THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
July 14th, 2011
Volume V, Edition CXXXVI
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Frontstretch sends its well wishes, prayers, and support to all our Southern U.S., Joplin, MO and Western Massachusetts fans affected by the swath of tornadoes over the past few weeks. To help out recovery efforts, text "GIVE" to 80888 to donate $10 towards disaster relief efforts in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Massachusetts and Missouri through the Salvation Army.
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
July 14th, 2011
Volume V, Edition CXXXVI
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Frontstretch sends its well wishes, prayers, and support to all our Southern U.S., Joplin, MO and Western Massachusetts fans affected by the swath of tornadoes over the past few weeks. To help out recovery efforts, text "GIVE" to 80888 to donate $10 towards disaster relief efforts in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Massachusetts and Missouri through the Salvation Army.
Today's Top News
by Phil Allaway
Randy Moss Motorsports and Germain Racing's No. 30 to Join Forces, Bodine to Drive No. 5 at Iowaby Phil Allaway
Last weekend, Todd Bodine was sure that he would not be racing in Saturday's Coca-Cola 200 presented by Hy-Vee at Iowa Speedway. Today, that is no longer the case.
On Wednesday, Sirius Speedway's Dave Moody reported that a partnership has been reached between Randy Moss Motorsports and Germain Racing. That partnership will see the Nos. 5 and 30 teams pool their sponsorship resources for the remainder of the 2011 Camping World Truck Series season. Todd Bodine will serve as the driver of the new combined team starting this weekend at Iowa.
Travis Kvapil, who was already missing the Sprint Cup race in New Hampshire this weekend due to his Camping World Truck Series commitment, is out of the seat. Navistar International, which was scheduled to sponsor the No. 5 via their International Trucks brand, will remain on the truck.
Germain Racing owner Bob Germain is not really enthused about the move, but is happy to be able to keep Bodine on track.
"We began talking with (RMM co-owner) David Dollar last weekend, and met this week about the possibility of combining their #5 and our #30 trucks for an unknown period of time; possibly the rest of the season," Germain said. "We compared sponsor commitments, and with 15 races left in the season, that's about what we had in combined sponsorship. We've told Todd that he will go to Iowa this weekend and drive the #5 Toyota with Mike Hillman, Jr. as crew chief and our pit crew."
The alliance between Randy Moss Motorsports and Germain Racing will only affect the No. 30 from Germain Racing. Max Papis and Brendan Gaughan's trucks have sponsorship, and are thus exempt from the arrangement.
Darnell to Drive for Whitney Motorsports at Loudon; Team to Switch to Ford
Whitney Motorsports announced on Wednesday that Erik Darnell will drive the team's No. 46 Chevrolet this weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Darnell will replace J.J. Yeley, who is subbing for Travis Kvapil in the Front Row Motorsports No. 38.
In addition, Whitney Motorsports is in the process of switching their fleet of Chevrolets over to Fords. As a result, Sunday will be the team's final race with the Impala. The team's new Ford Fusions will debut full-time at the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and take advantage of Ford's FR9 engine.
Team Manager Tony Furr is excited about the switched.
"This will be the first time in my career I've had the opportunity to work with Doug Yates," Furr said. "I'm really looking forward to that. Hopefully, once we make the switch we can also start getting our cars from Roush Fenway Racing. But that will be down the road."
Officially, Indianapolis will not be the first time that Whitney Motorsports will have fielded a Ford. Brian Simo drove a No. 81 Ford for the team at Infineon Raceway in June, qualifying 40th and finishing 33rd.
Crown Royal to Sponsor Brickyard 400?
The Indianapolis Business Journal is reporting that Crown Royal, who just recently announced that they would be leaving Roush Fenway Racing at the end of the season, might just have another way to stay involved in the sport.
Reports have the Canadian Scotch Whiskey division of Diageo signing on as the new title sponsor for the Brickyard 400 starting with the 19th running of the race next year. Crown Royal would be paying nearly $1.5 million a year for the privilege of sponsoring the event.
Entry List Update:
Note: These entries are accurate as of Wednesday night. However, they are still subject to change.
