SPEED's Racy Promos Get Female Fans Steaming

Her name is Melanie, and she has lots of friends. She is the new "promo queen" on SPEED. The question she asks over-and-over again is "can you handle it?" While she asks, she swings her underwear from her fingers. Apparently, she is not wearing any. Then, she slumps in a chair, wearing her big black high-heel boots and her dress that is just a little bit too tiny. How naughty.

One quick check of the watch, however, shows that it is noon on Sunday and families are tuned into one of the top-rated shows on SPEED called RaceDay. Kenny Wallace and Jimmy Spencer are making noise on the SPEED stage while they are surrounded by NASCAR fans. Half of these fans are female, and many of the fans have traveled to New Hampshire as a family.

When the RaceDay crew needs to get the latest news or most important interview, they call on their ace reporter. She is named Wendy Venturini. She has the respect of everyone in NASCAR and is the key to the success of this program.

One quick check of the NASCAR garage shows the prominent role that women play not only behind the scenes, but as one of the strongest demographics that make-up the incredible fan base of NASCAR. They are of all ages, from all over the country, and they value the things in life that most of us do.

SPEED has rolled-out a new "block" of shows under the "Can you handle it?" umbrella. They range from the dreaded PINKS to the soft porn of NOPI Tunervision, which is hosted by Charity Hodges, an absolutely vapid bikini queen. Central to these shows, as promoted by SPEED, is the treatment of women as mindless objects.

This is certainly going to come as news to Krista Voda, who just finished anchoring the infield programming for the Craftsman Truck Series race in Memphis. Voda is one of the most recognized SPEED celebrities because of her years of hard work on the NASCAR trail, and her appearance this season as a pit reporter on NASCAR on Fox. She brings instant credibility to the Truck Series.

Over the years, SPEED has enjoyed tremendous success, and absolutely colossal failures. Presently, their NASCAR programming on the weekends is a vital element to the continuing success of the network. They have managed to craft a block of programming that includes Trackside Live, Tradin' Paint, RaceDay, Victory Lane, and the brand new Survival of the Fastest.

That apparently does not bother Melanie. The camera shoots between her legs as she promotes the SPEED shows. A link on Melanie's SPEED webpage leads fans of any age to another SPEED page called "Fast Dates." The "NOPI chicks" are posed in positions called G-String Straddle, Bare Essentials, Hot Nurse Duo, and Blondes In Lingerie. For less than two dollars, SPEED will send them to your cell phone.

If SPEED wants to continue this type of lifestyle programming, that is fine. There is a place for that category on a twenty-four hour cable sports network. Perhaps, the place for Melanie to lose her undies and wear her mini-skirt is not on Sunday afternoon while NASCAR families wave to the camera while standing around the SPEED stage.

Hey Melanie, take a hike...can you handle that?

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Musburger Leads ABC's Red Sox Love Fest

When Brent Musburger was added to the ABC Sports line-up for the Busch Series race in Loudon, no one really paid attention. Musburger had been "the telecast host" on ABC before this season. This time, however, Musburger was personally hosting NASCAR Countdown, the pre-race show.

Over the past several races, when the coverage was on ESPN2, Allen Bestwick and Mike Massaro had been hosting. Now, on broadcast TV, those two apparently were not good enough for the big time. Suzy Kolber, who will host both the Cup and Busch pre-race shows for ESPN/ABC eventually, was nowhere to be seen...once again.

Musburger's famous line, "you're looking live at...Loudon, New Hampshire" led into the rocking opening of the show, which served to recap the last several races and the season. ESPN's pre-produced features and opens continue to be outstanding.

Then, a strange thing happened. The Red Sox love fest began. On Sunday, in the NEXTEL Cup race on TNT, Carl Edwards will be racing a car with a Boston Red Sox logo on the front hood. Back in February of this year, Roush Racing merged with the Red Sox parent organization. But this was the Busch Series, and Edwards drove a car with lawn care products on the hood. Apparently, that did not matter.

ABC showed Jack Roush and Carl Edwards throwing out the first pitch at a Red Sox game. Musburger talked about the pitches and the funny things that happened, including the fact that the Red Sox catcher missed the ball. Edwards then drove a NEXTEL Cup show car onto the outfield warning track at Fenway Park. With the NEXTEL Cup race on TNT, and no Red Sox car in the field on Saturday, what connection this had with the Busch Series was not clear.

Later in the show ABC ran a feature on Roush's "Fenway Day," complete with first pitch footage again. To say the least, for NASCAR fans who could care less about the Red Sox, this entire topic was awkward. It had absolutely nothing to do with the Busch Series race at hand, or the track in New Hampshire. I bet there were many Busch teams in the garage that would have loved this type of free publicity for their sponsor.

Musburger then recapped the Denny Hamlin "non-story" of last week, and actually tried to hype as an "issue" what was really a sponsor obligation. Luckily, Hamlin was interviewed by Allen Bestwick, who straightened things out. A telephone follow-up from Aric Almirola was nice, but certainly not necessary seven days later.

On the set, both Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree put things into perspective in about two minutes. It was about sponsors, obligations, and money. Nothing about personal relationships or drivers was ever an issue. Petree said if not for a car parked on the helipad, there would have been no issue. Now, that's a summary.

