The 50th Daytona 500 in HDTV on FOX
720p & DD5.1
Live from Daytona Beach, FL
February 17th, 2008


Road to Daytona
A behind-the-scenes look at the testing and training NASCAR teams experience every January prior to the start of the season in Daytona Beach.
1pm ET


Pre Race
FOX CELEBRATES THE GREAT AMERICAN RACE'S 50TH BIRTHDAY — FOX Sports proudly presents the 50th running of the Daytona 500 with an electrifying 80 minute prerace show to celebrate the races history and most memorable moments from the past 49 races. Hosted by Chris Myers along with analysts Jeff Hammond and Darrell Waltrip the show is a special tribute to living racing legends who have won the Daytona 500 including Bobby Allison, Richard Petty and FOX's very own Waltrip.

In addition to previewing Sunday's race, FOX welcomes motorsports broadcasting legend Ken Squier as a special contributor to the broadcast, adding historical perspective. It was Squier who called the first live televised Daytona 500 back in 1979 and who coined the phrase "The Great American Race." Also in the prerace, NASCAR on FOX analyst Larry McReynolds takes a look back at the late Dale Earnhardt's first and only Daytona 500 win in 1998 where he served as crew chief.

GOPHER CAM PROVIDES "HOLE" NEW PERSPECTIVE — Imagine that your ultimate wish is to stand trackside at the world's most famous superspeedway, inches away as the best drivers anywhere whiz by at a breathless 185 miles per hour. That's the view Gopher Cam provides at the 50th Daytona 500 and beyond. Gopher Cam is a small, stationary high-definition point-of-view camera buried underneath the asphalt track surface, inches below the yellow line at Daytona International Speedway. There are four Gopher Cams in-place for the 50th Daytona 500, one in each of the track's four turns.

This is the first instance where a camera has been installed below the surface of a superspeedway, and the first time that a sub-track surface camera is HD caliber. The cameras have also been paired with high quality condenser microphones, another first, for an unbelievably realistic audio/video experience. Cars rolling over them will have no idea of their presence.
2pm ET


2008 Daytona 500
NASCAR on FOX's broadcast team of analysts Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds join race announcer Mike Joy for Daytona 500 action. The newly-titled Sprint Cup season opens with the 50th Great American Race in Daytona Beach. Seven-time champ Richard Petty and the 23 other living winners of the race will serve as grand marshals. Jimmie Johnson and Michael Waltrip start in Row 1.
3:30pm ET



NASCAR Purists Cite Need 'To Get Back to Banjos'

By Liz Clarke, Washington Post

"Change" may be the buzzword among Democrats this election cycle, but as NASCAR kicks off its 2008 season with Sunday's Daytona 500, the term is virtually taboo.

No sport grew faster than stock-car racing in the 1990s. And under third-generation CEO Brian France, NASCAR revved up efforts to woo new fans even more aggressively in recent years. It revamped its championship formula, changed title sponsors, redesigned its racecar and tried updating its image. But after two consecutive years of declining TV ratings, France conceded last month that it's time NASCAR put the brakes on change and tried to reclaim its bond with core fans.

"We're getting back to the basics," said France, 45. "Change is good to a certain point, but we've got all the change we think the sport can stand and needs."

France stopped short of conceding that NASCAR had erred in its rush to win over casual sports fans -- whether by delaying the traditional 1 p.m. starting time of races to late afternoon to capture West Coast viewers or by building bistros and martini bars in once-raucous infields. But many insiders believe the effort simply alienated longtime fans in the process.

"We need to get back to banjos and get rid of the violins," said veteran promoter H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, president of Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C. "We got a little too fancy there for a while, and it's not a fancy sport. It's guys with big hands getting sweaty and getting out there and banging on each other and knocking each other around, and all-American fans sitting out there having a good time. A lot of things that we tried to introduce into this just fell flat, didn't work and are not gonna work. I think that it's something [France] certainly recognizes now. This is meat and potatoes; this is not caviar and smoked salmon."

NASCAR's mea culpa comes with the 50th running of the Daytona 500, which will be slathered in tributes to a heritage that France seemed to want to distance his sport from -- if not deny outright -- not long ago.

