No Brian France At Daytona Press Conference (2 Updates)

The original plan communicated to the media last season was to have NASCAR Chairman Brian France spearhead a press conference in Daytona on Friday, January 21 at noon ET. That Friday is right in the middle of the three day test for teams to experience the new DIS pavement.

France was expected to announce the anticipated changes to the Chase for the Championship format. Statements from France last year suggested that he was considering elements like expansion to fifteen teams, eliminations of one team after every Chase race and more points for winning in the regular season.

In addition to having most of the mainstream NASCAR media in Daytona for the test, SPEED has made arrangements to be on-site with the most extensive coverage of a test ever produced. The big news is that the vast majority of the coverage is going to be offered online globally through the SPEED.com website.

Monday afternoon, NASCAR announced that France would not be present at Daytona but would brief reporters on Wednesday, January 26 during the NASCAR media tour. France normally delivers a "State of the Sport" address at this time, so in essence France has been removed or removed himself from the Daytona media event.

NASCAR is now referring to the January 21 press conference as a competition update. It will be NASCAR president Mike Helton and Senior Vice President Robin Pemberton handling the duties for the sport. In one way, it makes sense to let the two primary players explain the rules changes and then deal with the questions. Certainly, other topics like ethanol, tires and the new DIS pavement will also be on the menu.

On the other hand, the Chase is a concept single-handedly advanced by France that has yielded mixed results. It has changed many aspects of the sport during what is now called the regular season and has dynamically changed the TV and media exposure for teams outside of the Chase while it is run.

France himself would be the one who authorized the new changes, as well as the possible exclusion of full time Sprint Cup Series drivers from the Nationwide Series driver's championship. It seems a little hollow that he is not the person to update the changes as the media reports and then carries those changes to the fan base.

Update #1: Monday night at 8:24PM ET a story appeared on the NASCAR.com website from reporter Dave Rodman. Click here to read the entire article. Basically, Rodman announced a major rules change. Drivers must now declare in advance of the season what series in which they will run for the championship. There is only one allowed. The story says this change will be explained by Helton and Pemberton in Daytona at the press conference on January 21.

Update #2: Shortly after the rules story, NASCAR made the following announcement:

NASCAR executives, including chairman Brian France, will meet with team owners, drivers and key team officials the next several weeks to talk about significant issues facing the sport. The meetings will be done by team organization instead of during one big meeting with all Cup or Nationwide teams, NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston confirmed. In the past couple of years, NASCAR has increased its use of "town hall" style meetings to discuss potential changes to the sport. Last year, it opted for smaller team forums by meeting separately with each organization.

SPEED is currently not scheduled to be on with either TV or streaming coverage during that hour originally scheduled as a lunch break. We are waiting to hear what the plans will be to report on that event and will update this post.

Online coverage plans for the media tour have not yet been announced.

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TV/Media Notes

Let's try to get some things organized and answered as we head into the pre-season.

First, SPEED has committed to streaming all three days of the Daytona test online at the SPEED.com website live. There will be some TV as well, but the network is in the middle of a big Barrett-Jackson auction that was arranged well in advance of the Daytona pavement problems.

Here is the three day schedule:

Thursday, Jan. 20
9 a.m. - 12 p.m. (SPEED.com)
1 p.m. - 5 p.m. (SPEED.com)
5 p.m. - 7 p.m. (same-day delay) (SPEED TV)

Friday, Jan. 21
9 a.m. - 12 p.m. (SPEED.com)
1 p.m. - 2 p.m. (SPEED TV)
2 p.m. - 5 p.m. (SPEED.com)

Saturday, Jan. 22
9 a.m. - 12 p.m. (SPEED.com)
1 p.m. - 2 p.m. – (SPEED TV)
2 p.m. - 5 p.m. – (SPEED.com)

The coverage is going to include on-track cameras live at a test for the first time in my memory. John Roberts and Jeff Hammond are going to host from the infield TV studio right above Victory Lane that SPEED has used in the past for testing review shows.

Steve Byrnes returns to a familiar role up in the TV booth with Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds alongside. It will be Krista Voda and Bob Dillner working the garage area as reporters. That is one stellar line-up for Internet streaming coverage.

What should be fun to watch is the format. There are normally no commercials in this type of coverage because it can be viewed worldwide. American TV commercials are normally targeted at a group, time period or demographic. What is on sale in the US may not be on sale in Canada or Australia. Therefore, most current TV commercials don't work online.

The on-air vibe may be quite different as well. Without trying to rush five minute segments between commercials, the webcast producer and director may find that they have many more tools at their disposal. In this format, there is no clock constantly ticking down to the next time the TV monster must be fed.

SPEED also returns Mr. Byrnes as the host of Race Hub on the Monday after testing. I am told the show will again be at 7PM for one hour on Monday through Thursday. No word on the time of the West Coast re-air as the SPEED website does not have full January schedules up quite yet.

SPEED is now setting its number of cable homes at 82 million for the start of 2011. That is a solid number and if the former niche network can get together the right group of compelling programming, it could be a big year for SPEED.

Over on ESPN2, it looks like NASCAR Now will return on Monday, February 7, 2011. The first week of shows are all thirty minutes, with the one-hour Monday roundtable returning on February 14. Allen Bestwick, Nicole Briscoe and Mike Massaro are back, but missing from the team will be Ray Evernham.

