Readers: A Response To Your Anger Over Eric Medlen's Passing

First of all, thank you for taking the time to express to me your frustration and anger with the media coverage of the untimely passing of Eric Medlen. I am an avid fan of the NHRA, and have been for over thirty years. It has also been my pleasure to have been involved with the NHRA in many capacities during my television career. They are truly a wonderful group of people.

The sentiments expressed to me about television's inability to cover, explain, and then follow-up on Eric's death are also shared by me. As we know, there is currently a significant credibility gap between the TV groups producing the events in the field, and the studio production staffs at the cable network news shows.

Even though ESPN hosts the NHRA coverage, and does an outstanding job, that does not translate to a base of racing knowledge back in Bristol, CT. Even though SPEED dedicates an hour to The SPEED Report, it does not increase the understanding or racing knowledge of the current hosts. Even though CNN covers the world, that does not allow them to understand how personal an incident like this becomes to those of us who live through racing...and how we yearn to know...why?

In my early days, we lost racers through a wide variety of problems that have been addressed, and fixed, over the years. Today, we are much more deeply upset when someone we value loses their life in racing. We all believe that these things are now, somehow, prevented from happening by our modern technology.

In time, the NHRA will release the information about how and why a normal testing run at an approved and safe facility can turn so bad...so fast. In the meantime, we can only continue to provide our support through the internet racing sites and NHRA.com. There are several moving video tributes created by fans available on YouTube.com by typing Eric Medlen in the search function.

At this time, I am going to continue to limit the content of this site to NASCAR racing for the season. I greatly appreciate the fact that so many concerned people turned to The Daly Planet after this situation occurred. Perhaps, in the future, we will expand this media project to include TV coverage of other forms of racing. In the meantime, thank you again for taking the time to email us, and I join all of you in mourning this loss of a fine young man.

Fox Sports: Rick Allen Steps-Up To The Plate

NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series was racing this Saturday at Martinsville, and the NCTS announcing team from SPEED Channel got an opportunity to move up to the major leagues. The race was telecast live on Fox Sports, who allowed SPEED's Rick Allen to call the action and Phil Parsons to provide the color. Added to the mix was Darrell Waltrip in the booth as an analyst, and Chris Myers and Jeff Hammond downstairs in the Hollywood Hotel.

This interesting mix provided some unexpected synergy that energized both the SPEED and Fox Sports teams. As mentioned previously by The Daly Planet, Phil Parsons is one of the most underrated color announcers in NASCAR. He blended easily with the Fox pros and felt confident in swapping opinions with Waltrip and Hammond.

Rick Allen and Chris Myers are very similar in their style and delivery. Not perhaps the two most exciting announcers in sports, they are low-key and possess a dry sense of humor. When Allen is working alone, he sometimes seems like a fish out-of-water. With Myers along for the ride, it helped Allen to loosen up and put in a solid performance on national broadcast television.

It certainly seemed that Hammond and Waltrip loved this race. There was lots of fun while the trucks slugged it out, and put on the usual good short-track show. The SPEED Channel production crew showed the Fox Sports audience that SPEED puts on a solid telecast, and handles things a in a slightly more relaxed manner than the Fox NEXTEL Cup shows. Lots of low angles, in-truck cameras, and track trivia made first-time NCTS viewers comfortable with both the series and the track.

As the race wound down, Parsons stepped-up to the plate and assumed control of the facts in the race, including the race strategy and issues. Waltrip and Hammond enjoyed Parsons, and one had the feeling that there was real respect in the air where Parsons was concerned. Normally, Parsons is joined on SPEED by Michael Waltrip, who speaks over top of Phil and is always on his own individual agenda. This change was a positive one for SPEED, Fox Sports, and NASCAR.

There is always one "odd man out" in this type of relationship, and this time it was Krista Voda. This season, Voda has hosted an outstanding pre-race show that has energized the NCTS and been a fan favorite. For this race, Fox Sports and SPEED chose to continue to use Chris Myers as the "infield" host. In retrospect, it certainly might have been an interesting moment for all concerned to put Voda in charge of the Hollywood Hotel for this event. She has already proven her worth as a studio host, a pit reporter, and now a top-notch event host. Many of us thought she would have been a natural for ESPN's NASCAR Now, but for the time being we can still enjoy her talents when the NCTS pre-race show returns on SPEED.

