ATTENTION NASCAR TV VIEWERS: NASCAR on Fox coverage will begin on SPEED is you have a baseball game in-progress in your area.
The weather is hot, the track is slick and even the veterans had problems in practice and qualifying. It is Saturday night in Darlington, SC.
Chris Myers leads the NASCAR on Fox gang onto the air at 7PM from the Hollywood Hotel. He will be joined by Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond for the pre-race show.
Update: Driver Jeremy Mayfield has been suspended for violating NASCAR's drug policy as a result of a random drug test that was done after the Richmond race. This should be a big topic on the pre-race show, but NASCAR does not disclose if this is a medication that is on the banned list or a recreational drug associated with illegal drug use.
It will be Mike Joy calling the action once the race coverage is underway. Again this week, Joy worked a very long Friday for SPEED that involved many live hours on the air covering practice and qualifying. Now, he faces the task of keeping the excitement level high on a track that has featured very little passing in the COT.
Waltrip and Larry McReynolds are the Fox analysts while Steve Byrnes, Matt Yocum, Krista Voda and Dick Berggren will cover pit road.
Fox has been struggling under the weight of a very heavy sponsorship load. It will be interesting on an action-packed track like Darlington to see how the frequent commercials and sponsor mentions affect the coverage. Digger will also have a presence, from the pre-race cartoon to the frequent commercial inserts.
This track makes great pictures with the Musco lighting and the low-level cameras really conveying the excitement of the sport and the speed of this track. In-cars are effective, but the action happens so quickly that the Director can easily get burned by lingering on the shot.
Tempers have been running a little short recently on the track, so this is really a potential cocktail for trouble between drivers. Scott Speed did not qualify, so his sponsor put him in the Joe Nemechek machine for an undisclosed amount of cash. This week, the Nemechek car will certainly have enough tires to get beyond he first gas run.
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