In-Progress On Friday: Practice Sessions And "NASCAR Now"

This is the week of transition for NASCAR fans as the reality of the second half of the season begins. This weekend on TV there is no Jimmy Spencer or Rutledge Wood. Memories of Bill Weber and Wally Dallenbach have begun to fade.

With the Sprint Cup Series parked, it will be the Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series working hard to get the attention of the fans on Saturday night. The warm-up for the big show will be coverage of practice sessions for both series on Friday.

A thirty minute version of NASCAR Now will begin the coverage at 6PM on ESPN2. Look for previews of both races and updates on the on-going NASCAR news stories. Coverage of the NCTS practice from Kentucky is up next at 6:30PM on SPEED with ESPN2 following closely at 7PM with the Nationwide Series from Gateway.

ESPN's broadcast team will be Dr. Jerry Punch, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Allen Beswick, Brad Daugherty and Tim Brewer have the weekend off. DJ Copp will be filling-in for Brewer, Punch will handle the pre-race show. SPEED puts Rick Allen, Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip in the booth for the Trucks.

Just a reminder that live ARCA action is on-tap at 8PM on SPEED to end the night.

This post will serve to host your comments about the NASCAR TV on Friday. 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 taking the time to stop by.

Krista Voda Heads For Pit Road

This is a big weekend for SPEED as the network has chosen to emphasize "grass roots" racing with some special programming. In terms of live events, the ARCA race from Kentucky Speedway will kick things off on Friday night at 8PM Eastern Time.

The jewel of the weekend for SPEED is the Craftsman Truck Series race from the same track on Saturday at 7PM. This series has been great for SPEED and has quietly and consistently delivered a great TV telecast for the fans.

After seeing the pre-race TV shows this season, one fact remains clear. The Set-Up show for the NCTS is the only one that still puts the emphasis on the racers. The reason why is a combination of solid TV producing and the consistency of program host Krista Voda.

No other TV program truly steps aside and lets the spotlight fall on the teams and storylines of the sport itself. There are no goofy antics, no on-air games to play and no egos to feed. Voda hosts a program that offers a topic and then lets the drivers, crew chiefs and owners actually tell the story with minimal interruption.

This week, SPEED will expand The Set-Up to one hour so that it will start at 6PM. The big news of the week is that Randy Moss has followed-up on his earlier promise and joined the ranks of the NCTS owners club. Moss will join Voda on the set for an interview and stay for an entire segment. He seems like an enthusiastic fan who wants to take part in the sport and his story about meeting Dale Earnhardt Jr. is fantastic.

Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip will also join Voda on the set to look back at the first half of the NCTS season. Parsons is the authority on this series and Waltrip is his enthusiastic cheerleader. Together, they bring a veteran perspective and a rather unique television experience to viewers.

In terms of features, the show will follow rookie Brian Scott heli-skiing in Idaho and fellow rookie Mark Mitchell sky diving. A recent outing to Flat Rock Speedway also caught Ray Dunlap driving in the school bus race and Rick Allen trying his hand at a street stock.

Voda will also have a look back at Mike Skinner's 2007 season and a recap of how things are going for Skinner's team this year. That will transition into discussing Skinner's nemesis Ron Hornaday Jr. and a talk with the current points leader.

The good news for fans is that once The Set-Up is done, Voda will stick around and become the third pit reporter for the remainder of the telecast. This has been something long requested by fans and it was nice of SPEED to finally allocate the budget to allow that to happen. Saturday from Kentucky should be fun.

There will be Friday coverage of NCTS practice at 6:30PM ET on SPEED and ESPN2 will host coverage of the Nationwide Series practice from Gateway at 7PM. NASCAR Now will be at 6PM also on ESPN2 Friday night. There will be a post up for Friday in-progress comments on practice coverage at 5PM.

If you have comments on Krista Voda and the NCTS coverage of SPEED so far this season, please feel free to add them. To voice 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 taking the time to stop by.

