Rusty Wallace's Nationwide Nightmare

"I hope to God you didn't do what they said you did," remarked ESPN Nationwide Series analyst Rusty Wallace. He wasn't in a TV production meeting yelling at a pit reporter or at the shop discussing the on-track antics of his racing son, Steven.

Wallace was standing toe-to-toe with his own employee, Bryan Berry. On Thursday, Berry was suspended indefinitely from NASCAR for using a racial slur against the only African-American driver in the Nashville Nationwide field named Marc Davis.

During the Nashville race, TV cameras showed Davis turning left into the garage area without signaling out the window. The move caught officials, teams and one driver in particular off-guard. That driver was Brendan Gaughan. He drives for Rusty Wallace. Gaughan's crew chief is Bryan Berry. Gaughan T-boned Davis live on national TV right on pit road.

Although able to limp back out onto the track, it was clear that Gaughan's race was done. Later, he was heard yelling on the radio to keep Davis in the garage area until the race was over so the two could have a conversation. On most nights, cooler heads would prevail and discussions would take place once everyone had calmed down.

Unfortunately, Berry and a group of his crew members stormed over to Davis immediately after the race. Although he was not yet out of his car, Berry allegedly yelled at Davis through the driver safety net on the window and let his feelings on the incident be known. Apparently, he stepped over the line.

Meanwhile, Georgetown University graduate Gaughan was on the air with ESPN claiming the Davis move was an example of a Howard University education. That school is a sponsor of Davis and his Nationwide efforts. Howard is an HBCU, one of the Historically Black College and Universities.

Luckily for Gaughan, his Georgetown days were spent rooming with NBA star Allen Iverson while both played basketball for the university. Well, playing may not be the exact word that Gaughan uses to describe his college basketball career, but he was a team member. Although sounding like an idiot on TV, NASCAR is allowing Gaughan to drive another day.

Not so fortunate was Berry, who added a little something into his rant at Davis that set off alarm bells at NASCAR HQ. Wallace called it an "alleged racial slur." NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston called it "an inappropriate comment that won't be tolerated." That seems to be a polite way of saying Berry dropped the N-bomb.

So, this leaves team owner Rusty Wallace front-and-center after a week that the Nationwide Series would probably like to forget. First, Gaughan throws barbs at the educational level of a university that produced Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes and legendary Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Meanwhile, Berry is allegedly dropping the N-bomb on Davis through his window net in the garage while sponsors and others watch and listen. As if that were not enough, a skinny white kid is bashing the heck out of a hand-painted guitar that symbolizes Music City USA and the entire Nashville area in front of stunned fans in the stands.

The only thing worse than dealing with these events once is having to deal with them all over again. That is exactly what Wallace will be doing in Kentucky this weekend as he works for ESPN.

Not only will Wallace be reviewing the Gaughan and Berry incidents on the pre-race show with Allen Bestwick, but when Wallace looks to his left in the Infield Pit Studio he will see all seven feet of Brad Daugherty looking back at him.

The ESPN team will start the weekend with practice coverage Friday night at 6:30PM ET on ESPN2. They will return on Saturday at 5PM for qualifying and 8PM for the pre-race show.

On most nights, Wallace would then turn things over to Dale Jarrett at 8:30PM to call the race. That would give Wallace a break and let the telecast shift gears. But, not this Saturday. Jarrett has the weekend off.

It will be Wallace who will climb up into the booth and call the entire race with Jerry Punch and Andy Petree. On the Kentucky track will be Gaughan with a new crew chief. Also on the track will be the WHUR Radio sponsored Toyota of Marc Davis. Amid last week's commotion, it was Davis who quietly left Nashville without calling attention to himself and declined to comment about the incident.

Finally, Kyle Busch will be flying-in from Michigan to once again try and dominate this second-tier series and then leave town in a hurry. After Nashville, the stories unfolding in this Kentucky event will present the first big challenge to the NASCAR on ESPN team as they gear-up for Sprint Cup coverage in a little over a month.

TDP welcomes comments from readers. Just click on the comments button below to add your opinion on this topic. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

There will be a new post up later for your comments on the Friday TV coverage. The full weekend TV schedule including announcers and show guests is posted on the right side of the TDP main page.

Petty On A Long Road To Michigan For TNT

Trip number one is over and trip number two is in-progress. Kyle Petty is making good on his promise to ride his motorcycle to all six of the TNT races. These pics show Petty and his sidekick SPEED's Rutledge Wood leaving from North Carolina for Michigan, stopping for gas along the way and finally being located by some NASCAR fans using Twitter.

Petty has pushed the new media envelope this season like never before where NASCAR on TV is concerned. He first documented his most recent charity ride and now is aggressively pouring time and effort into pumping-up the NASCAR on TNT races.

It only takes a couple of minutes to sign-up for Twitter and for NASCAR fans it certainly seems to be worth it. All it does is offer updates from the folks you choose to follow. No spam, no email and nothing you don't control. It is free and there are tons of NASCAR drivers, tracks and websites (like TDP) who post information, story links and pictures. Click here for a great list.

With all the tough economic times and sad stories like Johnny Benson and Jeremy Mayfield, the Petty summer travels are a nice positive change of pace. Dubbed "The Ponytail Express" by Kyle, this is first-hand proof that someone in the media is putting themselves out there for the fans to see.

The TNT guys are calling Happy Hour practice on Saturday and then handling the Sprint Cup TV duties on Sunday. In addition, Petty and Wood continue to tape the NASCAR Smarts trivia show that essentially replaced the Tradin' Paint series on SPEED.

