Brian France's State Of The Sport Address

Updated: This post was originally the live blog from the "State of the Sport" adddress delivered by Brian France Wednesday night. In order to let readers who did not watch this presentation understand what happened, I am leaving this original post up so you can review the comments. Just click on the comments button below.

In essence, France presented a rambling non-scripted explanation of the new points system. He reviewed some other changes and then took questions from the media. Unfortunately, the NASCAR.com feed failed in the middle of his remarks and on location there were also audio and video failures. It looked like only one camera was working in the venue.

SPEED TV actually left the live press conference as media members asked key questions so Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond could give opinions on Race Hub. Ironically, Waltrip was very interested in what was being asked by the reporters. He must have been watching online. Despite everything going on, Race Hub closed the show at 8PM.

ESPN gave France some live coverage on SportsCenter and then moved on after several minutes as France continued his obtuse style of speaking. Several drivers called in to offer initial reaction to the changes, including a very informative Jeff Burton.

Please feel free to add your comments on the day after the big press conference.

Here we go with the first live blog of the season. NASCAR.com begins streaming from the NASCAR Hall of Fame at 6:30PM and will carry the entire live press conference. SPEED's "Race Hub" will join live at 7PM and carry Brian France's remarks.

After France is done, it will be Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond with host Steve Byrnes in the SPEED studios to discuss this topic. Waltrip and Byrnes, as well as the Race Hub program are very active on Twitter. Hopefully, fan comments will be included.

No one really knows what France has in mind tonight. Points were not a hot topic after last season, but that issue has risen to the top of the board as far as the media is concerned. NASCAR's top executives also said last week that France was still in the process of determining how the Sprint Cup Series would be structured this season.

This should be an interesting night. We welcome your comments before, during and after France's remarks. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Just click the comments button below to post and use the refresh function to see new comments being posted. Thank you for stopping by The Daly Planet.

Crunch Time

It's a NASCAR dynamic that has never been seen before. A moment that is going to be captured by social media in real time. It's history unfolding right in front of the reporters assigned to tell the story. It's pivotal words being spoken about the future in a building that celebrates the past.

Wednesday night at 6:30PM in the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the sport's top executives will appear in front of the reporters assembled for the Charlotte media tour. Here is the line-up as forwarded by NASCAR.

Brian France, NASCAR Chairman and CEO, who will be the featured speaker at 7PM.

Mike Helton, NASCAR President, who will no doubt be the focus of questions about changes within the Sprint Cup Series.

Paul Brooks, NASCAR Senior Vice President/President NASCAR Media Group, who controls all the television, radio and online rights for the sport. TV ratings are his job.

Steve Phelps, NASCAR Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, who was featured on Undercover Boss. This gave viewers a small glimpse into the lifestyle of a top NASCAR executive.

Marcus Jadotte, NASCAR Managing Director of Public Affairs, who may field some interesting questions on the continuing diversity agenda.

Joie Chitwood III, Daytona International Speedway President, who is expected to focus on the upcoming Speedweeks and update the recent testing in terms of the new pavement at DIS.

Missing from this group are Robin Pemberton, the VP of Competition and Jay Abraham, the COO of the NASCAR Media Group. Also noticeably absent is the yet-to-be-named head of NASCAR's new Integrated Marketing Communications Department, the public spokesman for the sport.

Preliminary remarks are scheduled to get underway shortly after 6:30PM and the entire press conference will be streamed on the NASCAR.com website. Click here for the direct link. Originally, SPEED.com was also participating but now only the official NASCAR site will handle the streaming.

At 7PM, Steve Byrnes will be hosting Race Hub on SPEED TV. That show will join the press conference live to get the France remarks and hopefully stay for the questions that will follow. Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Hammond will be in the studio for reaction and analysis after France's remarks.

The reason for all this media focus is easy to understand. Even on Monday and Tuesday of this week, France was still meeting with Sprint Cup Series teams to talk about the season format, race points structure and several topics concerning the 2011 season. In other words, things appear to be last minute.