Sprint Cup Series Lenox Industrial Tools 301: 48 cars entered
Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 32 - Mike Bliss for FAS Lane Racing
No. 50 - T.J. Bell for MAKE Motorsports
No. 51 - Landon Cassill for Phoenix Racing
No. 55 - Jeff Green for Front Row Motorsports
No. 60 - Mike Skinner for Germain Racing
No. 77 - Scott Wimmer for Robby Gordon Motorsports
No. 81 - Scott Riggs for Whitney Motorsports
No. 87 - Joe Nemechek for NEMCO Motorsports
Driver Changes:
No. 7 - Robby Gordon returns to the seat, replacing Scott Wimmer.
No. 38 - J.J. Yeley is in the seat, replacing Travis Kvapil. Kvapil was supposed to run the Truck Series race at Iowa, but was released from his ride yesterday (see above).
No. 46 - Erik Darnell will be in the seat, replacing J.J. Yeley. This car will start-and-park.
No. 77 - Scott Wimmer returns to the seat, replacing Robby Gordon. This car is expected to be RGM's start-and-park entry.
Drivers who must qualify on speed:
No. 30 - David Stremme for Inception Motorsports
No. 37 - Tony Raines for Front Row Motorsports/MaxQ Motorsports
No. 38 - J.J. Yeley for Front Row Motorsports
No. 46 - Erik Darnell for Whitney Motorsports
No. 50 - T.J. Bell for MAKE Motorsports
No. 55 - Jeff Green for Front Row Motorsports
No. 60 - Mike Skinner for Germain Racing
No. 66 - Michael McDowell for HP Racing, LLC
No. 71 - Andy Lally for TRG Motorsports
No. 77 - Scott Wimmer for Robby Gordon Motorsports
No. 81 - Scott Riggs for Whitney Motorsports
No. 87 - Joe Nemechek for NEMCO Motorsports
No. 92 - Brian Keselowski for K-Automotive Motorsports
Nationwide Series New England 200: 42 cars entered
Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 7 - Kasey Kahne for JR Motorsports
No. 18 - Kyle Busch for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 20 - Joey Logano for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 22 - Brad Keselowski for Penske Racing
No. 33 - Kevin Harvick for Kevin Harvick, Inc.
No. 60 - Carl Edwards for Roush Fenway Racing
Driver Changes:
No. 23 - David Green is in the seat, replacing Robert Richardson, Jr.
No. 30 - Mikey Kile returns to the seat, replacing Reed Sorenson.
No. 32 - Reed Sorenson returns to the seat, replacing Mark Martin.
No. 39 - Matt Frahm is in the seat, replacing Will Kimmel. This will be Frahm's Nationwide Series debut.
No. 44 - Angela Cope returns to the seat, replacing Jeff Green.
No. 47 - Scott Wimmer is in the seat, replacing Danny Efland.
No. 67 - Andrew Ranger is in the seat, replacing JR Fitzpatrick.
No. 70 - Dennis Setzer returns to the seat, replacing David Stremme. This is another race where Jay Robinson Racing is using ML Motorsports' No. 70.
Since there are only 42 teams entered, no one will fail to qualify. However, these drivers must qualify on speed:
No. 04 - Danny Efland for Go Green Racing
No. 13 - Jennifer Jo Cobb for JJC Racing
No. 16 - Trevor Bayne for Roush Fenway Racing
No. 20 - Joey Logano for Joe Gibbs Racing
No. 41 - Carl Long for Rick Ware Racing
No. 42 - Tim Andrews for Key Motorsports
No. 44 - Angela Cope for TriStar Motorsports
No. 46 - Chase Miller for Key Motorsports
No. 47 - Scott Wimmer for Key Motorsports
No. 67 - Andrew Ranger for Go Canada Racing
No. 74 - Mike Harmon for Harmon Motorsports
No. 75 - Johnny Chapman for Rick Ware Racing
Camping World Truck Series Coca-Cola 200 presented by Hy-Vee: 33 trucks entered
Drivers Ineligible to Earn Points:
No. 18 - Brian Ickler for Kyle Busch Motorsports
Driver Changes:
No. 07 - Butch Miller returns to the seat, replacing Johnny Chapman.
No. 2 - David Mayhew returns to the seat, replacing Elliott Sadler.
No. 5 - Todd Bodine is in the seat, replacing Travis Kvapil.
No. 18 - Brian Ickler returns to the seat, replacing Kyle Busch.