Junior Johnson, 76, the legendary moonshine runner turned stock-car racer, will serve as the honorary pace-car driver.

Country music's Brooks & Dunn will headline the prerace entertainment, while Trisha Yearwood will sing the national anthem. Seven-time NASCAR champion Richard Petty will serve as the honorary starter. And 24 past Daytona 500 champions will give the famous command, "Gentlemen, start your engines!"

Nearly all those past champions have been feted in the infield of Daytona International Speedway in recent days, taking part in autograph sessions with fans and sitting down with reporters to reminisce and tell tales.

Marvin Panch, 81, recounted the first Daytona 500 in 1959, in which roughly half the drivers raced in convertibles and the others raced in hardtops -- a promotional gimmick that NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. didn't try again. Barrel-chested A.J. Foyt, 73, laughed about winning a race at Daytona in the mid-1960s despite sliding through the last turn on the last lap with his car slung completely sideways. And Johnson explained why he got more satisfaction out of winning a NASCAR race than outrunning the revenue agents who were trying to arrest him.

"A lot of them racers were bootleggers," he said, "so if you beat them, you beat more capable people!"

It was impossible to deny the grit and character of NASCAR's old racers -- strapping men, still, whether in their 60s, 70s or 80s -- who told stories with as much flair as they raced decades ago.

As NASCAR mulls over how to shore up its fan base this season, many believe that drivers' personalities are the places to start.

"In my opinion, way too much emphasis is put on championships and points," says veteran racer Mark Martin, 49, who'll compete in his 24th Daytona 500 on Sunday. "What about the heroes? Back in the day, it was about the man! It was about Cale Yarborough, the man! It was about David Pearson, the man! No one exploits the individual anymore. It's just about: 'Did he score points? Is he going to win the championship?' But for the fans, it's about the personalities. And there is not enough focus on the real personalities in the sport."

NASCAR officials were confronted with more personality than they knew how to handle in the run-up to the race, when Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch wrecked each other during practice at Daytona. According to some accounts, Stewart finished the fracas by punching his least favorite competitor during a closed-door meeting with NASCAR officials.

Four days later, NASCAR officials issued sanctions so nebulous that it left drivers, car owners, journalists and fans scratching their heads, still unclear how much emotion and personality the sport now deems acceptable.

"I really don't know what probation is," fellow racer Elliott Sadler confessed. "I think that it's a little bit more lenient than what it would have been in the past."

Regardless, Sadler approved of NASCAR's non-call.

"I think it's great for our sport," he added. "I think NASCAR could not have written a better intro into the Daytona 500 -- people wrecking in practice, people fighting and hitting each other on pit road and stuff like that, and Dale [Earnhardt] Jr. winning the first race of the season. I don't think you can penalize those guys for that. You have two great racecar drivers going for the same piece of real estate. Let them be their two personalities. I think it's going to make better racing for everybody."

More information on the Gopher Cam.

Fox Sports Gophercam brings roadkill view to Daytona 500, 2008 NASCAR coverage
By Ken Kerschbaumer

Fox Sports is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Daytona 500 with a new HD camera angle that sounds like something out of Caddyshack but would make NASCAR founder Bill France proud: Gophercam. The specialty camera, based around Sony one-third-inch CMOS chip imaging technology, a DPA microphone and built by Inertia Unlimited, will be placed within the pavement of the track on the apex of each turn and give viewers a gopher’s view of oncoming NASCAR race cars zipping overhead at upwards of 200 mph. “No gophers were harmed,” jokes David Hill, Fox Sports CEO, “and this is the most compelling shot I have ever seen in the history of sports. It reinforces the speed and precision at which the sport is raced.”

Michael Davies, Fox Sports director of engineering, says the idea for Gophercam was born last season by NASCAR on Fox Director Artie Kempner. Fox trialed an SD version of the camera in Texas, Charlotte and Delaware and showed video of the coverage to Hill. “He decided almost immediately that he wanted to have four of them at every track,” says Davies.

