NASCAR's Online Dilemma

The numbers this summer told the tale. Use of the RaceBuddy online application offered by Turner Sports through the NASCAR.com website was off the charts. What started out as four camera angles and some team scanners has become a phenomenon.

Each of the six TNT summer telecasts offered fans an opportunity to expand their view of the actual races. One in-car camera, a fulltime view of pit road, a dedicated camera following the best battles on the track and a final stream switching between aerial views, speed shots and pit reporter updates comprised the RaceBuddy offering.

Then, the Turner guys added a new twist. In the past, RaceBuddy was something you watched online in addition to the race on TV. It was something extra. This year, the actual call of the race from the TNT announcers was added. This meant that for the first time in the history of NASCAR, fans could turn off the TV and watch the entire race with commentary online.

As the six races began to slide by, fans using RaceBuddy alone to watch the race discovered another huge bonus. No commercial breaks. While short sponsor messages popped-up when fans changed video streams, the TV ads did not travel to the online world. It was now easy to watch an entire race from a brand new perspective.

Wherever a laptop computer could travel, RaceBuddy traveled with it. Fans wrote that their world changed due to the fact they no longer had to be positioned in front of the TV set for four hours. Suddenly, laptops were open on Sunday in the workplace, at the pool and on the road.

One hilarious email was from a police officer who said most of his guys were watching NASCAR on the laptops in the patrol cars. People kept walking up and asking them how they were doing that. NASCAR content was now able to travel away from the TV set and out into the world.

In less than two weeks, ESPN begins coverage of the final seventeen Sprint Cup Series races of the season. Currently, there are no plans to offer any online support for these telecasts. Despite the fact that the technology exists, neither Turner, NASCAR or ESPN is making RaceBuddy a priority down the stretch.

The only option that exists is to make the actual feed of the ESPN races available online. ESPN3 is an online service recently launched to provide additional opportunities for sports fans to see content when they are away from the TV. Even as a simple first step, streaming the ESPN races online with commercials would allow fans to choose to watch online or on TV.

The bottom line is that NASCAR has three Sprint Cup Series TV partners that each have their own network agenda. FOX's David Hill said there would be no streaming of races to protect the local FOX TV stations. That makes little sense, as those who watch online are mostly physically away from a TV. They simply want an alternative.

As most TDP readers know, NASCAR sold the online rights to the sport to Turner Interactive years ago in a contract that has a long time to run. Nothing can happen without Turner's blessing and that normally involves money changing hands. The results have been no online video applications other than RaceBuddy for the past four years.

In less than two weeks, NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series will begin the stretch run. These final seventeen races will be less of a valuable product, especially to younger fans, without any online streaming. Simply turning off the online availability after giving it to fans for the past six races is not going to have a good result.

Should anything change on this issue before Indy, we will pass the information along. In the meantime, we welcome your opinion about the online issues confronting the sport and your use of RaceBuddy over the last six races.

To add your comments, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Big Monday For NASCAR TV Shows

It was supposed to be a quiet Monday in NASCAR TV land. After an off-week for the Sprint Cup Series, both ESPN2's NASCAR Now and SPEED's Race Hub were planning a brief review of the Nationwide and Truck Series races before zooming-in on the big weekend approaching in Indianapolis. Saturday night changed those plans.

The final lap of the Nationwide Series race opened a debate that started in Daytona and has grown in volume with every racing weekend. NASCAR opened the door to aggressive driving and now they may have created a monster.

Up first is the anchor show for ESPN at 5PM ET with no re-air. The one-hour Monday version of NASCAR Now has grown in popularity over the last two years. This is in no small part due to the hard work of Allen Bestwick. He took this show over and gave it the credibility it had been lacking.

This week, the versatile Mike Massaro is hosting. Massaro was actually at Gateway on Saturday night working as a pit reporter. He has some first-hand observations about the aftermath of the Nationwide Series race.

This is a reporter roundtable edition of NASCAR Now. Nate Ryan from USA Today, Bob Pockrass from Scene Daily and David Newton from ESPN will be on the panel.

Click here to read the Pockrass story suggesting Edwards should get fined for his actions. Click here to read Ryan's story about the same incident in which he offers no opinion but his readers certainly do.

Newton has been an interesting presence on the NASCAR scene. His Twitter comments after the Saturday night race offered two good points. One, Edwards should remember that Keselowski has nothing to lose in the Sprint Cup Series this season in terms of paybacks. Two, that NASCAR continuing to let this build could have serious consequences once The Chase is underway.

This promises to be a fast-paced hour full of good conversation. ESPN continues to be very formal on the air, with no viewer feedback except for a contrived poll with sometimes hilarious questions. No social media contingent to this program at all.

SPEED has been trying to get up and rolling with a one-hour 7PM version of Race Hub. Things have been uneven to say the least. From "More than a mouthful Mondays' to Miss Sprint Cup reading driver tweets on the air, this show needs a lot more real content and a lot less fluff.

