Dover…The MONSTER mile. I think it is one of the coolest looking tracks in all of NASCAR. They also call it “White Lightning” since it’s totally made of concrete on the racing surface. The Triple A 400--Race number two of the Chase for the Sprint Cup-- was surely full of surprises…except for the winner of the race.
In the spring, Jimmie Johnson dominated Dover, and simply carried his momentum into Delaware to pull off the season sweep. Most of us race fans knew that he would win based on his communication with his crew chief Chad Knaus. When a driver feels as if his car can perform even better than it is, yet he’s pulling away lap after lap, the competition is in MAJOR TROUBLE.
Speaking of major trouble, the ESPN crew did a brilliant job in camera work and reporting on an incident which was seemingly impossible to occur at Dover. 19 year old Joey Logano got bumped from behind by Tony Stewart and it sent him on a wild wild ride.
Jerry Punch, Andy Petree and Dale Jarrett don’t get overly excited when this happens live. They do, however bring the whole accident into perspective. Punch mentions that the banking of the track is 3 stories high. Also, reporter Shannon Spake asked a great question in Logano’s post wreck interview: “In your 19 years of racing, how did this compare to anything you’ve been through?” Big props to the reporters and the cameras once again for bringing the whole incident into perspective.
This broadcast deserves a 10. All strategies were painted well, and the whole crew had to find time to fill throughout the delayed portions of the race since track cleanup took so long. Any time those guys can fill an extra half hour or 45 minutes (in addition to the 4 or 5 hours they spend on the telecast), they deserve a high rating like this. It’s an art to cover this sport and these guys proved it.
Next week…Kansas. Again, Jimmie Johnson should have the car to beat. However, I’ve read that Greg Biffle has built a brand new car SPECIFICALLY for this race. New cars generally have major implications on a race. Biffle should hover around the top 5 all day. On to race three of the chase for the sprint cup!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment