7PM - The race is on hold due to rain and Fox has returned to regular programming. TDP will update you on the progress of drying the track.
This is a huge telecast for the NASCAR on Fox gang. There is only one more race for this TV team after today. It has been a very long season for Fox filled with all kinds of issues both on and off the track.
At 5PM it will be Chris Myers leading Fox onto the air from the Hollywood Hotel. He will be joined by Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond. These two will have an hour to fill before the green flag comes at 6:05PM. That may be delayed even further if the pesky rain showers that have been falling on LMS all day continue.
Mike Joy is the leader of the Fox team and he should be in all his glory at LMS. Larry McReynolds and Waltrip will join him in the booth for the call of this very long race. Down on pit road will be Steve Byrnes, Dick Berggren, Matt Yocum and Krista Voda.
This race has a ton of great story lines and there will be plenty to talk about even if the rain delays the start. From Mark Martin and his resurgence to the success of Tony Stewart the on-track stories are good. Away from the track, Jeremy Mayfield's drug suspension and the Tuesday driver meeting called by NASCAR are certainly interesting.
Look for Digger to make his presence known as Fox only has two more race days to sell merchandise. How much of the animation and graphics will be used should be interesting to watch. No word on whether another cartoon will be inserted in the pre-race show.
Fox continues to struggle in the pits and has used all different kinds of triple and quad splits. LMS pit road is straight, so we may see the old quad box back again. At least the graphics for the race off have been good recently.
One new wrinkle in the Fox coverage has been side-by-side video boxes at the finish. One shows the winner slowing down while the other shows a wideshot of the rest of the field finishing. It was an improvement over not showing any car but the winner finishing the race, but does not work very well. Both ESPN and SPEED simply use a wideshot and let the lead lap cars or trucks race to the stripe.
No doubt Kyle Busch will be on Waltrip's mind at this track. It should be fun to listen to the commentary as things sort-out on the track. Busch is often spectacular at this track, but this race is the longest on the circuit.
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Thanks for taking the time to stop by on this holiday weekend.
