It will be 2:30PM Eastern Time on Thursday when SPEED and ESPNEWS will break into regularly scheduled programming to cover an announcement from a NASCAR driver.
It will be the Infield Media Center at Chicagoland Speedway that plays host to Tony Stewart as he lays-out his plans for the future following his release from Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of 2008.
SPEED has not yet indicated who the reporter will be on-site, but it should be an opportunity to see an "old school" news conference from the infield of a track with all the traveling NASCAR media present.
Things are always more fun when Tony has a chance to interact with the print, radio and TV reporters that he knows so well.
This page will serve to host your comments while the press conference is in-progress and thoughts on the coverage after it has ended. To add your opinion, just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks for dropping by.
95 comments:
JD Did you mean Thursday?
a happy tony is more fun than an angry tony so i figure thursday (the "i'm leaving gibbs" announcement day) might be somewhat sad but friday (the "i'm a team owner now!" day) ought to be a blast!
only problem i see is getting the media to play along and not badger him on thursday to make the friday announcement --did that make sense?
also, many thanks to smoke for timing this so that earnhardt jr doesn't have to deal with the media barrage over dei this weekend in chicago! what a guy our smoke is: always taking care of his friends!
newracefan said...
JD Did you mean Thursday?
hmmm. i thought we were having two events here: one to say goodby to gibbs on thursday and a separate one to say hello to stewart/haas racing (maybe even with car number and colors?) on friday. has this all been moved into a single event, jd?
Red the good bye at Gibbs was today
newracefan said...
Red the good bye at Gibbs was today
thanks, nrf! i have successfully lost an entire day somewhere. ah well. not sure i wanted to watch tony say goodbye to those guys anyway . . .
so, that means that the stewart/haas piece of this puzzle is tomorrow, thursday, from chicago.
or something.
Thanks nrf, I should never type without an editor.
me neither!
Is it possible that the ESPN article that cited anonymous sources that you heavily criticized on this website turned out to be 100% correct? Is it possible that the anonymous sources you ridiculed might have actually been principles in the negotiations who could not contractually be on the record commenting? Is it possible maybe you need to eat a bite, if not a whole slice, of humble pie after the way you ripped those reporters whose story turns out to have been true?
Anon 8PM,
Did you even read my column? What we are trying to debate is what should be presented as news and what should be presented as opinion.
If you heard "NASCAR Now" tonight, you heard veteran reporters talking in clearly defined terms with every single item they mentioned.
This debate is going to continue as ESPN.com has to go up against a host of other "insider" blogs and websites that chase NASCAR info and will post almost anything.
If you take a minute to review my column, you can perhaps appreciate that this is the second year of ESPN giving a darn about NASCAR.
What they are finding out is that when it comes to TV, they put on a good show, but when it comes to Internet information they are playing second fiddle. How to solve that?
Buying Jayski was a good start, then put ESPN info and video on Jayski. Then get some reporters to post on ESPN.com and try to go head-to-head with the David Pooles and Jenna Fryers of the world.
I said David Newton's story and his TV appearance mid-week was to fill a gap. The info ESPN often presented last season as breaking news or a scoop was hilarious.
This season, it has been soo much better it is going to be a shame to go backwards. Make no mistake, this is a race by ESPN.com against the other Internet sites and it all revolves around getting it on the Internet first.
As we move through silly season and then The Chase, this issue is going to get even more crazy.
JD
Since Tony was feeling sick last weekend, maybe this was why and not the flu, after all he's been saying the last few weeks that he's been ill. Maybe it was just nerves. I do wish him the best even though most owners drivers don't make out to well.
I'm not sure I would think nerves with Tony Stewart but stress absolutely.
No problem JD even my good buddy spell check wouldn't have caught that one. Thanks for the heads up the DVR is all ready.
Should be interesting to see who hosts the interview, who the PR person is and how many people Tony already has in place.
JD
Still no word about ESPNEWS, if I get any info I will update.
JD
WHen Marty Stewart said Tony had had a lot of sleepless nights and "nausea" I immediately thought this had made the boy ill, too. Especially since I read he had been feeling ill for two weeks and we know how tony felt when the media kept asking questions.
