Note: The Sprint Cup Series race on ESPN from Pocono has been cancelled due to rain. RaceDay on SPEED will air at 11AM and then ESPN will have the live race at 12PM. Thanks everyone, see you tomorrow for a live blog of the TV telecast.
Most everyone knows by now that Pocono is having a tough time with rain. After a long night of rain, the track is now under fog and the jet dryers are out and working.
There is no doubt that the 2:18 race start is going to be pushed back. Our interest lies in how the NASCAR on ESPN TV team handles the day. There are several options.
First, present the entire pre-race show and then move to stand-by programming after 2PM when the actual race was scheduled to start. Second, stay live and continue to use the eleven announcers, all the drivers and the resources of ESPN to fill the time until the race begins.
It should be interesting to see who quarterbacks this coverage. Allen Bestwick will be in the Infield Pit Studio and Jerry Punch will be upstairs in the broadcast booth. Bestwick has Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty alongside, while Punch has Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree with him for the duration.
Tim Brewer is in the Tech Garage on-site in Pocono. The pit road reporters are Jamie Little, Shannon Spake, Dave Burns and Vince Welch. All of these TV personalities will be heavily involved in filling this time during the rain delay.
One big challenge during a wet weekend like this is the TV equipment. We saw problems happen for NASCAR Now this morning and there is no doubt that something will probably fail before the day is done.
This is Pocono, so the excitement is limited to the frontstretch and the accidents happen everywhere else. Cars fan out three and four wide crossing the start finish line on the longest frontstretch in NASCAR racing. The second and third turns of this track are flat and do not make for good TV. Since the infield is not paved, cars off the track are in for a very wet ride in the grass.
If things get underway, we should be watching to see if ESPN changed the philosophy of playing back driver soundbites and going to Tim Brewer under green flag racing. The stories of the race throughout the field are also a challenge to the network right now and hopefully the pit road reporters will be used to fill-in the gaps.
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