The cameras, designed closely with NASCAR Media Group, are nearly flush with the track and less obtrusive than a lane reflector on a highway. The discrete footprint ensures the camera does not endanger drivers while also minimizing potential damage to the camera that results from being run over thousands of times by more than 40 cars traveling great speeds.

Jeff Silverman, owner of Inertia Unlimited who designed the camera, knew the system would need to be HD to meet Fox broadcast criteria. The problem last year was that there was not an HD solution as HD POV cameras had camera control units. In addition, they were all multicore, making it impossible to get signals off the track due to distance constraints. But in the NASCAR off-season he found an imager by Sony that would do the trick. With some heavy modifications that included building a circuit board to output component HD he was able to build a small 1080i/720p switchable camera that could fit into a cylinder that is four inches in diameter and about four inches tall. Given the go-ahead by NASCAR to proceed with the project he turned around fully operational units in about a month.

The cameras have already been installed in tracks in California, Las Vegas and Daytona. Each camera requires a four-inch core to be drilled into the track and a cylinder to be placed within the core. The camera is then dropped into the cylinder and connected via a 15-pin connector by seven wires that are stacked on top of each other in a one-eighth inch channel that runs to an AJA box that converts the component signal to HD SDI. A Telecast Fiber HD POV link then muxes audio, data, and video into two strands of fiber that run back to the compound to another Telecast box.

One innovation in the camera system is the use of a prism to minimize the camera’s above-surface footprint. With the prism only the custom-designed lens is above the surface (and within a metal plate). Images are then passed through the prism and to the camera but, because of the prism, images are reversed. An Ensemble Designs frame synchronizer flips images back to normal. A Bradley Engineering-designed remote control panel controls gain and color.

“The challenge for us in the TV industry is to capture the sights and sounds of NASCAR,” says Michael Waltrip, NASCAR on Fox analyst. “This isn’t a gimmick or a gadget but a way for the guy at home to say ‘I get it, NASCAR is exciting.’”

Gophercam is the big new feature for viewers but for Fox Sports the big accomplishment was using the same production trucks back to back on arguably the two biggest televised sporting events: the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500.

“What we accomplished last year in two weeks we had to do in two-and-a-half days,” says Davies. Before the ice in champagne buckets used by the New York Giants could even melt, Game Creek’s Fox units, used in Phoenix for Super Bowl XLII on Sunday, April 4, began the cross-country journey to Daytona so they could arrive by April 7.

While the Game Creek trucks traveled day and night across the country Nascar Media Group was completing all long-haul fiber runs and interconnects at the track. Once the trucks were onsite in Daytona they had to transition from NFL mode to NASCAR mode: loading in new elements, rebuilding the tape room, redoing audio. “Software files are used for some things but it did require some hardpatching and reconfiguring the layout of the video panels,” explains Davies.

Silverman also made the trip from the Super Bowl and quickly through himself into the down-and-dirty task of using a concrete saw and drill to install the cameras. The next steps will involve constant evaluation of where best to place the cameras on the track to satisfy viewer’s need for speed.

“We’re being conservative in the placement of the cameras on super speedways,” he adds. “This is a multi-year project and we’re proceeding with an abundance of caution. But on slower tracks we should be able to get more aggressive with the camera placement. At a track like Bristol these cameras will be outstanding.”

“This gives viewers a better sense of the banking and we’ll be taking it through the full tour,” adds Ed Goren, Fox Sports president.


© Copyright 2006-2007 sportsvideogroup

Should have already started. ;)

SD so far here :(

So far the pre-race PQ is the best I've ever seen on a Fox sporting event.

OTA in Richmond, VA here.

Reminder to FOX in NY (or wherever the distribution mux is): Please temporarily drop all SD and HD feeds that will not be needed for race coverage from the mux pool so the HD bitrates can be as high as possible (15.5-17 mbps video range). Thanks.

Odd choices for the video screens in the Hollywood Hotel. When they did a quick intro at 1 PM they used a robo camera in turn 4, at 2 PM it was a camera shot from the front stands with people's heads in the foreground and now a camera from the starters stand.

