NASCAR's Dirty Little Secret: Few Trucks For SPEED

All three of NASCAR's national touring series are having the same tough economic time as the rest of the nation. Sponsors are gone and funding is tight as Speedweek in Daytona is less than forty days away.

While several websites, including Jayski.com, have a profile of the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series teams that plan to race in 2009, the picture for the Camping World Truck Series is not so clear.

TDP has been following the TV telecasts of the truck series for the past two seasons. The team at SPEED has consistently presented some of the most compelling live racing coverage ever seen in the sport.

As has been documented many times, SPEED comes into the races with far less equipment and focuses on the action on the track with a small but dedicated team of TV pros. The results are simply fun to watch.

Now, the reality of the challenges facing NASCAR where the trucks are concerned for 2009 has been documented in a mainstream media publication. Scene Daily staff writer Jared Turner penned a short commentary addressing the truck series issue in a very straightforward manner. Here is an excerpt:

Let’s start with a theory that is actually more like a fact: For a racing series to be optimally competitive, it must first have enough competitors. Sounds simple enough, right?

Unfortunately, there’s no simple fix to the waning participation haunting the newly named NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Barely a month away from the start of the 15th season for NASCAR’s No. 3 series, you can count the number of Truck drivers with confirmed full-time rides on two hands. And the number of drivers with a confirmed full-time primary sponsor is even fewer.

So what does this dearth-of-sponsorship-induced madness mean for the series that has traditionally produced some of NASCAR’s most colorful characters and electrifying competition?

It means that while there will certainly be more than seven or eight trucks on the grid for the series opener at Daytona on Feb. 12, don’t expect there to anywhere near a full 36-truck field at the majority of the 25 scheduled races.

You can read the entire article by clicking here.

Turner finally stepped forward and introduced a topic that should get a response from NASCAR rather quickly. While fans have a pretty good idea about the overall health of the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series, the condition of the patient where the trucks are concerned is being kept very quiet.

SPEED has invested a lot of time and effort where the Camping World Truck Series is concerned. That is the only NASCAR series carried from start-to-finish on the network. SPEED is both a blessing and a curse to NASCAR.

The blessing is the weekend dedication to the sport when SPEED carries the pre and post-race programming for the Sprint Cup weekends. Over the past several years, SPEED has also carved-out a niche as the home of well-produced qualifying and practice coverage for all three national touring series.

The curse is that SPEED is distributed on digital cable TV packages that cost more and the network is also right in the middle of a transition to High Definition. Many NASCAR fans don't have SPEED and those that do want it in HD.

NASCAR has been very quiet on the pending problems with the trucks and Turner's commentary is a good launching pad for tackling the reality of this issue. Whether or not there is a point at which the truck series may actually suspend operations for 2009 is yet to be seen.

After racing in Daytona, the truck teams will turn and make the very long run to the California Speedway for a race the very next weekend. That may be the first true indication of just how healthy the series will be for NASCAR, truck series fans and SPEED.

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"Mr. Excitement" Returns To SPEED

The Wednesday edition of SPEED's Preseason Thunder served as the program to return the combo of Jimmy Spencer, Kenny Wallace and John Roberts to the airwaves for 2009.

Love them or hate them, "Johnny TV, Mr. Excitement and the Herminator" play to packed houses every racing weekend across the nation. The two-hour RaceDay franchise continues to be the defining program for the presentation of NASCAR on SPEED.

This was the first time in the new SPEED studios for Spencer and Wallace, who are not used to being contained in a studio setting. Their segment started with a typically lame RaceDay skit about Wallace being late to the taping. This might have worked in the two hour RaceDay format, but it wasted valuable time in this short thirty minute show.

"They didn't have nothing in the last ten races," said Spencer talking about Gibbs Racing. His notion is that JGR will be the story of the new season after their spectacular collapse in The Chase in 2008. Spencer in the studio is certainly a sight to see, but in all fairness he was not given enough time to address the various NASCAR topics in the news.

Wallace had a bit of a struggle putting his thoughts into words and often spoke in phrases. He praised Chad Knaus while suggesting Jimmie Johnson may repeat as champion because Knaus keeps a tight leash on the crew and maintains an "edgy" atmosphere.

SPEED cut even more time out of the duo's appearance by publicizing the ticket contest for the Daytona 500 where fans pick either Spencer or Wallace to sit with. In the current economic climate, it should be interesting to see how this "superstretch" promotion works out.

It was Bob Dillner who started the show with a report on Mark Martin's new situation with Hendrick Motorsports. Martin is not the best interview and repeated what fans have heard from him for many years. Dillner did update the other NASCAR news and has been a solid part of the show this week as the lone reporter.

Greg Biffle had the next segment alone with Roberts and it really could have used the spice of Spencer and Wallace. Biffle answered all the politically correct questions and plugged several of his personal charity promotions, but that is not the environment in which Roberts thrives.

Ray Dunlap will be the reporter on Thursday and fans will hear the first real TV update on the health of the Camping World Truck Series heading into Daytona. Roberts will also return to host the program. Since SPEED is the TV network of the truck series, lots of eyes will be on exactly what Dunlap has to say.

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"Preseason Thunder" Officially Starts SPEED's NASCAR TV Season

Steve Byrnes got the familiar feeling going for NASCAR fans as SPEED marched into the network's Preseason Thunder series despite the lack of activity at Daytona.

It was Jeff Hammond who appeared with Byrnes in the new SPEED HD studios while Bob Dillner reported from the very empty Daytona International Speedway.

Dillner touched on the fact that some teams are testing at non-NASCAR tracks before the season despite the attempt by NASCAR to eliminate all pre-season testing and the costs that go along with it. This is a story that SPEED will hopefully follow as the reality of who is testing and where continues to unfold.

Why Dillner was actually in Daytona rather than at a team shop or in the SPEED studios was never really made clear. Dillner looked rather lonely, but did manage an interview with the DIS president about the situation at the track.

Adapting to change is going to be the theme of this preseason and both Byrnes and Hammond were not afraid to expand on this topic. Hammond's point was that taking the new testing situation as a challenge was going to be something successful teams would have to do. The tough guy in Hammond is still apparently alive and well.

David Ragan appeared in the studio at just the right time as the show was certainly in need of a guest. Ragan continues to mature and may well be one of the key stories of this season.

Testing again was the theme, but Ragan pushed aside the notion that the lack of Daytona preseason activity was going to affect the Roush teams. Ragan's confidence in his team engineers, crew chief and his own ability was apparent. Just like Kyle Busch, Ragan has certainly grown-up right in front of the TV cameras.

This SPEED series focuses on preseason issues and serves as a preview of the new year. Lots of NASCAR topics were not included in this first thirty minute show, but there are plenty of episodes of Preseason Thunder left to cover the rest of the January happenings and NASCAR news.

The rest of this week finds Preseason Thunder at 6PM ET. Next week the shows move to 7:30PM as Wendy Venturini and Randy Pemberton join Dillner to report on the annual NASCAR media tour. The final week of shows leading up to speedweek will be at 7PM.

It will be Ryan Newman who joins Byrnes and Hammond in the studio on Tuesday.

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