Musburger Bumps Bestwick From "NASCAR Countdown"

ESPN has announced that Brent Musburger will be hosting the NASCAR Countdown Busch Series pre-race show from Loudon, NH. This marks Musburger's return to the Busch Series after an absence which saw him host the Indy 500 telecast, among other duties.

With only weeks to go before ESPN opens its coverage of the NEXTEL Cup Series races, including the "Chase for the Cup," viewers once again will have a new face hosting the pre-race show. Chris Fowler, Erik Kuselias, Allen Bestwick, Mike Massaro, and Suzy Kolber have all taken their turn at bat for the network.

The fact that Musburger is hosting this show gets the attention of NASCAR fans when the rest of the ESPN press release is read. While it says that Dale Jarrett will join Dr. Jerry Punch and Andy Petree in the booth, it also lets another bomb drop.

Allen Bestwick will be a reporter on pit road for this race...once again. After a week that saw Bestwick in Milwaukee for ESPN hosting not only NASCAR Countdown, but actually calling the play-by-play for the Busch Series race...the network sends him back to pit road to tell us "four tires and fuel."

To add insult to injury, alongside Bestwick on pit road in New Hampshire will be Mike Massaro, ESPN's most veteran NASCAR reporter who hosted a great edition of NASCAR Countdown several weeks ago at Kentucky Speedway. Many thought Massaro was auditioning for a position on NASCAR Now, ESPN2's studio show which has been struggling since Daytona in February.

The line-up on ESPN's website lists Allen Bestwick as a co-host for NASCAR Now, but he has never been "invited back" since his first two appearances. Massaro has never been allowed to host this program, and ESPN on Tuesday brought in general assignment reporter Matt Winer to host for the first time. All of which brings us back to NASCAR Countdown.

This is the only pre-race show for the Busch Series. ESPN has slapped this Series around without mercy this season when it comes to the pre-race opportunities for promotion of the drivers, the sponsors, and the series itself.

The Daly Planet has several articles about the times that the entire NASCAR Countdown show talked only about the NEXTEL Cup race the next day. It was clear everyone on the announcing team was auditioning for the ABC Sports opportunities to cover the Cup Series. Meanwhile, there sat the Busch Series field on the line with absolutely no one interested. And ESPN wonders why the ratings are down?

Now, NASCAR's "number two" series is eighteen races into their season and ESPN is changing hosts for NASCAR Countdown like musical chairs. The Daly Planet gave ESPN credit for putting Bestwick and Massaro in the anchor chair, but what results did that get NASCAR fans? The return of Brent Musburger? The promise of Suzy Kolber in the future?

This is NASCAR racing, and the competitors in the Busch Series have been hammering on each other since February. While ESPN's team in the announce booth has been full of positive surprises, the pre-race show has been a mess. These thirty minutes are crucial to the promotion of these teams and sponsors. This is their Hollywood Hotel.

The on-going battle between "NASCAR people" and "ESPN people" has been fascinating to watch this entire year on both NASCAR Countdown and NASCAR Now. It has been tough for ESPN to let "outsiders" host "their" shows, despite the fact that the "insiders" often have little or no knowledge of the sport at all. Its a culture clash of epidemic proportions, and its about to come to a head.

On May 20th of this year, The Daly Planet ran a column entitled "ESPN and NASCAR on a collision course." We talked about the fact that ESPN's race coverage has been solid from the word "go." Away from the track, however, things are much different.

At Daytona, fans were presented with Brent Musburger, Chris Fowler, and Brad Daugherty for the first NASCAR Countdown show. As we wrote at that time, "Fowler couldn't stop grinning, Daugherty couldn't stop talking, and Musburger wore a funny hat." The results were not pretty.

Now, after spinning the wheel of hosts once again, ESPN goes back to an "insider" like Musburger when fans have just had two strong performances from their favorite "outsiders." Either Allen Bestwick or Mike Massaro deserved the chance to host this show because of their hard work this season and knowledge of the sport. Apparently, Bestwick and Massaro lacked the mandatory funny hats. Who knew?

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below, or email editor@thedalyplanet.tv if you wish not to be published. All email is held in confidence. Thanks again for taking the time to stop by.