Mark Martin
Ftw
;)

No HD on WTXF Fox philly. comcast, Reading,PA

HD looks great, OTA WSYM in lansing and MPEG4HD 799 D* Nascar Hotpass

Still SD here on WTXF :mad:

So they liked the 60s so much they played it twice, so then they played the 80s twice. Tape is having a great day so far and the race has not even started.

The taped interview with Larry Mac had color bars on the screen in the background which switch to a NASCAR on FOX logo half way through the interview.

What is up with the lip syncing during the musical performances??!?!

sure wish fox would go 1080i and compress less, it's evident when the cams pan :/

In HD on WGHP-DT in NASCARs home market and the number 1 rated NASCAR market, Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem, NC.

Looks/sounds great on KTVU-San Francisco-Comcast.

Say WOOO Dale! :)

http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/3655/xetv2008feb17lb2.th.jpg (http://img116.imageshack.us/my.php?image=xetv2008feb17lb2.jpg)

FOX really does do NASCAR the best.

sure wish fox would go 1080i and compress less, it's evident when the cams pan :/

I'm upconverting in my SA4250 box to the TV...looks really good...

simply amazing. i didn't get to watch the Super Bowl at home on my Tosh, was at a friend's watching on their Vizio...finally get to watch a great sporting event at home....unbelievable...I did watch the Bud shootout last week, but it doesn't compare to the Daytona 500 in terms of how it is broadcast...and the late afternoon Daytona sun makes all the cars pop...can you say I'm a little excited?

only thing i wish they didn't shoot in 4x3 safe....can't stand the dead space on the left and right of the screen at times!

Hey, bdfox18doe, about your attachment: Is WCCB-SD a visible subchannel (18-2 with the Doppler subchannel being 18-3)? Is it Spanish only, or is there English audio available? Does the splicer allow two subchannels (I thought it only allowed one)? Is that extra SD feed influencing HD bandwidth?

(Oh, and the FCC legal ID on the Doppler subchannel is technically wrong: The FOX logo's not supposed to be between "WCCB-DT" and "Charlotte" :))

The race looks pretty good so far on an SDTV OTA/WTTG-DT/DC.

Watching on WJBK in Detroit via Comcast, looks really good.

Some of the gopher cams really don't work to well with graphics on the screen, too much screen real estate taken up.

Hey, bdfox18doe, about your attachment: .

All the answers you seek are there in the attachment. :)

Video looks horrible with a whole lot of audio drop outs. WDFX has to be one of the worst Fox Sations there is.

Hub

I decided to record the race on DirecTV NASCAR HOTPASS channel 799 so that I could switch to driver audio when I felt like it. It worked earlier before the race, when I wasn't actually recording the event, but now it doesn't work at all. Should this feature be able to work during a recording??

its looking good here just noticing the usual delays between D* and OTA..

IM WATCHING ONE TV.. OTA WVBT-DT (NORFOLK, VA)
ANOTHER on GORDON IN HD, and another on Jr in SD.

The graphic that FOX is using for Kyle Busch with the number 18 is different depending on use.

On lower thirds the graphic shows a white 18 on a yellow background, to match the colors of the car. On the scoring ticker the 18 car has a green background and a red number which matches the 18 car from last year.

Anyone else having sound drop offs when the commercials are on? I am not having trouble when the race is shown. I am watching with an HR20, through WTTG DC

Please give the gopher animation a rest. Thank you.

I like the use of the two box for replays this year.

Hey Fox, when a caution is out while you are on break TELL US WHY IT IS OUT right away.

The graphic that FOX is using for Kyle Busch with the number 18 is different depending on use.

On lower thirds the graphic shows a white 18 on a yellow background, to match the colors of the car. On the scoring ticker the 18 car has a green background and a red number which matches the 18 car from last year.

Scoring graphic has been changed to a red background and a white 18, still does not match what they have been using for the lower thirds.

Hey Fox, when a caution is out while you are on break TELL US WHY IT IS OUT right away.
Umm, they did...debris.

They never did show the debris though.

Guess I missed it

Looking and sounding good on FOX 40 Sacramento!

looks and sounds great as usual from Fox doing NASCAR. Ayone check out Hot Pass in HD on D*? Channels 795-799. It's free this week. Pretty cool.

