How Are You Feeling About The Approaching Season?

There seems to be a very different vibe in the air this January when it comes to the upcoming NASCAR season. Lack of information about what is actually going to happen in the three national touring series seems to be an epidemic in the media.

This is especially true in TV land, where ESPN has limited the NASCAR exposure during the off-season to virtually nothing. No featured stories in SportsCenter presented by the NASCAR on ESPN analysts or reporters. No segments on ESPNEWS talking about the overall picture in terms of the sport on the track this season.

SPEED has been guilty of veering off-course in dramatic fashion, featuring "puff pieces" about teams and even throwing in a "Mall Cop" movie promo. Both the Preseason Thunder shows and The SPEED Report have missed the opportunity to host a panel of SPEED's own experts to talk about this crisis.

For those fans who have Sirius Satellite radio, it's great that you have heard some more information than the rest of us. Certainly, the Internet continues to grind out stories as Daytona approaches, but almost all of them talk about only one topic.

With the recent news that the merged Ganassi-DEI team might be down to two cars, the reality of the new season is really hitting home. If these are the struggles of the Sprint Cup teams, what in the world is NASCAR going to put on the track for the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series?

This week will be a key opportunity for SPEED to solve these problems for the fans. Taped this week in Daytona during Fan Fest were five Trackside shows that will air Monday through Friday at 7:30PM ET. This should give Darrell Waltrip, Jeff Hammond and Larry McReynolds an opportunity to touch on exactly these issues.

It will be a shame if host Steve Byrnes is put in the position of interviewing the Fan Fest drivers and asking the same type of generic questions that fans saw on Preseason Thunder during week one. Trackside usually runs wide open and talks about almost anything, hopefully that will be the case this week.

SPEED will also use Bob Dillner, Wendy Venturini and Ray Dunlap to chase the Charlotte media tour as it goes to the various race shops in the Mooresville and Concord, NC area. The reporters will offer their information in another week of Preseason Thunder shows that will originate from the new SPEED studios at 7PM ET.

These two shows need to focus on the issue of keeping the remaining fans in the sport and not allowing this economic challenge to continue NASCAR's slide. While Sirius listeners may have heard Mike Helton and others talk about these challenges, TV viewers have not.

In addition to the teams and drivers, fans need to see the faces of the sport like Helton, Brian France and Jim Hunter. It is an especially confusing time for the newer fans who do not have a perspective on the manufacturer, team and racing history of NASCAR. A few well-chosen words can go a long way coming from the right person in an official position.

Ultimately, the TDP email has been busy with fans trying to make a personal decision about committing forty weekends of the upcoming year to a sport that seems to be in a nosedive. Certainly, the struggles of 2008 with the COT, tires and the dominance of Jimmie Johnson left a tough taste in the mouth of some fans.

TDP is wondering if you have made a decision about this season yet or if you are one of the fans still pondering if and how much of NASCAR you will watch on TV this year? Once the spectacle of Daytona is done, will you be back as the series travels to California?

Thanks for taking a moment to share your TV and NASCAR thoughts with us, there will be new columns up all week talking about the multiple TV shows on the air.

To add your comment, just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Than you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Will "ServiceMaster Clean Caution Periods" Change NASCAR On TV?

It is day two of the New World Order for many NASCAR fans who have been emailing and commenting on the new sponsorship of the actual caution periods in NASCAR races.

For those of you who have still not heard the news, NASCAR has brokered a deal that allow a cleaning company called ServiceMaster to be the official sponsor of the caution periods in most of the NASCAR races.

This is the official press release:

ServiceMaster Clean announced that it has signed a unique partnership agreement to be the first-ever official sponsor of the caution periods during races at International Speedway Corporation (ISC) and Speedway Motorsports Incorporated (SMI) race tracks across the nation.