Since there are only 33 trucks entered, no one will go home. However, these drivers must still qualify on speed:
No. 02 - Jamie Dick for Stott Classic Racing
No. 07 - Butch Miller for SS-Green Light Racing
No. 38 - Mike Garvey for RSS Racing
No. 57 - Norm Benning for Norm Benning Racing
No. 63 - Jack Smith for Mittler Brothers Racing
No. 75 - Greg Seevers for Norm Benning Racing
No. 96 - Todd Peck for Peck Motorsports
No. 98 - Dakoda Armstrong for ThorSport Racing
Absentees:
No. 20 - Johanna Long for Panhandle Motorsports (next race: Lucas Oil Raceway)
No. 30 - Germain Racing (see above story re: merger with No. 5 team)
Have news for Phil and The Frontstretch? Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com with a promising lead or tip.
~~~~~~~~~~
Hey Frontstretch Readers!
We know you love the roar of raw horsepower under the hood that powers 43 of the best drivers in the world every weekend, but did you ever wonder how the sponsor on top of that hood also contributes to keeping the sport moving? What about the contributions of official NASCAR companies? If you think they are simply writing checks, think again. Check out our newest feature - Sunday Money. This weekly Frontstretch exclusive provides you with a behind the scenes look how NASCAR, its affiliates and team sponsors approach the daunting task of keeping fans interested and excited about the sport for 38 weeks of the year.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Editor's Note: What's Vexing Vito will return next week.
~~~~~~~~~~
Hey Frontstretch Readers!
We know you love the roar of raw horsepower under the hood that powers 43 of the best drivers in the world every weekend, but did you ever wonder how the sponsor on top of that hood also contributes to keeping the sport moving? What about the contributions of official NASCAR companies? If you think they are simply writing checks, think again. Check out our newest feature - Sunday Money. This weekly Frontstretch exclusive provides you with a behind the scenes look how NASCAR, its affiliates and team sponsors approach the daunting task of keeping fans interested and excited about the sport for 38 weeks of the year.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Editor's Note: What's Vexing Vito will return next week.
Today's Featured Commentary
Entry Lists Getting Smaller & Smaller? Problem, NASCAR?
Entry Lists Getting Smaller & Smaller? Problem, NASCAR?
Shakedown Session
by Brody Jones
In a brutal economy where money is hard to come by for many families, NASCAR has been hit especially hard with a bad economy for sponsorship. This has resulted in either short fields at some Nationwide Series events or fields filled with almost 20% of the entries listed as "start and park" entries. Not even the Camping World Truck Series has been immune to this problem. In the first ten races, the series was able to have full fields without a great deal of start and park efforts. But thanks, in part, to a few teams either shutting down or scaling back to a part-time schedule, now the Truck Series is staring down the barrel of a short field this weekend at Iowa. Even the Sprint Cup Series has had to rely on start-and-park teams the past several years just to get a full field.
This begs the obvious question: What the hell is causing this? Could it really be the economy forcing teams to shut down or start-and-park? Or could other mitigating factors be at work? First of all, the disparity in the Nationwide Series to the teams that are on the top-tier (Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush-Fenway, Kevin Harvick Inc., Jr. Motorsports, and Turner Motorsports) compared to the lower-end operations (JD Motorsports, TriStar Motorsports, Key Motorsports, etc.) is seemingly insurmountable. These Cup & Cup-affiliated organizations have hoarded up as many sponsors as they can by primarily putting Cup drivers in their cars leaving the cupboard extremely bare for many of the other teams in terms of extra sponsorship dollars to go around.
Things have become so bad for teams like Key Motorsports that they've resorted to becoming a 4-car start-and-park operation after running full races earlier in the year or Rick Ware Racing, which has to park three cars just to run Timmy Hill the full distance in races. Or in the worst case scenarios, such as Nationwide Series mainstay teams such as Team Rensi Motorsports and Baker Curb Racing, they have had to suspend team operations in hope of finding the sponsorship money to even be able to compete again.
Again, one has to wonder if the economy is solely to blame for all this. The answer, sadly, is no. The Cup teams have not helped things, but Nationwide Series purses being continually slashed the last two years to barely 70 percent of what they were in 2009 is more of a demoralizer than anything else. Many of the teams have fallen by the wayside, been reduced to the practice of start-and-parking, or taken their operation to the Sprint Cup Series like K-Automotive did this season. With teams only getting paid a fraction of what they once were getting paid, and the cost of equipment to even be semi-competitive in NASCAR's Triple A-level of racing going up, some teams have had to resort to desperate measures just to keep their team afloat.