Have been listening to the stereo downmix on a 14" Tv using the Insignia
NS-DXA1 ATSC NTIA "coupon" box ,.. Excellent downmix with clear and very intelligible announcers.

Now back to sap so I don't have to listen to DW..:)

Oh, dear; bluish tint has developed in the shadows (visible on the SAFER barriers, and to a certain extent the track and cars). Grass somewhat dull and too bluish-gray for my liking, though not horrific. Colors still good in the sun (well, a bit of a yellow hue, but that's to be expected with the setting sun).

The sound has been good throughout the race, although Wendel's 5.1 mix of the NBC hockey game is a bit richer (that being viewed OTA/WRC-DT/DC).

Would you like good color in the sun (how the whole race has been) or in the shade? Ever do video as the sun goes down and the color temp changes? This isn't unique to HD and DTV didn't try to solve it. Color balance will change around the track every lap until the sun is totally down and the lights take over. Then it will stabilize.It looks like the fixed shots are pretty close (Flagman shot as I was writing this.)

OK, with the sun down and the lights up, white balance seems to have returned to normal.

Wow, that last 15-18 laps was what this sport is all about, great racing.

Great end to the race. Race coverage looked good. Best new part of Fox's coverage this year is the two box being used for replays during green flag racing.

Nice to see Fox use two blimps for the coverage. They provided some great shots throughout the race, in place of the Cable Cam which was not used this year.

Nice job by WGHP in western North Carolina! Excellent picture and sound.

Please give the gopher animation a rest. Thank you.
No kidding. That thing was annoying as hell. At least they didn't show it every single time they showed that camera. Didn anyone else see that Decision 2008 banner pop up near the end of the race?

Great PQ, WHBQ, Memphis, no subs.

Was hoping Hamlin would be more of a force. They never mentioned why he had that damage, and each time he would start moving up he would get knicked in a wreck.

No kidding. That thing was annoying as hell. At least they didn't show it every single time they showed that camera.
The graphic was bad enough, to have a sound effect to go with it was even worse.

Didn anyone else see that Decision 2008 banner pop up near the end of the race?


Yes, I wonder if that was put in from LA because it was not 4x3 safe.

I watched most of the race on Hotpass but I switched to my OTA HD for the final laps. Excellent PQ and sound here.

So far the pre-race PQ is the best I've ever seen on a Fox sporting event.

OTA in Richmond, VA here.

The pre-race HQ sucked IMHO. Tons of artifacts as the camera panned across the crowd and on the wide shots of the bands. Seen this before on last year's Fox NASCAR coverage. Closeups were good, and the main race was decent PQ.

Watching WJW-DT Cleveland OTA and via D* on a 50" 1080p plasma.

The HotPass on D* 790's channels was cool. Liked how I could pick a driver's radio with the red button on the remote. That's the first live "interactive" TV type thing I've seen.

BTW who was the dude in the denim jacket singing the 50's bebop tune during the pregame? His lipsync was so bad you could see him saying completely different words to the audience as the sound track blared.

For some reason this thread didn't show up on a couple different computers at the house. Was checking all afternoon. I was wondering if nobody was watching this race or what the deal was.

The pre-race HQ sucked IMHO. Tons of artifacts as the camera panned across the crowd and on the wide shots of the bands. Seen this before on last year's Fox NASCAR coverage. Closeups were good, and the main race was decent PQ.

Some of what you may be seeing is breakups in the RF camera at the site. The RF cameras do breakup occasionally.

I believe you are thinking of Chubby Checker...and I noticed the lip sync was way off to. Also, you should see what the RF handhelds look like when the antenna is moving-- Its not pretty. By the way, over all I thought the production looked pretty good except for excessive use of the gopher cam graphic and tape's big screw up during the pre-game. There were some very unhappy people in the truck when that happened not to mention some rumbling about the gopher graphic being dumb/stupid/over played/etc.

sure wish fox would go 1080i

You should move to Australia ;). We had it for the first time in HD live this morning (started around 6am). What I saw looked great too, even though it was lacking the DD5.1 audio (not sure why since the Rugby from France was in 5.1).

