Last year's Chase finalists were able to get that White House trip in after all. Due to some schedule conflicts, NASCAR also added some current and former drivers to round-out the starting line-up for this afternoon's photo op with President Obama.
This administration has been very comfortable interacting with sports TV networks. The President made his picks for the NCAA Basketball tournament on ESPN and then hosted the winning team at the White House. Yes, he got it right.
Now, a new sport that he is not very familiar with is walking in with a lot on the agenda. NASCAR is struggling with everything from ticket sales to TV ratings. Many of the top drivers are polished corporate spokesmen who lack the excitement that sports TV viewers crave.
While there are many pictures floating around of Jimmie Johnson and other past champions with President Bush, this is a new administration and a very new political dynamic for the sport. It should be interesting to review the Tweets, emails and stories that come from this group.
TDP will be live blogging the 4:30PM ET White House special one-hour edition of NASCAR Now on ESPN2. Nicole Manske is the host and President Obama will be live with Manske and ESPN's Brad Daugherty shortly after 5PM.
Please join us for your thoughts on the TV coverage. Political comments will be deleted, there are plenty of Internet sites for that content. We are just watching NASCAR TV unfold as usual. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks, this should be fun.
78 comments:
Wow!! Started abit early-good thing I turned it on when I walked in the dr.
They jumped on the air a bit early so they did not miss the President working the rope line.
Wonder if DW told him a story from the 70's lol
They got Junior into a suit.
Nice.
Weird to see Marty Smith on the North lawn. Looks like a network WH correspondent.
Fun to see our stars w/a Prez! Wonder if Marty will take on Ryan's dare of yelling Earnhardt! on the North Lawn??
JD, when did they come on the air?
Kyle Petty has a bunch of pics from the white house on his twitter
Looks like about 8 to 10 minutes early.
Anon: about 10-15 minutes ago, they interupted The Best of Mike and Mike to cut to this
Nicole needs to be given a lesson on how to dress for a White House event.
Her usual wardrobe is in appropriate for this appearance.
Guest announcer Dennis Leary got the whammy on the M&M Show.
Im mad i missed Dennis Leary on M&M, hes hilarious :( i usually catch an hour of the show in the morning but alas i missed it today
Not exactly the best choice. I would be cutting around that.
This is a comment from Kyle Petty's twitpic that made me laugh out loud
"I'd like to thank Men's Warehouse and Lens Crafters for our custom tailored look today. The tie was giving me a little trouble in the beginning, but loosened up as the day went along."
Leary was much better than I gave him credit for. He gave everyone a hard time equally!
You don't like the purple shoes?? LOL
Great Photo JD!
I just tuned in..saw your tweet they came on early..bummer for DVR fans.
OK, am I the only one noticing the spike high heels Nicole is wearing? Sheesh...sorry I am all for glam but it does not look professional to me.
I'm sorry Massaro is off this week. It's cool to see the drivers in suits though (jr! LOL) and all sitting on the White House lawn.
If everybody could just leave their politics at the door, this could be a fun blog.
Sorry for all the extra work JD. Appreciate the extra blogs this week. :)
I am surprised that she was allowed to dress that way--as a rep of ESPN, you'd think a producer woulda said, "No."
I am just impressed that ESPN thinks this is important enough to put on TV.
Ummm, I don' see anything wrong with Nicole's outfit. What should she be wearing? She's a young gal-they wear short skirts.
The purple shoes with 4" heels and the short-short skirt?
While I might like to see her wear them, I know they don't belong at an event where you meet the President.
Other than the shoes, she's not wearing anything that the females of the White House press corps (and press in general) don't normally wear. That skirt is actually longer than most of the ladies on Fox News wear
Hey, the Prez is handling himself pretty well where the sport is concerned.
Good to see that the rain held off. About an hour ago, it looked like it was going to pour. Dark clouds, wind picking up. It could be why they started a little early.
Maybe get Brad a shorter chair, so he doesn't have to do that noticeable slouch...?
yes there is a protocol to how one dresses to represent the sport. And meet a President! This ain't a get together of ESPN at Hooter's for crying out loud...or an episode of Melrose Place. :)
Can't believe ESPN allowed Nicole to go on with those shoes, and the skirt could be a bit longer.
Obama looks like a little guy next to Brad! Glad the weather is cooperating and they are out on the lawn. Great photo ops.
What the heck is Nicole thinking... mini-skirt, paisley shoes.... And, BTW... can ESPN ask Brad to slouch down a litle more!?
If anyone watched the MLB All star game he sat down with MLB Network and talked baseball pretty fluently so im not too surprised hes fluent in NASCAR
That skirt is actually longer than most of the ladies on Fox News wear
As my Momma would have said, just because other people are doing it, doesn't make it right.
