Jarrett Speaks His Mind On The "Total Disaster"

ESPN hired Dale Jarrett on a full-time basis this season to benefit from his experience in the sport. Two days after calling his first race at Indy, Jarrett made it very clear that he certainly had a lot to say on Tuesday's NASCAR Now.

"Total disaster," said Jarrett about the Indy race. Host Ryan Burr only had to mention the topic and Jarrett was off and running. The theme of his comments was that NASCAR fans deserve better racing that the COT was delivering on the track.

"We have to make some changes with this car," continued Jarrett. He is the first ESPN analyst to speak-out directly about changing the COT as soon as possible for the good of the sport. Jarrett aimed directly at the fact that regardless of the safety features, the COT had lowered the competition level on the track below what was acceptable.

"I'm not saying we have to get rid of it," said Jarrett about the new car. The benefit of having someone with Jarrett's stature in the sport is that he deals with top executives on these issues. Jarrett said he had personally called Mike Helton earlier on Tuesday to offer his own suggestions on what could be changed. Helton listened and then explained NASCAR's position. This is exactly the kind of direct communication and credibility that is going to vault Jarrett to the top of the NASCAR TV ranks.

Burr pinned him down on what specific things Jarrett wanted to change. Raising the splitter and letting the teams work more with the front end was his idea. In answering, Jarrett also confirmed that NASCAR is looking at a wider wheel for future events that would put down a bigger contact patch and lessen the sidewall problems.

Journalist Terry Blount came along next and he addressed the same issues. Blount tried to expand on Jarrett's comments by reminding fans that problems existed at other tracks this season with different surfaces than Indy. He also pointed out that for the first time NASCAR's Robin Pemberton said he may now be open to changing the body style of the car in the future.

Burr dropped a nice bombshell by announcing that Jimmie Johnson will be driving a Craftsman Truck at Bristol, TN later this season. It will be the Moss Motorsports entry that Johnson will pilot and Jarrett returned to suggest that perhaps Chevrolet "helped" Randy Moss make this arrangement.

Fan favorite DJ Copp was interviewed next by satellite and his comments were worthwhile. As an active crew member, Copp was interesting in explaining the how and why of the very long day for the teams. His point was that pitting every ten laps made the turn-a-round a lot shorter for the crews and that the tire dust was tough to take. Perhaps, some video of his day may have been helpful.

David Reutimann was interviewed from the MWR shops and he was candid in his comments about the COT as well. A bit more diplomatic than Jarrett, Reutimann felt this first year was going to continue to be tough for the COT down the stretch. There was really no reason given why Reutimann was on the show other than the fact he was going to race in ESPN2's upcoming Nationwide Series race in Montreal.

Tim Brewer rounded out the show with a preview of what would happen in Montreal if it rained. NASCAR has windshield wipers, rain tires and brake lights ready to go in order to keep the action going on the track. After what happened in Indy, watching big stock cars on treaded tires with cloudy windshields in the pouring rain on a road course would make this season even more memorable. If only it were for the right reasons.

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Sprint Cup Practice Sessions Finally Get On TV

Every new large TV package goes through some growing pains and that has certainly been the case with the new NASCAR TV contract that began in 2007. Among the issues that NASCAR wrestled with was televising Sprint Cup practice sessions during the seventeen race ESPN/ABC portion of the schedule.

Last weekend we saw SPEED step-in and carry a Cup practice session from The Brickyard at the very last minute. Steve Byrnes, Jeff Hammond and Larry McReynolds actually voiced-over the live track activity from the SPEED Stage outside of the speedway.

Today, SPEED has announced that they are stepping-in on a fulltime basis and carrying eight additional practice sessions to help fill-in the holes in the TV schedule. Here are the dates and times:

Pocono (Aug. 1, Noon ET)
Watkins Glen (Aug. 9, Noon ET)
Dover (Sept. 19, 11 a.m. ET)
Kansas (Sept. 27, 12:30 p.m. ET)
Martinsville (Oct. 18, 11:30 a.m. ET)
Atlanta (Oct. 24, 3 p.m. ET)
Atlanta (Oct. 25, 10:30 a.m. ET)
Homestead (Nov. 15, 1:30 p.m. ET)

During the Fox and TNT portions of the Sprint Cup schedule, it was SPEED that made the commitment to treating every practice and qualifying session with the same level of coverage that SPEED brings to the Craftsman Truck Series. The qualifying sessions on SPEED were simply outstanding and told the real stories of the upcoming race.

