There has been lots of email about Ryan Newman's appearance on Tuesday's NASCAR Now hosted by Ryan Burr. The program will air at 6PM Eastern Time for thirty minutes and then re-air at Midnight.
Newman has been on the whirlwind media tour that comes with the Daytona 500 victory. NASCAR Now has been on a roll with perhaps the two best shows in that series history coming on Sunday and Monday night.
Now, the show transistions from Allen Bestwick back to the hosting tandem of Ryan Burr and Nicole Manske. This past weekend in Daytona, Manske held her own and even hosted a full one hour version of NASCAR Now Sunday morning.
Ryan Burr has worked hard since coming over from ESPNEWS to learn the NASCAR world. Now, he has an opportunity to get Newman two days after all the excitement of the win. The vast majority of the media appearances are over, and Newman should have a very interesting perspective on the last forty-eight hours.
There will be a full column up later Tuesday night about the program, but you will have an opportunity to add your comments before, during and after the program.
Since our friends at ESPN read this blog, you may have a question that you would like Ryan Burr to ask that addresses something not yet covered. There is certainly no harm in putting that forward. Newman has been asked just about everything under the sun by now, so maybe your suggestion would work for the NASCAR Now gang.
This new approach to this TV series by ESPN has certainly turned things around so far this season. Now, as the glow of Daytona begins to wear-off and the reality of ten months of travel and racing sink in, the challenge is to maintain this momentum.
We invite you to offer your opinion as this show goes forward. To add your comment or question, simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. Thanks again for stopping by to talk about Tuesday's NASCAR Now on ESPN2.
21 comments:
I cannot imagine that there are any questions that have not been asked. It's the response that's fun to watch. At one time Eli Manning was asked for the umteenth time what it felt to be a world champion and MVP. He said he didn't mind answering because it was so much fun talking about it.
Interviews are a great time for Ryan to re-live this career changing experience. So, if he is asked about his dad or Roger, we'll see him enjoy the moment over again.
There have been times in my life when something wonderful happended and I wanted to talk and talk about it 24/7. But people would have been sick about hearing it, so when asked, it became a golden opportunity to wax on about it.
I congratulate Ryan for his win and so happy that he gets to talk about it one more time. He has the only team in the garage where all the drivers are in the top 15 in points. Who would have thought?
Newman has been on the whirlwind media tour that comes with the Daytona 500 victory.
I haven't heard anybody ask if Ryan is going to spend his share of the prize money on anything special, but that's about it.
Ryan did a nice job on Regis and Kelly this morning, considering that he said yesterday he's never seen the show. Unlike Dave last night who was somewhat disrespectful by only wanting to talk about Tony and KuBusch fighting in the NASCAR hauler before the Shootout. Regis and Kelly asked Ryan about Ryan and winning the race, Also his dad, etc.
Ryan smiled a lot and even showed off his winner's ring, which R&K loved. Nice ring, I don't think I'd seen it on any of the other shows. Ryan has gone out of his way to thank Kurt Busch on every program (which made Dave's obsession with the punch that much worse).
The only criticism I have, and I find this to be true with most drivers on "mainstream" TV, is they need to understand that many people have heard of NASCAR but don't understand the jargon. Regis and Kelly aren't going to know what what a spotter, or a quarter-midget, or a side-panel are. So they have to ask, so that the audience doesn't feel left out (Dave had to do that too, and I'm quite sure he knows what a spotter is.)
Naturally, Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon are a couple of the best at "breaking it down" for mainstream TV viewers. Maybe there's a copy of "NASCAR for Dummies" at Hendrick, LOL. Good job though, Ryan comes across well and the audiences seem to like him just fine.
I have a question that I think would work for ESPN.
My favorite show is Pardon the Interruption, yet while Wilbon tries to understand NASCAR, Kornheiser acts as if it is beneath him to watch it. (PTI and Around the Horn spent less than 5 minutes combined talking about the Daytona 500)
Since Ryan is a college educated guy, would he up for debating Tony on the importance of NASCAR? What would Newman do to get Kornheiser to give the sport a chance?
IF we can get the PTI guys on board, NASCAR could pick up a ton of new young fans.
Kornheiser is like that with anything that doesn't include football or baseball. He rips hockey and NASCAR. And when Wilbon was touting Lance Armstrong as athlete of the year once, Kornheiser just kept screaming,"But he rides a bike!" As if that's all he does. That's like saying about Newman, "But he drives a car." You know what, I ride a bike, and I drive a car. However, I've never ridden a bike up and through the Pyrenees and I've never driven a car at 200mph with 42 other guys doing exactly the same thing. Well, except for that one time in New York.
Anyway, my point here is, I wouldn't even want NASCAR Now to touch on what Kornheiser does to the sport. For fans who agree with him, they're never going to like NASCAR anyway. And for fans who don't, they just know he's a blowhard.
I'd love to see them ask Ryan how he thinks Sprint felt when their first major race as a sponsor was won by the Alltel car. It's a lighthearted, funny question.
JD- I would be curious to know how many interviews Newman has done before Tuesday's N-NOW and how early his media "duties" started Monday. If tradition holds Newman should be on Eli Gold's MRN radio show sometime between 7:00 and 8:00PM tonight.
