Auctioneers Battle NASCAR On SPEED

The recent buzz about the turnaround at ESPN's NASCAR Now and the changes that network made to the TV team at the tracks has not gone un-noticed.

Fox Sports and the SPEED Channel folks have aimed their "TV sights" directly at Martinsville, Virginia. With no Nationwide race scheduled, Fox, SPEED and NASCAR would normally be the stars of the show.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, this is also the big weekend of the Barrett-Jackson auto auction in West Palm Beach, Florida. As you may remember from last year, SPEED shows a whole lot of that live. Here is a rundown of the weekend from a NASCAR standpoint.

The NASCAR on Fox production team will be handling the duties for both the Craftsman Truck and the Sprint Cup Series telecasts from Martinsville. While the Truck Series announcers will essentially be the same, the entire TV crew will be from Fox. This group will also host the Truck and Cup telecasts of practice and qualifying. Both the Truck and Cup races will be on the big Fox Broadcast Network.

Friday at 11AM Eastern Time the Truck teams kick-off a one hour practice session that will be carried live on SPEED. Because of the auction, the NASCAR action does not return until 3PM for the Go or Go Home Show. This program is supposed to recap the situation with the teams outside the Top 35 in points, but often strays back into interviews with the "stars" of the series.

At 3:30PM, the Fox crew televises Sprint Cup Qualifying that is scheduled to last until approximately 5PM on SPEED. At that time, the network continues NASCAR coverage of the Truck Series final practice.

Trackside wraps-up the NASCAR portion of SPEED's Friday with a good program scheduled for 7PM. Steve Byrnes hosts as usual, joined by Darrell Waltrip, Larry McReynolds and Jeff Hammond. This week, the show welcomes Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer and Jamie McMurray. That is a lot jam-packed in a one hour live program.

Saturday, the Trucks qualify on SPEED at 10AM Eastern and then a flexible NASCAR Live program will take the network back to Noon and the auction once again.

The Trucks will race on Fox at 3PM Eastern Time on Saturday, and are scheduled in a two and a half hour broadcast window. This should be an interesting event with several storylines playing out, and the exposure on Fox will be good for the series.

The Rolex Sports Cars own SPEED at 6PM, and after a three hour race the NASCAR programming returns. SPEED puts the final Cup practice on from 9 to 10PM, and then NASCAR Performance hosted by Larry McReynolds is next for thirty minutes.

NASCAR fans should make this note. Set the DVR or the VCR or the TiVo for 10:30PM on Saturday night. The one and only Bob Pockrass will be visiting Kyle Petty and John Roberts as the media guest on Tradin' Paint. Bob is a NASCAR writer for scenedaily.com and he and Kyle are like oil and water.

This combination, when controlled by Roberts, has been one of the most entertaining on Tradin' Paint in years. Both men have strong viewpoints and very different personalities. With Mr. Roush on the topic list, it should be interesting.

On Sunday, SPEED returns at 11AM with the quirky NASCAR in a Hurry program that uses footage from the weekend to review the action on the track and on SPEED. This is an interesting program that more resembles CNN Headline News than anything else. Thirty minutes of review and then gone. Truck Series veteran Adam Alexander hosts.

RaceDay then follows at 11:30AM for two hours of live interviews and features. John Roberts hosts, and this week Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards and Aric Almirola will be guests. Wendy Venturini's Real Deal feature focuses on Kasey Kahne and Ray Evernham.

The NASCAR on Fox crew take to the air at 1:30PM for the Sprint Cup race, and then SPEED closes-out the evening with Victory Lane at 8PM. It certainly should be interesting to see who John Roberts, Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Wallace get to interview after this event. Toyota vs. the rest of the field is the storyline.

There will be posts available for in-progress comments, and fans should be watching to see how the Truck Series translates to the Fox Network airwaves on Saturday.

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Nicole Manske Stakes Her Claim

Amid all the talk about the new hour-long Monday show and the continuing presence of co-host Ryan Burr, there is another developing story on NASCAR Now. Perhaps, no one is under more scrutiny this season than Nicole Manske.

Brought-in back in August of 2006 by SPEED to replace several popular on-air veterans at The SPEED Report, Manske struggled. The new format at SPEED and a non-supportive co-host put Manske behind the 8-ball.

She was put in the role of the dizzy blond newscaster, regardless of the reality of her professionalism. Her attire was scrutinized every time she hit the air and even posted on the Internet. Sometimes, those clothing choices led TV viewers to draw their own conclusions about her on-air abilities and her off-camera personality.

At the conclusion of the 2007 season, both Manske and her SPEED Report co-host did not have their contracts renewed. Transition in the television world is normal, but it was Manske who announced that she would be moving to Bristol, CT and co-hosting NASCAR Now.

After a tough season, ESPN was re-vamping this daily show from the ground-up. Manske would be part of a three person hosting team that included distinguished veteran Allen Bestwick and former ESPNEWS anchor Ryan Burr. It was a total on-air change.

From the first moment she stepped onto the ESPN2 set, Manske experienced a new level of exposure and began to understand what it meant to be an ESPN anchor. As many on-air talent have learned, ESPN throws a lot of work at you right away, and Manske was no exception.

Assigned first to the field, Manske began to establish herself with interviews of drivers and personalities that had a bit of spice and attitude. She knew her NASCAR, and often took her interviews a little bit off the beaten path to the delight of those answering the questions.

In addition, she began a careful re-structuring of her on-air image that has continued to this day. Gone is the blond hair and the "interesting" outfits. Manske now joined the other female ESPN announcers in a dress code that takes the focus away from the TV anchor and puts it right back on the subject at hand.

Her first big test came with the assignment to anchor a one hour weekend edition of NASCAR Now from the racetrack. Sitting alongside Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty and other ESPN personalities Manske established herself as a credible presence and began a positive change in her public perception.