When there is a problem on the track, the ServiceMaster Clean Yellow Flag will wave, and the company’s familiar yellow trucks will be dispatched to clean the track. ServiceMaster Clean will have official and exclusive sponsorship of the Yellow Flag– now to be known as ServiceMaster Clean Caution periods – at all 19 ISC and SMI race tracks around the country. These racetracks feature 31 Sprint Cup, 24 Nationwide and 17 Camping World Truck Series races and hundreds of other racing events.

In fact, there will hardly be a race for the next five years where ServiceMaster Clean does not have a large presence.

All cleaning and drying vehicles and equipment will feature the ServiceMaster Clean logo and colors, and the clean-up teams will wear bright yellow ServiceMaster Clean jumpsuits. The multi-year agreement is not limited to what happens on the track, but also includes national coverage on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Performance Racing Network (PRN), and a host of other marketing opportunities designed to generate consistent visibility.

This PR announcement does not include the TV specifics, but we can assume that with the right advertising dollars, ServiceMaster will soon be appearing during caution periods on your TV all season long.

So, the upshot of all of this is that the actual caution flag is now sponsored. The caution period itself is sponsored and the clean-up on the track will be done by folks wearing ServiceMaster uniforms and driving ServiceMaster trucks.

Perhaps, TV viewers will take all of this in stride as just another NASCAR sponsorship like Goodyear tires or Sunoco race fuel.

For those of us at TDP, the question is how this sponsorship will be reflected on a TV screen that already contains everything from animated rodents to multiple lines of scrolling scores and text.

Certainly, any TV sponsor package is going to include ServiceMaster Clean Caution Period graphics, perhaps some animation and of course...commercials. Add this to the already heavy TV commercial load and it should make for an interesting combination for the viewers at home.

TDP will keep you posted as this sponsorship package continues to develop. In the meantime, feel free to share your thoughts on the impact of this rather unique idea on the TV viewing of your favorite NASCAR races.

More ServiceMaster story links. Just click on the title:
ServiceMaster Outsourcing IT Services, 225 Employees Being Fired (December 2008)
ServiceMaster Home Page (which has no mention of the NASCAR announcement)


To add your comment, just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Weekend TV News And Notes

SPEED goes to Daytona on Saturday for a 1PM ET version of NASCAR Preseason Thunder. This is a TV series that has already aired for one week on SPEED and next week will be tagging along with the Charlotte Media Tour.

The shows next week will air at 7:30PM on weekdays and feature Wendy Venturini and Bob Dillner chronicling the writers and journalists as they tour the Concord and Mooresville, NC team shops.

The SPEED Report should have a jam-packed show on Sunday at 7PM ET simply because of the large amount of NASCAR news that has taken place over the past week. Krista Voda and Leigh Diffey will host for SPEED with reports from all over the racing world.

The Showtime cable TV network begins airing the critically acclaimed Ride of Their Lives movie at 7:15PM ET Saturday night. The Showtime version has no commercials and ten additional minutes of never before seen content. Showtime will air the movie in regular rotation, so check the listings for re-airs.

Geoff Bodine continues his support for the US Bobsled Team with his annual TV special at noon ET Sunday on SPEED. NHRA and NASCAR drivers team-up with members of the US Armed Forces for bobsled action to raise money for the national team.

Finally, Monday at 7PM the popular Trackside show returns on SPEED for a week of specials from Daytona. This will be Darrell Waltrip's opportunity to speak out about the current NASCAR issues. He will be joined by Jeff Hammond and Larry McReynolds for these programs that will be hosted by Steve Byrnes.

This will be SPEED's opportunity to help the fans understand what is going on with the sport before ESPN re-enters the picture with that network's NASCAR news show.

Speaking of NASCAR Now, the ESPN2 series returns on February 2nd with Allen Bestwick, Mike Massaro and Nicole Manske as hosts.

TDP will keep things updated during the weekend, please feel free to add your comments about the topics above or scroll down for the other active posts from the week.

To add your comments, just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.