There were tons of people furious when Kornheiser was given the NFL Monday night gig. He sounds realy foolish when he is around any real football experts. He is constantly critisized in The Washington Post.
Mike Golic and others from ESPN were not that supportive of him either. The guy does NOT know sports. I watch Monday night football, and the guy is a bafoon.
I thought Ryan did a good job on Letterman. I think Letterman was just having fun with Ryan. Let's face it, Letterman is around racing so much and Bobby Rahal had a conection with Penske at one time, so why not ask kinda fun questions?
It's one thing for Letterman to joke around with Gordon or Danica Patrick or Tony Stewart because a lot of nonrace fans know who they are. Or Charles Barkley who was on the other night.
But when you spend 2 plus minutes of a six minute interview asking an unknown guy questions about a fight between two other guys, that's not cool. It was more pestering than asking and not funny, if it had been funny it would have been OK. When the laughs started dieing down on Stewart-Busch (did those viewers even know what he was talking about?), even Letterman said (paraphrase), Ryan, maybe you should come back tomorrow instead. And started asking questions more related to the 500.
Plus at one point after that they were talking about falling asleep in the car, and Ryan said he had done that once, and started to tell what might have been an interesting story, but Letterman blew him off and about 10 seconds later said thanks for coming.
it's not a life or death situation or anything, its just so rare to see NASCAR anything sitting down with Letterman, I would like to see it go good and not have the drivers look second rate.
John, so sorry to go off topic but I can post but not email you from work. No problem if you pull this message after you get it, but nascar.com has a story that NASCAR is looking for "core fans" for a consumer board and they are recruiting them now.
Since one of the reason they are probably doing that is your site (since it says ratings among "heavy viewers" dropped) can you find out about how you can apply to be a member and post for us? the site doesn't seem to have anything about it. Not that I or anybody else on DP would neccessarily get to take part, but I hope it's not one of those panels where nobody even knows how they "recruited" people and it's all full anyway. Thank you and sorry again!
"Obermeyer's consumer marketing team is creating an online panel of fans who will serve as a focus group of sorts. NASCAR will use this online community for feedback on issues confronting the sport. Fans who will make up the panel are being recruited, Obermeyer said."
"The core fans of today might be different than the core fans from the 1960s and '70s," said Max Muhleman, a veteran marketing and research consultant. "They might be more technology-driven, they might be driven by the personalities. The idea of creating a panel to better understand that is very progressive. There are too many sports that don't pay enough attention to the fans."
http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/cup/02/19/nascar.marketing.campaign/index.html
anon 3.56 Maybe you did not think it was funny, but Ryan thought it was. For anyone who did not see the interview, the whole thing is on youtube. You can hear the audience laughing and Ryan laughs throughout the interview.
I thought it was funny.
I did not give full attention to the show and got distracted when they mentioned CHAMP and IRL were merging and had to dig up Robin Miller's column from 1.32 AM today to confirm.
BUT as NNOW went off they are playing JR's voice and others from SPEED!! I thought I was hallucinating..and Larry Mac's voice. WOW.....ESPN is 'trying' to learn to get along with others.
JD this is amazing.
I was bummed to hear that a huge HUGE PENALTY is coming for Dale Jr's team...sigh.
Mike Joy's voice and Larry...and DW. Wow...is this ESPN??
:-)
Ryan Burr did give credit to NASCAR IMAGES as they went off the air. YAY. Sure beats a dumb music video. Good ESPN
p.s.
I thought the Letterman thing was funny, too, Elena. Typical Letterman to fixate on something...i think he did something similar with Stewart a couple years ago.
I just wished they would've kept Ryan a second segment but those night time talk shows rarely do...except for whom they deem HUGE stars. I will look for it on you tube.
THANKS
I must say I am shocked! ESPN has put together 3 great shows. Ryan Newman isnt the most outgoing interview, but I thought Ryan Burr made him feel very comfortable. Could have talked more racing but I give the show a A-!
I am extremely pleased with the improvement Nascar Now has shown so far this year. I am completely shocked that one of the last questions was so similar to Anon's @ 10:27 AM. Maybe, Burr took a peek prior to Newman's arrival. If so, kudos to Burr for educating himself as much as possible and seeking out the fan's opinion.
That show was great. Burr did a nice job and having Newman's dad was a master stroke. They seem to have broken away from the "Junior Now" show they put on last year. The brief mention of him was justified by the circumstances.
A very welcome improvement so far from last year's lame show.
Another good show. Ryan asked some great questions of Ryan and for the first time the use of a phone interview was appropriate. Keep it up Nascar NOw we're watching.
Nice show for both Ryans. It was especially nice for Newman, because he was in a safe environment with someone who is familiar with NASCAR and the Daytona 500. I also thought the phone call from his dad was a nice touch.
Hey All,
Just got a nice note from Ryan Burr from NASCAR Now thanking us for the questions and also the comments. Good to know he is out there. Thanks, Ryan!
JD
I'll just add my 2 cents -
FANTASTIC !
There is a new column up about the Tuesday edition of NASCAR Now.
JD
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