I was brought up in a time when you dressed appropriately for an occasion--you didn't just wear whatever you want.
Well, she pulled it off but perhaps the questions could have been better.
What do you guys think?
Softball questions, but you don't want to run the risk of stumping the President on live TV, so maybe understandable.
she could have asked another question instead of re-asking the same question that Brad asked.
Guess I'm in the minority on her mode of dress..questions were okay, not great.
I was surprised they didnt try to get a winner for Bristol out of him, i think when W when to the 500 a few years ago they asked him if he wanted to take a trip around the track in a race car
This will give them an opportunity to reset. Crummy Montoya interview Marty!
When you can get Junior into a suit and tie, you know someone took the mode of dress seriously! (I'm betting it was Kelley.)
I think the questions were ok. What can you really ask a person who really only knows the sport from the talking points that were in his briefing. What would you ask him differently is regards to the sport?
Nicole's shoes were a little gaudy, but the choice of the chairs may have contributed to what was a knee lenght skirt appearing to short. The directors chairs were obviousl;y a bad way to go with Brad. He looked like a shlub
yea that JPM interview fell flat!
I thought the questions were ok and as others said...ya don't wanna play "Stump the Prez" in these situations. Like ask him about the broadcasts and how they could improve or make the COT more acceptable to drivers and passing.:)
I also remember when long hair did not fly for TV women...it was pulled back if it were below your shoulders. Now the "Barbie look" is in and that's what you see everywhere.
Aw man, could RPetty take OFF his sunglasses for this??That's a little disappointing.
I think Nicole did OK, but after all the hard work Bestwick did this season...I'm just sayin...
yay Chris Economaki!
Got to give here credit, Manske has been working hard on a new image. I think she has left The SPEED Report days far behind.
her.....
She may be trying to some degree, but when you rely on your heels and skirt for an image, you can't be taken very seriously, JD.
Any re-air for those of us at the Truck race at BMS?
I notice Brad isn't slumping quite as much now as he did w/the Prez-not surprised, I guess. Like what RP is saying now.
To bad I didn't get to see the President speak at the podium addressing the drivers.
Wish Espn would have let me know that their air time could be changed and to tune in early, just in case.
Kyle Petty sending pictures via Twitter sure made this visit to the White House more enjoyable.
Sorry Anon, ESPN said they could not get a re-air on tonight. So, this is it.
I do imagine lots of this content will be on ESPN.com and repeated on ESPNEWS Network.
Sorry, I tried!
JD
Looks like they are going to reshow the President speaking to the drivers - Good.
Gosh, who knew these guys could clean up so well? Very handsome all.
Charlie, that is a good move.
Smart move to show this again.
Dale Earnhardt Jr in a suit and Tony Stewart shaved! Cool!!!
Is it just me or does Denny Hamlin always look like he's ticked off at the world?
Actually I tuned in after I saw JD's tweet.
Jr & Tony both in siuts -Wow, the King hatless.
Nicoles outfit isn't bad - but the shoes. If the color matched or something.
I'm not a fan of the Presidents policies- but as a person he's a breath of fresh air. He likes sports & sounds knowledgeable, & always seems to be totally engaged in the discussion. Not as if he had studied for a test. Nice get together from what we saw on TV.
I'm so glad the Victory Junction Camp was represented.
Kind of strange....he's got last year's chase drivers there, but wishing them good luck in this year's chase.
So glad they are replaying the speech. We missed alot of it the first time. Guys looked great being introduced!
I'm an enjoying the President's sentiments. It's good to hear him say these things in such a public way.
Denny should have buttoned his jacket--looks sloppy.
Jo, there has to be a time when politics is put aside for the sport.
These images and words are going to go all around the nation to folks who never saw a race or thought about the sport.
Hopefully, this media exposure will be exactly what NASCAR needs before the Chase begins.
JD
Looks like they're going to repeat stuff to finish out the hour.
JD - its nice to see a Prez who has honest outside interests & isn't just a 1 dimensional person.
BTW - you think Pres.O will have a bracket going?
Interesting how much they are replaying here..
You guys have been awesome with your comments today. Sorry for the moderation.
In just the hour or so that I have been moderating this, there have been over 100 racist and hate filled comments from all type of folks.
That really reminds us how far we still have to go to tolerate varied political views and encourage conversation for the greater good.
Thanks to all of you for keeping your comments on TV issues. This certainly was an interesting moment for NASCAR Now, I feel we are going to see some more of this tomorrow on NASCAR Now as well.
TDP will be live blogging the two races tonight from Bristol. Check with us for rain updates....it could get ugly!
Thanks as always.
JD
Maybe this is the first year I cared. Maybe this is the first year of Twitter. But this was the first time that I knew NASCAR would be at The White House BEFORE they were here. (Yes, I know it is usually just the championship team.) I usually found out after the fact.
