Fourteen Hours Of Friday NASCAR TV From Phoenix

The TV express is leaving the gate at 11AM sharp Eastern Time and not taking a break until 1AM the next morning. NASCAR fans have 14 hours of TV programming coming their way on Friday from Phoenix.

The SPEED team takes to the air first and stays live right up until the 9PM Nationwide Series race on ESPN2. Steve Byrnes and Mike Joy will take turns directing traffic all day long as the network covers practice and qualifying sessions for both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series.

Joining Byrnes and Joy are the usual suspects, including Hermie Sadler who again will be handling the Nationwide Series on-track activity from the announce booth. Sadler will call the practice session with Byrnes and then have the opportunity to work alone with Joy on qualifying. Sadler has come a long way and with lots of hard work has turned himself into a very credible analyst.

By the time the Nationwide Series takes to the air at 9PM, ESPN's Jamie Little will be out on the West Coast. NASCAR fans may remember that last year Little held off Mike Skinner in a fender-bending final dash to the flag to capture the pro-celebrity race during the Long Beach Grand Prix weekend. This year she is back to defend her title. This time, however, she starts in the back of the field with the pro's.

Brad Daugherty, Rusty Wallace and pit reporter Dave Burns also have the weekend off. It seems that some folks are enjoying spring break after all. Mike Massaro steps-in for Burns, while Dale Jarrett will do double duty on the pre-race show with Allen Bestwick and then up in the booth alongside Dr. Jerry Punch and Andy Petree.

When all the racing on ESPN2 is done, fans get a nightcap with Trackside on SPEED at midnight ET. David Stremme and Martin Truex Jr. are the guests.

This post will serve to host your TV-related comments about the marathon of NASCAR TV on Friday from Phoenix. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind while posting.

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TV Would Thrive With Re-Vamped Banquet In Las Vegas

When the Las Vegas Review Journal broke the story, many of us were left looking for a second form of confirmation. LVRJ Reporter Jeff Wolf was clear in saying that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has reached an agreement in principle.

Now, it is expected that NASCAR will shortly announce what we have been advocating for the past several years. The post-season Sprint Cup Banquet is leaving New York City and moving to Las Vegas. That is a shocker. Click on the picture of Jimmie Johnson's car in NYC for a reminder of the past.

While NASCAR executives are still playing coy, LVCVA President Rossi Ralenkotter has said publicly that after many years in Manhattan, the function is coming to Las Vegas. "Some deal points still need to be finalized," Ralenkotter said.

Even if those issues like the number of years and the advertising for Vegas itself at the function are still being hammered out, the deal itself is a good one. The LVCVA would pay NASCAR between $500,000 and $1 million for each year of the contract. NASCAR has the option of selecting the venue for the banquet, likely to be Dec. 4. Click here to read the entire story from the Review Journal.

TV has long been an issue where this function is concerned. After some early informality, the last years of the banquet being televised have been horrible. Despite some moments of humor, the vast majority of the TV coverage has consisted of uncomfortable drivers in unfamiliar circumstances carefully reading a teleprompter that contains a speech they did not write.

Now, the opportunity for a change of venue also signals a moment in time where wholesale changes to the format and purpose of this multi-day affair can be reviewed. This comes at perhaps one of the most critical junctures in the history of the sport.

Taking a very big step back and evaluating the issues associated with the post-season function should result in several topics being discussed. Altering the formality, evaluating the entertainment choices and using modern Internet and television technology to involve the fans all have to be at the top of the list.

Las Vegas opens up an entirely new set of possibilities that need to be coordinated by some new and fresh faces both inside and outside NASCAR itself. While Bruton Smith might try to wrangle some additional exposure for his Las Vegas track, the reality is that New York City had run its course and this is the right time for a change.

If NASCAR wrangles a three year deal with the Las Vegas authorities, it may well be because Charlotte, NC is still on the radar for the sanctioning body where all three post-season banquets are concerned. The multi-million dollar NASCAR Hall of Fame complex is deeply tied to the Charlotte Convention Center and designating that location as the final stop for all three national series may be the ultimate goal.

