Biffle Would Have Spun Stewart At Talladega

Greg Biffle had every single reason in the world to be cranky. Coming from the back to the front at Talladega with a powerful teammate pushing him through the field, Biffle wound-up watching the race finish instead of participating in it.

Host Steve Byrnes introduced Biffle and his fellow panelist Michael Waltrip. It was Monday night at 8PM and time for This Week in NASCAR on SPEED. Last week on the program Biffle sat with Chad Knaus and engaged in a serious and technical discussion of racing the COT. Tonight, Mikey was back and things would be different.

Byrnes waded into the brief segment at the top of the show where both drivers discuss their Sundays. Waltrip and Biffle were both caught-up in the same wreck, so the focus was on that incident.

"It's hard to really criticize somebody for trying to help you," said Biffle. "He (Edwards) did make a mistake and I don't know what else we can say about it." Biffle took the high road in explaining how easy it is to get turned in a corner while bump-drafting.

It was at this point that Byrnes raised the issue of the finish. Waltrip held the NASCAR line that Regan Smith went below the yellow line and the pass was not allowed. It was then when Byrnes turned to Biffle and a whole lot of emotion came out.

"I feel like Regan got robbed," said Biffle. He explained that Smith had gone to the high side first and gotten blocked by Tony Stewart. When Smith swerved to the low side and got a fender under Stewart, Biffle felt that Stewart had clearly forced Smith below the line. Biffle had strong words for NASCAR's ultimate decision.

"What he (Smith) needed to do was wreck Tony in front of the entire field," said Biffle. "Stay there and turn him (Stewart) sideways. Make him go flipping through the grass on his roof. That is the message they (NASCAR) are sending."

Byrnes let Biffle continue even as Waltrip tried to chime-in to no avail. Biffle was on a roll and the best was yet to come. "If I'm in that situation, I'm going to wreck him," he continued. "If NASCAR's not going to do what they say they are going to do by penalizing a guy for forcing (a driver) below the yellow line." Strong words from a Chaser and a Sprint Cup veteran.

Waltrip tried to be the peacemaker, but again agreed with NASCAR. Biffle asked Waltrip what he felt about someone being forced below the line on the final lap. Waltrip called for things to be more subjective on the last lap but agreed that Smith could have caused a big crash.

"I felt that NASCAR made that rule so we wouldn't have that wreck," said Biffle. His point was that Smith avoided the wreck by running under the line and believing that NASCAR would penalize Stewart for forcing him down there. This was the final strong statement from Biffle on the issue.

Just ten minutes of this show and TV viewers could already see how much this series has grown since it began from scratch in February. Byrnes let Biffle talk, Waltrip chimed-in with his opinions and no one minced words on what had become a tough topic in the sport.

TDP readers battled long and hard to get this show's format switched, and were rewarded in the middle of the season. Unfortunately, The Chase has changed all that. Just as Biffle and Waltrip were all warmed-up and ready for the highlights, fans had to meet one of The Chase drivers up-close-and-personal.

It was apparently a new driver who no one had ever heard of before. I think his name was Dale Earnhardt Jr. This feature was again two segments long and caused the panelists to sit on their hands while the momentum was sucked out of the show. Last week, the Chase feature was on Greg Biffle. He was actually sitting on the set and being introduced to himself.

The NASCAR Media Group has absolutely no TV shows on-the-air about The Chase. Nothing on ESPN, SPEED, TNT, or Fox. The failure of NASCAR's own TV company to get additional programming like The Chase is On, NASCAR Confidential or a Chase highlights show placed on the NASCAR TV partners speaks volumes about the priorities of those networks.

Byrnes jumped-in and tried to bring the show back to life with the Talladega highlights. Tires were an issue, but Waltrip was quick to defend Goodyear and basically said those drivers probably ran over something. Waltrip had his owner's hat on and was in full Goodyear defense.

The discussion about the DEI teammates not pulling out and passing Stewart brought up an interesting point. It was the opinion of the veteran panelists that the DEI guys could not figure out how to slow down to let a gap develop and then "make a run" at Stewart. Going slower might have ultimately meant winning the race.

In discussing the recent test session at Charlotte, Waltrip passed along the info that his team learned some things at Charlotte they have used at other tracks. In Waltrip's opinion, it was really a COT Chase test. Biffle agreed as did many others who had called for more COT in-season tests.

