FanHouse TNT

After what the Charlotte Observer is calling a "loud confrontation" at a Manchester, N.H., hotel prior to last Sunday's Lenox 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, TNT play-by-play announcer Bill Weber won't be returning to the booth in 2009.

The network announced the move Wednesday, and also confirmed that Ralph Sheheen will continue in the replacement role for the final two TNT races this weekend in Daytona Beach and next at Chicagoland.

Sheheen did a bang-up job in his first coverage of a Sprint Cup race on Sunday, but the bigger question surrounds what exactly Weber did to force himself out of the booth for what will ultimately be half of TNT's NASCAR coverage.

Friday afternoon, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series gets down to business at Daytona with the first round of practice for the Budweiser Shootout, scheduled for 8:30pm/ET Saturday night on FOX. NASCAR Fanhouse will countdown the days with a look at the five stories that will rule the sport in 2008.

It was a daily cry near the end of the 2007 season to hear NASCAR fans heartily complain about the lack of quality television coverage they were getting of their favorite sport.

FOX had some gaffes, TNT was an interesting dot on the map and ESPN's triumphant return blew up quicker than a Dale Earnhardt Jr. DEI motor. There were horrible camera angles, bad commentators, pointless graphics & illustrations and completely lost knack at telling a compelling story for every fan watching the race.

Sure, if you were a Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon fan, you had plenty of driver coverage down the stretch. The problem, though, was that 41 other cars started the race and a good majority of those never even saw the beam of a camera during the 3 to 4 hour events.

ESPN has already announced plenty of changes -- including the removal of Rusty Wallace as a permanent fixture in the broadcast booth. TNT has said they are coming back at the July race in Daytona with the "Wide Open" coverage that featured fewer commercial breaks. FOX is staying with their tried and true team in the broadcast booth that has stayed the same since 2001.

Will that be enough? I'd like to think so.

Here's round two of the FanHouse NASCAR FanVote.

Today's topic? NASCAR television coverage.

You've heard plenty of resent towards ESPN around the FanHouse, but now its time to tell us what you think. Was ESPN's coverage actually good? Are you hoping TNT could make all of their races commercial free? Who are the best guys in the booth for NASCAR racing?

Tell us what you think! Be sure to click after the first poll to answer the rest of the questions.

Did you miss Day 1 of the FanVote? No problem, just click here to go back and vote for those questions.

Be sure to come back at the end of the week to see the results, and Happy Voting!


Click to continue voting!

Yesterday, it seems, we were bidding adieu to Fox Sports until next year's Daytona 500.

Those six weeks, though, brought us some pretty interesting stuff -- both good and bad -- from TNT.

We'll start with the bad, and then head to the good. (after the jump)

Horribly Long Pre-Race Shows

Look, TNT, we (as the NASCAR fan nation) understand that more coverage is a great thing. But two-hour pre-race shows? A little over the top, especially when it means that SPEED's NASCAR Raceday had to be taken off the air earlier than ever.

RaceDay takes the cake in pre-race coverage, mainly because they are all people in the garage, all the time. Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace are great, too. TNT didn't have a bad pre-race show, but it didn't have the same effect.