Your thoughts and comments on the race today.

[Lee]

Speedweeks is officially underway. The pole position, and outside pole are set for the Daytona 500, and the so called Shootout is over. I think overall NASCAR will pick up where they left off in 1999. 2000 was a slight off-year, that can be attributed too bad weather, television networks that were on their way out, and not willing to promote, as they had done in the past, (which I cannot blame them for, considering the way that NASCAR has given them little more than the back of the hand) with a few races that lacked the excitement that is usually associated with the series. On the negative side, NASCAR, just as they did last year at Talladega, has placed Ford at a disadvantage at the two biggest tracks. The new TV coverage needs some work. On the positive side, Dodge's return will be a big story all season long. The Fox Network is pulling out all the stops as far as promoting the series, and there seems as if there will be a pretty exciting race at the Daytona 500 this year, especially if NASCAR truly equals up the the field by making the rules completly equal for the Fords, as well as the other brands. All and all, I see NASCAR comming out of the gate very strong this year, a full season of exciting racing. What do you think?

[Heeltoe6]

Great shootout but they still need to open up the plates a little(i'd like em off altogether). Although we saw some unaided passsing, a car had to have a good 5-6 carlength run on the guy in front of him., The true "slingshot" where you could be bump draftin someone, pull out, and quickly swerve in front is still not back, but it is getting closer.

TV wasn't bad, but it is no improvement over espn, and I'd say not even status quo. The announcing team lack chemistry, the fox box had the lap count wrong, and camera placement was too often on gimmicky things like the reflective sunglasses(CBS did that back in 81) or on a fan with a team's colors or that Big/lil E poster. Just show the cars

[dei3fan]

HI Lee and thanks for the invitation to check this forum out. you're right it looks like a nice place.
I enjoyed the race today. not being a fan of the 'plate' I have to say it wasnt too bad. It seems the combination of the aero package and new plate size is working well. It's not perfect of course but if we have to have them at all this is an improvement. a lot of lead changes and the opportunity for a car in the back to work back up through the pack.
the booth coverage and announcing was passable , I can only hope it improves with time. with larry and darrell there is never any lack of words for sure and they are not afraid to disagree with each other . larry comes from the crew chief perspective and darrell from the driver view. I haven't made my mind up yet about the way they do the position crawler at the top of the screen but think I might like it when I get used to it if they get the places right.I'm looking fwd to the 'big one' next week and I'm sure as time goes on the bugs will be ironed out.

[Joe Fan]

Welcome aboard dei3fan.

Overall, the racing was much better than last year at this time and I agree with Heeltoe, the plates need to be opened up a bit more. I think this season will be real interesting season, especially with Dodge aboard. I can't wait to see old Bill Elliott back in winner's circle. It looks like he will under Ray Evernham's direction.

[Hans.ca]

The race was exiting, I think the aero package was a good addition. Anouncing team has not gelled as yet. I like the blond doing interviews in the pit's. We need a few more like that, then we will be looking more like the WWF.
Would be nice to see Bill Elliott in the winners cicle again.

[JP]

If you're not 100% happy with the new TV package yet, just think what the many NASCAR fans in the UK are having to put up with at the moment. We saw the pictures from the Shootout on Monday night, but with no commentary at all - just a studio voice-over that killed the atmosphere stone dead. No pre-race build up, no post race interviews, no background; we did see some of the crew chiefs speaking during the race, but with no sound. "British Eurosport" obviously thinks the American commentary is over the heads of its viewers.

No disrespect to Ben Edwards (a good commentator, and he does his homework better than some)but you can't convey the action of a race at Daytona from a studio in Paris or wherever, so why bother to try when the real thing's available?

Unfortunately, all we'll be seeing of the 500 is an hour or so next Monday in the same format. All very disappointing after the last couple of years when "Sky Sports" allowed us to see the Shootout, Busch race and 500 live.

[gomick]

great race, cant wait to see 43 cars out there mixing it up

[dei3fan]

wow JP I really feel for you guys over there. I guess we need to count our blessings over here and be glad we have such great coverage comparatively speaking.
I enjoyed waltrips commentary but larry was a little hyper for me but at least we did have coverage .
thanks for the welcome joe fan, I'll try to be a worthy poster. I'm not a fan of ford or bill elliot but I wouldn't be too disappointed if old bill won a race or two this year being a fellow georgia boy. if dodge turns out to be a good ride then we'll all get to see if bill has the 'right stuff' or not.

[Lee]

Glad to have you aboard dei3fan! I think your right, and think that we just might see ol Bill in victory lane a couple of times, later on in the year. Hey, us Georgia boys gotta stick together. Once again, welcome.

[TimD]

While I agree totally with JP about the British coverage, the race more than made up for it in this case.

I switched on with no idea that the shootout was going to be broadcast, and found myself watching with 42 laps to go.

An excellent taster for the rest of the season. Now, if Eurosport could just extract the digit and warn us of schedules, and perhaps do a live feed or two - seeing as they bought the live rights for the year( ! ) we might actually have something.

And after a race where the number 3 car was prominent in the results, and the 24 wasn't, I really do have a good feeling about the season to come!

[senna12]

I also thought those were 2 much more exciting races then I have seen for quite sometime. The aero packages have definitely created more passing, it was great to watch the cars go 4 and 5 abreast. But you could see by the in car cameras, how squirrely the back ends of the cars were getting, especially the guy caught in the middle! But I also agree with you guys, that the "plates" have to be opened up a bit, but maybe with the new aero restrictions they could remove them now, ( we wish!!) You definitely had to have a run on the guy, as poor Dale found out!
I thought the announce team wasn't bad, they conveyed the excitement of the races well, but a couple of times there I thought Larry might have a coronary!! It was nice to get a little more insight into the details, which we didn't get before, but the graphics need work, for sure.
As for the racing, glad to see Dodge successful straight away, as I like Bill Elliott, and he deserves a good season with Ray. Sterling is always a threat at Daytona (Chip Ganassi must have a bloody Midas touch, for crissakes!!), and I'm sure that the usual bunch will be at the front on Sunday, but watch out for an old pro like Ken Schrader at the end, or Michael Waltrip perhaps. It's definitely going to be the best race in years, I fearlessly predict!
I really feel sorry for you folks in Europe, if there's one great thing about living in western Canada, its televised motorsport coverage, (except euro gp's, which start at 4 a.m.! ). Thanks to channels like TSN, Speedvision, ESPN2, etc., I get to see just about every form of motorsport there is.