Humpy Wheeler's opinion piece was a monologue on the evolution of the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Wheeler talked about some of the things that he and Bruton Smith brought to the Speedway and motorsports in general. Lighting the track for night racing was very important when it happened. Wheeler's point was that the real attraction of LMS was never knowing what was going to happen or who was going to win. Somethings never change.

This episode of TWIN contained some good discussions during the review portions, another misplaced Chaser feature and a good preview of the night race at Charlotte. Along the way Greg Biffle finally put his foot down and let his emotions show on an issue he felt strongly about. It is a shame that TWIN will not add a third panelist during the Chase, because the only way this show could have been better is if Chad Knaus was on the panel and in the conversations.

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Craven's Weekend TV Trifecta

The gang at ESPN has been very quiet about Ricky Craven. This weekend, Craven stopped by the Bristol, CT campus to participate in a weekend trifecta of NASCAR programs. If there was ever a doubt that Craven deserved a spot in the ESPN line-up, that was erased by Monday at 6PM.

It was Nicole Manske hosting the early and late editions of NASCAR Now on Sunday. Talladega was looming and Manske needed someone in the studio that could talk about all the aspects of this unique race. Craven answered the call and provided a impressive preview that finally gave the Sunday morning show the personality it had been searching for all season.

Manske works well with Craven, who respects her space and her role on the show. He patiently led her through all the race issues from the COT to the fear of The Chasers going into this high-risk event. Craven is a natural on-camera and his professional demeanor and racing background is the perfect combination for this program.

After the mayhem and controversy of the race, the duo returned with the one hour wrap-up show. Integrating interviews, reports and conversations from the track, Craven and Manske combined to put on a great show. This Sunday night hour has become one of NASCAR Now's best programs and it is a shame that ESPN only produces this show for the ESPN portion of the Sprint Cup schedule.

Monday afternoon brings host Allen Bestwick and his one hour "roundtable" version of the program. Craven was joined by Ray Evernham and Randy LaJoie on the panel. This put Bestwick in the position he likes best, having three very different personalities from which to draw comments and opinions.

The program began with a very frank discussion about the finish of the race. Each panelist carefully explained that since Regan Smith was not far-up enough to claim he was pushed below the yellow line, the correct winner of the race was Stewart.

As former drivers, both Craven and LaJoie took Smith and Paul Menard to task for not trying to pass Stewart with a multi-car group on the final lap. This was especially true when the car behind Smith was his DEI teammate.

Bestwick kept the topics flowing from tires to strange pit stop strategies. While Evernham continued to be the technical expert, LaJoie once again had fun with his very direct comments and humorous points-of-view. Craven's contributions were different.

In an era of loud and forceful sports TV announcers, Craven is a very good listener. His responses to others all weekend long often began with that person's name and directly referenced their comments first. Then, Craven would add his point of view or expand on the thoughts of others.

This is the same type of "inclusive" approach to television that viewers first saw with Ned and now see with his son Dale Jarrett. Both are good listeners who respond to the comments of others without openly disagreeing or disregarding those views. It makes all the difference in the world to learn that approach.

As ESPN starts to look at next season, they may well be thinking about bringing a versatile NASCAR announcer on board to help NASCAR Now fill in some weekday blank spots. Guests like Boris Said, Brad Daugherty and some of the ESPN pit reporters have been contributing to the show, but there has not been the consistency of having someone in-house who can work across all the ESPN networks.

Craven would be a natural to appear on ESPNEWS after the races, as well as SportsCenter. ESPN has been trying to raise the NASCAR profile on shows like First Take and Mike and Mike In The Morning. What a nice fit to have a New Englander who knows NASCAR talking with Mr. Greenberg.

This Monday, Bestwick worked well with Craven who has appeared on the Monday version of NASCAR Now as a guest for two seasons. Coupled with Mike Massaro and former NASCAR crew chief Andy Petree, this might be the most potent combination for ESPN down the stretch.

The network is still finalizing the line-up for next weekend, so maybe the name Ricky Craven will once again be associated with another good weekend of NASCAR Now programs on ESPN2.

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Tough Times For ESPN At Talladega

Last season was the first year of ESPN's return to NASCAR. Click here for the TDP column that described the network's effort at televising the 2007 Talladega race.

