The Frontstretch Newsletter: The NASCAR Media Tour Begins

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THE FRONTSTRETCH NEWSLETTER
Presented by Frontstretch.com
The Best Seat at the Track, The Best View on the Net!
Jan. 19, 2015
Volume X, Edition III

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What to Watch: January 19-24

- Today marks the start of the NASCAR Media Tour.  A series of presentations will be held.  NASCAR itself starts everything off at 11 a.m. at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.  The whole week will wrap up with Friday night's NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, which will air live on NBCSN at 8 p.m.  We have four writers on-site in Charlotte for the Media Tour, and they'll keep you fully within the loop with constant news updates at Frontstretch. If anything of note is announced, they will have it for you.

FOLLOW OUR FRONTSTRETCH WRITERS THIS WEEK IN CHARLOTTE:

Amy Henderson (@Writer_Amy)

Mike Neff (@MNeffShortTrack)

Zach Catanzareti (@ZachRacing)

Joseph Wolkin (@JosephNASCAR)

and our own Twitter page, @Frontstretch as well for updates!

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This week's TV Schedule can be found here.

Top News

by the Frontstretch Staff

Back-to-Back: Rico Abreu Wins Chili Bowl Nationals

On Saturday night, Rico Abreu took advantage of the high side to pass pole sitter Bryan Clauson with six laps to go and pulled away to claim his second consecutive Lucas Oil Chil Bowl Nationals victory.  Clauson was second, followed by Zach Daum.  Jerry Coons, Jr. and Kyle Larson were fourth and fifth.  Read more

Rico Abreu to ThorSport Racing Full-time in 2016

On Friday morning, ThorSport Racing took advantage of the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Naitonals to announce that champion Rico Abreu will race full-time in the Camping World Truck Series in 2016.  Read more

Have news for The Frontstretch?  Don't hesitate to let us know; email us at phil.a...@frontstretch.com with a promising lead or tip.

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The Critic's Annex: 30th Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals

by Phil Allaway

Welcome back to another edition of the Critic's Annex.  Last weekend, Rico Abreu claimed his second consecutive Golden Driller trophy by virtue of winning the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals.  It was an excellent drive for the soon-to-be rookie in the Camping World Truck Series.

Saturday night was also the coming out party for the new Lucas Oil Racing TV service, an "over the top" pay-per-view streaming service that allows viewers access to a good chunk of the programming available on MAVTV.  Users can pay $59.99 for a full year, or $6.99 a month.  I paid for the full year.  That gets you a log-in that you can use on computers, cell phones and tablets.  While live coverage will likely not be all that common, you'll be able to catch most of the motorsports programming that does air on MAVTV on-demand.  The plan is to eventually expand the service to standalone apps for iOS and Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

The service is their answer to something that has plagued the network since it launched.  Distribution.  MAVTV is currently not available at all to Dish Network customers.  For DirecTV subscribers, you can get it with any package, but it's standard definition only.  For cable subscribers, it depends on where you are.  For me, the channel is in something called the HD Pass, a package that you have to have Starter TV, Standard TV and Preferred TV before it will be made available to you for $5.00 a month.  It can get pricey.

Live coverage was scheduled to start at 8:30 p.m. EST Saturday night.  However, someone flipped the switch a little early.  As a result, I was able to watch some of the taped coverage of the Tulsa Shootout for lightning sprints that preceded the live coverage.  Nice bonus,

Much like his previous work from the World of Outlaws World Finals at the Dirt Track at Charlotte, Dave Despain served as the host of the telecast, working from the pits.  There, Despain gave updates on previous nights of racing, conducted interviews and (via tape delay) presented trophies to the race promoters to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the race.

To me, what stood out here was Despain's interview with Kevin Swindell, the four-time Chili Bowl winner and former racer in the now-XFINITY Series who suffered spinal injuries at the Knoxville Nationals last year.  It's unclear whether he'll ever race again.  During the interview, Despain broached the idea of racing with hand controls, which apparently does interest Swindell, but only if its done right (he wants to have a chance to win, just like he did before he got hurt).  I want to say that this was one of the first times that Swindell has had to face the question of possibly being done for good.  Everything he's done in his recovery over the past five months has been designed towards eventually racing again.  Regardless, Swindell appears to be pretty happy at the moment.

Rob Knepper and Ken Stout called the action on-track and seemed to do a good job with it.  They were very enthusiastic and used their experience in calling past Chili Bowls (the 2012-2015 events are currently available at Lucas Oil Racing TV) to good effect.

However, this isn't so much a critique of the race telecast, but of Lucas Oil Racing TV.  My plan was to watch the broadcast on my laptop.  I experienced significant feed freezing almost from the start.  As a result, I switched to watching on my iPhone, which seems to be the best way for me to watch streamed programming, but it's still not ideal

On my iPhone, the quality appeared to be better and the feed less choppy.  I didn't have any problems for the first 90 minutes.  Then, the video started skipping.  The audio was still fine, but the picture would skip, creating a rather annoying sound.

