cheerleading, no shilling for a certain manufacturer or certain products, good analysis, and decent commentary. Had it not been for a spin, I’d never have known the Shill-mobile was on the track. And even with Texas Terry filling in for Kyle, there wasn’t any cheerleading or constant coverage from his car although they did have a few roof cam shots from it. I was busy just prior to the race and missed out on the Invocation and National Anthem. Hopefully somebody did them justice for a change.
Mr. Happy had to start from the back of the field due to a dead battery. Somebody left the ignition switch on overnight and killed it. The cutaway car that was being used had plugs for TBS shows on it. I got a good laugh the first time they ran the commercial for Bill Engval’s show, but it wore rather thin, like the panties in the commercial, after the first dozen times. One of the new gimmick ideas from TNT was an overhead camera inside the car. They installed it in Shrub’s car; however, it wouldn’t do them much good.
When the green flag dropped, Jimmie Johnson jumped into the lead leaving pole sitter Kasey Kahne sort of breathing his fumes. I was actually shocked that we had lots of shots of the cars and very few comments from the announcing crew. What a pleasant change from Jabber Jaws and his parrot.
On Lap 4, Stewart was taking a slightly different line through Turn 3 than what everybody else was running and he seemed to have picked up some ground doing that. Lap 5 saw Wallbangdinger slide up in front of Stewart and almost lost it and collected Tony as his car was wobbling and he lost momentum allowing Tony to get back by him. By Lap 6, they’d settled down to single file racing. While the announcing crew wasn’t doing the same cartwheels and handsprings the Foxed up coverage did with their cheerleading, you could see from the shots of the various cars that they were following the Daytona Dictates. They made sure they showed the JGR cars, Hendrick cars, and were also using some of the same gimmick shots that we’d seen earlier this year from Fox, going from bumper cam, to roof cam, back to bumper cam while talking about various drivers. Since we almost had some real excitement, they went to commercial on Lap 7.
When they came back from commercial on Lap 10, it was a blessing of sorts, there was no audio. Then when they did get some audio, it was from a baseball game. We got to see Mark Martin and Cousin Carl on the track and then it was back to commercial, which had audio. When they came back on Lap 14, they had audio again although it sounded like it was coming from an old radio. Johnson was still leading. Kyle Petty gave us an explanation on what a slide job was, which was pretty straight forward. On the next Lap, Webhead was looking for the Shrub. They went to a split screen showing the outside of the car and the overhead cam and you could see Shrub actually shifting. Interesting how with the mandated gearing most drivers haven’t done that in a while. Of course, that might also have something to do with where Shrub started too.
Lap 17 saw Johnson move over and let Kahne take over the lead. Like every race this year, clean air is what makes the difference and this race would be no exception. On the next lap, we got a Master of the Obvious statement from Jabber Jaw’s parrot about the race slowing down. Gee, 17 laps into a run on a 2.5 miles track, do you think the tires might be wearing a little bit? Since we had such a great observation and saw a change of the lead, they decided to go to commercial on Lap 21. Surprisingly, they were only at commercial for one lap and then returned to commercials 5 laps later. When the commercials were interrupted, they were starting the green flag pit stops. I was in the middle of making some notes and mentioned to my race buddy that with Kasey having over a 4 second lead, not to be surprised if Ms Terry DeBris made an appearance. After seeing some cars on the track and some pit stops, it was time once again for commercial programming.
Since they weren’t too good with keeping the ticker running for the laps, much less the running order, it was hard to tell when they came back from commercial. But when they interrupted the commercials, there was a caution. Lo and behold, Ms Terry DeBris came running out there in her birthday suit and disrupted everything. But since they didn’t have a camera to show it, we missed seeing her. What we got to see instead was the race off pit road and then back to more commercials. When they returned, Scott Riggs had stayed out on the track due to an earlier pit stop and had the lead. When the other cars pitted, Truex Jr.’s crew left the catch can laying on the ground instead of moving it to the pit box and Truex Jr. got penalized for that. We got to see a replay of the 6 car trying to get into the pits while Kyle was explaining how tight it was getting into the pit boxes. Ragan had to back up to get into his pit box as he had overshot it a little bit. The only problem is that I seem to recall a problem with another driver getting penalized for doing that last season but no penalty for Ragan. Gotta love the consistency in the enforcement of the rules.