Even with his weekly opinion show gone, Petty is zooming ahead by skipping right by the media, his producer and even the NASCAR brass. Before, during and after the time he is on TV, Petty is actively commenting, taking pictures and asking questions of the fans directly.

This past weekend, Petty snapped pictures of everyone from Larry McReynolds to Mike Helton during the pre-race show and then asked for questions from the fans during the commercial breaks. During the race, fans would ask about issues like "mystery cautions" and "phantom debris." Petty piped right-up and asked his fellow announcers and the producer why the caution flag waved. How is that for service?

At Michigan, TNT is going to have Detroit native Kid Rock stop-by the pre-race show. Also, Richard Childress and Clint Bowyer will appear as guests. Fox's Darrell Waltrip will be featured on the Pride of NASCAR series while reporter Lindsay Czarniak goes into Race Control to find out how they figure out the new double-wide restart order.

Ralph Sheheen drew the lucky card and gets a personal tour of Jack Roush's private garage. Roush is all about cars and this is going to be a great peek into his personal car collection. Finally, Wally Dallenbach gets to explain MIS when he is superimposed over race footage in the new version of Wally's World.

Once the race is over, the TV crew and the NASCAR teams will be rushing for the airport to get home as soon as possible. For Petty and Wood, they will be staring at a pending trip to Sonoma, CA and then a return trip all the way to Loudon, NH.

Maybe like Alicia and Barbara above, you might wave hello or stop and say hi if you spot this crazy pair zooming by as they follow the NASCAR trail for the next couple of weeks. It's just nice to have some of the focus back on the fun side of NASCAR and the free spirits that still exist in the sport.

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ESPN Continues To Serve A New NASCAR Role

What would NASCAR fans do without NASCAR Now? In its third season, this daily ESPN2 show started out as a joke with awful announcers and even worse producers. Tuesday, the 2009 version showed why it has become "must see TV."

Ryan McGee has been fearless since his arrival at ESPN as a NASCAR writer and reporter. His interview with Aaron Fike turned the NASCAR world upside-down and sparked a major change in the sport's drug policy. Now, McGee is once again reporting the kind of news that gives everyone in and out of the sport a reality check.

Meth is a word that most of us know very well. We see it on the news and it normally involves police activity and broken lives. We see it on special shows presented on cable TV as the new drug scourge of this country. Methamphetamine is the illegal drug that NASCAR contends Jeremy Mayfield tested positive for in Richmond.

It was Mike Massaro in his first season as one of the series hosts who drew Wednesday's show as his assignment. Massaro quizzed McGee on how he found the information, what it meant and if it all could just be a simple mistake.

McGee reported the facts and didn't stray into opinion. Even with the drug known, Mayfield's camp contends the false positive was a result of Adderall and ClaritinD being combined by Mayfield on the weekend in question. McGee pointed out that after a first positive, a second more specific test for meth should have been done by Aegis.

Should is a key word, as NASCAR and Aegis are now under a gag order imposed by the court. Until the time for trial comes around, no one will know anything more than that the substance in question is methamphetamine.

Dr. Gary Wadler returned to the show as an expert. Wadler is from the World Anti-Doping Agency and he clearly has the most veteran perspective on the issue. He emphasized that it is still not known whether Mayfield was involved recreationally with this drug days prior to racing or used it on a race day.

Wadler is not a fan of the NASCAR policy and made his views quite clear. At times, he sounded like Mayfield's lawyer. "There is no published list of banned substances," said Wadler. "It's a very unusual (drug) protocol."

"Woefully lacking in all the details," commented Wadler on the NASCAR policy. "The root of all of it is what drugs are banned? If you can't answer that question, you cannot start (the program)."

While Massaro tried to re-focus on Mayfield's alleged use of meth as performance-enhancing, it did not make a lot of sense. Wadler said meth can be detected in the system days after use, so the issue of performance-enhancement vs. recreational use was going to remain up in the air until all the facts were revealed.

What better person to comment on this situation next than Ricky Craven. All season long, Craven has been the heart-and-soul of the Monday NASCAR Now roundtable and a tremendous analyst in the studio. The look on his face was more than serious, it was almost painful.

Craven said he was thinking about all the effort, the support and the help that a person needs to even get to the Sprint Cup level. He talked about the luck, the good decisions and the perfect timing it takes to be one of the 43 in the starting field.

"No where in there is there room for all this (drug) stuff," said Craven. "It never really existed in my mind and here we are dealing with it...and it really bothers me. None of what I just heard makes any sense to me."

Craven's point was that even the thought that the driver beside you at speed on the track may be impaired would change some of the dynamic of NASCAR racing.

Massaro later switched gears and talked with Johnny Benson. The issue was Benson's truck series team shutting down and putting the defending champion on the sidelines. Benson is great on TV and kept things upbeat. Economic reality was the reason, not performance or team problems. Only dollars in the door would return Benson's team this season.

Over the next several days, NASCAR Now should be expanding this new perspective on Mayfield and the overall issue of illegal drugs. There are still a lot of facts remaining to be seen, but McGee and Wadler put a lot of information out to the fans and kept it all in perspective.

Massaro returns on Wednesday at 5PM ET with Carl Edwards as a guest. Nicole Manske takes over the hosting duties on Thursday for the rest of the week. Perhaps, few of us knew that ESPN's NASCAR reporters would be spending time this season dealing with drug issues and investigative reporting.

It's just nice to have a TV platform like NASCAR Now that allows fresh and topical news stories to be delivered directly to the fans.

TDP welcomes comments from readers. Just click on the comments button below to add your opinion on this issue. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to drop by The Daly Planet.