Carl Edwards Talks ESPN Future

Now into the month of February the vast majority of on-air personalities working on race coverage for all four of the NASCAR TV partners are well known. We still need a TNT host to replace Lindsay Czarniak and wonder what Marty Reid's future holds, but there is one other big ticket item that seems to be still pending.

"Roush Says Edwards Headed To ESPN" was a TDP story from September of 2011. Jack Roush was addressing the media in the infield after a Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway. In an ironic twist, the speedway staff had put a live video feed of that interview on UStream.com.

In response to a question about the growing tension between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Carl Edwards, Roush gave this response to the media and the UStream live audience.

"I think he's (Carl) made his decision," said Roush. "I think he is going to become a sportscaster for ESPN for the Nationwide Series races. I'm not sure if he is going to just do the companion races or all the races."

Although the small group of assembled media never followed-up on the topic, the fact that Roush confirmed Edwards would not be returning to the track in the Nationwide Series was news. The fact that Edwards would supposedly be joining ESPN was big news.

It had become quite clear in 2011 that ESPN had fallen in love with Edwards. In a "man crush" that rivals ESPN's current fascination with Tim Tebow, Edwards seemingly was invited to be on ESPN's NASCAR telecasts as much as possible.

Edwards often appeared as an ESPN pre-race guest from the Infield Pit Studio. If he fell out of a race, he would then appear on TV. Unlike other drivers, he was not being interviewed from the garage by a pit reporter. He was now back in the Pit Studio as a guest analyst. Edwards was also the only Sprint Cup Series driver selected to offer post-race analysis on ESPN for all the Chase races.

The Roush comments made even more sense when it was publicly confirmed just two weeks ago that Edwards will not run any Nationwide Series races in 2012. Edwards told Dave Rodman of NASCAR.com that he wants to concentrate on his Sprint Cup Series efforts, especially since a full time Cup driver can no longer win the Nationwide Series driver's title.

This week, Edwards continued to work on his television skills. Edwards was at the Tournament Players Club in Scottsdale, AZ on Wednesday, where he served as a roving reporter for the Golf Channel during the Pro-Am tournament leading up to the 2012 Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Luckily, NASCAR reporter Becca Gladden who writes for Insider Racing News lives in that area and was able to sit down with Edwards for a one-on-one interview. Since Edwards was there to work on TV, it only made sense for Gladden to ask him about his NASCAR television plans for this season.

Gladden: Will you be spending more time in the broadcast booth on ESPN in the Nationwide Series this year?

Edwards: We haven’t made a final deal and there’s really no ‘deal’ – you know, it’s not a money deal or anything like that. It just basically comes down to time. If there are weekends where I can go up there and help the broadcast and they’ll let me do it, then I’d love to do it, but I don’t know if I’ll do one race or ten races …

Gladden: There was a rumor out there that you were cutting back on driving in the Nationwide Series in order to do more TV broadcasts.

Edwards: No, that was not my intention. Number one for me is to win the Cup championship. But, I do think – after thinking about it a little bit – I think that I might actually be able to learn some things being up there in the broadcast booth, to be able to watch the races that closely. Sometimes you see things up there that you don’t see either on television or in the race car. So, if it turns out to be something like that, I might do a lot more of them.

Gladden's entire interview will be posted at Insider Racing News Thursday evening.

Love him or hate him, Edwards is a master at leaving doors open for for things to "just suddenly" develop. In this short interview excerpt, he does just that once again.

This is the first time we have heard Edwards reference a perspective he has not experienced and one that has not been discussed. He speaks about being up in the TV booth and looking down at the racing. As veteran NASCAR fans know, folks just don't "show up" in the broadcast booth and work a race on national TV.

ESPN's current partnership is Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree for the Nationwide Series races. While Petree is an ironman, Jarrett takes a good bit of time off and his TV replacement in the booth is Rusty Wallace. Ricky Craven also filled that role last year on occasion.