For a race fan, Martinsville Speedway is a treat with its excellent facilities, good food, and southern hospitality. Today, the speedway was also a treat for those fans watching on television.

ESPN: "NASCAR Now" Takes A Break...To Play Golf

The Daly Planet has documented the challenges facing ESPN and its new commitment to NASCAR in 2007. Sometimes, the coverage has reflected the hard work and dedication that ESPN's NASCAR racing crew has put into creating the television package for the Busch Series from scratch. Solid performers in the booth, on pit road, and in the production truck have allowed ESPN to return to covering racing action without a hitch. That's been a true success story.

In addition to the on-track coverage, ESPN has asked fans to watch NASCAR Now, the daily studio program that ESPN2 uses to cover the entire sport. While NASCAR Now has brought solid professionals in to cover the news and act as analysts, the remaining elements of this series are having a tough time. The Daly Planet has followed the struggle of the two studio hosts and the NASCAR Now production team, who are out-of-sync with the sport.

Past columns have documented the simple issues of credibility and versatility that ESPN must soon improve. NASCAR fans are smart, very smart. They can smell-a-rat a mile away and have flooded The Daly Planet email box with their complaints about this program. Hopefully, this weekend in Martinsville would allow ESPN to put their best foot forward as the sport comes to this critical race. There are many key stories in progress to report.

Much to my surprise, my DVR recorded LPGA golf on Thursday instead of NASCAR Now. The day before qualifying at Martinsville, there was no NASCAR Now for the eastern and central time zones. Now, on Friday, I find that NASCAR Now has gone missing once again. A quick check of the schedule finds it hiding at 1 AM Eastern Time...on Saturday. The ESPN2 Programming Department cancelled the 6:30 PM NASCAR Now on both Thursday and Friday for the early rounds of a woman's golf tournament. Um...what just happened?

Today, SPEED Channel aired almost eight hours of live NASCAR coverage from Martinsville. All kinds of things happened. Michael Waltrip and Brian Vickers failed to make the race. Denny Hamlin got the pole in a COT. Greg Biffle officially skated on his low car from Bristol. The COT carbon monoxide and other design problems were discussed by NASCAR. The Trucks got ready for qualifying and their race Saturday. Its a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup racing weekend...and nothing less.

This situation leads to one simple question. Why would ESPN step away from their commitment to a sport on which they have spent millions of dollars acquiring rights? The answer is a simple one. There is no Busch Series race this weekend. ESPN has no "vested interest" in NASCAR this week, because they are "not involved." No ESPN Busch race, no problem. We will be happy to move NASCAR Now and show women's golf...because the LPGA pays for the air time.

Is NASCAR Now driven by ESPN's own agenda? This is the case with the formerly outstanding program series College Gameday. Suddenly, Chris Fowler and company started previewing ESPN/ABC games and excluding others, regardless of that team's ranking or the significance of the game. This change in direction came from the highest levels of the company. So, let's ponder the issue staring us in the face. If there is no Busch race, should ESPN consider Martinsville as a "less important" weekend? When push comes to shove, is it truly all about whether or not ESPN is involved that weekend?"

If this troubles you, it should. We have been asked to accept NASCAR Now as a full-time commitment by ESPN to NASCAR news. Now, on one of the key weekends of the year, the show is moved for golf as if it is an infomercial. The best part is, over on ESPN they covered no NASCAR stories in a ninety minute SportsCenter, and never crawled any NASCAR info on the bottom of the screen. One cannot help but get the feeling watching the drooling anticipation of baseball and the Final Four that ESPN is really having some serious issues with fitting NASCAR into their own agenda. Let me say those words again...fitting NASCAR into their own agenda. As the season progresses, it will be interesting to find out...who is really driving this bus?