Wednesday, March 7, 2007

ESPN: Waltrip Racing (Re-Air)


What an interesting decision on ESPN's part to re-air the Michael Waltrip Racing - A New Era program today. From the opening words, both the announcer's voice and the interviews with the MWR participants told a story that had a very unhappy ending. Perhaps, ESPN might have decided to hold-off on re-airing this show until the Daytona suspensions of the MWR staff had expired.

Several months down the road, this series might have an interesting flair and be retrospective in nature. At this time, it since has tinges of sadness and disappointment. Its hard to believe that Toyota, with its keen sense of honor, desired this program to re-air on a national basis. If there were any losers as a result of the Daytona situation, it was Toyota.

Certainly, ESPN can claim some sort of contractual obligations to re-air this show, but anyone with some common sense and understanding of the Toyota sensibilities might have held off until the team penalties were over.