The Most Interesting Racing TV Weekend in History

Things have come a long way since Chris Economaki and ABC's Wide World of Sports first began to show clips of NASCAR races in the south. While the sport is bigger, television still plays a key role. This weekend, the potential for TV viewers to "consume" the racing at Talladega is incredible. Between SPEED and the ESPN/ABC gang, there are more than twenty-four hours of live coverage scheduled over the three days of racing.

There have never been more big names in worldwide racing gathered in one spot for an oval racing weekend. Never. Hang-on to your recliners, and whatever you do...put the Friday ARCA race on your DVR or TiVo.

That's right, not the Trucks, not even the Cup boys out "chasing" the big money. Record the ARCA race for posterity and you will thank me on Monday. Here's the scoop.

ESPN will present a one hour NASCAR Countdown show and then the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race on Sunday beginning at 1PM Eastern Daylight Time. Once again, the race will be produced by ESPN's crew and appear on the ABC broadcast network as an "ESPN on ABC" presentation. This is the first COT race at Talladega.

This week, there is no Brent Musburger, so Suzy Kolber will handle the NASCAR Countdown duties without a "show host." She will have alongside the "voice of the fans" Brad Daugherty and a possible guest. The ESPN crew of Dr. Jerry Punch, Rusty Wallace, and Andy Petree will be up in the broadcast booth. On pit road will be Allen Bestwick, Mike Massaro, Jamie Little, and Dave Burns. Tim Brewer will be in the Tech Center, and the dreaded Draft Tracker will also be ready to go. Sunday should be an "Aero push" kind of day.

The big switch this weekend is that SPEED once again steps-up to the plate and surrounds the weekend with eighteen hours of programming from the track. The network takes over practice and qualifying for the NEXTEL Cup Series, as well as the Craftsman Trucks. Then, they handle the ARCA race on Friday and the Truck race on Saturday.

Beginning Friday, the SPEED presence is big. The network takes to the air at noon, and plans to be live non-stop for nine hours. This encompasses five straight hours of NASCAR, and then the live ARCA race featuring a truly mind-blowing field. To end the day, there is going to be a one hour Trackside show, which should be wild.

Imagine tuning into an ARCA race and seeing Dario Franchitti and Jacques Villeneuve going wheel-to-wheel with Frank Kimmel and Norm Benning. This might be the most diverse stock car racing field in history. Youngsters like Josh Wise can turn their heads and see former Red Bull Formula-1 driver Scott Speed staring back. The field also includes Kerry Earnhardt and Erin Crocker, which certainly should add some spice to the mix. This is truly going to be a culture clash of the highest order. The racing starts at 5PM on Friday, with SPEED's normal ARCA gang on-hand.

For NASCAR practice and qualifying, SPEED is going with their on-track combo of Steve Byrnes on play-by-play, Larry McReynolds and Jeff Hammond as analysts, and Wendy Venturini and Bob Dillner on pit road reporting. John Roberts will host the NASCAR Live segments from the SPEED Stage.

In Craftsman Truck land, Krista Voda will host The Set-Up pre-race show. Rick Allen and Phil Parsons will call the race with Ray Dunlap and Adam Alexander on pit road. The Trucks roll at 4PM Eastern Time on Saturday.

Once again, ABC and SPEED go head-to-head with pre-race shows for the Sunday Cup race. RaceDay on SPEED kicks-off at noon, and NASCAR Countdown begins at 1PM.

Between the three races at Talladega this weekend, there is an incredible driver mix of American and foreign, young and old, experienced and rookie. There are drivers hunting a season championship, and others desperate to just win one race and save their careers.

Here at The Daly Planet, we are adding a new feature. Friday, there will be in-progress comments hosted for the noon to 5PM NASCAR on SPEED programming, then another post for the ARCA race (since there are so many NASCAR connections). Friday will end with a comments page available for Trackside Live, which we understand may be very interesting, to say the least. You never know who might just show-up on that program.

Saturday, there will be a live comments page for NEXTEL Cup qualifying, as well as the Truck race on SPEED.

Sunday, by popular demand, there will be a live RaceDay comments page, along with our usual Cup race TV coverage.