It also looks like these problems could very well be on the horizon for the Camping World Truck Series as well. With Rick Ware Racing, Panhandle Motorsports, and the Nos. 30 and 77 from Germain Racing all either scaling back operations or shutting down entirely, the entry lists on the Truck Series side are starting to get smaller and smaller. This week at Iowa, to date, only 33 trucks are slated to attempt the race. For the first ten races, the series had been filling fields without a huge presence of start-and-park efforts. But now, just like with the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series, it just might be to become a necessity to even help the series survive.
At the end of the day, is there really any surefire cure for this sort of NASCAR recession? At least in the short-term, there doesn't appear to be one. However, if NASCAR could take some small steps such as raising the Nationwide purse even by 10 percent, that would be some form of progress. But the big question is has too much damage already been done in the long run?
by Brody Jones
In a brutal economy where money is hard to come by for many families, NASCAR has been hit especially hard with a bad economy for sponsorship. This has resulted in either short fields at some Nationwide Series events or fields filled with almost 20% of the entries listed as "start and park" entries. Not even the Camping World Truck Series has been immune to this problem. In the first ten races, the series was able to have full fields without a great deal of start and park efforts. But thanks, in part, to a few teams either shutting down or scaling back to a part-time schedule, now the Truck Series is staring down the barrel of a short field this weekend at Iowa. Even the Sprint Cup Series has had to rely on start-and-park teams the past several years just to get a full field.
This begs the obvious question: What the hell is causing this? Could it really be the economy forcing teams to shut down or start-and-park? Or could other mitigating factors be at work? First of all, the disparity in the Nationwide Series to the teams that are on the top-tier (Joe Gibbs Racing, Roush-Fenway, Kevin Harvick Inc., Jr. Motorsports, and Turner Motorsports) compared to the lower-end operations (JD Motorsports, TriStar Motorsports, Key Motorsports, etc.) is seemingly insurmountable. These Cup & Cup-affiliated organizations have hoarded up as many sponsors as they can by primarily putting Cup drivers in their cars leaving the cupboard extremely bare for many of the other teams in terms of extra sponsorship dollars to go around.
Things have become so bad for teams like Key Motorsports that they've resorted to becoming a 4-car start-and-park operation after running full races earlier in the year or Rick Ware Racing, which has to park three cars just to run Timmy Hill the full distance in races. Or in the worst case scenarios, such as Nationwide Series mainstay teams such as Team Rensi Motorsports and Baker Curb Racing, they have had to suspend team operations in hope of finding the sponsorship money to even be able to compete again.
Again, one has to wonder if the economy is solely to blame for all this. The answer, sadly, is no. The Cup teams have not helped things, but Nationwide Series purses being continually slashed the last two years to barely 70 percent of what they were in 2009 is more of a demoralizer than anything else. Many of the teams have fallen by the wayside, been reduced to the practice of start-and-parking, or taken their operation to the Sprint Cup Series like K-Automotive did this season. With teams only getting paid a fraction of what they once were getting paid, and the cost of equipment to even be semi-competitive in NASCAR's Triple A-level of racing going up, some teams have had to resort to desperate measures just to keep their team afloat.
It also looks like these problems could very well be on the horizon for the Camping World Truck Series as well. With Rick Ware Racing, Panhandle Motorsports, and the Nos. 30 and 77 from Germain Racing all either scaling back operations or shutting down entirely, the entry lists on the Truck Series side are starting to get smaller and smaller. This week at Iowa, to date, only 33 trucks are slated to attempt the race. For the first ten races, the series had been filling fields without a huge presence of start-and-park efforts. But now, just like with the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series, it just might be to become a necessity to even help the series survive.
At the end of the day, is there really any surefire cure for this sort of NASCAR recession? At least in the short-term, there doesn't appear to be one. However, if NASCAR could take some small steps such as raising the Nationwide purse even by 10 percent, that would be some form of progress. But the big question is has too much damage already been done in the long run?
Brody Jones is a Website Contributor to Frontstretch.com. He can be reached via e-mail at brody.jones@frontstretch.com.
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The Critic's Annex: Honda Indy Toronto
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The Critic's Annex: Honda Indy Toronto
by Phil Allaway
Hello, race fans. Welcome back to the Critic's Annex, where I endeavor to give my readers an additional look at the telecasts that we're fed each week.
