Sprint Cup Series From Michigan On TNT (Updated)

Update: Rain has stopped, track is pretty dry and it looks like a 3PM ET start time for the Cup Series.

It's raining at the Michigan International Speedway. Driver introductions are on hold and the day looks like it may be a long one. The stories of the day include tires, engines and Kurt Busch.

TNT faces an interesting challenge as the network goes on the air at noon ET. They did not replace Lindsay Czarniak as the infield host, instead opting to make Adam Alexander handle the pre-race and then call the race itself. Keep an eye on how the network handles the rain and if they move a veteran like Ralph Sheheen from pit road to the infield set.

While the Lizard Lick Towing skit was a disaster, the rest of the TNT pre-race show is solid. Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds are a good panel for NASCAR topics and each week a different driver joins the show. This week, it's Brad Keselowski.

NASCAR brought in hard left side tires after blisters developed from the heat and high speeds after practice. Now with the rain, the rubber that caused the original problem is gone. It should be interesting to see TNT follow the tire story today.

Two Hendrick teams changed engines before the race, including Jimmie Johnson. Several other teams were talking about potential engine issues. MIS has a long acceleration period and is one of the hardest tracks on engines due to the high speeds. If a problem develops, it often develops for all the teams running the same brand of engine. This could be a big story.

Kurt Busch and ESPN's Marty Smith got into it after the Nationwide Series race in the Infield Media Center. Smith made it clear to Busch he does not take any guff from drivers like the very patient Bob Pockrass did last week. On the AM edition of NASCAR Now Smith provided a rundown of the moment and was not a happy camper about it.

"He can help a race team, he just can't help himself," said Darrell Waltrip of Busch on the morning RaceDay show. Keep an eye on how TNT treats this topic and follows Busch during the day in monitoring his radio traffic and his temper.

We will be live tweeting as usual using the #TDP1 hashtag. Twitter is easy to use, simple to operate and you control the content from start to finish. Drivers, officials and NASCAR personalities interact with us during the day. I would urge you to start an account for free and come on over.

There will be a "Race Wrap" post here right after the TV telecast is over for your comments. In the meantime, please feel free to leave TV and media comments during the race on this post. Thanks as always for stopping by The Daly Planet.

Race Wrap: Sprint Cup Series From Michigan On TNT

Tires were the story going into the Sprint Cup Series race from the Michigan International Speedway. Shortly before noon, rain came to the area and resulted in a delay until 3PM ET.

This week you are going to set the tone with your comments and I will add mine in the comments section. There was a very strong reaction to the TV production and specfically the directing of this race, so the fan comments will  be made without my input.

The pre-race show ran through the scheduled format and then expanded to interview everyone possible. From discussing Vegamite with Marcos Ambrose to watching kids crash bicycles with training wheels, it was pretty clear TNT was out of things to do. The track services crew did work in record time and there were no other interruptions.

Adam Alexander hosted the pre-race with Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds from the infield stage. They were joined by Brad Keselowski for an extended interview with social media as the focus. The pit reporters worked very hard during the rain delay. They were Chris Neville, Matt Yocum, Marty Snider and Ralph Sheheen. Alexander moved upstairs to call the race with Petty and Wally Dallenbach Jr. from the TV booth.

This post is for comments on the TV production of the race. To add your opinion, just click the comments button below. Comments may be moderated prior to posting.

The Creature From The Black Lagoon

It came from a land far away and spoke a language most of us do not understand. It struck fear in the hearts of those without iPads, smart phones or Twitter accounts. Why it had come was not completely clear, but everyone who encountered it had a strong reaction. Then, just like that, it was gone.

Sunday afternoon will breathe life back into this strange West Coast creature. Like it or not, the #NASCAR hashtag will once again come to life.

Part man and part machine, the hashtag creature has at its heart an algorithm of double top-secret NASCAR information. It can chew through thousands of NASCAR tweets in seconds and leave them in a heap by the side of the road. Only the chosen few emerge unscathed and crawl to the safety of the "landing page."

Figuring out what makes the creature tick is a mystery guarded closely by a select few gathered in an undisclosed location. Laptops at the ready, they try to control the beast by monitoring its diet of social media content. The idea is to keep the creature focused on the race at hand. It's not an easy task.

An algorithm is the way to make a computer solve a problem. In this case, the problem seems to be how to create a stream of NASCAR content quickly enough to attract new fans during a live race. The solution is to feed the tweets of well-known NASCAR personalities and veteran fans into the hashtag creature and see what comes out.

What came out last Sunday was a homogenized stream of milk. Instead of featuring the passionate fans, the hashtag creature pushed them aside and embraced the teams, sponsors and NASCAR personalities. The results were bland and easy to digest.

This Sunday, there is little doubt that many more fans will try to feed the creature by creating tweets strictly for the purpose of making it to the hashtag stream. In a hectic race on a track known for long green flag runs, sorting the thousands of tweets may prove to be a very interesting challenge for the hashtag monster.