TNT's Sonoma Coverage Has NASCAR Fans Still Steaming

The Daly Planet was overwhelmed with email and comments about the TNT broadcast of the NEXTEL Cup race from Sonoma, CA. Long after the race broadcast had gone off the air, fans were still steaming about a wide variety of issues. On NASCAR forums, chat boards, and blogs across the Internet, fans were letting it fly.

Here are some samples of the comments from NASCAR fans who watched the TNT telecast that were left on The Daly Planet:

"This just appears to be a three hour promo for TNT's primetime shows. They showed nothing but the top three cars for the last forty laps. No "through the field," no updates on the "road ringers," NOTHING! And they didn't have the courtesy to show us the results at the end of the race. HORRIBLE!"

"What looked promising a couple of weeks ago has gone horribly wrong. Bill Weber is not a play-by-play guy. I think he could do some great features, but he should not be calling a race."

"Biffle and Bowyer finish in the top five but its almost like they were never in the race. I barely recall hearing their names. I too was amazed that they did not show the finishing order when the race ended. As a new fan of NASCAR this year...I wanted to better understand who was gambling on fuel...especially in the top ten. I kept wondering how Harvick, Biffle, and Bowyer finished so high when they weren't even talked about for most of the race."

"After a huge pre-race hype about the twenty-four and forty-eight cars starting at the back of the field, did fans get to watch them drive forward? No."

"It still pains me that we only get to see two or three cars finish the race. We watch for five or six hours just to see who came in first and second? This is horrible."

"I would like to thank TNT for letting me watch a race in between their commercials."

"At least they could have checked in with Kyle one last time to find out how his race went. I'm assuming he ran out of gas because he finished thirty-ninth. I wonder how many other cars ran out of gas on the last laps. Thanks to TNT, we never found out."

"TNT bungled the close of their broadcast big time. They showed only the first two cars finish and went to commercial. They didn't fill us in on who ran out of gas and who made it. They didn't even tell us the fate of Kyle Petty, who was part of their broadcast. Their biggest blunder, however, was their failure to show the finishing order before they went off the air."

"TNT needs to figure out sometimes you have to find the race within the race and cover it. To be honest, I think the TNT crew was confused, and Larry Mac was too sick to straighten them out."

"For a network that claims "we know drama," they sure struggled to find a storyline during their race coverage."

"NASCAR wonders why the TV ratings are dropping and does not think its a big deal. Its obvious to me they are not watching the same thing we are watching. I doubt if they are watching at all."

The Daly Planet thanks the hundreds of fans who emailed and left comments with reference to the TNT coverage. Please feel free to leave additional comments on this post.

The story of the problems with the TV coverage appeared on very few media outlets other than The Daly Planet. Thank you for supporting our honest and open discussion about what you see on TV where NASCAR is involved. We will continue to post new columns each and every day until the end of the NASCAR racing season.

"NASCAR Now's" Breaking News Is Hilarious

As The Daly Planet mentioned some time ago, ESPN2 has tried desperately to switch the focus of NASCAR Now from "hype" to hard news. They have pushed their reporters over-and-over again to come up with "breaking news," exclusive interviews, and being first to uncover a story. Today, they pushed the envelope beyond hilarious.

Hyped as "breaking news" at the top of the one hour Monday show was the "story" that Hendrick Motorsports was not going to buy the "number eight" from DEI. That's right. That was the "breaking news" that lead the show. Dale Junior leaving DEI without his famous "number eight." No matter how much money Rick Hendrick and Dale Junior have, they simply cannot buy it. Wow, that does sounds like a big story.

Let's step back a moment. This story was breaking national news on the daily NASCAR show on ESPN. This is the Emmy Award winning global media company that is home to SportsCenter, ESPN News Network, and a host of programs that viewers nationwide have learned to trust for accuracy and integrity. ESPN is the "Worldwide Leader in Sports."

Host Erik Kuselias tried hard to "sell" the fact that ESPN2 and NASCAR Now were once again on top of a new NASCAR story. He had two expert analysts on the set with him to tackle this issue. But, there was only one small problem. It was the same problem ESPN ran into when NASCAR Now tried to be the "hype machine" of NASCAR. That problem is reality.

