NASCAR Lacks Faith in All Star Race

by Charlie Turner

Thanks for stopping by OnPitRow.com and the Bench Racing with Steve and Charlie blog. The best NASCAR and IndyCar news and opinion, exclusive pictures and video. I'm Charlie Turner. Follow me on Twitter @onpitrow

May 22, 2011 8:30 pm UTC No Comments

The NASCAR All Star Race has almost everything going for it. The Charlotte Motor Speedway venue looks – and is – spectacular, particularly under the lights on All-Star Saturday Night.

One way or another, the best of the best of stock car racing are matched up in a winner-takes-all, million dollar cash run. The perfect set up.

My favorite part of the whole thing this weekend was when All Star Pole winner, Carl Edwards was given a microphone and he – Carl – conducted interviews with drivers before the Showdown, race-in race . Really good stuff!

Other Speed TV guys like Dr Dick Bergeren helped show how loose the competitors were, and how racing for the cash seemed to be a nice change from regular race weeks. It was cool.

So why in the world did Speed/NASCAR have to hype it up with Two Waltrips and a Straight Man?

I’m sorry DW and Mikey fans but Saturday night was too much AllWaltrip for me. I counted three different times in segment number two alone when Michael and Darrell Waltrip took turns telling us – IN REALLY REALLY EXCITED VOICES – how all the stars were moving up front and would be there at the end for the most fantastic, exciting, blah, blah blah…..

This could not have been an accident. I think that NASCAR knows that the contrived nature of the All-Star race is lame. I mean, what is the purpose of segment one? Segment two is almost as bad. NASCAR knows it sucks and dropped the Waltrip bomb on us to keep everyone awake.

I have a suggestion. Hold a 100 lap race, give each team two sets of tires, give the winner a million bucks and let Mike Joy pick his own broadcast partners.

Hallelujah!

Photo credit: Round girl Cindi by BethAnne Heisler for OnPitRow.com

Filed under: Carl Edwards, Darrell Waltrip, Michael Waltrip, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: All Star weekend, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Mike Joy, Sprint All Star

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Bipolar Bud Shootout Practice was Weird

by Charlie Turner

February 12, 2011 12:31 pm UTC No Comments

I watched final practice for the Budweiser Shootout Friday. In fact, I watched it twice. A am a geek after all.

It was strange. A dozen or so pairs of, what looked like, welded together cars taking turns blowing by one-another. Or, I guess, two-another.

I didn’t watch every minute. I had the Speed TV broadcast with Darrell Waltrip, Larry Mac and Mike Joy on the tube (dating myself again) while I worked on the late Fast Lap 140 NASCAR video.

I did hear DW say that he thought the drivers were making a mistake by spending so much of their time trying to see how fast they make their cars go in pairs. Might be better to drive in packs and get the cars handling in the turbulence of three wide racing, which is more of what they will experience during the Bud and, especially, the Gatorade Duels and the Daytona 500.

Made sense to me. I just thought it looked weird.

Photo credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR

Filed under: Car of Tomorrow, Darrell Waltrip, Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR Tech, SPEED TV, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: Bud Shootout, Budweiser Shootout, Larry McReynolds, Mike Joy

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Digger Must Die

by Charlie Turner

March 1, 2009 10:49 pm UTC 40 Comments

I am four weeks into the extra six weeks of winter that some ground hog promised us, after seeing his shadow, and I have revenge on my mind. Maybe that’s why Fox Sports Digger-cam darlin’ is bothering me so much. The fact is, after watching today’s Sprint Cup race – the Shelby 427 – from sunny, warm, summer-like Las Vegas Motor Speedway, I’d say that Fox TV execs may have been impressed by the amount of anger their little Track Rat brought on after the California race. Unless I missed something, Digger appearances were down this week.

I don’t mind Fox using the cartoon to brand their Digger-cam, track level camera. In fact, I agree with Bruce at NASCAR Bits that a piece on the technical aspects of the actual camera would be interesting. Bruce has his own rant about the Race Rodent that was his part of our Tight in Turn Two blog last week.

I’m with you on the tech aspects of the Digger-cam Bruce. That would be worth a look. Maybe Fox could do a segment during the Simpsons. You know – a NASCAR segment during a prime time Fox cartoon show. Just imagine the reaction of Simpsons’ fans to a NASCAR show breaking out in the middle of their favorite Sunday night television.

Nah. They’d never make that kind of programming mistake.

And since we’re talking about Vegas, if you are thinking of doing any actual NASCAR betting you would be well served by finding actual NASCAR odds at a service that is involved in online wagering or something. We, most assuredly, are not.

Photo(shop) credit: BethAnne Heisler for OnPitRow.com with an assist from Angel_Nurse at Photobook.

Filed under: Auto Club Speedway, Comics, Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Hammond, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, Shut Up and Drive, Sprint Cup Series

Tagged with: Digger, Fox Sports, irritating cartoon characters, Jeff Hammond, Larry McReynolds, media hype, Mike Joy, NASCAR betting, NASCAR odds, NASCAR toons, online waggering, The Simpsons, toons