Kudos to NASCAR and SPEED for coming together to get this live content televised. Perhaps, the added value that this coverage will bring is exactly what the sport needs as it continues to recover from the Indy problems.

As fans who watched ESPN2 last season remember, that network is dominated by other stick-and-ball sports after August and NASCAR really took a backseat. Earlier this season, SPEED actually allowed ESPN to televise an entire race on the SPEED network due to a schedule conflict. That was amazing.

We will have more information on these new programs once they are added to the existing SPEED schedule and we will also update the announcers. For now, the good news is that cars at speed on the track will be televised as NASCAR's top series runs down the stretch to Homestead.

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"This Week In NASCAR" Turns The Corner

NASCAR fans have had a unique opportunity this season to watch a TV show start from scratch and begin to grow. This Week in NASCAR on SPEED took the place of the Inside Sprint Cup program franchise in February.

Steve Byrnes was named as host and the "expert panel" shrunk from three to just two. Michael Waltrip was a staple on this new show, with Greg Biffle and Chad Knaus rotating through the other chair as their schedules allowed. While Kenny Schrader left the program, he did return for one episode this season.

The challenge for the NASCAR Media Group producers was to keep the franchise alive but make some positive changes for the new program. One big change was the format. The new TWIN had a short chat with the panelists about their racing weekend and then moved-on quickly to the next production element.

The SPEED executives had decided to preview the upcoming race before Byrnes and company got the opportunity to review the action that was still fresh in the minds of the fans. It was an understandable idea, but one that did not really fly with the TV viewers.

Once Waltrip got comfortable with Byrnes, he cranked his excitement level back-up to the Mikey of old and things became fun again. Waltrip crafted a hilarious relationship with Knaus that we have been referring to as "the odd couple." The analytical Knaus is often confronted with the unorthodox Waltrip discussing things like his socks and favorite TV commercials.

Biffle has brought a driver credibility to the program of someone who still has the race-to-race intensity of a contender. His TV skills are getting better and he now finally feels free to offer his own opinions. He has mastered the art of completely avoiding Waltrip in a "Schrader like" way that also makes things fun.

Over the last six months, Daly Planet readers have added their comments in support of changing the program format. Once Byrnes got things organized and the show developed a personality, it was clear that the on-air announcers needed one little bit of help from the network. This week, they got it.

Monday night was the first show where the fresh memories and stories from the Sunday race were allowed to continue for the first half of the show. SPEED had allowed the review to pass the preview and the results were more than worthwhile. Now, Byrnes can concentrate on building-up the personalities and the features contained in the newly-formatted show.

Waltrip and Biffle ran through the Brickyard 400 issues and highlights with enthusiasm and candor. Waltrip echoed the comments of the other drivers that NASCAR managed the unfortunate situation the best way possible. As usual, Waltrip quickly went just a bit overboard in his enthusiasm.

The new format continued as Byrnes fired-off a group of email questions from viewers about the Indy race to the panelists in the middle of the show. This was a great addition, as it caught both Waltrip and Biffle off-guard and asked them to deal with the real feelings of the fans. This element will have real potential when viewers are allowed to upload a video question on the SPEEDtv.com website for the show.

One strong element continues to be the pre-produced features from The NASCAR Media Group. Elements like Scanner Chatter, highlight reviews and upcoming race previews are always outstanding. It is a shame that these features cannot appear on the same SPEEDtv.com website so viewers can replay them. Perhaps, that will happen in the future.

As expected, the Pocono preview was much more effective since the panelists were now relaxed and in a very good mood. After thirty minutes of talking about the last race, the transition to the upcoming event seemed to be very natural.

This week, the format changes continued as TWIN showed the Craftsman Truck and Nationwide Series highlights. This was a feature that never should have been eliminated and was welcomed back with enthusiasm by the panelists.

TWIN is going to benefit from increasing the viewer interactivity with the panelists. ESPN2's NASCAR Now has cemented the format of three panelists who simply take questions from the host and perhaps talk to a guest.

It will be up to SPEED and the NMG producers to take advantage of this personality-driven show and increase the ability of NASCAR fans to participate with the panelists on TWIN. There is a whole lot of potential in this program series.

In the end, we applaud SPEED for allowing the producers to change the format and open-the-gate to more fun and flowing conversation. As usual with the NASCAR TV partners, they have proven to be ultimately responsive to the views of the fans.

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