Friday, December 12, 2008

What A Week Of Stories


Thanks to the guys over at Rowdy.com for featuring me on the December 12th podcast. To listen, just surf over to Rowdy.com and click on the "listen now" link on the Rowdy Podcast.

To listen once the Dec. 13th podcast is up, just click "listen now" and then "past shows" on the pop-up window. Choose the 12-12-08 selection.

Here are the featured TDP columns for the week. Click on the title to read and comment.

The Sprint Cup Series banquet in NYC was not exactly as "live" as ESPN made us think.

Good old "Digger" from NASCAR on Fox made it all the way to The New York Times.

Toss Marty Reid's name into the ESPN rumor mill for NASCAR next season.

DirecTV officially cancelled NASCAR Hot Pass for 2009 to the dismay of many fans.

Fox Sports announced it would be dropping the live on-location Major League Baseball pre-game show starring former NASCAR reporter Jeanne Zelasko. Does this mean the Hollywood Hotel could become a victim of the cost-cutting at Fox?

Veteran NASCAR reporter Mike Mulhern joined the ranks of the unemployed. Several other members of the traveling NASCAR press corps will also not be returning for 2009. What does this mean for fans?

This certainly has been an amazing week for all the wrong reasons when it comes to NASCAR and its various media components. Please feel free to add your comments to this post on any of the topics listed above. Thanks again for the kind words about the Rowdy.com podcast, always fun to work with Buck and Bass.

To add your comment, just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. Comments will appear shortly after they are submitted. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks for stopping by.

10 comments:

  1. JD,

    I just listened to you on Rowdy. As much as I like you JD, I hope you're wrong about Marty Reid. I want AB to be in the booth. I think AB would mesh better with DJ & AP. Plus, how many more years is Allen going to be punished and not be in the booth? Does he not want the job? Inquiring minds want to know.

    I have a question for you. Now that Petty Ent is no longer racing, are you going to change your background color? Or keep it blue in his honor? One more thing, post a picture of yourself, please? I need a visual to go with your voice. Thanks.

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  2. JD - your interview was super. I had never heard those CRAZY guys before. Reading the Houston Chronicle we never find out any news about Nascar so these websites are really needed. Even when David Starr, a Houston racer, wins a race the Chronicle never prints one word about it. Keep up the good work.

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  3. Vicky,

    Rowdy is one of the Top 100 Podcasts on iTunes.

    If you want to hear it every day, just got to iTunes and it will download to your iPod automatically and you can take it anywhere and listen anytime.

    Buck and Bass are always good for a little fun.

    JD

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  4. I agree with Dot. I like you JD, but I hope your wrong about the whole Marty Reid thing. ESPN should havre snagged Bob Jenkins while they still had him. It appeas hes going to VERSUS. If ESPN moves Marty Reid to the booth, it will be the same outcome as when they put Todd Harris in the IRL booth in place of Paul Page. You have to use someone already in the NASCAR family, like Allen Bestwick.

    P.S. - Do we know when ESPN usually makes announcements about next season?

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  5. Anon 12:54PM,

    ESPN has traditionally waited until a February press conference in the Infield Media Center at Daytona to announce the NASCAR on-air line-ups.

    Last season, we reported Rusty Wallace was out well before Christmas. No doubt we will be told soon who will be returning for next season shortly.

    JD

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  6. With maybe 1 exception, the reporting on the Petty Enterprises situation has been so uniformly mediocre that it is not clear to me whether there will or will not be a "Petty 43" racing in 2009. In fact the most recent statements I have seen attributed to Boston Ventures indicated to me that there would be a Petty car racing in 2009, even if just a 1 car team. I certainly could have missed it, but I've heard nothing on ESPN on TV about PE at all and, thru Friday, I found nothing really informative on EESPN's web site. I wonder whether the reporting about PE has been so sparse because the parties involved (Boston Ventures & Gillett) are "outsiders" and relatively new to the sport - and thus are not likely to speak to the media off the record.

    I do doubt he could have found out anything, but unfortunate timing for Mulhern to be off the beat, since W-S is maybe 40-45 minutes from Level Cross.

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  7. There is no news, because there is no news.

    We seem to live in an era where the public demands that reporters "give" them news.

    These are trying times. All negotiations are sensitive and any mistep can cause problems in the contract. Zucker and Petty are both trying to keep the value of PE as high as possible.

    No news is not a bad rap on reporters, it's a signal how close to the vest these negotiationa are.

    I think that Richard Petty deserves the respect of all to be able to announce the news when he is good and ready. I personally thought it was a disgrace when SI blindsided him in NY and demanded answers.

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  8. Anon 7:15PM, yes, you are correct about the possible merger, etc of PE and GEM. However, there are many aspects of what else may or may not be going on at PE and GEM that the press has ignored.

    Does GEM have a sponsor for the 10 car? Will the 10 car run in 2009, at least at the beginning, if it does not have sponsorship lined up?

    Jenna Fryer's AP article keeps floating around entitled "Cash-strapped Petty Enterprises....." - but whether or not PE really is cash-strapped is never discussed in the article.

    The lack of news does not mean there is none to be learned. I believe you have more faith in the press than I do. Given all the possible sources for leaks, it does fascinate me that no sources have been quoted.

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  9. Both GEM and PE have not returned calls or been "available" for comment.

    I have no faith/respect for the press--what I have is respect for individuals to talk on their own terms and in their own time.

    Jr talked about how exhausting it was when he was making a change. He wanted to make the announcement and the media/fans would not leave him alone.

    I say people out to quit hounding the principals.

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  10. Since there is nothing going on, it appears that THE SPEED REPORT will not be on again this year.

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