A few caps of the pre-race studio and a couple of the lower camera shots of the track for those interested.

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/4380/daytona5002008tenhdaustfj0.th.jpg (http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/4380/daytona5002008tenhdaustfj0.jpg) http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/4043/daytona5002008tenhdaustvi3.th.jpg (http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/4043/daytona5002008tenhdaustvi3.jpg) http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/5151/daytona5002008tenhdaustgi7.th.jpg (http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/5151/daytona5002008tenhdaustgi7.jpg) http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/5484/daytona5002008tenhdaustps8.th.jpg (http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/5484/daytona5002008tenhdaustps8.jpg) http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/2373/daytona5002008tenhdaustlf6.th.jpg (http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/2373/daytona5002008tenhdaustlf6.jpg)

I should note too that the Ten HD Sports watermark was lowered for this event to cater for the FOX ticker at the top of the screen.

Great race, decent HD, way too many commercials (at least with the Hot Pass freebie you could watch the race somewhat and mute the audio).

Please give the gopher animation a rest. Thank you.
The only time I want to see a gopher that much is when I watch Caddyshack

I think Fox was taking lessons from NBC at the end of the race. Did we really need to watch the last 2 laps with that split screen in-car BS? It's the last 2 laps! Show the damned race on the whole screen!

I'm also surpised that they didn't cut to commercial on the last lap. They seemed to use every single other opportunity to go to commercial. I was watching a Skynrd concert on one of the HD stations during commercials. Free Bird just started during a commercial set. During the next commercial I went back and listened to more of Free bird, and during the THIRD commercial break, I got to catch the end of Free Bird. I know Free Bird is a long song, but jesus!!!!! Fox cut to commercial 3 times during the span of one damned song!

Would you like good color in the sun (how the whole race has been) or in the shade? Ever do video as the sun goes down and the color temp changes? This isn't unique to HD and DTV didn't try to solve it. Color balance will change around the track every lap until the sun is totally down and the lights take over. Then it will stabilize.It looks like the fixed shots are pretty close (Flagman shot as I was writing this.)

That's right. A low sun is hard to adjust for. Try shooting with a digital SLR camera at that time too. It's a bear.

I'm also surpised that they didn't cut to commercial on the last lap. They seemed to use every single other opportunity to go to commercial. I was watching a Skynrd concert on one of the HD stations during commercials. Free Bird just started during a commercial set. During the next commercial I went back and listened to more of Free bird, and during the THIRD commercial break, I got to catch the end of Free Bird. I know Free Bird is a long song, but jesus!!!!! Fox cut to commercial 3 times during the span of one damned song!

That is what happens when there is so much green flag racing as there was yesterday.

They shove a hundred minutes of commercials down your throat every week regardless of how many cautions there are. Check out jayski.com some monday morning for the commercial breakdown for the previous race. It's appalling every week.

I liked the use of hte two-box vidoe at times. However, I really wish they could start allowing the edges of the HD screen to be used. It sucks having these tiny boxes with all the real estate being blank on the sides. (yes, I know they have to cater to SD, but at least go to the edge of the SD signal and stop allowing for so much SD overscan.)

Also, in the past, didn't they allow the pit road view on one side to go right off the edge of the SD brodcast so that HD people got to see extra picture. This time, they cut it off.

They shove a hundred minutes of commercials down your throat every week regardless of how many cautions there are. Check out jayski.com some monday morning for the commercial breakdown for the previous race. It's appalling every week.

The number of commercials is the same, but with more cautions the timing would have been different.

Looking at the commercial breakdown there were fewer commercials by time and percentage of the race coverage then last year.

By the way, over all I thought the production looked pretty good except for excessive use of the gopher cam graphic and tape's big screw up during the pre-game. There were some very unhappy people in the truck when that happened not to mention some rumbling about the gopher graphic being dumb/stupid/over played/etc.
I missed a lot of the pre-race coverage. What happened?