Jamie Little has been enjoying her first year as a pit reporter on the ESPN NASCAR package, but she should not have been given the assignment of speaking with Tony Stewart in this show. Tony ate her naive and timid line of questioning for lunch, with a smart-aleck smile on his face...as usual. Make sure you have your ducks in a row before you wander into Tony territory.

Since the start of the season, The Daly Planet has been asking ESPN and ABC to put one or both of the "booth analysts" down on the infield set for the pre-race show. This week, Brad Daugherty was missing from the set, and both Jarrett and Petree were alongside Musburger. This made all the difference in the world, and gave Musburger the kind of credibility and firepower that Daugherty and a weekly on-set guest could never match. Once Suzy Kolber hits Countdown, she is going to need every bit of support she can get.

The big problem with NASCAR Countdown again this week is that ESPN/ABC is just obsessed with NEXTEL Cup. In the field at Loudon was young Stephen Leicht, fan favorite Marcos Ambrose, and veteran Bobby Labonte. There was also Ward Burton, Scott Wimmer and Jason Keller all trying to re-kindle their racing careers.

Perhaps, more attention to the Busch Series drivers would allow fans to re-connect with this series that has often times become nothing more than NEXTEL Cup practice with a checkered flag at the end. Fans deserved much more eighteen races into the Busch season than the ESPN crew fawning over the Red Sox NEXTEL Cup car. But, I guess that all depends on where Musburger's box seats are located.

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Tony's "Prelude" Coming To SPEED Channel

A while back, Tony Stewart and his sidekick Matt Yocum pulled off a pretty amazing night of live TV. You may remember The Daly Planet column entitled "Tony Stewart and HBO are about to make history." Now, slightly over a month since it originally aired live on Pay-Per-View, Tony has pulled-off another TV deal destined to change the racing landscape.

First, let's recap things. Tony owns the Eldora Speedway in Ohio. Its a dirt bullring one half mile in length, and its fast. Tony decided to get some NASCAR buddies to race a charity event on a Wednesday between Cup races. The proceeds would go to the Victory Junction gang camp, and Tony's own charitable foundation.

What started out with Kenny Wallace, Kenny Schrader, and a couple of "guys" has grown into a mid-week media event. This year, Tony got a cast of characters together that you just had to see to believe. Therein lies the problem. The only way to see the original telecast was to psych one's self up to pay the twenty five dollars for one telecast...and hope it was worth it.

The goal was to really make a lot of money for charity, and NASCAR fans (like me) love that kind of thing. To that end, Tony invited a bunch of A-list NASCAR drivers and several NHRA drivers to come out and play. Surprisingly, everyone that was asked said yes to this event. Those in the know understood as the event date drew close that things were going to get interesting in TV land.

There were no million dollar RV's in the infield. There were no covered garages with high-profile crew chiefs. There were no "PR guys" in khaki pants whisking drivers away in golf carts. There was just a bunch of NASCAR guys who could not wipe the grins off their faces waiting to go out and "hot lap" on dirt.

NASCAR on Fox's Producer Pam Miller and Director Artie Kempner lent their services for free to produce the live PPV telecast. Upstairs, in the booth, was Mike Joy, Kyle Petty and Darrell Waltrip. Downstairs, pit road was patrolled by veteran Dick Berggren with Matt Yocum acting as the show's host. The all-star line-ups were not only on the track.

All of a sudden, everything just kind of came together for one night. The weather was great, the track was fast, the cars were sharp looking, and and the strangest things began to happen. People began to see that these carefully "packaged" drivers away from NASCAR were really people who just loved to race. They were, as Wendy Venturini would say, the "real deal."

I am not going to ruin the show for the fans who did not see it the first time, but let me tell you...it was fun. Now, SPEED Channel President Hunter Nickell has swung a deal to re-broadcast the entire event on SPEED. Great idea for the fans. This will serve to put a program out there that does not present these drivers as whiny little millionaires. That sentiment is very popular with some "other" TV networks who try to portray anyone in the sport in a negative light.

The first airing of "The Prelude to the Dream" is on Sunday July 8th at noon Eastern Time. Set your DVR or VCR to record this event, and you will find yourself playing it back again with your friends. For NASCAR fans who have never seen dirt racing, it may come as a shock that this sport exists nationwide and is simply a blast.

As any adult knows, TV likes to imitate itself. Whether it is about law and order or forensics, one hot TV show breeds another. TV most likes to do that when it can make money simply by expanding, or even copying, an existing idea. Right now, Tony and his media company are not releasing the PPV numbers that this telecast drew. I hope that information is released after the show airs on SPEED.

With the success of this project, I am sure we will see more mid-week and off-season events begin to crop-up around racing. Especially with IROC gone, there is a need to show different types of drivers competing for fun with each other. Well, as much fun as these guys can have till the first wheel turns and the race begins. Then, it always gets very interesting. At Eldora, it certainly was.

Big thanks to SPEED Channel, Tony Stewart, and everyone involved in making this re-air happen. Hopefully, SPEED will carefully screen the show and maybe even add-in some production elements to allow new fans to understand the dirt world. This event was lots of fun on TV, but I have already told myself that next year...I'm going.

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