Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Kyle Petty And "Tradin' Paint" Starting To Warm-Up


Loyal viewers of the SPEED program Tradin' Paint were tuning-in hoping to see a "re-match" of one of the most popular shows from this past season.

Kyle Petty was squaring-off with the one and only Bob Pockrass, the veteran NASCAR writer from the scenedaily.com website. Last season, Petty absolutely blew his stack at some of the comments and views of Pockrass. That memorable moment was captured in this column from 2007.

Host John Roberts has worked hard to make this little thirty minute show an engaging and balanced program. This season, Roberts has been placed in the middle of the three-person panel. How this has affected the conversation is not yet quite clear.

While the enjoyable and charming Liz Clarke from the Washington Post was the first guest at Daytona, she had a nice clean slate to begin the season. There was no such luck for Pockrass. After some early agreement on items in the news, things got interesting.

Robby Gordon sparked the discussion that wound-up with Petty trying to say that teams caught with violations before getting on the track should not be penalized points, just fined. Pockrass responded that the inspectors would be working all day long because everyone would basically try to cheat. That did not sit well with Petty.

This TV series is interesting because this is a side of Petty that is not on display when he is driving, or on the TNT broadcasts as an analyst in the booth. With the incredible personal saga of Petty, and his deep family roots in NASCAR, it is quite remarkable that he would take the time to duke-it-out with a different journalist every race week.

Sometimes, the chemistry is great between Petty and the media guest, especially if that guest happens to be from the television side of the NASCAR world. This show, however, works best when the opinions are very different and both sides get a chance to state their case and let the viewers decide.

Petty said he is ready for a Toyota to win in Las Vegas. Pockrass said he thought the COT worked "great" at Daytona. Both men agreed that the Nationwide Series is in sponsor trouble. Those were just some of the interesting items this week.

With just a little work, this show would be able to re-air during the week for viewers who continually miss it during the weekend. Monday night before or after the new This Week In NASCAR would be interesting. Aired before the show, it might give the TWIN guys something to talk about as well.

As this series progresses, we will try to give the media guests in advance, so viewers can know who will be on the show. There are many colorful characters on both the print and TV sides of the NASCAR media world. That should guarantee that there will be no shortage of memorable guests this season on Tradin' Paint.

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. Thanks again for stopping by.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do really enjoy the show, but I've never quite figured out the schedule and often miss it - although I do try to record it. A set replay time would be super.

Anonymous said...

"Aired before the show, it might give the TWIN guys something to talk about as well."

I see what you mean, but I don't think that would work. I thought the show was taped earlier in the day, so the re-air of Trading Paint would actually happen after the taping. So, the panel on TWIN cannot see the Monday night re-air and might not have been able to see the original airing or catch it by other means such as DVR.

GS

Anonymous said...

So bummed that I missed it. Friggin rain delay had my tivo working overtime. Please do try to get guess line up.
Kendria

Daly Planet Editor said...

GS,

Selected clips would be shown to the talent, and then used in the show. Sorry if my words were a bit misleading.

JD

Anonymous said...

I wish Kyle would stop touting Toyota. It's like he wants to play nice with them so they may pick up Petty Enterprises' contract when the Dodge one ends. He owns and drives Dodges. He should say Dodge is going to win all of the races. He needs to be more confident in his own teams! Thanx.

IMABIGDAWG said...

I really like KP and his fire. Granted he needs to put a cap on it and stop breaking bones and such. I think he has a great career ahead of him in front of the camera once his sees the light and gets out of the car. It really is sad to see the Petty name being pulled down by his sub par racing. Is it hims driving or the engineering? I don;t know, but something needs to give very soon for the Petty name.

Anonymous said...

I do like Kyle on Tradin Paint. He gives his honest opinons on the issues.
I have been watching it more snice he became part of the panel.

Anonymous said...

I like KP on this show when he's got something to say, lately the show has become a mutual admiration society, that is not what tradin paint is about get back to basics.

Newracefan said...

To be honest I do not enjoy this show as much as I use to, I think it's more my problem than the shows. It has become more serious and less fun, especially when Kyle goes off the rails which can happen at times. This is what should be happening with this show it should be a more serious discussion not a Reutledge Race day piece