Today at 11AM, both SPEED Channel and ESPN's various networks will cover a press conference at Joe Gibbs Racing. This media event is rumored to be the announcement of Gibbs Racing joining Toyota, and may also address the status of two Gibbs drivers, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin.
SPEED is breaking into normally scheduled programming, and ESPN is covering it during First Take, the program that replaced the cancelled Cold Pizza in the AM on ESPN2. We are going to wait and see what ESPN News does with this event.
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They talked about wanting to be on the cutting edge and being leaders, but going from 2nd best to being the best of the worst is a step backwards. This will turn off a lot of fans, including me. I think I'll start rooting for Tony's rival Jimmie Johnson now, to spite him.
ReplyDeleteKevin in SoCal
For all of those on the buy American bandwagon, at least the camry is built in the US. That cannot be said of the Monte Carlo or Impala.
ReplyDeleteI wonder when the ESPN guys will ask Gibbs how he feels about Tony Eury Jr. joining Junior at Hendrick.
ReplyDeleteHaus20,
ReplyDeleteI hate to get into a debate on John's website, so I'll just say its the greedy American unions fault companies have to send their manufacturing plants North and South to stay competitive and keep prices low. Toyota and Honda dont have unions who demand more pay for less work that drives vehicle prices up.
Kevin in SoCal
If you look at Toyata's results in the truck series, I think that successful results in the Busch and Cup series are certainly in the future.
ReplyDeleteAgain, look at the talent pool Toyota was drawing from...MWR, BDR and Red Bull? Two brand new teams and a average team at best. Dale Jarett won a championship over 10 years ago and Jeremy Mayfield is the only driver to ever make the chase in his career.
You combine the engineering capabilities and driver talent of JGR with the support of TRD and good things will happen.
Potentially 11 teams for Toyota next year with 4 of the top 20 drivers right now moving to Toyota. Things are looking up for them.
Responding to your point about the unions...I agree. My dad was a skilled tradesman for GM. If he were still with them today, he would be making over $70 when you factor in the benefit package they get. When fork-truck operators are getting upwards of $25/ hour to load and unload trailers at Ford plants, it is not a surprise that the big three are unable to post a profit.
ReplyDeleteI thought David Poole asked the most poignant question. Unfortunately, Tony Stewart failed to see it as important and took the opportunity to yuk it up. The question was, basically, "How does the switch to a different carmaker affect the on-track rivalry between Hendrick and Gibbs?" J.D. Gibbs' answer seemed to indicate to me that Hendrick was better favored by GM. I think it was pretty clear from Robby Gordon's statements about switching from GM to Ford that all the teams did not get the same level of support from GM in the form of R&D data. I never really thought about it being different between the top-tier teams like Hendrick, DEI and Gibbs. If this is a reality, Gibbs might figure that GM was holding back and their position in the TRD family is going to give them an edge.
ReplyDeleteYou have to wonder what Tony Stewart is thinking . . .
ReplyDeleteDid you all know that Gibbs is giving up Pontiac in order to drive Toyota? That's what the bozo reporter on First Take said when cutting away from the JGR press conference. Just goes to show how much anyone at ESPN knows about Nascar. Not even a reporter knows Gibbs hasn't been in Pontiacs for a number of years.
ReplyDeleteDavid Poole and others did a good job of trying to get the driver's real feelings, but neither Stewart nor Hamlin would take the bait. Too bad for that. I would love to see anyone in Nascar being honest for a change. Would have been nice if Stewart had said "I'm not thrilled. I don't think Toyota has the powerplant to compete against Chevy for at least another season or longer". But all he could say was "the cars all look alike on the inside". How insipid?
ReplyDeleteSpeed covered the press conference from start to finish. Very commendable. Of course, they were only pre-empting infomercials, but that's beside the point. Switched over after a couple of minutes to the 4 ESPN channels I get (1, 2, News and Classic) and there was no mention of NASCAR. Switched over again at the end of the conference and again there was nothing. EspnNews' breaking story in their little corner box was the upsets of Williams and Nadal in tennis. Sportscenter was showing basesball highlights. And First Take was previewing tennis. Classic had yet another classic billiard tournament.
ReplyDeleteThe press conference itself seemed very poorly attended by the press. Was this because Dale Jr. wasn't involved? Or because Kyle Bush confirmed the news last week and therefore made today's announcement no longer a breaking story?
Did Bob Dilner or anyone from SpeedTV ask a question?
It was interesting to see Stewart's wink to David Poole after he yukked it up. I'm starting to like Stewart more and more. I'm beginning to see that he answers all questions literally. So I guess the competition between manufacturers is much more intense both before and after the races and not so much on the track.
Also, I'm surprised neither Gibbs nor Jim Aust mentioned how well Toyota is doing in the Busch series. Reutimann and Leffler are running second and third and are both from established Busch teams that weren't start-ups this year. Gibbs should manage a similar transition in Cup next year with little problems.
Didn't see the press conference but I can't say this is a horrible move. Toyota has all the tools to compete with Chevrolet, Ford, and Dodge but they lacked experienced teams this season. Their truck and Busch results are more indicative of where Toyota stands as a manufacturer. Gibbs will be fine and with the COT should see minimal setbacks if any.
ReplyDeleteWhat was the deal with ESPN sending a credible NASCAR reporter like Marty Smith to the news conference? Were all the general ESPN reporters busy today?
ReplyDeleteESPN First Take had about two minutes of the presser. I attribute this to two things: 1. Ky Busch let the ship sail last week, so it's really not new news, just official news. 2. The Cold Pizz...erm...First Take crew doesn't have a clue as to what's important or not important in NASCAR. Remember, this is a show that is not there to "look ahead," or report on new issues. They're there to look back on the day or week that was in sports. You can tell just from the talent they have on the set. No one is a credible anchor. No one is a credible journalist. Just a few people who know nothing about sports, and Skip "hit mute now" Bayless, who is a complete blowhard.
ReplyDeleteI can't really compare their coverage to Speed's. Speed is a motorsports channel. What else do they have to do at noon on a Wednesday? That being said, I would've thought since ESPNews is repeated every day from 2am-3pm, they would've broken in with the presser. If ESPNews is there for people to "stay current," then why not run this presser in its entirety?
If I am either crazy or bi-polar, please let me know, but... Wasn't it in the recent past that JGR had an entire car taken by NA$CAR to it's headquarters to be "inspected" and never returned? Am I nuts. or do I recall rumors on the net that NA$CAR gave that car to Toyota? Things that make you go Hmmmm........
ReplyDelete