Today was an emotional day for him and tough guy or not, he was thinking about what this meant to a lot of people and not just other racers during a race.
I hope he feels better but the media will not be backing off this story...much like when Jr made the decision to change teams. I just hope the boy is HAPPY but I am sad to see her and Zippy part ways. then I learned tonight Tony was not allowed to take ANYBODY from JGR with him..guess the non-compete claus or somethiing?
Anyway, I will still root for him same as always.
ESPNEWS will be carrying the press conference as well, live at 2:30.
Watching the late re-air of Nascar Now . . . and want to throw something at Boris Said or Nicole for not calling out Boris on this . . .
He said "Tory will be under a lot of pressure going to Daytona, he might not even be in the top 35 in points"
Last I checked, unless JJ or whomever wins the title this year moves to a new team, he'll have the previous champion's provisional at his disposal.
JD, I noticed as well when Angelique and Marty were on discussing silly season news that they were careful to point out what was rumor and what was unconfirmed in their segment. That is all anybody wants. Be up front with what is fact and what is rumor...
JD,
One good thing we can all agree on about this situation is at least next year you'll have a better picture of Stewart :)
bevo said...
JD,
One good thing we can all agree on about this situation is at least next year you'll have a better picture of Stewart :)
Ain't that the truth? This one looks like it should be on the post office wall.
Very upset my Brighthouse Networks did not extend my NN for today. I usually don't have to check it 'cause I DVR it as a series and it works on its own and moves around to more time, less time, different time. Today, however, didn't record the last 30 minutes. Rats!!!
That sure was a problem, all the DVR and TiVo folks lost the last thirty minutes of the hour.
If ESPN has advised me they were extending it, I would have passed it along.
I want to be careful about Boris, because he is a nice guy and has a long racing history. Unfortunately, by the end of the hour even Manske was getting snippy with him. When you are talking about a news story, you have to deal in facts.
That is tough to do sometimes for Boris and I think both Marty and Angelique did well by him during their discussions.
JD
John Daly has gotten off-center with this column. He used to offer objectivity and good opinions on shows and TV. Today, in my opinion, sitting on my couch in the midwest, he completely dropped the ball. ESPN had Tony Stewart last night and he was honest and open. Marty Smith was inside Joe Gibbs Racing. They were ALL OVER IT. And Daly didn't even mention it. If it were Raceday and Wendy Venturini he would have raved about her being such a great reporter with great relationships. But this time he didn't even watch it. I felt like ESPN set the bar higher Wednesday. And Daly let me down.
Have you been reading my columns this year?
I would invite you to cruise through the archives. ESPN is on a roll and we have been following that all season.
One bad show is not going to ruin the season. One good show does not automatically get a review.
Wednesday's show was good, hopefully Tony's press conference will lead to another fun program.
JD
Not sure if this was mentioned yet. But for those of you who don't get SPEED Channel. ESPNEWS is also going to carry the press conference LIVE.
Yes I read the column. That's why I wrote that today. It's the first time i've written. I don't usually care enough to say anything but when it becomes obvious, and all these other people do it and when you are so critical, I figured someone should call a spade a spade.
David Newton didn't break the story about Tony Stewart going to Hass/CNC. David Newton wrote a recap of the story a week later.
The story was first posted on captainthunderracing.com on
June 27th.
ESPN is just another spoon fed media outlet pandering to NASCAR.
Shayne
Sorry Shayne but neither "Captain Thunder" nor Newton broke the story. It was first reported on June 23 by Dave Moody. On June 26 ESPN and SportsBusiness Journal reported it.
bevo,
You make the point that I have been trying to make. The rush to be first and somehow have "breaking news" is starting to consume NASCAR Now again.
Do you remember Tony's problems with David Amber? That is why I think this news conference should be interesting.
JD
Bevo,thanks for the clarification.
Shayne
JD,
Yep, sure do. That's why I don't usually get into the whole "we broke the story first" thing. I don't care who breaks it, I want the story that is correct... especially from a news source.
I have a feeling Stewart will be in full Owner mode today with the media. The interesting thing will be who will ask if his getting out of the car Saturday was legit :)
p.s.
