Despain Inked For Two Years By SPEED

The Wind Tunnel franchise is apparently safe on SPEED for two more years. Thursday, it was announced that the network has signed host Dave Despain to a new TV contract through 2010.

The shrinking amount of content on SPEED that relates in any way to actual sanctioned racing has been a concern as the network plows ahead with multi-million dollar "lifestyle" shows at full speed.

Wind Tunnel is part of a three hour block of highly visible and successful SPEED programming on Sunday nights that includes The SPEED Report and Victory Lane.

Despain originally hosted Wind Tunnel five nights a week or more and it became the home to great discussions of various racing topics with fantastic guests from all over the world of motorsports.

Now, Despain presides over a very quick hour of programming that tries to tie-in live guests, co-hosts, email and viewer phone calls. The program essentially has taken-on the persona of adding additional content to the stories featured on The SPEED Report.

TDP has many times compared Wind Tunnel with Despain to CNN's Larry King Live. The combination of the show and the host has become one of the strongest brands on SPEED. No other show carries the journalistic weight of Wind Tunnel on the network.

With the global economy affecting racing like never before, SPEED would perhaps be wise to consider cranking-up Wind Tunnel in January and providing the only connection on-the-air to race fans other than the SPEEDtv.com website.

Waiting until Speedweek in February to start the program may cause SPEED to completely miss-out on the biggest stories that will be shaping the face of racing in North America and around the world for 2009.

Please give us your thoughts on Wind Tunnel and what you like and perhaps dislike about this program series on SPEED.

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Krista Voda Heads To Cotton Bowl For Fox

It will be January 2nd at 2PM ET when Krista Voda takes her reporting skills to the Cotton Bowl game on Fox for the third consecutive year.

Voda will be reporting from the sidelines while Brian Baldinger and Pat Summerall will call the action. Also, Jeanne Zelasko will be handling the hosting duties.

“I couldn't be more thrilled to have been invited back to the Cotton Bowl,” said Voda. “The Cotton Bowl and the people who work for it are top-notch. I have never witnessed better hospitality or more passion for an event!"

“This year, once again, should be an incredible match up...Texas Tech vs. Ole Miss...especially with so many hometown kids coming back to play in the Dallas area,” she continued. “One of my favorite things about covering the Cotton Bowl, or any event, is that the storylines are the same. Similar to NASCAR, you have athletes overcoming obstacles and also the thrill of competition. How could it get any better?”

Voda has a diverse TV sports background that includes The Kentucky Derby, NFL football and even men's college basketball. This college football special usually features Voda working hard to follow the storylines of the game and also handling all the special TV features that go with a Bowl setting.

There is no doubt that Krista Voda is one of the most underutilized "talent" on the roster at both SPEED and Fox Sports. This past season she established herself as a regular co-host of The SPEED Report, but that interfered with her pit reporting duties on the NASCAR on Fox broadcasts and also made for some tough airline miles when she returned to Charlotte after hosting the Truck Series pre-race shows.

How SPEED and Fox utilize this versatile announcer in 2009 with the looming budget issues should be very interesting to watch. Voda has strong studio hosting skills, is an experienced pit reporter and has earned her stripes with the entire Fox family of networks over the past several seasons.

Up next, however, is the Texas Tech vs. University of Mississippi match-up that will thankfully not have tire troubles, single-file racing or a pit road speed limit.

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Thanks For The Great Questions, New Readers Can Check The Comments

Thank you for another good session of Q-and-A. See the comments below for the questions asked by the TDP readers.

Thanks for stopping by The Daly Planet during this busy week. Before we go to the Christmas break, we are going to try a final Q-and-A session for 2008.

We are trying to answer as many NASCAR TV and media questions today as possible. Several folks are going to help us behind-the-scenes with some answers, so we should be pretty well-informed.

The way this works is readers simply hit the COMMENTS button below and submit a question. The questions will appear shortly after they are submitted. Just check back to see when your question is answered.

These sessions have worked very well in the past and have often suggested topics for further comments and columns. Thanks in advance for all your help this season with our Q-and-A's. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page, so have at it.