Before we go any further, The Junkies are a group of guys that have a morning radio show in Washington, DC. As a Sports Reporter for WRC-TV4 in the nation's capital, Lindsay Czarniak knows just how to handle the morning talk show crew. Sometimes, a T-shirt goes a long way.
In just a couple of days, Czarniak will begin her second season with the "summer six pack" of Sprint Cup races on TNT. Last year, her fresh face and hard work added another female presence to what had been a male-dominated position. That would be the NASCAR pit road reporter.
Czarniak follows-up on the work of Fox's Krista Voda and then passes the baton to ESPN's Jamie Little and Shannon Spake. Now, the Sprint Cup Series has at least one female pit road reporter for the entire season. Add-in the fact that Wendy Venturini handles the reporting duties for SPEED's RaceDay and the mix of females on-the-air is stronger than ever.
Czarniak is a James Madison grad, who followed-up with stints at two local TV stations in Florida. In DC since 2005, she has enjoyed a wide variety of assignments in the local area and beyond. TV viewers may remember her covering the Winter Olympics from Torino and even working pit road in the ARCA Series for SPEED.
This summer on TNT, Czarniak will once again be joined by a trio of experienced NASCAR reporters. Matt Yocum continues his work after handling pit road for the NASCAR on Fox TV coverage. Fresh from the motorcycle world is Ralph Shaheen, one of the best-known faces in the business. Finally, returning from last season is TV and radio veteran Marty Snider.
The only drawback to this group's task is that only Yocum has been on TV regularly this season in NASCAR. The rest of the gang will have to come up-to-speed quickly at Pocono, especially with all of the on-going NASCAR news.
Last year, Czarniak drew positive reviews for her ability to get-in and get the story whether it was on pit road or in the garage area. She had a local station reporter's "nose for news" and asked her questions directly regardless of who was being interviewed. That might be the result of being involved for only six races.
Fans can clearly see the different approaches the pit reporters use when they are full-time in the sport and often are associated with drivers and teams away from the track. Just like DW caught some flack for his Toyota connections, several pit reporters have a whole lot of NASCAR business going-on long after the racing is over.
The TNT package is here and gone quickly, last season leaving memories of endless promotions of TNT programs and one good Daytona race. This season, nestled among the Kyra Sedgwick and Holly Hunter promos should be a solid group of pit reporters ready to take-over the task of covering a sport in transition. Czarniak should be front-and-center.
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27 comments:
She is good looking, and an even better reporter.
I'm female and I really liked Lindsay Czarniak last season. Never heard of her before then. Very good pit reporter and I'm glad she's back. I thought she also had a nice rapport with the guys in the booth, which came to light during a rain delay (I don't remember which race that was).
Hate to say but I don't remember her from last year. I think that TNT so traumatized me, especially after Sonoma, that I just wiped out any memory of those six weeks :)
I watch everything on Nascar and I don't have any recollection of her. Unfortunately,I do remember Wally and Bill Weber.
OT...Came here this morning to finish reading the Eldora comments and all is gone...did I miss something?
I can't watch Wally D. and Bill Weber without being sad about missing Benny.
I agree with bevo and anon. I simply do not remember her from last season.
I also looked forward to reading the Eldora comments this morning and was surprised to find "nothing".
JD, is TNT going to share their pit reporters with SPEED on Friday like last year?
In my opinion, that was where Lindsay really shined last season. She was fantastic interacting with the SPEED hosts in the booth during the sometimes slow practice and qualifying action.
Nothing on Eldora, JD?
Come on, you did the Indy 500.
At least Eldora featured Cup drivers.
The Eldora comments were related to the weather. Once the program was underway the weather post was deleted.
There will be a column up about the HBO PPV program fronm Eldora later today for your comment.
Thanks,
JD
Let's put her in the booth! She's so awesome and talented and experienced and dedicated and hot and smart and unflappable and...and...
Sorry, JD-
Somehow, I thought that the "weather" post was going to remain active during the event.
My bad. :)
Hmmm. The comments on the pregnant girlfriends would certainly garner enough thoughts and opinions to warrant its own thread, wouldn't it? NASCAR really doesn't air their dirty laundry (I think there's more than we fans will ever know about) and I like it that way.
I don't remember Lindsay from last season, either. Since Kyle Petty is in the booth for these few races, I'll definitely listen to the broadcast as well as my driver on TrackPass. After that, it's back to the t.v. volume very low/off.
I live in the DC area, and Lindsay is great at her job here, and I know she really enjoys the NASCAR stint. Last year, she had a running blog on the Channel 4 website that she updated about her trips to the track...hopefully she will do it again this year.
smokefan: After the George Michael Sports Machine went off the air (Lindsay) was co-host), the TNT NASCAR package is the only place to see Ms. Czarniak outside of the DC area.
JD: Is Larry McReynolds again handling the cutaway car for TNT? Not to get into a lengthy discussion, possibly leading to my post being deleted, I'll merely say that IMO McReynolds is better at cutaway car explanations than in the play-by-play booth.
Non Sequitor Interruption.
JD
If I may ask for an exception to your content rules, but BOB JENKINS is calling the Indy Lights race right now on ESPN2!!!!
He sounds so good, like old times!!!
Thanks
Sorry for the interuption
Bray Kroter
Can anyone tell me why the pit reporters don't use noise cancelling mikes? It's very hard to undersetand them when the cars are in the background.
whoops! good thing i checked your recent deletes, jd, before posting my response! thanks very much for that.
I thought Czarniak was the biggest positive surprise from last year on any of the networks. It will be great to see her on pit road again.
Its too bad so few people remember her from last year. She did an awesome job.
I'm from DC, watch Lindsay for sports every morning. She's a very good asset to TNT Sports and to NASCAR on TNT.
Lindsay was the first sports reporter to break the news of the death of Washington Redskins' safety Sean Taylor and the first to get any interviews with any of the players. She's been on ARCA on SPEED, and on CNNSI before that.
Not to mention, high-definition does her justice on the air. Lindsay's definently a looker, and definently one of the more popular female reporters in the area - wonder why?? ;)
She's a great sports reporter alltogether, and she knows her NASCAR. I'm so glad TNT brought back Lindsay Czarniak.
To those who don't remember her from last year, she also covered the Martinsville and ORP NASCAR Busch Series races for NBC and TNT respectively and was brought in because of her work with NBC4 Sports Machine. I think she covered Torino and will cover Beijing for NBC/MSNBC/CNBC.
I'm glad NASCAR's back on TNT. ESPN was awful and FOX wasn't much better this year. Finally, some good coverage with an all-star lineup. Weber can go back to his rock, but the rest are awesome.
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