Now, a little over one month into the NASCAR season, Manske has quietly done what good TV anchors learn to do. She gets out of the way. Just like her co-host Allen Bestwick has done for years, Manske directs traffic and lets the attention be drawn to the news being discussed or the person being interviewed.

Given a fair chance by ESPN, Manske is continuing to grow into the role of a national TV anchor/reporter with solid results. After watching her struggle through the off-balance and "trendy" SPEED Report, many of us were curious as to how she would transition to the ESPN stage.

Say what you will, one of the big stories of this season's NASCAR Now has been the easy integration of Manske into the NASCAR on ESPN team. Her ability to talk effectively with a wide variety of racing personalities has been on display for some time now, and is only getting better.

When ESPN made the commitment to change this show, they took a risk on a former local TV station anchor who was appearing once a week on a one hour motorsports show. Now, it seems that gamble has paid-off and the network has found a reliable and credible co-host for this high-profile daily series.

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"NASCAR Now" Ruins A Perfect Monday (2nd Update 11AM 3/26/08)

Update #2: I will be joining Dave Moody on Sirius Speedway Wednesday afternoon at 4:40PM to talk about some NASCAR TV topics, including the one contained in this story. Please join us on Sirius Channel 128 at 4:40PM Eastern Time for some live conversation.

It was February 26th when reporter Terry Blount appeared on NASCAR Now with "breaking news." His news was so important that it was the first story on the program with a big "breaking news" graphic on the screen.

It was only hours later when his "news" was revealed to be completely full of holes. The link to the column that appeared on The Daly Planet that day can be read by clicking here. Nothing that he reported was anything more than bad gossip and ridiculous speculation.

Blount reported on national television that California Speedway President Gillian Zucker was seriously considering tearing-up the racing surface after the disastrous rain-plagued weekend. Blount reported Zucker was considering installing high banks and making the Speedway a restrictor plate track.

Needless to say, it took the International Speedway Corp. about five minutes to issue a terse release saying there would be no changes at "their" speedway in California. It took less time for other analysts and reporters to point out that any experienced NASCAR journalist would never have gone on-the-air with that information.

Such is the fine line that NASCAR Now has only crossed once or twice this season. The one where hardcore reporting and expert analysis give way to the dark-side of NASCAR journalism that most reporters detest. Gossip and unfounded allegations that are rushed to the national TV airwaves before common sense is allowed to prevail.

Monday, Allen Bestwick led a panel of three through a one hour version of NASCAR Now from the Bristol, CT studios. There was no dark-side reporting and no unfounded gossip. Instead, there was fun and conversation and the one thing that NASCAR Now has been trying hard to build since February's Daytona 500. That is credibility.

Host Nicole Manske led Tuesday's NASCAR Now directly to Mr. Blount once again. This time, Blount had been assigned the task of trying to sell magazines for ESPN. In all of the hype that fans witnessed on this TV series in 2007, there may have been nothing to top this effort.

Suddenly, Blount was revealing that Jack Roush found a Roush-Fenway part on a Toyota car in the garage area. Roush alleges that it was a part that his company created, and suggests in so many words that it may have been stolen. What a NASCAR bombshell. Imagine, a story this big breaking on a Tuesday afternoon.

Unfortunately, here is the reality. This story was not breaking and had nothing to do with Tuesday's NASCAR news. It was simply planted in NASCAR Now to sell ESPN the Magazine.

Like a fifth-grader trying to make enough money for the big class trip, Terry Blount was at your door and really needed you to buy it now. Twenty-six issues of ESPN the Magazine for only $26.

The line in ESPN-owned Jayski.com says it all. "ESPN the Magazine has an interesting and potentially explosive quote from Roush-Fenway Racing co-owner Jack Roush as part of its 10th Anniversary issue, which is on newsstands this week."

Imagine that. You can buy ESPN the Magazine to see the actual article that talks about the two-week old quote from a car owner who is still steaming at Toyota for comments earlier in the season. Surprisingly, the Roush story is about Toyota allegedly doing bad things to him.

There were thirty-four comments on the ESPN.com page about this story late Tuesday night. Fans suggested that the stolen part may have been an oil-cooler lid or perhaps the gas pedal from the 26 car, which apparently is missing. Words like "sour grapes, whining and even pre-school" were featured in the ESPN comments.

After a Monday of wonderful NASCAR conversation and information, this story caused me to turn-off this program for the first time in two years. Going from Bestwick, Marty Smith, Brad Daugherty and Andy Petree to this reporter selling junk once again as truth did me in.

Regardless of how slickly Blount worded his script and regardless of how delicately he skated around the timeliness issue, this was a planted story aimed at selling magazines. Regardless of the actions of Jack Roush in the future on this issue, it was presented to try and drive NASCAR fans to another ESPN property.

Over at the SPEEDtv.com message boards, one reader said very clearly what many people were thinking. "If Jack actually made these comments at Atlanta why did no media outlet other than ESPN The Magazine report it? They had no problem reporting the rest of his accusations against Toyota, why not this too?"

All the good will and outstanding content generated by the Monday show now has a black could hanging over it from this repeat of the dark days of 2007. Erik Kuselias and Doug Banks may be distant memories in the minds of many fans, but Terry Blount has drawn the short-straw this season.

The "hype" he has been offering may serve once again to motivate fans to simply skip this TV program and go directly to the Internet for their NASCAR content. NASCAR Now needs to understand that a direct alternative to their efforts is at the fingertips of every fan, and does not require them to tune-in at 5:30PM.

Update #1: Here is the link to Dave Moody's blog story that some of you have been asking about. His original words are the ones I listed from Jayski in reference to this topic. Just to make sure we are all on the same page.

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