Casual fans may love the results and those looking to use Twitter for the first time may find this is a perfect pathway to NASCAR. It's still a bit puzzling what appeal this stream has to hardcore fans or veteran Twitter users. Most have set-up personal timelines to feature their own NASCAR favorites.

As the hashtag creature chews through the social media churn from MIS, unfolding tire stories and driver complaints may cause some momentary indigestion. This Sunday, before the creature sinks again into the dark Pacific Ocean, we will get a much better picture of whether we have to respect this monster or simply smile and pat it on the head.

Happy to have your opinion on the #NASCAR hashtag project currently underway on Twitter.

Sprint Cup Series From Michigan On TNT

It's raining at the Michigan International Speedway. Driver introductions are on hold and the day looks like it may be a long one. The stories of the day include tires, engines and Kurt Busch.

TNT faces an interesting challenge as the network goes on the air at noon ET. They did not replace Lindsay Czarniak as the infield host, instead opting to make Adam Alexander handle the pre-race and then call the race itself. Keep an eye on how the network handles the rain and if they move a veteran like Ralph Sheheen from pit road to the infield set.

While the Lizard Lick Towing skit was a disaster, the rest of the TNT pre-race show is solid. Kyle Petty and Larry McReynolds are a good panel for NASCAR topics and each week a different driver joins the show. This week, it's Brad Keselowski.

NASCAR brought in hard left side tires after blisters developed from the heat and high speeds after practice. Now with the rain, the rubber that caused the original problem is gone. It should be interesting to see TNT follow the tire story today.

Two Hendrick teams changed engines before the race, including Jimmie Johnson. Several other teams were talking about potential engine issues. MIS has a long acceleration period and is one of the hardest tracks on engines due to the high speeds. If a problem develops, it often develops for all the teams running the same brand of engine. This could be a big story.

Kurt Busch and ESPN's Marty Smith got into it after the Nationwide Series race in the Infield Media Center. Smith made it clear to Busch he does not take any guff from drivers like the very patient Bob Pockrass did last week. On the AM edition of NASCAR Now Smith provided a rundown of the moment and was not a happy camper about it.

"He can help a race team, he just can't help himself," said Darrell Waltrip of Busch on the morning RaceDay show. Keep an eye on how TNT treats this topic and follows Busch during the day in monitoring his radio traffic and his temper.

We will be live tweeting as usual using the #TDP1 hashtag. Twitter is easy to use, simple to operate and you control the content from start to finish. Drivers, officials and NASCAR personalities interact with us during the day. I would urge you to start an account for free and come on over.

There will be a "Race Wrap" post here right after the TV telecast is over for your comments. In the meantime, please feel free to leave TV and media comments during the race on this post. Thanks as always for stopping by The Daly Planet.

Tire Troubles Making News in Michigan (Updated)

Update: NASCAR has added a 6PM practice session for 75 minutes and SPEED will carry it live. The 24 Hours of Le Mans coverage will move to the SPEED.com website. The network will also be cutting into the Le Mans coverage as needed to update the NASCAR tire story still unfolding.

The late news from Michigan was that NASCAR and Goodyear were making a change for Sprint Cup Series teams this weekend. It was a problem with left side tires blistering that got their attention.

With speeds hovering around 200 mph, almost a quarter of the Cup teams had left side tire trouble due to the heat when using new tires. Rather than scuff in tires for the field, Goodyear decided to bring in a new tire with a tougher tread compound for the race.

The teams will qualify on the present tire, then use the new left sides in a special 6PM Saturday night practice session scheduled for 75 minutes. That will be the only opportunity to get things dialed-in for the Sunday race.

"With the new repave here at Michigan, coupled with the high temperatures we're seeing this weekend, we feel this change will help us put on the best race possible on Sunday," said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR VP of competition in a media release.

The first NASCAR TV comes Saturday at 11AM and it is ESPN2 on the air with Nationwide Series qualifying. It should be interesting to watch and see how ESPN approaches this Sprint Cup Series story.

Next up is Sprint Cup Series qualifying on SPEED at 1PM. This is the time of the year when a diverse group of announcers are in place for sessions like this. If Darrell Waltrip and Kyle Petty are the analysts, it may make for two very different opinions on this topic. This will be the first NASCAR TV of the day for SPEED.

At the present time, there are no plans to televise this added practice session, but SPEED does have a thirty minute version of SpeedCenter scheduled at 7PM between segments of live 24 Hours of Le Mans coverage. That will probably be the best TV location to get updated information on the results of this change and how drivers and crew chiefs feel going into the Sunday race.

We will keep updating the tire story on this post, please feel free to add your comments. We are interested in how both ESPN and SPEED cover this issue. Comments may be moderated prior to posting.

Who Ordered The Combo Platter?

This is how NASCAR Race Control watches a Sprint Cup Series race. This is the updated replay system that has all kinds of video sources available, including the live weather radar. Except for the radar, all of the video NASCAR watches upstairs is in High Definition. Pretty nice set-up.

