"Wow, what a way to start the show," said NASCAR Now host Ryan Burr. He had just opened the Tuesday edition with the news that Joey Logano was out of the #96 Hall of Fame car for the rest of the season.
It was NASCAR Now Lead Reporter Marty Smith who reported live by telephone with the update. "It just wasn't working," said Smith of the Logano rent-a-ride. He filled-in the details and said it would be fan favorite Ken Schrader in the #96 car for the rest of the season.
NASCAR on ESPN analyst Andy Petree was next to apear on-camera. He commented on the Logano situation and addressed the positive and negative things that were happening to the young man in the Sprint Cup Series.
Introducing a topic with the host, filling-in the details with the reporter and then letting the analyst talk about the issues has always worked best on NASCAR Now and it did once again on Tuesday.
Next-up was the Paul Menard news. Once Burr explained the Menard move to Yates Racing for 2009, he welcomed Yates GM Max Jones to the program by phone. Jones was very up-front in explaining the details and why he felt Menard would benefit from the Yates and Roush-Fenway partnership next season.
Covering both sides of the story, Burr brought-in ESPN.com reporter David Newton on-camera who explained that DEI knew Menard was going to leave. The follow-up question from Burr addressed how DEI would do for 2009. Newton said DEI might have only two Sprint Cup cars next season.
Not missing a beat, Burr continued with the Scott Speed story and brought-in Speed by phone to talk about his Red Bull connections. Burr tried his best to pin Speed down about his plans for 2009, but Speed would not take the bait. This is one situation where the veteran news anchor Burr works very well.
Up next on-camera popped Mike Skinner, who would pilot the Red Bull car at Talladega replacing AJ Allmendinger. Skinner is a great interview and Burr let him talk about the dynamics of the Red Bull team and Allmendinger's future. Positive words from a veteran like Skinner on national TV go a long way where getting a new ride is concerned.
David Newton returned to say Speed was "dancing around" the fact that he was going to be the full-time Cup Series driver for Red Bull next season. Newton also said positive things about Allmendinger and mentioned the Kyle Petty ride. Burr immediately followed-up to ask about Petty. Newton was not optomistic and basically said "this may be it for him" when talking about Petty having possibly ended his career last week in Kansas.
Tim Brewer was next and recapped the restrictor plate situation for Talladega. His hands-on demonstration served to clearly illustrate the mechanics behind the device. Petree followed Brewer and was all smiles about Talladega because of his personal success at the track. He reminded Burr that the entire Chase could be turned upside-down with one big wreck in this event.
On the way out the door, Burr told viewers that both Steve Letarte and Chad Knaus would be guests on the Wednesday show. That makes sense, because there certainly was not one free moment of time in this one.
This may have been the best weekday NASCAR Now program in the 18 months that this TV series has been on-the-air. It was concise, informative and loaded with all kinds of guests, reporters and ESPN analysts. The hard work of the production staff was clear to see and the results were outstanding.
The show returns on Wednesday at 5PM ET and re-airs at Midnight/9PM Pacific.
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14 comments:
This may have been the best weekday NASCAR Now program in the 18 months that this TV series has been on-the-air. It was concise, informative and loaded with all kinds of guests, reporters and ESPN analysts. The hard work of the production staff was clear to see and the results were outstanding.
Ding, ding, ding --- we have a winner. This show clicked. Great job by all concerned.
Flip flop Dot watched NN again. Good show. I'd like to see all of them like this. NASCAR had some big news today. I think that makes a difference. They didn't even have time to rerun Truex's radio rant.
I don't know why Dinger is already out of the car. I like Skinner, but why not let Dinger finish out the season?
JoLo out of the 96? He shouldn't have been in it in the first place. Is it the car? the driver? CC? pit crew? I don't think he's ready for full time Cup. With Tony leaving, I know they have no choice but to move him up. I just think it's too soon. If he adopts the Hamlin/Busch attitude, there's going to be even more resentment from the other drivers, possibly the fans too. Too bad he couldn't have shared the 20 car with a veteran. It will be interesting to see if he can keep it in the top 35 next year.
How sad if Kyle Petty is already out of his ride. We didn't even get to say goodbye. Will he still do Tradin' Paint? From what I've read, Wells Fargo is sticking with him. I hope he's in another ride soon.
I'm going to watch NN again tomorrow to see Chad & Steve. Roommate blames Steve for Jeff's bad (for him) season. I want to see if he addresses the issue.
Sorry for the long post. Flip flop signing off.
WOW. Glad it was a good show but I didn't watch though I would'v'e liked to have seen Skinner.
YAY!! Schrader back in a car and Joey L out. Can the HYPE stop?
Boy needs to not be pushed so hard, seems slice bread turned into my nik name for him "Toast". but they burned up the hype on the boy.
look forward to dega with Kenny S.
Now if we could just bring back TNT and Race buddy. :)
Very true, JD. This is what a daily show SHOULD be all about. Unfortunatly, there usually just isn't enough news to fill 30-60 every day, unless you do a roundtable, which seems to work well about once a week. Getting back to some thing we have all discussed for a couple of years now, they really need to step up coverage of other series aside from the 3. Personally, I wish it was more RPM, where everything is covered, but I could accept closer coverage of stock and/or short track (dirt and asphalt) series like East, West and ARCA.
It really is nice to have nights like this where there is a host of issues to cover, but as you pointed out, how many have we seen in the last 2 years?
Tom,
While I agree with you, I know that ESPN has no interest in racing other than the NASCAR product they already own.
The confusion comes from the inability of the NASCAR Now management to embrace the other series that feed the big three.
Camping World, Whelen Mods and ARCA all sneak in and out of NN as the wind blows.
The other big issue is the lack of one weekday reporter on the ground in Mooresville. It is nice to have faces on liveshots, but that should not have replaced someone who can go and dig for stories in the area where 99% of the sport is located.
JD
What we need is a cable/satellite network that covers racing.
All the series they can get video of, all the time.
We could call it FAST or something...
Oh...wait. Never mind.
I just read on Jayski that Rusty Wallace is highly considering coming back to the cup series next season, according to hos own brother kenny. Wouldnt that shake things up over at ESPN. It would be a good excuse to make some booth changes if Rusty goes back to driving, if you know what I mean ;-)
Anon 9:33AM,
Very Funny!! Now cut that out.
JD
I read the very same thing about Rusty this morning and the rumor is that he would be driving for DEI to get decent sponsorship and to get the team back in the right direction. I think that this would be really interesting and would love to see what ESPN has to say about it too.
There is a new post up about the Rusty Wallace issues. He has just released a statement dealing with that topic.
Refresh your browser or click on the big logo at the top of the page.
JD
Just a heads up that Jeff Gordon will be on the Today Show tomorrow morning and will be unveiling his new paint scheme for next season there.
I just wanted to give a shout-out to NN for the interview with Matt Kobyluck last week, I think it was. Fascinating and a nice touch. Well done
Good show but could have lived without the "plate", I wonder how many time's we'll see it this weekend.
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