Last week was a very busy time for a motorsports TV critic. There were no less than seven major series racing (Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series, Camping World Truck Series, Formula One, Izod IndyCar Series, Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series). When a situation such as that arises, I have to prioritize what will be covered in the critiques. NASCAR's top-3 series are in the "must carry" category if they run, so that made the decision easy for the main critique (We've tried four races in the past, but it makes the critique too long). That gave me a tough choice between four races and SPEED's impromptu Darrell Waltrip special for the Annex. For this week, I went by popular opinion. Beyond the three NASCAR "National" series, the Izod IndyCar Series appears to be the most popular. So, onward to Toronto we go.
For the sake of time constraints, we'll skip the preliminary Firestone Indy Lights race held a couple of hours before the Izod IndyCar Series event. All you need to know is that the telecast started 15 minutes late due to Stage 9 of the Tour de France running over its timeslot due to constant wrecking (including the now-infamous hip-check from the Citroen that sent Johnny Hoogerland into a barbed wire fence). That's just so nasty. So, we'll pick up the telecast after the preliminary event.
IndyCar Central was its typical self. Kevin Lee hosted once again from the Versus stage while interviews were conducted either at the stage, or in the paddock.
There was one feature where Dan Wheldon drove Grand Marshal Dan Aykroyd around the 1.75 mile circuit in a Honda Civic Si. Aykroyd (a native Canadian) was very impressed at Wheldon's skill behind the wheel. It was interesting to watch.
We also got to know James Hinchcliffe a little better with a nice tour of his home. It appears that Hinchcliffe is a nut for motorsports history and a collector of racing memorabilia, as he has a room in his house full of racing-related goodies. These goods included one of Jacques Villeneuve's helmets.
Another segment in pre-race saw Robin Miller give out Mid-Season grades to the teams. Miller has been around for quite a while, so he's a pretty strict grader. For example, despite the team winning three races, he gave Team Penske a C+. The team's lackluster performance at Indianapolis was a major reason why the team received such a low grade.
The pit walk that Versus debuted in Iowa was back for Toronto. Wheldon and Miller once again both did the walk, which I had mentioned previously that I was not a fan of. I liked the concept of the Pit Walk, but the execution was horrendous. In Toronto, the execution was much improved. Versus made use of a split-screen that allowed viewers to keep track of both Miller and Wheldon. The pacing was also much, much better. As a result, no one was talking over anyone else. Its still a little stilted, though. Versus didn't display graphics identifying the interview subjects, so it was a bit of a guess as to who they were interviewing aside from the drivers.
Prior to the pit walk, Versus gave viewers seven pre-race interviews with a variety of drivers. The pit walk added at least that many to the total.
One of the things that most of the 400,000+ viewers of Sunday's race will take away from the telecast is the sheer amount of wrecking that took place. It seems that the track gets narrower every year they race in Toronto. As a result, stack-up crashes are more common now than they were in the past. The broadcast booth seemed to be in awe of all of the craziness on track. Quite frankly, so was I, and I was 400 miles away from the race watching on TV.
Speaking of the booth, we had a change in there. As you remember, Wally Dallenbach, Jr. had to take a brief sabbatical from the booth in order to fulfill his obligations to TNT for their Summer Series. Well, even though the Summer Series is not complete (the last race on TNT is this Sunday in Loudon, New Hampshire), Dallenbach decided to make the trip up to Toronto on Sunday after being in the booth for the Quaker State 400 on Saturday night.
Apparently, Dallenbach arrived at the track approximately one hour before the race was due to start and took his customary analyst spot in the booth. However, Wheldon was still around as well. You know what that means. A quartet in a small box. I've written many times in the past about how such a setup just doesn't work. Someone always ends up dominating the proceedings while one person says so little that he might as well have stayed home.
Granted, the previous examples I have to draw on are from ESPN broadcasts of NASCAR races over the past couple of years. Surprisingly, the four person setup on Versus didn't work that horribly. The person that I thought was most likely to be squeezed out of conversations was Beekhuis. However, Beekhuis settled into what amounted to a technical analyst role, not unlike what Steve Matchett does on SPEED's Formula One broadcasts. As a result, he was effectively able to stay out of the way of the Dallenbach and Wheldon pairing.
Wheldon continues to shine in the booth. I'm not really sure if Wheldon had actually considered getting into broadcast work when his actual driving career comes to an end previous to this year, but it is increasingly clear that he would make an excellent full-time analyst. However, he's still got plenty of racing behind the wheel left to do, and it is quite obvious that he would rather be doing that.