That gives Las Vegas three years to get things pointed in the right direction and make a case for keeping the function there permanently. Judging from the last several banquets the professional entertainers, event planners and television professionals from the Vegas strip should have very little problem making a significant improvement. First rule...no teleprompters.

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Four Men With Three Neckties Talk NASCAR TV

Racin' Today's Jim Pedley forgot his necktie and this time ESPN let it slide. Perhaps, it was because of the Sprint Cup Series off-week, but host Allen Bestwick took this new casual atmosphere and led his panel of three NASCAR reporters into an outstanding discussion of racing topics.

Bestwick got the Nationwide Series highlights out of the way right at the start of the show and then set the switch over to "talk." Jeff Gluck from NASCAR Scene, Marty Smith from ESPN and Pedley were up to the task and showed the potential this Monday show has when journalists are included.

Car counts, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the economy were just some of the topics covered early in the program. The panel worked together well and respected each other's comments as the discussion rolled on.

Marty Smith claimed that the current no testing policy is key to the success of veteran Jeff Gordon and his team. Gluck predicted Gordon's current success will not continue throughout the season. Pedley included the fact that Gordon and his team may finally have figured out the bumpstops on the COT and this year is the result.

One great topic brought-up by Bestwick was a discussion about the media guidelines on reporting rumors in NASCAR. Gluck and Smith talked openly about how the pressure of being first has to be mixed with the responsibility of being right. Pedley has just launched a new website and is finding out firsthand the "instant news" dynamic of the Internet.

Bestwick put this in the context of Internet reporters and bloggers talking about Martin Truex possibly replacing Joey Logano. The story turned out to be false, all parties denied it and Joe Gibbs made sure to say no one had asked him about it before reporting it. Bestwick's point had been made, Lee Spencer at Foxsports.com had reported this as a rumor from the garage in Texas.

Bestwick led a "change or no change" segment where the topics ranged from qualifying rain-outs to purse structure. Smith promoted the idea that every current track on the Sprint Cup schedule should have one race and a select number should have two. His seasonal total was 29 races.

It was Pedley who offered that his future headline of this season would be a change of the final racing weekend from Homestead to Las Vegas. As fans know, the weather in South Florida is great in November, but Pedley pointed out that there is no buzz in the area and the season often ends with a thud. This is especially true for the TV coverage, which has been awful for the last two seasons at the end of the year.

Joey Logano stopped by via satellite while testing and recapped his Nationwide Series win. This week, the panelists were allowed to ask questions and it made a tremendous difference. Gluck put Logano on the spot about his Cup future and Logano's answer went right to testing. Pedley asked Logano to compare the Nationwide and Cup cars, while Smith asked Logano if the Nashville win helped him quiet the Internet gossip. Logano handled the interview like a pro.

The worst interview topic had to come around sooner or later and the answers were rather surprising. Smith said Kurt Busch, Pedley said Ryan Newman and Gluck said Kevin Harvick. All of the reporters had various reasons, but it was amazing that Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch escaped the official list.

NASCAR Now's Achilles Heel this season is the refusal to promote the Sprint Cup Series races. Once again, Bestwick read the ESPN Nationwide and NHRA Series promos before leading the panel into a preview of the missing Sprint Cup Series race in Phoenix. This is just flat-out embarrassing for ESPN after making a commitment last season to put the sport before the TV network.

Other than this issue, the Monday hour showed the power of including the media in the television side of the sport. Never has a reporter-themed show resulted in so many good comments and so much quality conversation. It is a shame that the lackluster TV ratings were not discussed, but perhaps that is not a topic for this group.

Pedley offered a strong opinion in his closing comments that the spending level of the Sprint Cup Series was essentially causing the sport to implode. Gluck bemoaned the loss of the #8 team and Smith talked about Dale Junior's continuing struggles.

Once again, NASCAR Now "extended the brand" and had the panel appear on ESPNEWS for a brief segment. This continues to be awkward, especially on a day when veteran broadcaster Harry Kalas passed away.

Bestwick once again delivered for NASCAR fans a great show. Unfortunately, the program continues to be aired at 5PM and midnight ET. Now that NASCAR Now has proven its value to the fans, perhaps ESPN and NASCAR can sit down and make it available online for anytime viewing.

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