Some NASCAR Series Still Get No TV Coverage

During a week where NASCAR needed as much positive energy as possible hopes were running high that in this third season of ESPN2's NASCAR Now there might be some changes. Unfortunately, there were not.

This past weekend, the Whelen Modifieds opened their 25th season of racing at Thompson Speedway in Connecticut. Called The Icebreaker 150, this race would be a good barometer of the situation with regional racing in the northeast. The results were good. 35 teams and 5 thousand fans turned-up to watch open wheel competition.

Also last weekend, the Southern Mods were racing at South Boston, VA and the Camping World West Series showed-off before a sell-out crowd in Southern California. NASCAR veteran Steve Park will lead the Camping World East racers into their season opening this race next weekend at Greenville Pickens Speedway.

NASCAR Now is in the third season of providing coverage of the sport six days a week with solid results. This series has established itself with a great Monday hour, good preview shows Thursday and Friday and an outstanding pre-race show on Sunday morning.

Since there are sometimes news stories still unfolding from the weekend, Tuesday's show often has a strong lead and some good follow-up interviews. The glaring weakness in the line-up is on Wednesdays. This is the open day between reviewing and previewing races and Wednesday often has little NASCAR news.

Over the past two seasons, NASCAR Now has tried to fill this day with all kinds of different content. On this Wednesday, host Nicole Manske teamed with reporter Mike Massaro and ESPN.com's Ryan McGee to rehash the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series news of the week. Wednesdays have lots of hash.

Aric Almirola checked-in to repeat the story that his Sprint Cup team had suspended operations due to lack of sponsorship. AJ Allmendinger was on the show to say his season has been extended because of some additional sponsorship. Up next it was Justin Allgaier who previewed the ESPN2 Nationwide Series race on Saturday. Finally, Massaro interviewed Steve Letarte from the rainy tire test in New Hampshire to ask him even more questions about Jeff Gordon's season.

Amid all of this there was a missed opportunity. Wednesday is crying out for a feature on the regional NASCAR racing action. Even two or three minutes to recap what the Camping World and Whelen Series teams are doing and where they are racing.

In terms of video, click here for the link to The Hartford Courant's video highlights of the Thompson race and post-race interviews. Click here to get a feel for the show that the Camping World West Series put on in California.

NASCAR Now's airtime is valuable to the TV network itself, the advertisers and NASCAR. ESPN2 has been put in a position of representing the sport as a whole. That is the entire idea of a daily show.

Now into the third season of producing this TV series, the time is right for some attention to be paid to the teams and drivers who campaign regionally in the sport with the same dedication and enthusiasm as the "big guys."

Wednesday was a perfect opportunity to do just that. What a shame for the drivers, teams and fans that enjoy these series. Maybe with a little television exposure, more potential fans will pick-up and attend a regional race. What a concept.

TDP welcomes comments from readers. 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.

Check Out The Rowdy.com Podcast

It has been a while since we talked about one of the independent websites that continues to mix good humor with NASCAR. Rowdy.com has been a source of entertainment and opinion now for several years.

Buck and Bass started with an audio podcast that grew in popularity until it made the iTunes Top 100 list of the most downloaded. That audio success has seen an extension into the video world in some rather imaginative ways.

The website is all about social networking for NASCAR fans and the guys have a blast getting right into the middle of the action. Rowdy members, like yours truly, have fun writing blog pages for comments and offering photos from the racetrack and many other places.

Sometimes, I get a chance to talk some NASCAR TV with the guys and that is exactly what I did this week. The Wednesday Rowdy podcast should have some fun conversation with Buck and myself about many of the topics TDP readers have been discussing in this forum. To hear the podcast, just click on the Play Today's Show link on the right side of the Rowdy.com homepage. No special player is needed and the podcast loads in seconds.

I bumped into these guys a couple of years ago and have watched their hard work allow this site to develop into a very special place for fans. No agendas at work, free of charge and best of all...lots of fun when we could really use it.

Check out Rowdy.com and please feel free to use this post for your comments about the topics we discussed on the podcast. This is a family-friendly website, so please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks again for taking the time to stop by.

The Monday Night Party Crew Returns

Life is a lot better for the gang producing This Week in NASCAR on SPEED Monday nights. It took a while, but SPEED has solved the TV problems that included audio issues, bad lighting and amateurish make-up.

Finally getting that "TV stuff" out of the way has resulted in some fun shows. Monday, it was the Chad and Mikey comedy tag-team back on the air. This season, Knaus and Waltrip have both been making NASCAR news and luckily for the program, that news is almost always good.

While Jeff Gordon winning after a long drought was the lead story, not far behind was the amazing recovery of the Jimmie Johnson team from running poorly to finishing second. Knaus once again was worth his weight in gold for this show. Waltrip chimed-in with his driver, David Reutimann, starting from the pole and having a great season.

Steve Byrnes has been good-naturedly trying to prod Knaus to share some team secrets, but to no avail. This trio has proven to be the right combination for this program. The only thing missing, for old school fans, is the wisdom and wit of someone like Kenny Schrader. The yin and yang of Knaus and Waltrip makes for good TV, but perhaps having a third voice next season might add a new dimension to the program.

Content is king these days and for NASCAR fans the choices seem to be almost endless. TWIN is battling the NASCAR websites, Twitter and amateur blogs who have access to race video and operate without the issues of footage rights or professional accountability.

Byrnes has taken the role of leading the discussion and his choices of topics normally result in good information coming from Waltrip and Knaus. Each of these two personalities have a wealth of information for very different reasons.

The analytical Knaus may be the top crew chief in NASCAR and Waltrip has put in his time with a long history in the sport and a very diverse journey. Aside from the race-related info, the program also offers a very human glimpse into the reality of a NASCAR life and the very different kind of lifestyle that results.

At the beginning of the year, TDP readers lobbied for a format change in the show and were ultimately rewarded by the SPEED executives. Waltrip has recently been lobbying for more airtime for the wonderfully edited features from The NASCAR Media Group that combine the TV, radio, scanner and natural sound of the races with all the best footage. Next Monday, he gets his wish.

During the Sprint Cup off-week, TWIN will be on at 8PM with the best NASCAR Media Group features from this season. From the dramatic to the hilarious, this is the type of content that SPEED will hopefully present as a weekly series before too long. With all the drama of an NFL Films-style presentation, these features really give the behind-the-scenes peek that many fans love.

The heart of the Sprint Cup season is just around the corner and TWIN has once again put itself in a strong position as a fun and entertaining Monday night NASCAR TV series.

As we approach the break, what are your thoughts on TWIN this season? To add your opinion, 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.