One of the gripes I had about the telecast is that we never really found out what happened to Sebastian Saavedra to put him out of the race. We saw Saavedra go down the escape road at Turn 3 with what looked like an issue with the right front assembly. Jenkins referenced the issue on-air. We have no idea how it got like that. No replay was ever shown of any incidents that Saavedra might have been involved with, no nothing. Unfortunately, that is one of the downsides of not producing your own race coverage. Yes, Versus sends their pit reporters to Toronto, so its not like Sao Paulo, but they don't shoot the race themselves (via the Lingner Group). A Canadian host broadcaster takes care of that.
Another example of the Canadian race production was when Danica Patrick gave a little bit of a salute to Takuma Sato
Also, one of the restarts occurred during a Side-by-Side commercial break. While its definitely better than outright missing a restart while in a regular break, its still far from ideal. I still don't like it.
Since there was so much wrecking (and something like 33 laps behind the pace car in an 85 lap race), Versus ran over their timeslot by roughly 15 minutes. However, even though they went over their slot, Versus still provided viewers with seven post-race interviews. There were also checks of the unofficial results and point standings, along with some wrap-up analysis before Versus left the air.
The race was quite interesting to watch (even though the amount of wrecks was quite ridiculous for a open-wheeled race of only 149 miles). The four-man booth made the race very exciting to watch, and at times, were a joy to listen to. I cannot say that I condone a four-man booth in the future for Versus, especially since Dallenbach will be back full-time for the rest of the season (with the exception of New Hampshire in August, which is an ABC race). Perhaps Versus will find something else for Wheldon to do in the meantime. When he does get another ride, either with Bryan Herta Autosports, or with another team, it could be possible to make use of Wheldon as an In-Race Reporter, something that historically has been very rare in open-wheel coverage (while being a weekly occurrence on NASCAR telecasts for years).
I hope you liked this look back at Versus' telecast of the Honda Indy Toronto. Check out next Thursday's edition of the Critic's Annex, where I will be covering the Prairie Meadows 200 for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards. Until then, have a great weekend.
Hello, race fans. Welcome back to the Critic's Annex, where I endeavor to give my readers an additional look at the telecasts that we're fed each week.
Last week was a very busy time for a motorsports TV critic. There were no less than seven major series racing (Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series, Camping World Truck Series, Formula One, Izod IndyCar Series, Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series). When a situation such as that arises, I have to prioritize what will be covered in the critiques. NASCAR's top-3 series are in the "must carry" category if they run, so that made the decision easy for the main critique (We've tried four races in the past, but it makes the critique too long). That gave me a tough choice between four races and SPEED's impromptu Darrell Waltrip special for the Annex. For this week, I went by popular opinion. Beyond the three NASCAR "National" series, the Izod IndyCar Series appears to be the most popular. So, onward to Toronto we go.
For the sake of time constraints, we'll skip the preliminary Firestone Indy Lights race held a couple of hours before the Izod IndyCar Series event. All you need to know is that the telecast started 15 minutes late due to Stage 9 of the Tour de France running over its timeslot due to constant wrecking (including the now-infamous hip-check from the Citroen that sent Johnny Hoogerland into a barbed wire fence). That's just so nasty. So, we'll pick up the telecast after the preliminary event.
IndyCar Central was its typical self. Kevin Lee hosted once again from the Versus stage while interviews were conducted either at the stage, or in the paddock.
There was one feature where Dan Wheldon drove Grand Marshal Dan Aykroyd around the 1.75 mile circuit in a Honda Civic Si. Aykroyd (a native Canadian) was very impressed at Wheldon's skill behind the wheel. It was interesting to watch.
We also got to know James Hinchcliffe a little better with a nice tour of his home. It appears that Hinchcliffe is a nut for motorsports history and a collector of racing memorabilia, as he has a room in his house full of racing-related goodies. These goods included one of Jacques Villeneuve's helmets.
Another segment in pre-race saw Robin Miller give out Mid-Season grades to the teams. Miller has been around for quite a while, so he's a pretty strict grader. For example, despite the team winning three races, he gave Team Penske a C+. The team's lackluster performance at Indianapolis was a major reason why the team received such a low grade.
The pit walk that Versus debuted in Iowa was back for Toronto. Wheldon and Miller once again both did the walk, which I had mentioned previously that I was not a fan of. I liked the concept of the Pit Walk, but the execution was horrendous. In Toronto, the execution was much improved. Versus made use of a split-screen that allowed viewers to keep track of both Miller and Wheldon. The pacing was also much, much better. As a result, no one was talking over anyone else. Its still a little stilted, though. Versus didn't display graphics identifying the interview subjects, so it was a bit of a guess as to who they were interviewing aside from the drivers.