This past weekend, television viewers saw Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler leave a key game at a crucial time. On TV he appeared to be disinterested, arrogant and not in pain. The images presented angered millions of viewers around the world.

In fact, Cutler had been pulled from the game by the team doctor after a knee injury. In subsequent interviews, the coach and key players all called Cutler one of the toughest football players on the team. The back-up quarterback related that Cutler had been cooperative and helpful during the game. To many fans, it did not matter.

Just like that NFL telecast, NASCAR also ended the season with a perception and a reality. To the NASCAR executives, teams and television networks the season was a success. Three drivers were in contention for the season championship in the last race. In reality, it came down to the wire.

There is, however, a perception that lingers. It has to do with Darrell Waltrip talking over top of Mike Joy and dominating every on-air conversation. It has to do with the tired clown act of Chris Myers. It has to do with Phil Parsons conducting the worst pit road interviews ever seen on national television. It has to do with Marty Reid crumbling down the stretch. It has to do with horrible national anthems for a sport loaded with American pride.

It has to do with one-third of the racing being covered by commercials. It has to do with pictures framed so tightly viewers never see the actual race. It has to do with twelve on-air announcers all fighting to be heard while cars race under green. It has to do with men pointing to shock absorbers on-camera ten months into the racing season.

In short, this was one of the roughest NASCAR TV seasons of Sprint Cup Series coverage in recent memory. The ratings told the tale. So, what is going to change? FOX returns the same on-air line-up as does TNT. ESPN had Ray Evernham depart, but the rest of the group is back. ESPN announced Tuesday that Rusty Wallace had signed a four-year extension to continue as the Lead Studio Analyst.

The reality may be that the Chase worked well and the racing was outstanding. The perception is that the sport is drowning and TV is the anchor dragging it down. At the end of the year, the NFL pounded the Sprint Cup Series into the ground and enjoyed every minute of it.

It's up to one man to convince the fan base that the 2011 reality is going to be quite different. Wednesday night, France needs to offer changes that will excite the fans and create the kind of preseason buzz missing for years.

This one moment in time may be a determining factor for many fans as to whether they commit ten months of weekends to NASCAR or simply take a walk. We know the fans are out there because NASCAR enjoyed their presence for many years.

Low TV ratings aren't due to the economy, over-the-air television or Kyle Petty's ponytail. How many of us got into NASCAR through the old Nashville Network on this new thing called cable TV? NASCAR has been on cable since the 1980's.

It's the dynamic TV coverage of the sport combined with a set of rules that drives competition on the track in every race. That is the only recipe for recovery. France is first with his changes and then FOX, TNT and ESPN each must respond on the air with their new approach. The bottom line is that 2011 is crunch time and the season opens now.

We will have a live blog for your Wednesday comments on the press conference starting shortly after 6PM. In the meantime, please feel free to leave your opinion on the topics mentioned above. To add your comment, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

TV Comments From FOX's David Hill Spark Reaction

It was just a little Monday night reception and hospitality event on the Charlotte Media Tour. The new president of FOX Sports, Eric Shanks, was meeting the NASCAR media. Along with Shanks was Patti Wheeler, who has taken over the programming and production departments at SPEED.

The elephant in the room was the colorful Aussie who is never at a loss for words where his opinions on NASCAR are concerned. FOX Chairman David Hill recently gave up the day-to-day management of FOX Sports to Shanks, but in return took over the SPEED network and immediately installed Wheeler to begin his revamp.

Veteran reporter Dustin Long was at the reception and offered this recap of Hill's comments on a variety of NASCAR topics. Here are the TV and media-related responses.