Shayne - I didn't look over my post after I wrote it and hoped you didn't think it was written in a nasty tone.
I think the Brett Favre "story" shows that ESPN and a lot of the media are interested 1st in being first, 2nd in having a "story," and last in having facts. So far an 11 year old girl has done more real reporting about the Favre situation than ESPN, FOX Sports, and the AP combined.
I think that it will be fun to watch and see what questions the media pick to ask and who asks them.
JD
Sometimes people cannot get the true facts because the principals are not able to give them because all the "t"s and not crossed.
I had a feeeling about Tony last season when he refused to sign the long term contract that Gibbs had been after him to sign. Tony did not want to lie, but he also did not have all his ducks in a row.
Sometimes you just have to read between the lines. Every time I see Tony speak about his teams or his race track, his whole face lights up. Joe Gibbs said he wanted to be an owner.
I don't blame Tony. He's 37. Tony will never pass Jeff or JJ. in many categories. Now he has to compete with Kyle and Logano.
If he was going to full fill his dream of being an owner, he saw his golden opportunity. It is as though all his stars are aligned. It was the same for Ray Everham. He became an owner just at the right time. Dodge gave him a ton of money and as we read a few weeks ago, his team, though he's a minority owner now, is number 4 in value--just behind Gibbs, but ahead of RCR, Penske, DEI, etc.
There are those that are always looking for a challenge, I see Tony as one of those.
Wow..catching the repeat of the WOC on SPEED..butchered up something fierce.
Now the special is on.
is it me or is the sound horrible?
ESPN News showing video still
sound better on ESPNnews
Speed has a bad audio feed...much better on NEWS
sophiaz123 said...
is it me or is the sound horrible?
sound is not good from my end either. anyone know why? and here come the questions . . .
and now, no video and the sound is a phone line transmission. hmmmm.
red
I sure hope you have ENews sound is better
Now SPEED has major glitch??OM..lost the picture
SPEED is working on the technical issues. It appears to be a satellite problem.
Speed audio is awful - I switched to ESPN news
WTH!!! a commercial fro wrecked?!? and now another one? i despair.
ESPN News all is good audio/video
I think we all would rather have a black screen with audio, then just going to commercials. They couldn't have stuck with the radio feed while they figure out the problems with the picture?
Can't wait to hear JD"s opinion on the SPEED going to commercial as opposed to bad audio.
Great googly moogly. Not good.
This so far is overall a bush league production of a press conference on SPEED
Alex, it appears to be more than a simple issue. give them a bit to fix it.
Video back but audio still BAD
thanks, lou. changed rooms AND channels. espn news is good to go: sound and video quality are both great.
for anyone else who may need it, nascar.com is streaming live.
as for the audio issue, maybe it's just white noise in the room? sounds like the microphone is crisp and clear
It sounds like just an audio box problem. And SPEED just got the bad connection.
This is hilarious, people keep walking in front of the camera on SPEED.
Alex
On SPEED it sounds like the mic is next to a window unit A/C :)
Everything is clear on NASCAR.COM and no commercials!
watching both channels and speed went back to the race. duh?
SPEED JUST WENT BACK TO THE RACE???!!
Thankfully this is online for folks w/o E NEWS...on NASCAR.com
John Roberts obviously thought he was off camera when he was reading his notes to close out the press conference. He never looked in he camera. What a debacle.
It seems the Q&A is going well. Seems like Tony is a little subdued.
Blogger Lou,Kingston,NY said...
watching both channels and speed went back to the race. duh?
I also want to know what JR said as he 'closed out the conference'..did he mention the audio/feed problems? Still lots of good questions..I look for ESPN to cut things off in mid sentence as they are wont to do.
SPEED needs to get their act together...I know Satellites and things fail but I have noted more tech problems this year than ever before and I only watching during the NASCAR stuff.
JD;
Hope you can get to the bottom of a total technological CF... The overall disappointment is obvious, as well as a shocking lack of commitment on SPEED's part, since they went back to CZ 400 coverage in the middle of a question, when the video had been recovered and the audio was no worse than it had ever been... Thanks
Yes Tony does seem VERY SUBDUED..as compared to Jr smiling and happy when he went to Hendrick.