That reality is that NASCAR "owns" and assigns the numbers for the cars and trucks in their national racing series. They have for over fifty years. While certain teams have kept the same numbers for many years, they have never owned them. Never. The ability of one team to "sell" a number to another team has never existed. Never.

Once again, for some reason, Around The Horn's Tim Cowlishaw was on the NASCAR Now set. Cowlishaw is ESPN's "designated talker," and lived up to his Daly Planet reader tag as "Mr. Obvious." Glazing over the reality that there was absolutely no story here, Cowlishaw ranted that NASCAR needed to "step-in" and let Junior take the "number eight" with him for the fans. "NASCAR does many illogical things" said Cowlishaw. Not sending "the eight" with Junior would be just another bad NASCAR decision.

You have to wonder if NASCAR Now just discovered RaceDay on SPEED, and the obnoxious Ricky Rachtman's completely fake "Free the Eight" campaign. This issue, however, is not like voting Kenny Wallace into the All-Star race because he is a fun guy on SPEED.

The graphic on the screen in front of Stacy Compton said "Breaking News." NASCAR Now's "voice of reason" once again tried to put things in order, even as the ESPN on-air hype around him was still in progress. Compton simply said "they (DEI) don't own the number." Well, thanks for that Stacy.

Perhaps, if Compton had helped ESPN to understand this fifty plus year-old concept before the show, NASCAR fans across America would not be rolling their eyes once again at this nonsense. Those would be the fans not still howling with laughter.

How much longer is this new "twist" in NASCAR Now going to continue? Kuselias brought in by liveshot his reporters Marty Smith and Angelique Chengelis. Strangely, he did not ask them about the exciting "number eight" breaking news that lead the show. Perhaps, that is because they both would have fallen off their chairs. No reporter even commented on the "lead story" of the show.

Earlier this season, ESPN tried to hype minor incidents between drivers, be it on the track or off. They found that did not work, because those things happen all the time...imagine that. Remember the "Kasey Kahne says David Stremme is fat" controversy? That will go down in ESPN's NASCAR TV history.

Once again, rather than offer a full plate of NASCAR for fans to digest, the program had to be "about" ESPN itself. They are trying desperately to get their credibility back in this sport. Now, there must be breaking news, they must be first to report, and they must have new "Insider" details.

Who are they kidding? ESPN ignored the entire NASCAR scene for six years while they pouted about losing the NASCAR TV contract. They cancelled RPM2Nite even though NASCAR itself was going strong. They said to America "if we can't show it, then you can't have it." Just like Jimmy Spencer, NASCAR fans never forget.

Now ESPN gets the rights to show NASCAR races, and suddenly there "needs" to be a daily show about NASCAR. What a strange coincidence. This is the struggle that NASCAR Now faces. One of credibility and loyalty to the sport. This new "breaking news" approach is not going to cut it with fans who relied on Jayski.com and the other racing sites to help them through the years that ESPN spit on NASCAR every chance they could.

With ESPN stepping-up and covering NASCAR's NEXTEL Cup Series in several weeks, the daily NASCAR Now program will be put under more scrutiny and pressure than ever before. New fans, media members, and Internet posters will be watching their news choices, their interviews, and even their choice of words.

I really don't believe that the NASCAR Now crew even understands what is coming. They are about to be thrust into seventeen weeks of non-stop national attention in a "playoff" and then "World Series" atmosphere that will make the Yankees vs. The Red Sox seem like a walk in the park.

Rabid fans will be hanging on their every word, and looking for a daily update on ALL the on-going stories in Mooresville, NC. Not just the one shop where Shannon Spake has been sent. Not just some chatter on the set from a Truck Series driver.

If the network continues to "create" news and promote only itself, they will have driven a wedge between themselves and the fans that is going to be tough to remove. Since February, NASCAR fans have given the biggest and most powerful sports network in the world the opportunity to deliver accurate and honest news and features on the NASCAR scene.

Now, it is late June...and this is what we get. The "breaking news" that Theresa won't sell Junior his number when he leaves DEI. Of course, there are those pesky details. She does not own it...he can't buy it...and ESPN made it all up. What will they think of tomorrow?

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below, or email editor@thedalyplanet.tv if you wish not to be published. All email is held in confidence. Thanks again for stopping by.