On the focus of the TV coverage this season:

"What this sport is all about is the driver. Everything else in NASCAR is an afterthought. People follow the sport because the drivers are heroes because that’s what the fans want to hear, superheroes that can do things that only very, very few people can or will. Anyone can be a crew chief. Anyone can be a tire changer. Anyone with the technical ability. Just think about what it takes to drive a car 200 miles an hour. ee sports: Mountain climbing, bullfighting and auto racing. All the rest of the games."

How FOX/SPEED will accomplish this new focus:

"Fox is going to concentrate on the driver, too. Right across the board. We’re putting the emphasis back where it belongs on the driver. We probably haven’t utilized Darrell (Waltrip’s) inner knowledge enough. Darrell is the only one on our (announcing) team, in reality who is a champion. He understands the motivation and what goes on. I don’t know. Is it instinct or is it skill? This is something that I’ve talked to the Alain Prosts about and the Jackie Stewarts. What is it? There’s something that drives them. What we’re going to be doing at Fox and what we’re going to be doing at SPEED is telling stories of drivers."

After confirming FOX would not offer an extended post-race show, Hill talked about his idea for a perfect Sprint Cup Series telecast format:

"Four hours (total). I think that probably 30-40 minutes to set it up, do the race and then tell the story of the race in 15 minutes. That was the beauty of SPEED to take the viewer across there to do that analysis."

Hill offered his idea on the perfect NASCAR tripleheader weekend for TV:

"For me, I would have continuity. I would have truck race on Friday night, I would have the Nationwide race Saturday night and I would have the Cup on at 1 o’clock Sunday. Bang, so everyone knows when it’s on. Everyone knows the football games. Football games are 1 o’clock Sunday. Football games 4 o’clock Sunday. There’s a game on Monday night and game on Sunday night. There are too many other things going on in people’s lives."

In wrapping up, Hill confirmed he would like FOX to remain in the sport but said NASCAR is not the same kind of value as it used to be. He also addressed the issue of online streaming of races. FOX delivers the Sprint Cup Series races over-the-air and Hill has steadfastly maintained that there will be no streaming of races to protect the FOX local stations.

Unfortunately, it seems that no media member asked Hill or Shanks about RaceBuddy. This online technology used for the TNT races is a companion to the race, offering individual cameras, social media conversation and a designated pit reporter for online viewers.

RaceBuddy does not replace the telecast, but expands the viewer's ability to get more information and have more options. The one clear purpose RaceBuddy would serve for FOX is to provide an opportunity to view racing action while the broadcast network is in commercial break.

There are no plans at this point to offer side-by-side commercial breaks on the Sprint Cup Series races. A spokesman for Turner recently confirmed there are no plans in place at the present time to offer RaceBuddy on the FOX or ESPN telecasts.

Turner, TNT and NASCAR.com are scheduled to have a media tour function on Thursday, so perhaps some news will come from those parties in reference to some of these issues.

Hill is a character right out of central casting. A brash Aussie, his statements are often confusing given his track record. Here is a man who inserted Digger right over the top of live Sprint Cup Series telecasts, taking away from the focus on the drivers and the race.

Now, Hill is gruffly saying that the focus must be on the drivers and that TV will lead the comeback by example. Few can forget the endless hawking of Digger by Darrell Waltrip on FOX and SPEED telecasts. The same Waltrip who now supports Hill's driver focus once showed-up for a Trackside telecast with a life-size Digger character driving a golf cart. How many times did DW mention Digger merchandise was available on his website?

Hill also was adamant about later start times and eventually pushed through sweeping changes that altered the entire landscape of the sport nationwide. Now, he offers that his perfect start time scenario for Sprint Cup Series races is 1PM local and is suspicious of NASCAR's pending changes.

Sports TV is made up of colorful characters and Hill fits the bill. Love him or hate him, FOX has played a major role in the television development of NASCAR and SPEED is the only TV network located in Charlotte, NC. It should be interesting to see what this season brings from Hill and the gang.

This post is meant to allow your comments on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Click here to read Dustin's story in full. Thanks to Hamptonroads.com for the link.