Monday, May 26, 2008

Here Are Some Program Notes: (2nd Update)


Allen Bestwick will be joined by Ricky Craven, Ray Evernham and Tim Cowlishaw for Monday's one hour NASCAR Now at 5:30PM Eastern Time.

SPEED will have This Week In NASCAR at 8PM Monday evening with Steve Byrnes as the host. We do know Michael Waltrip will be one panelist, but did not get the other guest confirmed. The show is at 8PM.

Update #2: The second guest on TWIN is David Reutimann

For those asking about Dale Jarrett on the ESPN telecasts, he is on vacation and will return to ESPN in late June for the New Hampshire race. Then, he will be the Lead Analyst for the final seventeen Sprint Cup races on ESPN and ABC.

Next week, French Open tennis will be on ESPN daily. NASCAR Now will move to 6:30PM Tuesday through Friday. Since tennis is known to run a bit long, viewers might set some extra time on the DVR or the VCR to record these shows. NASCAR Now does have a re-air at Midnight Eastern during the week as well.

Updated: This article is now open for your comments. Please keep them related to the topics listed above. The rules for posting are on the right side of the main page. Just click on the COMMENTS button below to add your opinion.

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day while remembering what this holiday really means.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alright, Ricky Craven is back on NASCAR Now.

Newracefan said...

I am also happy with Ricky, Tim not so much. I seem to remember that there was at least 1 INC (now TWIN) where Michael was the only panelist, it might have been Memorial Day, perhaps we are going to have a repeat.

Anonymous said...

initial thoughts b/c i may have to jump ship mid-way thru NN:
1. craven is terrific! insightful, solid comments, interesting observations. great comment in re: jj yeley hitting the back of earnhardt jr! spoken like a real racer
2. evernham: i like the idea that he often started his response by looking at bestwick but then switched to look at the camera directly.
3. bestwick seems very chatty. i don't generally watch on monday nights so i don't know if this is the norm.
4. nice flow of conversation up thru the second commercial break.
5. i'm a little confused why NN is covering indy 500? i would have liked to spend the time talking about nascar issues, i.e. confiscation of haas/cnc cars. and now bestwick tells us -- he didn't even watch it "but i wanted to talk about it!" hmmmm. but, they did bring it back to nascar by talking about what's going on w/ganassi team in nascar.
gotta run: may rejoin later!

Anonymous said...

I loved the out-take they showed of Marty Smith. It was great! :). Im glad ESPN can have some fun but keep things calm at the same time.

stricklinfan82 said...

ESPN once again crossed a line that shouldn't have been crossed. The name of this program is NASCAR Now, so this should be a show that is 100% about NASCAR. Indy 500 highlights and highlights of a Grand-Am race from Lime Rock have no business appearing on this program that is supposed to be a NASCAR-only program. That time would have been much better spent showing highlights of the amazing finish of the Truck race in Mansfield. Those non-NASCAR highlights had as much business appearing on this program as Celtics-Pistons, Red Wings-Penguins, and Willie Randolph's press conference highlights did - that being absolutely none.

Yes the Indy 500 is a big event. Yes NASCAR MIGHT someday own that Grand-Am Series. But the name of this show is NASCAR Now. If you want to change the name to RPM2Night or "Auto Racing Now" then go ahead and air those other racing series highlights. For now though while the show bears the name NASCAR Now we should not be seeing baseketball, baseball, golf, lacrosse, football, Indycar racing, NHRA Racing, or horse racing. We should only be seeing and hearing about NASCAR.

Relating other forms of racing to a relevant NASCAR discussion is one thing. Asking the question "Does NASCAR need a female driver?" after Danica's win in Japan is fine. Asking the question "Why is Chip Ganassi so good in Indycars and so bad in NASCAR?" is fine. Asking the question "Should NASCAR be worried about the resurgence of open-wheel racing?" is fine. Inviting Danica Patrick to NASCAR Now to talk about the open-wheel merger and hype the IRL season opener in Homestead is out of bounds. Showing Indy 500 highlights and Grand-Am highlights that had nothing to do with NASCAR is also out of bounds.

Seeing Scott Dixon's Indy car and Ron Fellows' sports car on a NASCAR-only program is inexcusable enough. Seeing those cars and never once seeing a glimpse of Donny Lia's #71 Truck during this 60 minute program made it that much worse.

Please either re-name the show to make it an "all forms of auto racing" program or get rid of the non-NASCAR related parts of the show. You can't call this program NASCAR Now and show highlights and talk about other forms of motorsports, it just doesn't make sense.

I have nothing against fans of other sports or other forms of motorsports. I'm just making the very logical and sensible point that since this program is called "NASCAR Now" it should only be talking about NASCAR.

Labbie said...

NN was a pretty good show today. Craven was on his game, as usual.