Hopefully the people in the truck have some pull about pulling the gopher cam animation. I think the camera is a cool idea, especially on tracks with high banking in the corners. But the animation is so 3rd grade. Show it once and be done with it.

I missed a lot of the pre-race coverage. What happened?

They were doing a piece on Daytona through the decades to celebrate 50 years at Daytona. There was a piece for each decade that they scattered throughout the pre race. They played the 60's piece twice after which Chris Myers said they liked the 60's so much they decided to play it again. Then he said they would look at the 80's, only problem was they also had already showed the 80's piece. After two wrong pieces they finally got the 90's piece on air.

Great race, decent HD, way too many commercials

I have a feeling that FOX America had an awful lot of commercials. We came back from break and usually had around 2 minutes of silence from an onboard camera with no ticker, etc. Did you have that or were you still in commercial break? If so, that is an extreme amount of adverts.

I think Fox was taking lessons from NBC at the end of the race. Did we really need to watch the last 2 laps with that split screen in-car BS? It's the last 2 laps! Show the damned race on the whole screen!


Our household was SCREAMING about that. SHOW THE DAMNED RACE in the last couple of laps. I don't need to see someone's bumper.

I didn't really have any problems with the coverage. I've noticed that all networks seem to have problems with the cars of Stewart and J. Burton though, as their cars seem to be completely different shades of orange in successive shots, although I didn't really notice too much of that last night.

P.S. - That Toyota FanController commercial was easily one of the funniest commercials I've ever seen. Conversely, that Sprint 'Speed is Beautiful' commercial (with the 'glowing creatures' on top of the cars) was sorta interesting at first then became one of the most annoying commercials of the night.

Wow, that last 15-18 laps was what this sport is all about, great racing.

Naaah the yellow flag laps ruined it...

Kyle Busch had the car and position to win it, jelous "teammates" and competition were his demise (no one helping him at the end) now "real teammates" was a key factor for the Newman victory.

Naaah the yellow flag laps ruined it...

Kyle Busch had the car and position to win it, jelous "teammates" and competition were his demise (no one helping him at the end) now "real teammates" was a key factor for the Newman victory.

Yes, I was talking about laps left to go from about 45-25, before the cautions at the end.

I was kinda bummed out that the current position ticker didn't update automatically like it did last year. It only updated each time through but some drivers could've been 10 places higher/lower.

I was kinda bummed out that the current position ticker didn't update automatically like it did last year. It only updated each time through but some drivers could've been 10 places higher/lower.

I don't remember the Fox ticker updating at all. The ESPN ticker did update as it was scrolling.

Naaah the yellow flag laps ruined it...

Kyle Busch had the car and position to win it, jelous "teammates" and competition were his demise (no one helping him at the end) now "real teammates" was a key factor for the Newman victory.

Agree that Newman's win was only posible with Kurt Busch's help, but here's what Stewart said after, from MSNBC:

Running out front in the high line, he held off the two Penske cars as they circled the famed speedway. But as the Penske teammates closed in on him, Stewart didn’t feel safe running alone without any allies.

At the last second, he dropped low on the track to line up in front of Kyle Busch. The JGR teams had talked all week about the importance of teamwork, and Stewart thought he’d need Busch to make it to the checkered flag.

But the decision backfired in the blink of an eye.

Stewart couldn’t hook up with Kyle Busch fast enough, and the two Penske cars steamrolled past him on the top.

Newman pulled away for his first win since New Hampshire in September 2005, while Stewart had to settle for third.

“I don’t think there’s too many people that would take the white flag and like finishing third,” a dejected Stewart sighed. “We tried to win the Daytona 500. That’s all I can say. I just made the wrong decision on the backstretch.

“My intention was to get in front of Kyle and pull Kyle along with us. It’s hard to explain. It’s probably one of the most disappointing moments in my racing career."

And Stewart was saying on the radio, that he will hookup with Kyle until the white flag, when the green flag dropped on the last restart, he went in a different line, I bet the team meeting today (or yesterday) was interesting..

And Stewart was saying on the radio, that he will hookup with Kyle until the white flag, when the green flag dropped on the last restart, he went in a different line, I bet the team meeting today (or yesterday) was interesting..

