Trackpass, where you have a subscription fee. It’s not NASCAR InCar or NASCAR Hot Pass, where you have to have a certain service & then pay far out the tail for said programming. As long as you’ve got a fast enough internet connection & can get to NASCAR.com, have at it. It’s great! That’s another thing I wish FOX or ESPN would find a way to make happen. (ESPN360.com’s online streams are nice, but give us more!)
And while I’m posting, Ralph Sheheen has been awesome in the booth since he took over. I listened to part of the TNT broadcast on my scanner during the race & liked what I heard again this week after last week’s race at NHIS. I’m not a Bill Weber-hater, but great job Ralph!
Dito to what # 5 mash said above.
I was so annoyed/aggrivated/distraced by the constant ad line, I got a roll of toilet paper and taped two layers beneath the line of the scrolling drivers. It worked great! Then went the brain dead commercials came on I hit the mute buttone. made the race tolerable to watch. But somebody needs to get a life if the $$$ people think we are going to continue to watch these brain dead commercials and bombardment there off… WE R Sick of it! And what ever happened to “commentating the race” instead of 3 hours of opions about racers, racing, and personal embelishments durning what is suppose to be “race coverage” which there seems to be very little of. Race coverage, covers what is going on on the track, not what some commentator wants to tell you about the racing community as a whole. We Don’t care, that is why you have pre-race coverage. Get it out of your system and cover the Darn race people. What is going on on the track live! It is live coverage right?
Best coverage I have ever seen. I see some others are almost offended by the in box commercials, but you must accept that they have to pay the bills somehow, and this way sure beats leaving the race all together. Honestly, the last 5 races have brought me back into the season, the Fox broadcasts actually had me flipping channels. And the Wide Open Coverage was amazing, racing is such a rhythm sport, and breaking away for commercials just kills it, and TNT has found the ultimate solution.
A+
- let’s just hope the other two might learn something from this.
I always DVR races to miss the ads, fluff and other FOX treats. I did not fast forward thru the “wide open coverage” and will make a point to patronize companies participating.
The booth crew are genuine and a little unorthodox, which I enjoy, and are the best since Benny, Ned and Bill Jenkins.
best coverage ever.Could see the race most of the time.In the past there were so many commercials it was difficult to remember what you were watching.
winn mott
I completely agree with #27. Aren’t these announcers supposed to “report” what’s happening on the track? When the big one happened, we didn ‘t find out for sure who was in it until the printed list came up about 6-7 minutes later. Sometimes they’ll say, “I really don’t know what happened there, ha, ha, ha.” We are not amused. I don’t consider any of the 3 of them to be good at announcing the race. How about Dale Jarrett and Petree and Bestwick? They’re being wasted.
1)Boring race-need to find a way for more than 1 lane to work. Before the COT, 2 or 3 cars could band together, jump to the top and pick up steam…not anymore. Breakaway commercials would have been fine for this race….other than 3 wrecks nothing happened…single file racing.
2)Wide open coverage is great.
3)I thought the commercials in the box were great…i can multi-task so watching the commercials, the race and the scrolling leaderboard was cool.
4)Note to sponsors–make funny, interesting commercials like Coke Zero’s tear-away windshield billboards and we will get the message even though the screen is smaller and the race is going on.
5)My suggestion on how to get the announcers to keep us up to date on all drivers–have all three announcers draft a fantasy team, 14 drivers each, and put their own money on the line. I guarantee they would find out why one of their drivers was 2 laps down…and hopefully let us know also. It’s frustrating for me as a fantasy guy to come back from a break and see one of my drivers down a lap and no mention of what happened.
6)Announcers were fine….Kyle Petty can be annoying but he was funny at Daytona. Not nearly as annoying as DW, Kenny Wallace or Jimmy Spencer.
Boy I can sure tell that this was an old article, because while TNT’s Daytona Coverage was all right, ( I was mainly focused on the new bodies on the Nationwide cars ) .
The rest of the racs that TNT broadcast were the worst coverage and the most commercials I’ve ever seen in NASCAR history and I’ve been watching since 1979, yepper, I use to watch them on Wide World of Sports, with Chris Economaci. But this 5 minutes of racing, 5 minutes of commercials, 5 minutes of racing 5 minutes of commercials 5 minutes of racing 5 minutes of commercials was abusive. Infineon was a joke, it got so bad at my house for the Race party, we have them every week except the ones we go to here in the Carolina’s and Bristol, I have a 50″ Plasma with 1000W Theather logic Surround Sound, 2 grills(1 charcoal, 1 gas) and a pool in a huge screened in backyard here in Charlotte, but it was so bad that out of the 16 to 20 regular’s 15 left by the halfway point because they couldn’t take all the dam commercials. Pocono, Michigan, and New Hampshire’s Race coverage was just as bad. My one time crowded backyard Race parties were down to 2 or 3 of us guys and our girlfriends by Chicagoland. So sad. It actualluy got so bad I HDMI-connected my computer up to the 50″ Plasma and we watched RACE BUDDY and listened to the last couple of races on the Radio, with the TNT commercial fest in a picture in a picture on mute.
BUTT NOW ESPN’s got the BALL and the coverage is back up to speed and everybodies back over for the parties and the race pools and are enjoying seeing some racing again. We did lose 2 new couples that were rookies to NASCAR, they politely said, “we can watch commercials at home, we thought you invited us over to watch some racing”.
Here’s a hint to Brian France & Robin Pemerton: if you want to keep the fans you have and perhaps gain some more, drop TNT next year for coverage and go get Versus to broadcast some races, I’m not much of an Indy Car fan, but I mean did you see the coverage of the Edmonton Race this past weekend ? man they had that picture in a picture in a picture going on and it was great, little box with a commercial, bigger box with the racing action and another box with the running order scrolling down. They also showed pitstop times on every car everytime they came in the pits. (which TNT just forgot about completely).
I also have 2 friends that own Sports Bars here in Charlotte and they both said that during the TNT Race broadcast season they had a huge decline in customers.
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