When they restarted on Lap 32, Riggs kept his lead. On the next lap, Kahne tried to pass Riggs but fell back for some unknown reason and got passed by Johnson. But Kasey got his position back. Surprisingly, they actually talked about Riggs. Mark this date down in red on your calendars folks. That wouldn’t happen on Fox. Lap 35 saw Kasey get by Riggs and get the lead in Turn #3. Kasey seemed to have his car dialed in pretty good for that turn as he would get a good run off it the rest of the day. Webhead mentioned several drivers picking up positions, but we didn’t get to see them actually doing it. And since we saw a lead change, it was time for another round of commercials on Lap 37.
When they returned, the race was again under caution. Ears had spun by himself across the track, bounced, went airborne, and straightened it out while doing a fair amount of damage to the splitter. The cars came in for pit stops on Lap 40. Truex Jr. had stopped earlier and stayed out to get the lead. Kahne lost a bunch of positions on pit road. Then it was time again for a return to commercial programming. How would you like to have bikini clad cable installers delivering your pizza with The Closer while they were saving Grace?
When they break into racing again, we got some lead-in plugs, got to see the DirecTV blimp, and then got the restart on Lap 44. Johnson got around Truex Jr. in Turn 1 and pulled away from him. There’s just something about those fresh tires that make a difference. On Lap 45, they were 3 wide going around the track. Truex Jr. continued advancing to the rear as he got passed by Stewart, Cousin Carl, Mark Martin, and Hamlin. On Lap 46, Webhead notified us that Jeffy was moving up. Then in that same shot, Kahne comes out of nowhere and closes in on Jeffy. But the next lap saw the end of the overhead in-car camera shots when Shrub hit the wall. He wasn’t clear and tried to force his way in front of McMurray and McMurray couldn’t move over any further and caught Shrub, spinning him into the wall. Then it was back to commercials. When they restarted on Lap 51, Johnson was still leading, cars went 3-4 wide in Turn 1 back in the pack and thinned out to 2-3 wide in Turn 2. Lap 55, Mark Martin was hungry for some Steak-umms (I wonder why) and Cousin Carl wanted a sandwich. Somebody in the booth noticed Hamlin had some damage to his car and they eventually showed a replay of how he got it on pit road but it didn’t seem to be affecting his performance. Lap 57 saw yet another caution. Hornish got into Carpentier and spun them both out. So it was back to commercials once again. It sure wasn’t going to be a good day for the open wheel refugees.
When they came back from commercial, you couldn’t tell what lap it was but they were showing Kahne’s car. He had gone in for the pits and pulled out after only two tires were put on and 3 lug nuts had been removed from the left front tire, so he had to come back in and got left side tires losing a lot of track position. Jabber Jaw’s parrot came out with yet another Master of the Obvious statement. “There’s no substitute for clean air”. Then we got the trivia question and I sure miss Benny cueing the duck. Instead, we had the dork asking the question. Then they resumed commercial coverage yet again. When they returned 42 cars were on the lead lap, whatever lap it was. They restarted on Lap 64. Why Bono was wearing telestrator marks on his face I’ll never know. Biffle’s cool box had quit working so you know he’d had to be a little steamed up with things going wrong with his cars week after week. Jump ahead to lap 68 when once again Hornish and Carpentier got together and collected Gilliland in the process for Caution #5. TNT was doing a good job of not showing the grandstands. We got a red flag for rain on the track on Lap 71. Apparently it was on the back part of the track because we didn’t see it in the pit area. Wally talked to Cousin Carl on the radio and it was pretty straight forward. Long runs versus short runs, strategy, and no heavy breathing, moaning and groaning, or calls for fresh sheets or a change of underwear like we had during the Foxed up coverage.
They went to commercial and came back to restart on Lap 71. Kahne’s error had cost him a bunch of positions but he was slowly working his way back up. Lap 77 there was a discussion of Biffle’s contract while they showed his car and also discussed the crew changes on his team. While there may have been things going on further back, the focus was on the Top 10 for most of the race to this point. On Lap 81, they were showing Stewart passing Jr. when Bowyer wrecked and collected the Diversity Program Driver along the way for Caution #6. JPM went to a point where he thought some fire fighters were and exited the car. It took a while for the firefighters to get there while his car sat there burning. They finally showed the replay and Bowyer had lost control. We don’t know if it was for a tire going flat or what. There was a big push for a new racing game up to this point and it would continue. So it was off to Commercial-Land once again. They missed the restart, God forbid they don’t show enough commercials for the TBS fall line up. When they did interview Bowyer, he admitted he made a mistake.
Jump ahead to Lap 105 when the Shill-mobile spun all by himself. No excuses from Jabber Jaws or his parrot and nobody taking the air off of him or other excuses being offered up. He spun by himself and that was pretty much it. That was about the only time we heard about the Shill-mobile.
On Lap 110, they interviewed Shrub and two words he said pretty well described the race to that point. “It sucks”.
Jump ahead again to sometime after Lap 117 when they were at commercial, Franchitti and another open wheel refugee wrecked. DW’s parrot was blabbering on about Jr.’s in-car audio and Kyle gave a good explanation of aero and mechanical grip. Jump ahead to Lap 130 when Franchitti wrecked once again and collected Hornish. Before they went to commercial, they played that still tired version of “Born to be Wild” that they ran into the ground last season. When they came back from commercial, Shrub was back on the track. DW’s parrot was explaining the strategy of the 48 team sort of like Professor Irwin Corey from back in the 1960‘s. He said a lot but didn’t say anything. Kyle explained it in much simpler terms. The 48 team was using a road course strategy for their pit stops.
Jump ahead to Lap 163. Kyle explained that when those cars ran out of fuel, they were out. No more of this down to 4 pounds of pressure it’s time to pit. Lap 164, Biffle pitted and was nailed for too fast exiting. That killed his chances of a win yet again. Lap 170 had 28 cars on the lead lap. Lap 171, Tony pitted and Zippy told him to save some fuel. Tony got nailed for too fast exiting pit road. Then we got yet one more caution when the 18 spun by himself. Amazing how these cautions happen when a JGR car is in trouble. This made a major change in pit strategy. Edwards was going to pit but changed his mind when he saw the red light indicating pit road was closed. Carl had to pit the next time around as he had a flat rear tire.
Jump ahead to Lap 193. Matt Kenseth and
Bobby Labonte were running 8th & 9th and they
finally mentioned Bobby. Kyle said that while
Bobby wasn’t always the fastest car in the Top
10, he was in the Top 10 when it counted. Kahne
had continued to lead and had a 3.4 second lead.
Time again for Ms Terry DeBris? Nope, we were
spared her presence this late in the race. Kahne
was keeping a comfortable lead. Lap 197 we got
to see Jr. and Jeff Burton going at it. Burton was
on Jr.’s bumper, then passed him and then Jr.
got around Burton to get the position back.
When Kasey crossed the finish line, Brian
Vickers was no where in sight. Vickers and
Hamlin were the only cars from the Japanese manufacturer in the Top 10. Kahne and Ears were the only Dodges, and Kenseth and Cousin Carl were the only Fords. Despite starting last, Mr. Happy finished a respectable 13th place.
While the coverage was a little rough in spots and they didn’t go overboard with graphics like the Foxed up coverage, they could at least run the lap counter and running order ticker a little more than they did and cut back on the TBS show graphics. Please show us more than 12 cars during the race. Webhead didn’t put his foot in his mouth very much, Wally was relatively quiet, and Kyle did a great job with his commentary. DW’s parrot deserves a couple of crackers for being quiet as much as he was. The shilling for products was at a minimum, except when DW’s parrot blurted out the fuel and tire provider a couple of times. Sponsor names and car brands were kept to a minimum. Cheerleading wasn’t anything like the Foxed up coverage. They did follow HRH’s dictates on what would be covered although they didn’t do the accompanying cheerleading. So to give them a grade, I’d have to say they deserve a C-. Correct the sound during the ads, the lighting during the race, and show the racing instead of the Daytona dictates and you might get a higher grade. One down and 5 races to go. Can you finish higher than an F+ TNT?
We want to welcome home the crew of the USS Tarawa from the ships final deployment. She will be decommissioned in March 2009 and the last of her class to be decommissioned. During the deployment, Tarawa and her crew sailed over 36,000 miles and visited four continents. They supported over 1,300 Marines from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit; aided the citizens of Bangladesh and Djibouti through medical and dental civil action projects; and welcomed aboard officials from Pakistan, France, Ethiopia, Egypt and the U.S., impressing upon them the capabilities of an American warship. While it’s sad to see a great ship decommissioned, she served her country well and aided in civilian disasters proving that our military is capable of something more than just defending our nation. So to the fine folks of the Tarawa, welcome home and thanks for all you've done and the sacrifices that you, your friends, and family have made.
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