Well, sure it was a screwup, but you said the Toyota/Gibbs teammates screwed each other. I don't know one way or the other.

It is what it is. It's racing. It's the 50th Daytona 500! Every driver wants to win it so badly. I can't fault anybody, except for poor communication within the 88 ranks!

BTW I'll be at Fontana this Sunday!! Race on!!!!

I watched the start of the race live, then a complete hockey game live, going back to the race during the hockey breaks. Watched all the green flag laps and caught up to live action just before the end. Calling Winston Cup, Sprint is an oxymoron.

It I can't fault anybody, except for poor communication within the 88 ranks!

BTW I'll be at Fontana this Sunday!! Race on!!!!

I can't figure that one out. Does the system they use not allow someone to talk if others are? If so, surely, everyone should know to shut the heck up when a yellow hits and they come to the pit commitment line. If not, why didn't Eury Jr just then to shut up and then tell him?

Have fun at Fontana. I definitely want to get over there for a race at some point.

I can't figure that one out. Does the system they use not allow someone to talk if others are? If so, surely, everyone should know to shut the heck up when a yellow hits and they come to the pit commitment line. If not, why didn't Eury Jr just then to shut up and then tell him?

Have fun at Fontana. I definitely want to get over there for a race at some point.

The communication system is a half-duplex system. It allows for only one way communication at a time.

I missed the Dale Jarred explanation of why he has now #44 (1/2 of 88) this time, even keeping the sponsor for a few races, I guess he didn't do good enough to retire his number (and Jr. Getting it).

And shame on the open wheel stock car wannabees, they shoulda stayed on the races that they can win, maybe they will be contenders in the very few road courses. They aren't helping the open wheel series this way.

I missed the Dale Jarred explanation of why he has now #44 (1/2 of 88) this time, even keeping the sponsor for a few races, I guess he didn't do good enough to retire his number (and Jr. Getting it).


He was 44 last year as well, he switched to 44 when he joined Micheal Waltrip Racing. The 88 was owned by Yates Racing up until this year.

Eh. Well he actually ran the 44 last year...when he left Yates and moved to Michael Waltrip Racing. He's retiring after the first 5 races. He's thankfully taken over the ESPN booth duties from Rusty Wallace.

Yates let Jr have the 88 and they brought back the 28 on their shattered, and nearly shuttered, team.

As far as the open wheel guys? They want to race, and do it in the top American series. You can't blame the drivers for the state of open wheel in this country.

As far as the open wheel guys? They want to race, and do it in the top American series. You can't blame the drivers for the state of open wheel in this country.

you're right just two letters to blame "TG"

The numbers don't belong to the teams. They belong to NASCAR. If you don't use a number they can give it to someone else. Yates decided they wanted the 28 more than the 88.

Yeah but Yates had to decide not to use the 88, which was very nice of them, and NASCAR lets the teams pretty much do what they want w/ regard to the numbers.

you're right just two letters to blame "TG"

Hey now that there are more Indy 500 winners in NASCAR than the IRL we hear that reunification could happen this year or next.

Barn. Door. Closed.


(...another bitter open wheel fan)

It won't bother me a bit to see Rusty 'that's fur sure' Wallace gone. However, I wonder if they can work a 2 or 3 hour pre-race show into the mix. I kept looking for the green flag - more BS talk. One of the networks used to run a until green flag clock on screen. Need to bring that back.

Just go to nascar.com and look at the radio schedule. The radio program starts pretty close to the start of the race. I skipped all of the inane prerace crap on Fox and Speed.

On another note, they ruined Inside Nextel Cup Racing and made it into every other nascar show on speed. All that is left on speed that I will watch news wise is Windtunnel.

On another note, they ruined Inside Nextel Cup Racing...

Agree 100%. Hasn't been that great since they got rid of Allen Bestwick anyway. But the new show is a mess.

People complained about Allen. People complained about Dave. People complained about the old format. People are complaining about he new format. No matter what Speed of NASCAR does people end up complaining.

I complain that I have to drive 8 hours to go to the nearest race... LOL