Interesting..except I know Tony has been weighing this since last season's end, apparently.
I also think (from my guessing) it's HUGE loss to leave Zippy.
lou,kingston,ny said...
It seems the Q&A is going well. Seems like Tony is a little subdued.
this is the "thoughtful, reasoned, patient" smoke we're seeing-- w/flashes of humor! i suspect we'll see more of him like this as his career progresses. one consequence of this move for him is that he now has an owner voice to bring to the trailer and i certainly hope he does so!
Soph123, I don't think he said anything of the tech problems at sign off. He was reading notes and as ann250 pm said he may have thought he was not on camera.
Yes, red I agree.
I think I just watched the BIGGEST FUMBLE of the year by SPEED and NFL camps don't open for a couple of weeks.
WOW!
love his humor showing up...now there is a smile on his face.... :)
He obviously takes this seriously as he should. i can ONLY imagine how this lay heavily on his mind.
He may be a tough guy on the track but a sensitive, compassionate guy about all the effects this had on the team and company.
It's why some of us have been fans of this man.
I hope ESPN knows that SPEED cut off the interview and will continue with it so we can see it all.
Who would have ever thought that ESPN would provide better NASCAR coverage than SPEED?
KUDOS to NEWS
anonymous said...
I think I just watched the BIGGEST FUMBLE of the year by SPEED and NFL camps don't open for a couple of weeks.
i'm right there with you. (and i like the way you tied the metaphor all together: "fumble" and nfl camps."
i certainly hope we can get some technical explanation from speed about what happened and why they chose to pull away from the Q&A. i certainly didn't read that they would only cover the actual announcement and not the Q&A session afterwards.
and can i just say i'm actually impressed with the overall quality of the questions? i think the media folks may have actually been thinking about what to ask today (which is certainly a very good idea when questioning stewart for any length of time!)
and we're down to nascar.com for full coverage . . .
Thanks Red!!!!
I am so not used to nascar.com. thanks for reminding us and excuse my attention span of a gnat for forgetting to go there.
duh. or call it a blond moment. :)
JD, just another reason to have other outlets to get our NASCAR fix. Like red said. down to NASCAR.Com to finish. last question coming up for Tony.
Ok Espn just cut away a few mins early but thats OK - we got most of it & the questions were repeats.
I can't believe SPEED blew it as bad as they did. Never did I think I'd switch to ESPN from speed last year!!!! What a difference a year makes.
The reporters questions were good & Tony looked relieved. He & Joe Custer explained the whole thing well. And Tonys sense of humor is back, thank heavens.
Should be interesting rest of the year. No mention of his new crew chief or car number. So people will be talking.
Thanks ESPN for good audio & camera shots and staying with it as long as you did - commercial free. Thank you, good job folks.
Anon
Tongue in cheek..LIGHTEN up.
But it's happened a lot this year.
back to Tony...truly showing him to be the gentleman he is.
Thanks NASCAR.com for having the end of the conference in it's entirety. I have seen SPEED cover some in their entirety as well.
Love seeing Tony with the Siamese kittens on his shoulder and other video nascar.com ran. :)
anon 3:17 said: Also, you all of you expect SPEED or any TV coverage to stay with the entire presser? What planet are you from? that never happens - with any news outlet. Most channels need to get back to regular programming as soon as possible.
actually, yes, i did expect speed to stay with the entire press conference. their regular programmming right now is showing a replay of the daytona race. and this is not a small story within our sport.
as i recall, when dale earnhardt jr announced he was leaving dei and when he announced he was going to hendrick, both press conferences were covered in their entirety.
i do not believe it was an unreasonable expectation that a channel that is named "speed" would have the flexibility and committment to carry the entire press conference. i am not necessarily in disagreement about what other news outlets would have chosen to do in this circumstance. but speed is all about motorsports and here's a very big deal motorsports story that they have -- for whatever reason -- pulled away from to return to a rerun of a race.
(and for the record: i'm from here on earth, just like you, anon, so ease up.)
ya' know what? nascar.com isn't doing a bad job with the post-presser coverage. i am impressed by the way they're handling it.