Live NASCAR TV telecasts require an incredible amount of coordination long before the network even arrives on-site. Conference calls, meetings and assignments start the sequence of assembling the production elements, equipment and manpower that results in a race being produced for TV.

Of all the NASCAR TV networks, ESPN is by far the most organized and buttoned-up when it comes to who is on the air and what they are going to say. The ESPN announcers in the TV booth have to be prepped on many production elements inside the telecasts and the entire on-air team has to coordinate their efforts to make things work.

In a few short weeks, ESPN will unveil the network's NASCAR broadcast team for the 2012 season while the NASCAR media is assembled in Daytona. In the past, the network has used this occasion to offer some surprises. Ray Evernham showing up out of the blue to work for the network a while back is a good example.

This year, it should be interesting to see if Edwards puts on his suit and tie and takes a position alongside Jarrett, Petree, Wallace and Brad Daugherty. Judging from his most recent words, he is certainly leaving the TV door wide open.

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Moneyball Part 2: This Time It's NASCAR

Once again Danica Patrick made news without saying a word. Instead, it was Tommy Baldwin on SPEED's RaceHub Tuesday evening trying to explain a deal that was made for only one reason. That reason was money.

Baldwin confirmed that Patrick would be racing 10 Sprint Cup Series races for his team, Tommy Baldwin Racing (TBR). However, it will be Greg Zipadelli as her crew chief and her equipment will actually be coming from Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR). As most fans know, that means Hendrick Motorsports (HMS).

Baldwin's actual team driver, Dave Blaney, will now lose the opportunity to use those points and will have to race his way into the Daytona 500 and other races early on. Baldwin essentially sold his points for cash, taking the money without even running.

David Reutimann will be racing the TBR #10 in the other Sprint Cup Series races, basically keeping the seat warm for Patrick and the car in the top 35 in points. That makes sure she also gets in the remainder of her 9 races after Daytona without having to qualify on time.

Baldwin would not say where the 2012 points from the #10 will go next year, but veteran reporter Dustin Long said he believed they would travel to SHR. The idea behind that is that Patrick may also be traveling to SHR.

The money behind this effort is from Go Daddy. Patrick's management team is amazing at using the Go Daddy funding to keep her media exposure high despite the lack of any significant success in IndyCar or NASCAR.

It's not the eyeballs of the NASCAR fans in the stands that Go Daddy is chasing. This company is all about TV exposure and the Daytona 500 will come immediately after Patrick's extensively promoted Super Bowl commercials. Once again, crude sexist innuendos are being used to sell domain names.

FOX is the beneficiary of Patrick's continued rise up the NASCAR media exposure ranks. Stories out around the world Tuesday about the TBR and SHR "collaborative agreement" focused not on the sleazy points deal, but on the fact that the Daytona 500 will now have a female racing in it.

There is little doubt that Baldwin is getting paid a good sum, which helps his struggling race team, but it still leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. For his part, Baldwin said on RaceHub that Chevy played a major role in making this deal happen. No doubt Danica in a Chevy on FOX in the Daytona 500 is worth a significant amount of money.

In a way, all three NASCAR TV partners involved in coverage from Daytona reap rewards from this deal. SPEED now gets Danica in the Twin qualifying races as well as the practice and qualifying sessions. ESPN gets Danica in all the Nationwide Series programming that the network produces and some Cup races.

Regardless of whether she crashes out on the first lap, struggles home outside the top twenty or maneuvers herself in a position to win there is no downside. As we have already seen, FOX included Patrick immediately in the network's Daytona 500 promo's even before she was locked in with this points deal.

Moments after this "agreement" was announced on Tuesday, FOX's Darrell Waltrip was on Twitter spinning this as positive for all involved.

Shortly after noon: "To me point swapping is a form of franchising, it gives all the teams in the top 35 added value, it particularly helps small teams!"

At 5PM he expanded the idea: "Not sure how anyone could not feel good for Tommy Baldwin, from a start and park to a team with Danica and David R.... his gamble paid off."