"Wrecked" Premieres On SPEED Thursday Night

The transformation of SPEED continues as the network rolls-out another high-profile TV series. Thursday night at 10PM ET will be the network premiere of Wrecked.

This follows the series Super Bikes, PINKS, Living the Low Life, Pass Time, PINKS All-Out, 101 Cars You Must Drive, Drag Race High and Supercars Exposed as the most recent additions to this type of non-racing TV programming.

This is the full page on the SPEEDtv.com website that hosts the information about the TV series and the background on the family-owned Chicago area towing business being profiled.

In the same vein as Deadliest Catch on Discovery and The First 48 on A&E, Wrecked is a reality series that explores the non-traditional employment role of a specific group.

As we detailed in this column, Wrecked follows the family workings of the O'Hare Towing Service. This is the official website that will help to orient viewers as to what services the company offers.

It has been several years now since SPEED abandoned the original network format of focusing on "real racing" and moved into what the network refers to as "automotive lifestyle" programs on weeknights.

That began a long list of programming failures as the network struggled to re-define itself between Monday and Thursday when there is no actual on-track action to cover. These included Texas Hardtails, I Wanna Date A Race Car Driver and Shooting Cars.

The multi-hour Monday presentation of NASCAR programming was also dismantled. That left This Week in NASCAR as the only racing-related show. The Tuesday night block of motorcycle content was completely cancelled and the Wednesday evening replay of the previous week's Sprint Cup race was moved to the afternoon. The change was complete.

Although never admitted publicly, the purchase of SpeedVision in 2002 by Rupert Murdoch and his Fox Cable Networks group was with the goal of changing the network into a full-time NASCAR channel. The name was changed to SPEED Channel and the network offices were dispatched to Charlotte, NC where they remain today.

In 2005, Jim Liberatore was dismissed as network president after he apparently objected to the increased amount of NASCAR programming that he was being forced to carry by his superiors. The network subsequently re-branded itself as SPEED and brought-in veteran TV executive Hunter Nickell to right the ship.

He inherited an interesting problem. NASCAR fans wanted more programming from the NASCAR Media Group like 7 Days and NASCAR Confidential. Non-NASCAR fans wanted WRC, Formula-1 and other racing series to take center-stage as they had done with SpeedVision.

Meanwhile, Nickell faced a wasteland of weeknights with declining viewership and a hodge-podge of programming. After throwing many programming concepts at the wall, SPEED finally found PINKS. This TV series made the cross-over from cult hit to mainstream success and has now provided the genesis of a new effort toward more lifestyle program series.

If Wrecked resonates with the fans, TV viewers will no doubt see SPEED continue to fill the weekdays with this type of programming. The shame for NASCAR fans in all of this is that somehow things have come full-circle in this TV equation.

While The NASCAR Media Group produces the weekend shows from the SPEED Stage and TWIN on Mondays, there is no longer any NASCAR in primetime on SPEED during the week. It seems ironic that the very network that moved to Charlotte to embrace NASCAR and is an official NASCAR TV partner will not invest the time and resources to develop one new original weekday program series for the fans.

The last time SPEED did this was for a show called Beyond The Wheel. It won several national Sports Emmy Awards and is still being produced today for another cable network. SPEED cancelled the series to focus the network's resources elsewhere.

SPEED has the perfect right to produce whatever TV programs increase the audience and grow the business. Unfortunately, other than one hour on Monday nights, the lack of weekday NASCAR programming has forced fans away from the network and directly over to ESPN2 and the Internet.

It seems a bit ironic that a TV network that moved to Charlotte and is surrounded by NASCAR shops, personalities and the many NASCAR support businesses has to travel to Chicago to find a new source of reality TV programming.

The premiere of Wrecked will not be reviewed on this NASCAR blog. If you want to comment on that program after it airs please follow this link to the SPEEDtv forum. If you would like to offer your opinion about the topics in this column, please feel free.

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply 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. Thank you for taking the time to stop by.