Because of the advanced notice, I was able to sneak away for a bit and walk down to try to see something. Unfortunately, I was a bit too early. Now I know.
JD, sorry you had to deal with that, it's a shame some people can't see past politics. I appreciate the comments that the analysts made about the 'automakers' discussion (especially since we're all 'owners' in a sense.) I thought Nicole did a good job considering it's such a fluid event and timing is tricky. Sorry, but I don't think a black suit is in any way inappropriate. What's she supposed to wear? I'm sure plenty of White House guests (both politicians and celebrities) have worn high heels..... The President was pretty smooth considering I figure he knows next to nothing about racing. I don't expect him too, mind you. Bush was probably more of a stick & ball sport guy too. I hope no one's blaming ESPN for going early, I'm sure when the WH staff says go, you go.
All in all, a 'pretty neat deal' as the King might say.
I'm pissed.
I missed the whole thing. Why don't they give the cable/satellite companies enough notice to change their programming? I came home thinking I should extend the scheduled broadcast to see them wrapping up.
They have to know that many viewers DVR solely on the programming that they SEE.
Patrick, every single week TDP has the most accurate and up to date TV listings with all the details filled in on our main page.
Just check with us to see program time changes and talent assignments.
I would suggest ESPN.com or staying tuned to ESPNEWS. You know how they love to reuse content.
JD
JD
Thanks for the opportunity to see and comment on this. I also think it's great to see NASCAR in the White House and on the lawn. :)
I wonder why AB wasn't asked to host this? I know Massaro is on vacation, as I read it on Twitter.
Also great photographs! Kyle Petty is so cool to post so many pictures about things and really came through today.
Also GREAT CALL by ESPN to repeat some segments.
Patrick sorry you missed the show. I must say, even if one is not a fan of Twitter or ESPN, it's most helpful to follow a few ESPN guys there and JD to KEEP abreast of what's happening.
I was listening to a radio show when I checked Twitter and JD tweeted NN started EARLY. Had I checked 9 minutes sooner, would've caught the whole deal.
I realize one cant have access to computer 24/7 but I keep TDP as my homepage during racing season, especially since JD keeps the schedule on the blog.
Course I might still miss stuff but he tries his best to keep us updated until the last thing when possible!
I would think ESPN will use this in some pre-show this week for those that missed today. If not then BSPN really is clueless.
But this was FABULOUS for the sport!:)
Yes, sir. I should've known better. I had actually looked while at the office (didn't convert to CDT), but wouldn't have been able to make changes anyway (Dish needs the iPhone app like DirecTV).
I will definitely be double checking my programming for this weekend because I will be out of town (so no S&P updates from me; sorry).
I noticed that the Whelen Modified race tonight is titled as 'NASCAR Racing', so the DVR already picked it up!
Thanks, JD.
Patrick
Well Comcast reset my DVR and lost my setting to record before and after the NN show, good thing the guide updated to the new time or I wouldn't have anything. Hopefully ESPN will re-show the rope line, etc (somehow I think we will see a lot of this over the weekend)and this time I won't mind the repeat coverage.
To close the historical loop they really should have had Mike M. reporting from the WH helipad.
Soph,
My TweetDeck (StirrupCigars self promotion) is just a little too distracting for the ADD me. Maybe JM can help me fix that.
You're right, JD has the best info in his tweets. I typically choose between here or there, but JD manages to hit both on the weekends. I'm too busy multitasking trying to figure out what is actually going on the race (S&Ps and the like).
Did anyone else find it ironic that Ryan Burr was the anchor for the first replay on ESPNews???
I can't post links cause JD's lawyer gets mad but search on youtube for nascar obama and there are at least three videos
Thanks ESPN for broadcasting from the WH and especially for replaying the driver intro's and the President's speech later in the show.
I appreciate the extra effort taken by the WH. Appears they did much more for the guests than in the past.
Nicole...black suit fine. The skirt was a little short, but the chairs did not help. Have to go back and check the shoes...didn't even notice :-)
Brad slumping...not good, but I think he was trying to make himself seem smaller so as not to make the Prez look so small.
Marty interview of JPM. Pure nothingness. Sorry that the Prez had to ask his name, only since he has won the Indy500, came from F1 and adds some diversity to NASCAR. Don't expect Prez to know everyone or specifics, but why was JPM picked to go? Not a past champion or 2008 Chase driver. Certainly someone could have briefed the Prez on a few of JPM's accomplishments.
JD, sorry for the terrible comments you had to moderate. It is sad. I am not a fan, politically, but I respect the office and can respect and can watch the non political duties of the office without bias. I thought he did well, very personable as usual and of course a big sports fan, even if not specifically to NASCAR. Hopefully that part changed today and he might catch a race inbetween all his duties.
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