At 6PM he wrapped it up: "What Tony and Tommy are doing is buying insurance, to cover any unexpected happenings. She may not even need the points if she runs well! The insurance is if she should miss the Daytona 500 for some reason, its very difficult to over come that and make it into the top 35."

That helps us to understand the approach FOX is going to take on this issue. It's all good, the deal is done and we have a high-profile female driver we can use to promote this event to an entirely different fan base.

Keep an eye out on various FOX cable networks around the nation as the drumbeat for Daytona begins to get louder and louder. Unlike ESPN's struggles to promote the Nationwide Series, FOX puts a lot of time and effort into the Daytona speedweeks.

So, the deal is done and Danica is in the Daytona 500. She gets a top-notch car from SHR, a top-notch crew chief in Greg Zipadelli and the TV focus from FOX. It might be speed that wins the race, but this double-secret rules bender with cars, crew chiefs and drivers all "loaned out" reinforces the point that money really drives the bus when it comes to playing on the big stage.

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NASCAR Regains Digital Rights

The buzz has been around for several months, but Monday it was made official. After many years of the Turner Sports Interactive group running the NASCAR.com website and controlling all the digital (Internet) rights to the sport, big change has arrived.

Here are excerpts from the official news release provided by Turner Sports:

NASCAR and Turner Sports announced today a restructuring and extension of their long-standing digital partnership. The new agreement takes the relationship through 2016, with NASCAR managing business and editorial operations for its digital platforms beginning in 2013 and Turner Sports continuing to oversee advertising sales and sponsorships across NASCAR-branded digital platforms.

"Turner Sports has been and will continue to be a great partner for NASCAR," said Brian France, chairman and chief executive officer of NASCAR. "Taking a leadership role as it relates to our digital rights is something we as the sanctioning body know is important for the future of our sport, the development of our drivers and most importantly the experience for both our current fans and future followers."

"Turner Broadcasting and NASCAR have helped make each other successful for more than 28 years through a working relationship that, over time, has evolved with the media and technology landscape," said David Levy, president of sales, distribution and sports, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. "The latest extension of our partnership is a strategically and fiscally enhanced business model for our company and ensures that NASCAR.COM remains a core asset of Turner's leading digital ad sales portfolio. Our unrivaled sports assets and scale offer advertisers the means to deliver the most targeted and relevant marketing messages across multiple digital and mobile platforms and properties."

Under the new partnership, NASCAR will assume operational control in 2013 of all of its interactive, digital and social media rights including technical operations and infrastructure of all NASCAR digital platforms. Turner will continue to represent sponsorships and advertising for all NASCAR digital platforms, with the unique users from the NASCAR digital properties continuing to roll up to the Turner digital portfolio.

NASCAR’s comprehensive digital and social media portfolio includes NASCAR.COM, fantasy games, video highlights, social media elements and in-depth editorial content. NASCAR.COM, and the sport’s other digital and social media platforms, have been managed by Turner Sports since 2001.

"This move is about the media, our sponsors and most importantly, our fans," said Marc Jenkins, vice president of digital media for NASCAR. "We will build an innovative portfolio of platforms that strives to be as diverse as it is comprehensive. For our fans our digital platform will become the online destination for all things NASCAR. For everyone else, it will be the vehicle we’ll use to turn them into fans."

The bottom line is that NASCAR has taken back full control of its online content from a third party. Not mentioned in the release is what financial agreement really made this deal happen. Speculation was that NASCAR would be on the hook to pay Turner anywhere from $25 to 50 million to get out of the existing agreement.

Perhaps, the news that the relationship is going to continue in several key revenue areas through 2016 mitigated or negated the payment issue. We should eventually know those details as the story continues to be reported in the media.

This is good news for fans and opens the door to NASCAR scrapping the current NASCAR.com model and creating a viable and modern home website for the sport. This change should be a springboard for portable live video, online streaming of SiriusXM content and much more. Stay tuned for details as this story continues to evolve.

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