Anon 3:17, Sophia makes a very good point. I realize technical issues occur, but since the press conference just went off the air, SPEED should have taken a few minutes, gone off the air to fix the problem with a scroll explaining they'd be back at the bottom - and then come back and aired the press conference to its conclusion. Instead they left about about 20-25 minutes before ESPNews did.
It's the biggest driver Silly Season announcement of the year. SPEED should have done better. I was home to switch to ESPNews, but many people not at home probably set their VCRs or DVRs for SPEED since many homes to not have ESPNews - they're going to be disappointed.
AND -- most people look to SPEED, not ESPNews to cover this type of announcement, since SPEED is at the track anyway. If SPEED wasn't planning to air the whole press conference....that would have been bad judgement, so I hope that wasn't the case.
I also did not expect ESPNews to carry almost all of the press conference and wonder if that was a reaction to SPEED's issues. If so, good thinking on the fly, ESPNews.
Well, NASCAR.com did excellent in covering this and just wrapped up the post conference coverage. Good job and THANKS for giving we Tony Stewarts extra time.
Good luck Smoke...almost a hometown boy to this family.
WOW, so glad I DVR the Speed coverage for later viewing obviously bad choice on my part. Next time I'll do both in case ESPN gets the bad audio box of someone's next big announcement. Couldn't stream it here at work either, (they would frown upon me downloading the plugin) guess I'm out of luck on this one. Hopefully Jayski will have a transcript and I'll have to rely on bits and pieces from NN and Speed for his tone and demeanor. Bummer all around, back to work for me
Thanks for the comments, I will have an update and a column this evening after NASCAR Now that will talk about this overall press conference and Tony's news.
JD
My DVR has me spoiled...and I totally didn't think about the time difference. I had 2:30 on the brain and didn't think to adjust. My DVR I just set the SP and forget it. But doesn't sound like I missed a lot especially on SPEED.
Disappointing to hear, they're usually pretty professional :(
Have been looking on nascar.com and also Jayski for a rerun of the presser. Couple of very short clips on nascar.com. Sitting right here at my desk watching on Speed at first, then flipped over to ESPN and watched the rest. Didn't even enter my mind to go to nascar.com to watch the conclusion and post-presser. Darn it.
Gymmie said...
My DVR has me spoiled...and I totally didn't think about the time difference. I had 2:30 on the brain and didn't think to adjust. My DVR I just set the SP and forget it.
You didn't have to adjust. It was 2:30 ET. Unfortunately Speed pooped out after 17 minutes.
4:30PM - Still working to get the scoop on what happened with the SPEED part of the press conf.
Pass it along when I get it.
JD
Thank you JD
What a HORRIBLE press conference.
First of all, Tony: If all you have to announce is a 50% stake in Haas, then why not leave it a secret and let people speculate for a year. Then hold a REAL press conference when you can show off a car, a number, a paint scheme, sponsors, everything. This was lame - even the Stewart-Haas logo looked like a last-minute job.
Second, Speed: WAY TO DROP THE BALL. I could go on and on about the technical difficulties, but I won't because I guess that can happen to anyone. But even if they had stayed on the air.. what in the heck were they thinking? There were photographers standing up in the frame on a national feed, there was poor sound, they couldn't get a good camera angle. It was just horrible.
You imagine one of the Top 5 players in the NBA or baseball moving teams and think of the production that would be, both from the player and the network. This was just the laziest, ad-hoc non-event. I couldn't believe it.
And then frankly I think the journalists dropped the ball, too. First question to the Haas GM about Tony's passion. Wow, nice first question. Of everything you could possible ask, you ask a question that will get a generic response like "Wow, it means so much to have someone of Tony's caliber join our team." I mean, really. That journalist should be ashamed.
I would think all parties involved would want a do-over. I bet Joe Gibbs is laughing his tail off.
@karen--I'm in the Central TZ so I'm an hour behind east coast :)
There is a new post up about SPEED's problems during this press conference.
JD
Karen, NASCAR.COM has the presser in its entireity on the front of their site right now. It may get "bumped" before too long, but I see they have archived it here as well (in case it gets truncated, it ends with /0020/ ):
http://www.nascar.com/2008/multimedia/races/cup/0020/
Post a Comment