Click here or go to the previous story on this blog for the details. Evernham is moving off to work for Rick Hendrick developing a line of high-performance parts and vehicles. In addition, Evernham still has plenty on the table with ownership of a local dirt track in North Carolina and several other business interests.

There is no word yet from ESPN on whether they will replace Evernham or use existing analysts in his role on NASCAR Now and selected races.

As we mentioned before, no changes in the on-air line-ups for ESPN, FOX or SPEED. Charlotte Observer reporter Jim Utter passed along that Jim Shiftan is going to be producing for ESPN this season on the NASCAR beat. Good guy, liked by the crew and perhaps open to some new approaches to aspects of the coverage.

Brief Notes:

Don't forget Sunday at 6PM there is a new motorsports series on VERSUS called Dirt Knights. They also have a Facebook page, website and Twitter account if you want to check what they are about. The first show was solid, this is a grassroots racing effort to get a TV series on the air and we wish them the best of luck.

Information came in late Wednesday night from SPEED about the Chili Bowl. This unique indoor event takes place in late January in Tulsa, OK. It features USAC midget racers from all over the nation competing in endless heats leading up to a big final race. Something fun in the off-season with a strong tradition of racing. SPEED will carry an edited highlight program in February. Times and date has not yet been announced. Good news.

We will update any additional breaking TV or media news on this post all day Thursday. As always, we welcome your comments on any of these topics. Just click the comments button below to add your opinion to the conversation.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Happy TV Trails To Ray Evernham

Tuesday afternoon Ray Evernham made official what many already knew. He was going to partner with Rick Hendrick on a project involving high-end autos.

Here is the official information from the media release:

Ray Evernham Enterprises (REE) has been retained to consult for the Hendrick Companies, a management company formed in 2005 to oversee strategic initiatives for chairman Rick Hendrick.

Founded in 2008 by successful auto racing crew chief, team owner and broadcaster Ray Evernham, REE will consult on special projects related to Hendrick’s core businesses. In that role, REE’s initial focus will be development of the Hendrick Performance retail brand of high-performance parts, vehicles, products and related services.

While this release did not specifically indicate that Evernham was done with TV, these tweets came shortly after the announcement from various members of the ESPN Motorsports team.

Andy Hall (PR Rep): Congratulations to Ray Evernham - we'll miss him at ESPN.

Jamie Little: Congrats to the great Ray Evernham. New opportunity! Your ESPN family will miss you!

Allen Bestwick: My friend has some great things ahead. Thanks for bringing it! We'll keep that song going for ya...

Marty Smith: Huge congratulations to Ray on the new gig at Hendrick Performance, but dang we'll miss him on the television. That dude is great on TV!

Ryan McGee: Congrats to Ray on new consultant gig w/Hendrick!. Will he still take me to the Knoxville Nationals this summer?

The choice that Evernham made has already brought plenty of comments and email related to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his struggling fortunes in the Sprint Cup Series. While no public statement was made on that topic, the media release indicated that Evernham would be working in a non-racing role for a different division of the Hendrick organization.

Still, the words "initial focus" in the release leave the door open for Evernham to have flexibility in the overall organization. We all know that successful owners exhaust every resource when they are trying to get a major team back on track.

In the short term, it's the fans and TV viewers who are going to take a step back. Evernham settled into his role in the ESPN studios on Monday as a part of NASCAR Now quite well. He and Ricky Craven partnered up to present a formidable studio pairing that really clicked on the air.

Allen Bestwick hosted the programs and when a character like Randy LaJoie was along for the ride it made for a fast-paced and informative hour. Bestwick drew a lot of NASCAR knowledge from Evernham, who switched hats between analyst, owner and former crew chief in the blink of an eye.

ESPN also used Evernham in the field, but with less success. The infield duo of Brad Daugherty and Rusty Wallace often spoke over top of Evernham when he joined them on race telecasts. While Bestwick as host tried to keep order, the enthusiasm level of Daugherty and Wallace often eclipsed their level of knowledge. It was clear where Evernham should have been from the start and that was up in the TV booth.

Andy Petree has been ESPN's primary NASCAR analyst since the new TV contract in 2007. Petree's role was not going to change and ESPN needed only one former crew chief in the TV booth. Evernham was the odd man out. Although his relief appearances in that role worked out well, Evernham was not going to replace Petree in the ESPN package.

Since this situation has been playing out, there has been a senior management change at SPEED. Patti Wheeler, Humpy's daughter, is a veteran TV executive who lives in the same area as Evernham. She now runs SPEED's programming and production divisions. In the blink of an eye, she can offer him a role on Race Hub that involves only a short drive to the SPEED studios from his home or job.

Also right down the street is the Sirius NASCAR studios. Evernham has a regular weekly role on Sirius Speedway with Dave Moody, so it should be interesting to see if Sirius tries to get him more involved on the satellite radio side of the business.

On a personal note, Evernham has been supportive of this website and it has been very pleasant dealing with both Ray and his wife over the past several years. Even if he drops from sight for a while, keep an eye out for Evernham to resurface in either a media or racing role. You know what they say, it's in his blood.

We welcome your comments on this topic. 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.