Thankfully, one of SPEED's top studio hosts Krista Voda is back on Monday. Reporter Danielle Trotta returns with a JGR visit and fresh off his Legends Million experience driver David Ragan stops by the studio.

Voda needs some support in terms of dealing with the clash on Saturday night and the larger issue of letting violence in NASCAR escalate. This is one of those days where NASCAR should provide an executive to answer fan questions in the studio and deal with the issues head-on. So far, the sanctioning body has failed to answer this call.

Fans have seen the race highlights many times by Monday night and the new Race Hub has been slowly falling back into the old trap of repeating them again. The content of this show needs to come from fresh interviews, fan feedback and in-studio experts.

The challenge for SPEED is to step-away from their reputation in-studio as NASCAR's unofficial marketing and public relations arm and develop an identity for the network and this series. This show is not produced by The NASCAR Media Group and is an opportunity for the network to create it's own brand.

It should be interesting to watch two TV networks cover much of the same ground in very different ways. The suits and ties of ESPN vs. the casual look and feel of SPEED always makes for an interesting comparison.

We will use this post to offer comments before, during and after the two Monday TV shows. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Crunch Time For The "B Team"

The weekend started with SPEED having the first troubles at Gateway and wound-up with ESPN having a mess at the end.

While a Friday night power outage delayed SPEED until Saturday afternoon for the Camping World Truck Series race, ESPN got the Nationwide Series event underway as planned on Saturday night.

This is an off-week for many NASCAR personalities as everyone catches a final breath before the long push to the end of the season in November. ESPN's "A Team" of Marty Reid, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree were all off this weekend.

It was Dave Burns who got the call to handle his first play-by-play assignment with ESPN veterans Rusty Wallace and Ricky Craven alongside in the TV booth. On pit road were Dr. Jerry Punch, Shannon Spake and Mike Massaro.

While NASCAR continues to ponder changes, the Nationwide Series continues to be the playground of the fulltime Sprint Cup Series drivers. On this day Kevin Harvick, Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski were the show.

Burns on-air performance was solid, but it was Craven who again stole the telecast with his sense of calm and outstanding analysis. Wallace was off-balance at first, but he settled down when it was clear that Craven was not going to try and one-up him with comments.

It's always great to have Punch back on pit road and his interviews with several of the Nationwide "regulars" really put that in perspective. What ESPN did not understand for several years is that having Punch interview you is an honor for a young driver. That was made clear Saturday.

Massaro hosted a chunk of the pre-race show from the starting grid and Spake has made remarkable progress in returning to the sport this season after her maternity leave. These two multi-talented personalities are ESPN's utility players.

While the race featured several interesting moments, it was the action on the last lap that will be talked about for the week. After Harvick was eliminated in a late crash, Keselowski and Edwards were left to battle it out. The rest is history.

Burns called the action as Keselowski tapped Edwards through Turns 1 and 2. It looked like ESPN was going to get a door-to-door sprint to the finish but that never happened. Edwards turned left off Turn 4, hooked Keselowski and spun him out.

As Burns struggled for the right words, the rest of the field tried to dodge Keselowski's car on a frontstretch with walls on either side. Things did not work out very well in that regard. Keselowski's car was demolished after being hit broadside while sitting motionless.

The TV pictures changed excitement to concern very quickly. Even as the Edwards crew conducted an ill-advised celebration on pit road, there were lots of wrecked race cars on the frontstretch. Eventually, Keselowski emerged unharmed.

Craven and Wallace had a tough time originally while waiting for the replays from the ESPN producer. Craven thought Edwards had botched a cross-over move and Wallace was unsure just what happened. It became apparent quickly that Edwards had purposefully taken Keselowski out.

This is a tough spot for Wallace. He owns and operates a two-car team in the very series that he describes on TV. He is a former Penske driver. His son has been involved in many accidents in the series. Despite what ESPN maintains, Wallace cannot simply speak his mind in a situation like this.

Craven continued to work his way through carefully, but Edwards' interview in Victory Lane took away all doubt that this was an accident. Edwards' bold statements that he took something away from Keselowski and that he was simply not going to let him win changed everything. Edwards dared both ESPN and NASCAR to react. ESPN passed.

Perhaps for viewers, seeing the real emotion of Brad's father Bob outside of the Infield Care center put things in a new perspective. The reality of racing was made all too clear with his words of anger and revenge. "He's not going to kill my boy," he said. That is a pretty simple concept to understand.

In the end, ESPN missed an interview with the younger Keselowski on the race telecast but followed up shortly after on ESPNEWS. Leaving the air, both Wallace and Craven hinted at an official NASCAR response, but that made little sense as Edwards celebrated in the background. He had the checkered flag.

Perhaps you could share with us your thoughts on this telecast and how ESPN handled the final lap accident? To add your opinion, just click the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for stopping by.