The issues reached their peak during the B-mains.  Here, the feed froze up all together.  In order to get it back, I would have to close the video feed, exit out of the Chili Bowl page, go to shows at the top of the screen, and click back in.  If this had happened during a commercial break, I could have conceivably gotten back in without missing any action.  However, the issues occurred during the mains, so I missed action.

For the sake of this column, my first question that comes in this situation is simply, "Am I alone here?"  Is it just me, or are other people having these problems?  I do the same thing at my day job.  In this case, I was not alone.  Other viewers had feed issues, especially during the B-mains.  I don't recall any reference to these issues on-air.  Perhaps, it was addressed, but I missed it.

The red flag during the A-main was a bit of a question mark.  It was very unclear watching the telecast just what the heck happened.  We know that someone fell out of the grandstands on the backstretch and ended up being the wall.  At the time, the booth inferred that there was some kind of issue with the fence before mentioning that a fan needed medical assistance.  While I don't think a substantial amount of detail is warranted (you probably can't give such detail without getting sued), however, given the situation, the viewers do deserve some kind of explanation.

Post-race coverage was fairly simple, but that's given that the telecast was 45 minutes past the end of its time slot.  Viewers saw interviews with the top-3 finishers (Rico Abreu, Bryan Clauson and Zach Daum), along with Abreu's expressive victory donuts (My thoughts at the time: He's going to wreck the car in a fit of joy.).  Viewers also got a check of the unofficial results before the telecast ended.

I generally enjoyed the broadcast.  I was concerned that there wouldn't be all that much racing for position, which has been an issue in past Chili Bowls.  However, that was unfounded.  Especially in the earlier mains, people were racing all over the place.  It was a very good way to spend a cold Saturday night.

From what I've seen so far of Lucas Oil Racing TV (not just with the Chili Bowl, but with other programs as well), it looks like it will do well.  I like the interface and the picture quality is quite good, better than I normally get with IMSA.com or WatchESPN.  Some of the issues I had with the stream cannot be attributed to the service itself.  There's a reason why I switched to my phone.  My laptop was just not up to the task.  I'll spare you that rant.

If I were to render a guess for why the issues with the stream occurred Saturday night, I would say that the chaps at MAVTV underestimated demand and may need to add server space.  Of course, that's technically a good thing since it means that there is demand for their product.  The Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals is typically one of (if not the) highest-rated telecasts for MAVTV all year.

However, I feel that MAVTV might just focus on the streaming service instead of getting their network more visibility in cable systems.  Given that the network likely skews older in viewership, that might come back to bite them.

I hope you liked this look at Saturday's coverage from the Chili Bowl.  Next week, I'll be back with one more classic broadcast critique before we get into the nitty gritty of the 2016 season.

Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager and a Senior Writer for Frontstretch.  He can be reached via e-mail at phil.a...@frontstretch.com. 

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TODAY AT FRONTSTRETCH:

Faceoff: Who’s the Best In NASCAR?

by the Frontstretch Staff

 

NASCAR Small Team Review & Preview: How Did the Little Guys Do?

by Amy Henderson

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FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA:

Q:  NASCAR drivers actually have quite a long history in major American endurance races.  Jamie McMurray's overall win in last year's Rolex 24 at Daytona is just the latest example.  Prior to McMurray, who was the last Sprint Cup Series regular to claim a class victory at Daytona?

Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!

Friday's Answer:

Q:  In 1994, a record 46 drivers earned rides for one of the 14 teams that contested the Formula One World Championship.  Why was this number so high?

A: In the early 1990's, most of the world went through a recession.  Here in the United States, the recession is said to have ended in 1991, but unemployment continued to rise until mid-1992.  In Europe, the recession lasted a little longer, hampered by high fuel costs that resulted from the Gulf War (prior to 1990, fuel prices in Europe were relatively similar to what the United States had; the Gulf War caused prices in Europe to surge to more than $4 a gallon).

Investment in sponsorship decreased to the point where teams were in need of backing in order to race.  The best up and coming racers didn't necessarily have financial backing to bring, so those drivers who could help the bottom line got drivers.  1994's rule changes that led to skittish cars, an increase in crashes and injuries also helped to increase the number of drivers on the grid.  Only four of the 14 teams (Tyrrell, Footwork, Minardi and Pacific) had the same two drivers all season.

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COMING THIS WEEK AT FRONTSTRETCH:

We'll have plenty of news from this week's NASCAR Media Tour in North Carolina.  If anything else breaks from outside of NASCAR, we'll bring that to you as well.

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