Oh boy, buckle up. When I turned on the broadcast last Friday night, saw that it was raining and that it was going to stop, I thought this race was going to be a little like the ARCA race on the road course last August. Despite a starting field that was too small for my taste for my taste, there was some good racing there between Ty Gibbs and Michael Self.
Based on what happened last Saturday, it's far to say that Gibbs learned quite a bit from that experience.
Prior to the beginning of the wrecking, Shannon Spake sat down with a relieved Ben Rhodes to talk about his victory in the NextEra Energy Resources 250. Yes, the discussion was centered upon his victory in the season opener and the fact that he (likely) won't have to worry about qualifying for the playoffs. However, Rhodes has some history with his temper and the discussion turned to how he can control that temper. That
is quite important knowing that one of the drivers that he had issues with recently (Christian Eckes) is now his part-time teammate. Apparently, after contact last fall in Texas, the two drivers did not talk to each other until right about the time Eckes signed with ThorSport Racing. That's not going to work long term. Yes, the whole texting after having an on-track run-in is a bit passe, but you have to talk this stuff over. It appears that Rhodes is maturing, though,
which is good to see.
The wet conditions at the start meant that fans were in for an all-skate. Sure enough, Codie Rohrbaugh spun out on the pace lap in the International Horseshoe. While Rohrbaugh recovered from his rather embarrassing error to earn a decent finish with a clean truck, it was just a sign of things to come.
The first lap saw teammates Zane Smith and Raphael Lessard collide in the first turn and spin out. Cory Roper's dream weekend was ultimately followed up by multiple spins.
Then, you had stuff that you didn't see. Bobby Reuse (pictured above in the Macaroni and Cheese truck) spun and hit the tires in turn 6. You didn't see this until nearly two hours after it happened. Later on, he nearly wrecked Sheldon Creed in the same turn.
Effectively missing the Reuse incident was a sign of things to come. The camera positions were simply not the best last weekend. One of the biggest incidents of the night was when Carson Hocevar slid into the Fitch Barrier (also known as the sand barrels) while trying to exit pit road. Teammate Ryan Truex couldn't avoid Hocevar and slid into the back of him. FOX Sports 1 had a terrible shot of the incident that
didn't catch Truex's contact at all. I'm not sure why it happened. I just know it did.
As the race went on, you just continued to miss things. The race officially ended under yellow, but viewers had no idea why. Yes, Hailie Deegan spun out on the final restart, but her truck was not the reason for the final yellow. Apparently, Jett Noland stopped on course somewhere, but FOX Sports 1 needs to do a better job of informing viewers of those facts.
Ultimately, much like the aforementioned Montreal event, this is now the longest race by time in the history of the Camping World Truck Series. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. Last year's race was completed 42 minutes faster.
Given that fact, post-race coverage was pretty brief since the race was already more than a half-hour beyond the end of the scheduled timeslot before the race even finished. Viewers got interviews with Rhodes and Creed before leaving Daytona.
Friday night was also the debut of the two-man booth with Michael Waltrip and Vince Welch. I feel that this setup is not going to be beneficial for viewers. Waltrip can't goof around much here since there's too much heavy lifting for him to do. He can only bounce so many things off of Welch. If I had to have a two-man booth for Truck broadcasts, I would have swapped some personalities around. Maybe swapped
Waltrip out for either Todd Bodine or Jamie McMurray.
Overall, I felt like I just missed too many things Friday night to truly be entertained. Perhaps in Las Vegas, this won't be as much of a problem. FOX Sports was using a number of new camera angles on the road course that generally aren't used there. There are blind spots. If NASCAR returns to Daytona's road course next year (as far as I'm concerned, that is not a given), then they'll be able to look back at their
broadcasts from this year and make some changes.
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of Nigel Kinrade Photography.
