Note: If your Fox local station leaves the NASCAR coverage, please go to our comments section and tell us your city.
Things change in a hurry in TV land, so this Monday is going to feature two TV networks scrambling all day long. SPEED is first with a one hour edition of RaceDay at 11AM ET. This will serve as the pre-race show, since NASCAR starts all rain delayed races as close to the top of the hour as possible.
That means when the NASCAR on Fox gang comes on the air at 12PM, they will be able to say hello and then the cars will hit the track. The full Fox crew returns led by Mike Joy in the announce booth with Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds.
The Hollywood Hotel may or may not be back, but my guess is Chris Myers and Jeff Hammond should be on-board as usual. Myers dropped his comedy act on Sunday and led the TV team through some great discussions of NASCAR topics in the news. It was an eye-opener for those fans who argue that he is most effective in his assigned role as the class clown.
LMS has taken a lot of water and that normally means that the grassy area inside the frontstretch dogleg will be very damaging to the COT cars should they spin into it. We may well see careful racing because NASCAR is obligated to run the full 600 mile distance unless weather shortens the event after halfway.
No doubt there are some tired TV crew members on both the SPEED and Fox teams. Once the race is over, SPEED has some decisions to make. Originally scheduled for 8PM but taped in the early afternoon is This Week in NASCAR. Fox pit reporter Steve Byrnes is the host, with drivers Michael Waltrip and Marcos Ambrose as the panelists this week.
Also on tap is the Victory Lane show where host John Roberts interviews the winning driver and crew chief with Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace. That program was scheduled for 11PM on Sunday and is not TBA in terms of air times. Perhaps, SPEED may be forced to put Victory Lane into the TWIN spot this week and just move on.
Fox is a broadcast TV network, not a cable outfit like SPEED. Most probably, the decision to show cartoons as standby programming during the rain delay and not NASCAR programming was driven by that issue. Some wonderful programs like Behind the Headsets and the SPEED broadcast of the All-Star race would have fit the bill, but the Fox local stations are used to cartoons in that timeslot. As previously mentioned, some West Cost viewers got to watch infomercials for two hours.
Monday is a new day and optimism is high that the race will be run. This post will serve to host your comments on the Fox broadcast of the rain-delayed Coca-Cola 600 and the RaceDay pre-race show. To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the comments button below.
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