To say the least, it should be interesting. From The Daly Planet standpoint, it should make for an incredible three days of sports television. Get your keyboards ready.

We welcome comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below, or email editor@thedalyplanet.tv if you wish not to be published. Thanks again for stopping-by and leaving your opinion.

Ask Your NASCAR TV Questions: Get An Answer

Lots of emailers are saying there is no place to get a straight answer about NASCAR's TV partners and some of the issues that have been going on for the last couple of weeks. These range from Tony Stewart's profanity to ABC switching over to ESPN2. Some folks are asking if TNT is going to be back, and other are wondering if Stacy Compton got fired from NASCAR Now?

This is a good time to ask your questions. Take a moment, compose a short and concise question that is to the point, and ask. We will take the next couple of days to answer these questions, and then next week in mid-week we will do it again.

To post your question, simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the simple instructions. There is nothing to join, and you do not have to leave your email address. This is your chance to be totally anonymous, ask the NASCAR TV question you always wanted to ask, and actually get an answer.

Let's see how it goes....ask away.

UPDATE: I am going to leave this post up through Friday, since the questions are so good and thought provoking. There are some smart people out there, and I appreciate you taking the time to express your views. Some big TV folks are reading them, and their emails are proving that you can make a difference. Keep it up.

"Inside NEXTEL Cup" Misses Schrader And Biffle

There was no doubt that lots of former fans of Inside NEXTEL Cup on SPEED decided to give this show another try on Monday night. There were two reasons for them to believe that this episode of the long-running series would be top-notch.

Panelist Greg Biffle had won the NEXTEL Cup race in Kansas in very controversial style. Comments televised nationally by both Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer questioned whether Biffle had kept reasonable speed behind the pace car or had run out of gas. Should he have won? INC had the one man who could answer that question. Unfortunately, on this Monday Biffle had other plans.

Original show veteran Kenny Schrader was one of the key stories of the race. His decision to run three-wide alongside fellow panelist Michael Waltrip resulted in a collision that deeply affected The Chase for the Championship race. It was going to be interesting to hear what he had to say.

When Dave Despain appeared on-camera, he introduced at least two of the panelists. Seated alongside Despain were Michael Waltrip and Brian Vickers. On the seat between them was the lifesize Little Debbie display cut-out of Kenny Schrader. That did not bode well for a Schrader appearance. It seems that Schrader had other plans as well.

After Little Debbie was removed, Despain introduced David Reutimann, who would join the panel for this show. There was little doubt from the outset that Reutimann was out of his league with the pace of this program, but he held his own by using his real life good-natured attitude.

This mix proved to be interesting, as Waltrip and Despain handled the bulk of the show, and Vickers filled-in the blanks. Once again, Vickers and Waltrip seem to have mended fences, and worked well together. This left one role for Reutimann, which was to agree with everything that everyone said.

With an action-packed race like Kansas, the format of the program worked perfectly. Viewers saw all the issues and incidents of the race along with the Tony Stewart incident from practice. The panel also addressed the post-race issues raised by Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer.

Waltrip spoke plainly about several incidents, including the Dale Junior vs. Kurt Busch accident. He also took some time out to focus some good-natured needling on Jack Roush and his work neighborhood of Livonia, Michigan. Vickers once again made his way thought the show with a much more mature personality than viewers had known in the past.

Dave Despain was a bit flustered, and several times lost his place. You just don't see that type of thing on the air too often when the show is taped. As The Daly Planet mentioned in a previous article, Despain's nervous laughter is gone, and in several weeks viewers might just find out why.

Hopefully, the original panel including Biffle will be on-hand after the huge Talladega race that already has news and personality stories building five days before the race itself. The next program in this series will be huge.

No matter what the outcome, someone in management has gotten their hands on this show and put things in order. Gone is the sniping and the control issues, and back in vogue is the good-natured fun and the driver comments that add to the understanding of what happened on the track.

That feeling for viewers only comes from hearing the information from the people who lived it. Everything changes when most of the panelists just came back from driving in the race. This week, despite the two missing "regulars," all the information and experience of the previous weekend was on display in a solid program.

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below, or email editor@thedalyplanet.tv if you wish not to be published. Thanks again for taking the time to stop-by.