Prior to the pit walk, Versus gave viewers seven pre-race interviews with a variety of drivers. The pit walk added at least that many to the total.
One of the things that most of the 400,000+ viewers of Sunday's race will take away from the telecast is the sheer amount of wrecking that took place. It seems that the track gets narrower every year they race in Toronto. As a result, stack-up crashes are more common now than they were in the past. The broadcast booth seemed to be in awe of all of the craziness on track. Quite frankly, so was I, and I was 400 miles away from the race watching on TV.
Speaking of the booth, we had a change in there. As you remember, Wally Dallenbach, Jr. had to take a brief sabbatical from the booth in order to fulfill his obligations to TNT for their Summer Series. Well, even though the Summer Series is not complete (the last race on TNT is this Sunday in Loudon, New Hampshire), Dallenbach decided to make the trip up to Toronto on Sunday after being in the booth for the Quaker State 400 on Saturday night.
Apparently, Dallenbach arrived at the track approximately one hour before the race was due to start and took his customary analyst spot in the booth. However, Wheldon was still around as well. You know what that means. A quartet in a small box. I've written many times in the past about how such a setup just doesn't work. Someone always ends up dominating the proceedings while one person says so little that he might as well have stayed home.
Granted, the previous examples I have to draw on are from ESPN broadcasts of NASCAR races over the past couple of years. Surprisingly, the four person setup on Versus didn't work that horribly. The person that I thought was most likely to be squeezed out of conversations was Beekhuis. However, Beekhuis settled into what amounted to a technical analyst role, not unlike what Steve Matchett does on SPEED's Formula One broadcasts. As a result, he was effectively able to stay out of the way of the Dallenbach and Wheldon pairing.
Wheldon continues to shine in the booth. I'm not really sure if Wheldon had actually considered getting into broadcast work when his actual driving career comes to an end previous to this year, but it is increasingly clear that he would make an excellent full-time analyst. However, he's still got plenty of racing behind the wheel left to do, and it is quite obvious that he would rather be doing that.
One of the gripes I had about the telecast is that we never really found out what happened to Sebastian Saavedra to put him out of the race. We saw Saavedra go down the escape road at Turn 3 with what looked like an issue with the right front assembly. Jenkins referenced the issue on-air. We have no idea how it got like that. No replay was ever shown of any incidents that Saavedra might have been involved with, no nothing. Unfortunately, that is one of the downsides of not producing your own race coverage. Yes, Versus sends their pit reporters to Toronto, so its not like Sao Paulo, but they don't shoot the race themselves (via the Lingner Group). A Canadian host broadcaster takes care of that.
Another example of the Canadian race production was when Danica Patrick gave a little bit of a salute to Takuma Sato
Also, one of the restarts occurred during a Side-by-Side commercial break. While its definitely better than outright missing a restart while in a regular break, its still far from ideal. I still don't like it.
Since there was so much wrecking (and something like 33 laps behind the pace car in an 85 lap race), Versus ran over their timeslot by roughly 15 minutes. However, even though they went over their slot, Versus still provided viewers with seven post-race interviews. There were also checks of the unofficial results and point standings, along with some wrap-up analysis before Versus left the air.
The race was quite interesting to watch (even though the amount of wrecks was quite ridiculous for a open-wheeled race of only 149 miles). The four-man booth made the race very exciting to watch, and at times, were a joy to listen to. I cannot say that I condone a four-man booth in the future for Versus, especially since Dallenbach will be back full-time for the rest of the season (with the exception of New Hampshire in August, which is an ABC race). Perhaps Versus will find something else for Wheldon to do in the meantime. When he does get another ride, either with Bryan Herta Autosports, or with another team, it could be possible to make use of Wheldon as an In-Race Reporter, something that historically has been very rare in open-wheel coverage (while being a weekly occurrence on NASCAR telecasts for years).
I hope you liked this look back at Versus' telecast of the Honda Indy Toronto. Check out next Thursday's edition of the Critic's Annex, where I will be covering the Prairie Meadows 200 for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards. Until then, have a great weekend.
Phil Allaway is a Senior Writer and the Newsletter Manager for Frontstretch.com. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com.
