Friday TV Comments From New Hampshire

We are opening up the blog for general NASCAR TV/media comments on Friday because there are a lot of things going on all day long.

NASCAR President Mike Helton will meet with the media on a video conference at 9AM ET from New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Expect many of the questions and quite a few of his answers to include the word "Kentucky." I am told this live video should be streamed on the NASCAR.com website.

The traffic disaster has overshadowed the race and continues to fester with no offer of refunds to fans with tickets who never made it to the track. SMI is offering a ticket exchange to other SMI races this season or the Kentucky Speedway Cup race in 2012.

Who knows what other questions may be asked or announcements also made at that time. We will update this post with those topics.

SPEED goes on the air at 11:30AM ET Friday and stays on the air all day long. Adam Alexander is going to anchor from the booth and John Roberts from the infield. Expect to see a ton of familiar faces throughout the day, including Darrell Waltrip on his last weekend out at the racetrack for a while.

The complete Friday TV line-up, including announcers, is listed on the left side of this page.

To add your comment about the Friday coverage or other news topics, just click on the comments button below. We will be answering questions and updating news on this post. Thanks for stopping by.

NASCAR Gets A Friend At ESPN

It's perhaps one of the worst-kept secrets at ESPN. The vast majority of the SportsCenter anchors hate NASCAR. They cannot stand the sport invading the time reserved for endless baseball highlights and news about important topics like another Brett Favre comeback or what Danica was wearing at the ESPY's.

When it comes to NASCAR again this year, SportsCenter has swung and missed. As they say in ESPN lingo, it was "a whiff." Click here to review a story originally posted in June about an incident that had fans fuming. This time, it was SportsCenter anchor John Anderson. His on-air antics after the Chicagoland Nationwide Series race were nothing short of spiteful.

Wednesday night on NBC4 in Washington, DC there was emotion on the set. Click here to see the send-off by the anchor team for sports reporter Lindsay Czarniak. Goodbyes in TV are usually awkward, but this one was clearly from the heart.

Czarniak was first seen by many NASCAR fans as the high-energy pit reporter who showed up for the summer during the six TNT races. Hardcore fans who watched practice and qualifying coverage know that during the TNT stretch Czarniak stepped right in and worked the garage and pits for SPEED like a veteran NASCAR reporter.

This season on TNT Czarniak has been hosting the pre-race show, remaining in the host position during the race and then handling both the TV and online post-race shows. It's been an impressive performance for someone who does not work the NASCAR trail full time.

Czarniak recently announced that she was heading for a new career at ESPN in Bristol, CT starting in August. After some quick speculation that she might be involved in NASCAR coverage, ESPN released the information that she was headed for SportsCenter as an anchor.

The photo above of Czarniak and Carl Edwards is from a feature she was shooting for TNT. In her summers in the sport, Czarniak has experienced NASCAR from a wonderful perspective. She has met and interacted with the top drivers and personalities. She has been on pit road during races.

Ironically, it was Carl Edwards who showed-up live on a TNT telecast after falling out of a recent race. Czarniak was completely comfortable with Edwards just hanging around and offering commentary. Comfortable on the air is a phrase that is often used to describe Czarniak's style.

When August rolls around and ESPN is handling coverage of both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series, Czarniak should just be getting her feet wet on the air in Bristol. That certainly is interesting timing.

Don't underestimate the impact of a high-profile ESPN anchor who not only likes NASCAR, but has experienced it first-hand for years. Now, the sport has a former veteran pit road reporter and telecast host in the anchor chair at SportsCenter.

It wouldn't surprise me to see Czarniak moved into the version of SportsCenter that the network uses as a flexible Sprint Cup Series extended post-race show. It also wouldn't surprise me to see some on-air attitudes toward the sport change rather rapidly.

It's going to be a lot harder to make fun of NASCAR when the SportsCenter boys figure out that the person sitting beside them at the anchor desk has been there and done that.

We will update the information on where Czarniak is assigned once she joins ESPN next month. Good luck to her as she makes this career transition.

We welcome your thoughts on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below.

SPEED's Iowa Truck Series Challenge

It's a little over sixteen hours and a tad over one thousand miles to reach Iowa Speedway from the Mooresville, NC area. This weekend, while the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series are in New Hampshire, the Camping World Truck Series heads to Iowa.

We mentioned just last week that the truck series is now a ragtag bunch with only a handful of top teams and drivers. On Tuesday defending series champion Todd Bodine, pictured above, confirmed that his team will be unable to go to Iowa due to the lack of sponsorship.

Rookie Johanna Long has also withdrawn from the race to leave a current field of 31 trucks. It's a guessing game as to just how many of those entries are there to actually race. There are no Sprint Cup Series cross-over drivers this weekend, so the field will be headlined by several "regulars."

The loss of Bodine is rough. The Onion's bald head, bright smile and lollipop-sucking personality makes for a fun TV interview. His driving makes for some fun TV viewing. In the same way that personalities like Johnny Benson, Ted Musgrave and Rick Crawford have faded from the series, the loss of Bodine this weekend really hurts what many call "the show."

There have to be some "career men" mixed-in with the current minor leaguers like Austin Dillon and Cole Whitt who will certainly be moving up the ladder soon and leaving the trucks far behind. This weekend, only Ron Hornaday really fits that bill.

The other drivers are mostly in transition with some trying to return to the big leagues while others are just happy to be racing and getting a paycheck in these very tough times.

SPEED has the race live at 8PM ET on Saturday night. Krista Voda hosts the pre-race show at 7:30PM. Rick Allen and Phil Parsons will call the race with Hermie Sadler and Ray Dunlap on pit road. This week in Iowa, even the TV staff is smaller in number.

The great thing about the trucks on SPEED has been the simplicity. This weekend, it may be that new names take advantage of this stand-alone race and emerge with good performances. Having that opportunity on national TV in primetime on a Saturday night is not a bad thing.

The trucks will be racing 200 laps around the .875 track in Iowa. As many of us who watched the trucks develop over the years can attest, this size track is exactly what allows the series to shine.

The TV challenge for SPEED is to tell the story as it happens without NASCAR spin. If ten trucks start-and-park, then show it and say it. If no trucks park and everyone is racing the distance, point it out for the viewers.

When one door closes in racing another eventually opens. Even with Bodine gone and no Sprint Cup series drivers in the field, Iowa could be a race full of surprises and fresh opportunities for new faces.

We welcome your opinion on this topic. To add your comment, just click on the comments button below.