I didn't mind that they spent a little time on Indy, after all, it is just once a year.

Anonymous said...

TWIN Memorial Day edition was a M Waltrip/D Reutiman-S Byrnes love fest - there was no give and take like when Knaus is there.

This show is suffering week after week but has signs of life. No Schrader/Biffle or Knaus tonight and the show suffered.

Reutiman was great and could be a great panelist but it didn't work next to Waltrip.

Again NN wins over TWIN big-time.

Sophia said...

Historically speaking Indy type cars and the Indy 500 been around over 90 years. From that came moonshiners and the stock car race humble beginnings.

I think it's totally fine on this day to work it into the conversation on NN. It's not like they spent a segment one it.

i would rather they change the show title of TWIN to "scrambled eggs" since they have the ILLOGICAL sequence that makes me tune out...so different strokes for different folks I guess.

:-)

oh and the BLOOPERS of noise behind Marty, well how about ALL THE SHOW we were forced to sit thru when similar SUPER LOUD MOTOR NOISE was going on (the covnersation about Jr and his late father interview, among many other NOISY BACKGROUND ESPN "reports" come to mine...so since they wated time on that I think it was ok to talk historical car racing every week.

It's not like they will do this each week. :)

P.S. JD broke his own code and allowed the 500 to be commented on here...much to the delight of MANY of us...so i did not take offense.

JD may not be as big as a show on ESPN, yet, but hey, every Oak tree starts out as a small acorn.

(That's a compliment by the way, JD !! )

Oh and I find the mere mention of the Indy 500 less offensive than the constant hawking of "GOPHER CRAPOLA" on Fox, during races, Trackside and even other SPEED SHOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last I saw low level cameras were NOT the invention of FOX...pretty ubiquitous in racing today but no other stations are hyping such stuff.

I don't know what all these examples mean but I was trying to make a point.

PammH said...

strick-I TOTALLY agree w/your comments. It really struck me when Alan said he hadn't even watched the Indy500, yet they gave it air time! WRONG...the truck race couldn't have been any more exciting, and it was ignored...bad TV, imo.
However, I must say the outtake w/Marty was GREAT TV!! Thanks for sharing & I loved it when Ryan asked him about it during their piece-too funny!

Sophia said...

Ok, I got a phone call during latter part of NN and just CAUGHT they did NOT MENTION the Mansfield race????

SHAME SHAME. I was recording that race but could NOT leave the recliner to go out and plant some small flowers. FANTASTIC Race...ok, I see your point about the Indyrace but if they would've mentioned the truck race, i would still have no problem with Indy race.

BESIDES I remember LAST YEAR when ESPN PRETENDED SPEED did not exist! They never mentioned any truck race.

It's nice the communications have opened. but that was a great race!!

Daly Planet Editor said...

There is a new post up about NASCAR Now with one to follow shortly on TWIN. Thanks.

JD

Anonymous said...

Historically speaking Indy type cars and the Indy 500 been around over 90 years. From that came moonshiners and the stock car race humble beginnings.

What?

I think you ought to check your US history, not to mention stock-car racing history, 'cause you're way off on this.

Anonymous said...

History of the Indy 500 race. Been 92 of them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_Motor_Speedway#Early_history
some of you anon's need to put a, b or c after your names so one can tell who one os dealing with as opposed to quoting and sniping at people at random. Is there one cranky anon or a bunch? easy to get nikname anon1 of anon2 after name. :)
http://www.new2nascar.com/history.htm

Anonymous said...

I'll be intersetd in how you plan to show that "from the Indy 500 came moonshiners..." as Sophia claims.

Sophia said...

Wow..I gotta get my BP raised so my blood flow to brain is better. Just think what my posts would look like if I drank? sorry about that.

Just to clarify NO MOONSHINE connection to the Indy race..meant moonshiner cars were stock cars..THOSE were later cars used in racing later to be known as NASCAR...

and there is a moonshine connection to how it helped some want to becme racers. Just ask Jr Johnson among others bu

Those links don't work on this site or at least not on my computer...but I have my text enlarged but I need a siren on my computers for when I leave out key words or sentences.

Sorry for the confusion.

Sophia knows INDY cars did not come from moon shinin'. BUt the early Indy cars did have a ride along for the mechanic/ and somebody to watch the other traffic. :)

Before spotters and mirrors came about but you all knew what.

Sorry again for the shoelaces hanging out of my mouth..been a LONG weekend.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

TWIN was not much of a show this week. Mikey and David just don't have the chemistry that some of the other regulars have. Mikey telling David that he needed a hug was a bit too much for me. I hope they start to listen to the fans and get a regular pannel of guests that us fans can count on being there from week to week. I can't understand why they can't get this show together. They should have left Dave Dispain and the guys alone from last year. It was much better!!