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Frontstretch Line of the Week
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Frontstretch Line of the Week
From Top Ten Things SMI and Bruton Smith Are Offering Disgruntled Fans
"Wooden nickels. Lots of wooden nickels." - What would a disgruntled fan do with a bunch of wooden nickels? They're not legal tender, although you might be able to fool a vending machine or three. Otherwise, they would most likely be used as projectiles.
"Wooden nickels. Lots of wooden nickels." - What would a disgruntled fan do with a bunch of wooden nickels? They're not legal tender, although you might be able to fool a vending machine or three. Otherwise, they would most likely be used as projectiles.
Have a nominee for Line of the Week? Email Phil Allaway at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com and you may see yourself in this space next week!
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TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:
MPM2Nite: In The Cold Kentucky Pain
by Matt McLaughlin
Remembering Davey Allison, Part Two
by Matt McLaughlin
Potts' Shots: Another New Track... But No Cup Date?
Remembering Davey Allison, Part Two
by Matt McLaughlin
Potts' Shots: Another New Track... But No Cup Date?
by Brett Poirier
by Jeff Meyer
~~~~~~
Get THE ANNUAL, 2011 Racing Preview for your mobile device.
Go to Frontstretch.com and click on "The Annual" link on the right side to order and download this special issue that includes: Track Information, Driver profiles and In-Depth Features.
~~~~~~
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: In 2004, Robby Gordon infamously cussed out Michael Waltrip during a live interview on TNT at New Hampshire. What happened to cause that outburst?
~~~~~~
Get THE ANNUAL, 2011 Racing Preview for your mobile device.
Go to Frontstretch.com and click on "The Annual" link on the right side to order and download this special issue that includes: Track Information, Driver profiles and In-Depth Features.
~~~~~~
FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:
Q: In 2004, Robby Gordon infamously cussed out Michael Waltrip during a live interview on TNT at New Hampshire. What happened to cause that outburst?
Check back Friday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Wednesday's Answer:
Q: Prior to the then-New Hampshire International Speedway being built for 1990, what was the area best known for, racing-wise?
A: Although the track in its former guise (Bryar Motorsports Park) did host IMSA races, it was probably best known for the Loudon Classic, an annual series of motorcycle races. This event survived the construction of the oval and is still held on the track's 1.6 mile road course today. It held its 88th running last month.
Frontstretch Trivia Guarantee: Take the shirt off our backs! If we've provided an incorrect answer to the Frontstretch Trivia question, be the first to email the corrected trivia answer to trivia@frontstretch.com and we'll send you a Frontstretch T-Shirt ... FREE!
~~~~~~~
Coming tomorrow in the Frontstretch Newsletter:
-- Top News by Summer Dreyer
-- Keepin' It Short by Mike Neff
-- In Case You Missed It by Brett Poirier
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
Four Burning Questions: Loudon by Mike Lovecchio
We'll give you a look at important things to look forward to at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend in our racing preview.
Holding A Pretty Wheel by Amy Henderson
-- In Case You Missed It by Brett Poirier
-- Links to your favorite Frontstretch articles, and more!
Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
Four Burning Questions: Loudon by Mike Lovecchio
We'll give you a look at important things to look forward to at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend in our racing preview.
Holding A Pretty Wheel by Amy Henderson
Amy returns with another intriguing commentary heading into Loudon.
Goin' Green by Garrett Horton
Garrett returns with more commentary and insight.
Tearing Apart The Trucks by Beth Lunkenheimer
Beth has a look at Dakoda Armstrong's preparation for his Truck Series debut this weekend at Iowa along with other news bites from around the series.
Driver Diary: Kenny Wallace as told to Amy Henderson
"Herman" returns for another interesting look at the past month on and off the track.
-----------------------------
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Got something to say about an article you've seen in the newsletter? It's as easy as replying directly to this message or sending an email to editors@frontstretch.com. We'll take the best comments and publish them here!
©2011 Frontstretch.com
Goin' Green by Garrett Horton
Garrett returns with more commentary and insight.
Tearing Apart The Trucks by Beth Lunkenheimer
Beth has a look at Dakoda Armstrong's preparation for his Truck Series debut this weekend at Iowa along with other news bites from around the series.
Driver Diary: Kenny Wallace as told to Amy Henderson
"Herman" returns for another interesting look at the past month on and off the track.
-----------------------------
Talk back to the Frontstretch Newsletter!
Got something to say about an article you've seen in the newsletter? It's as easy as replying directly to this message or sending an email to editors@frontstretch.com. We'll take the best comments and publish them here!
©2011 Frontstretch.com
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