Over the last few weeks we have been discussing all kinds of options that fans have to "consume" a race. That term basically means watch, listen and interact live. The sport has come a long way in terms of digital technology with the promise of even more choices next year.

This is the TNT portion of the season, so additional options exist with that tech-friendly network. TNT provides a free streaming feed with multiple audio and video options called RaceBuddy. Those same video channels are often featured on the DirecTV service called Hot Pass.

Over in radio land, both MRN and PRN race broadcasts are now streamed online for both Internet and smart phone users without charge. The SiriusXM Satellite Radio race broadcasts are also streamed, but only for subscribers who have purchased either an auto or portable receiver.

Meanwhile, over at the NASCAR.com website there are still a bevy of services available for a price. The classic Raceview has morphed into Raceview 360 with every bell and whistle available. The drawback is the video of the live racing is not included. That too should change soon, perhaps even next season.

Sprint has kept the Sprint Cup Mobile app going that offers live team and officials audio during Sprint Cup Races as well as the radio feed. Unfortunately, many older Sprint phones can no longer access that feed and without a phone upgrade, it's gone.

Over the years, many fans have developed their own unique way of watching the races while using a second screen. That is, another electronic screen or possibly even more that is active during the event. These days, the options are more plentiful than ever before.

Our question today is how do you view the Sprint Cup Series races? What video and audio options do you choose? Do you use a desktop, tablet or smart phone as a second or even a third screen? Do you listen to the audio from the TV during the race? What made you settle for the NASCAR TV "combo-platter" that you chose? We should have some interesting answers as TNT heads into Michigan.

We invite your opinion on this topic. Comments may be moderated prior to posting. Thank you as always for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Day Two: Oh No Daddy!

Update: Leaving this up on Thursday at the first story. Waiting to see if we hear something from GoDaddy, the Deutsch New York agency or perhaps even Danica Patrick on what the future holds for these parties. Pretty good group of fan comments with various opinions on this topic. Happy to have yours. Updates will be added to this post.

The images are burned into the minds of motorsports fans nationwide. Danica Patrick and her GoDaddy girlfriends pushing sexual innuendo across the TV screen. Danica and the stripping cop, Danica taking a shower and Danica joking about keeping her "beaver" safe are just a few of the tasteless offerings.

The engineer of the economic train that ultimately brought Patrick to NASCAR is Bob Parsons, the man pictured above. The founder of GoDaddy might be the ultimate creep to many, but like most self-made billionaires he sees himself as above it all. It's just a game to him driven by sales.

Last summer Parsons finally cashed out of GoDaddy in a deal that saw a group of private equity firms pay a total of $2.5 billion for the company. Parsons stepped aside from running the day-to-day operations and Warren Adelman became the company's new chief executive. Parsons remained connected to the new group and is being called executive chairman.

Little changed immediately, but Adelman has been dropping hints that the company is planning to go in a different direction. Not in terms of changing it's basic service of registering Internet domain names, but in presenting the overall image of the company to the public. Now, that change has begun.

Tuesday the New York Times confirmed that GoDaddy has hired a prestigious advertising agency called Deutsch New York to reshape the company's image. The rebranding will begin immediately with the first new TV commercials airing later this summer in sporting events including the Summer Olympics.

Click here to read the full story from New York Times media reporter Stuart Elliott.

The chief executive at Deutsch New York is quoted as saying GoDaddy did a "terrific job generating awareness." That same chief executive, who will now be in charge of the Internet company's new TV commercials, also called the older ads disruptive.

The chief executive of Deutsch New York, called one of the most powerful people in TV advertising, is a woman named Valerie DiFebo.

Elliott asked her to comment on the current GoDaddy ad campaign:

"As a woman, is it my favorite work?' she asked rhetorically, then replied, 'No.'

On the topic of the future of the GoDaddy Girls:

They "will still have a role, but more in balance with what the brand has to offer," said DiFebo.

On the theme of the new ads for the company:

"The ads will tell more of a story about GoDaddy's technology rather than entice consumers with appeals like 'To see more skin, click here,'" she added.

While Patrick and her management team have worked to broaden her commercial appeal, GoDaddy is the foundation that funded her current Nationwide Series ride and was said to be poised to continue that funding for a full time Sprint Cup Series team.

The immediate effect of this change in GoDaddy's philosophy and advertising is that Patrick's presence on TV will be reduced dramatically in just the next few weeks as the company shifts to the new commercials and image campaign. So no more body painting, dangling bikini's or veiled threats of nudity during NASCAR races.

The sport has seen a wide variety of sponsors come and go. The big question on the table is just how long Patrick's current GoDaddy contract is at this point and whether the rumored shift to the Sprint Cup Series next season is still in the works.

It won't make much sense for GoDaddy to play in NASCAR if the driver is not actively part of the company's rebranded ad campaign. This story has a lot more to be revealed over the next few weeks. Ironically, those words sound familiar.

We invite your opinion on this topic. Comments may be moderated prior to posting.