The headline was "ABC Struggles With Multiple Storylines at Talladega." On Sunday, Dr. Jerry Punch did his best to make sure that ESPN repeated this script. As Yogi Berra once said, "this is like deja vu all over again."

Allen Bestwick had Ray Evernham added to his regular Infield Studio panel of Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty. The direction of the network coverage continues to be singularly focused on accidents at Talladega. Bestwick introduced this concept after an opening sequence that featured very old ESPN footage of...more accidents.

While Brad Daugherty did his best to get the viewers pumped-up, having Evernham on the panel threw things off-balance. Wallace and Daugherty have their act down pat and each has fun with the other. While Evernham might be good on Monday's NASCAR Now, the infield setting does not need his serious technical knowledge.

Over the past several weeks, Bestwick and his two panelists have been welcoming various drivers to the studio and letting Daugherty and Wallace talk with them directly. That has been working well, so the decision to end that practice and add Evernham to the panel was strange at this critical time of the season.

Back in September, TDP offered a column about Dr. Jerry Punch. Click here to read it. Basically, ESPN took a college football sideline reporter and put him in the lead NASCAR play-by-play position. The results have been disastrous.

If this was a stick-and-ball sport on ESPN, Punch would have changed assignments a long time ago. But, the fact that Punch worked on ESPN's NASCAR coverage over a decade ago has kept him hanging-on this season.

After the huge build-up of the pre-race, Punch again slipped almost immediately into his reporter role. He asked questions of his analysts and offered observations instead of focusing on calling the action and providing the excitement of high-speed racing at Talladega.

The result is kind of a random play-by-play commentary that is mostly offered by Jarrett and Petree. Punch quickly settled into calling-out the car numbers and driver names over-and-over again. ESPN went to the first commercial break before lap ten.

The ESPN on ABC gang settled into a rhythm of zooming-in on the leaders of the race. As almost all fans know, that is meaningless at Talladega. Then, the camera would select a driver and one of the ESPN pit reporters would offer a nugget of information on that team. At Talladega, this was also meaningless.

This pattern sucked the life out of a race that used to be one of the most exciting of the season. Frequent commercials were inserted without any effort from Punch to add a shred of excitement to this two and three wide racing action.

Prior to the first pit stop, viewers could only look at the ticker on the top of the screen to know who was where. The ESPN on ABC broadcast was totally off-balance and loaded with scripted material and camera angles that did not tell the story.

Jimmie Johnson losing the draft early-on did not fit into the ESPN script and threw the crew for a loop. When they finally decided to cover this story, the lead changes and racing was ignored for a problem that had been in-progress for many laps. Both the radio broadcast and the DirecTV Hot Pass coverage had been with this situation from the start.

When first "big one" happened ABC was in commercial break. TV viewers returned to single shots of crashed cars and the announcers talking about what happened as if the viewers had seen it. The coverage made absolutely no sense as continued camera shots of individual cars were shown.

Punch led to the replays and turned the telecast over to Jarrett and Petree as he does so often. He never explained to the fans why ABC did not return live as the incident happened. Jarrett and Petree filled-in the blanks for the viewers, but were mostly limited to the in-car and tight angles that ESPN had chosen for the race coverage.

As soon as possible, the Producer turned the coverage over to Allen Bestwick. The red flag was out, and Punch is not the man to handle this delay from the booth. Bestwick led a discussion of the event and a recap of the race. The ESPN pit reporters followed-up on the drivers out of the race, but once again the choice of questions was curious.

When the action returned, ESPN dug out Draft Track and explained to NASCAR fans who have been watching the sport since February the fundamentals of drafting. Dale Jarrett did a good job, kept it short and put this gizmo back on the shelf.

At the halfway point, Bestwick returned to try and inject some excitement into the telecast. Daugherty and Wallace had been strangely silent during the action and even Evernham jumped-in with some opinions. Bestwick tried his best to offer a full field rundown with good humor and the help of the pit reporters.

The tire problems that became apparent as the race progressed were not followed-up by the pit reporters. They were also not put in any kind of perspective by Punch. It was only Bestwick during an infield segment who said repeatedly that Goodyear reps had refused to come on camera and talk about the situation.

The hard crash of the race was Denny Hamlin. While the telecast had the replays, ESPN chose to leave and cover the caution flag pit stops. While Jim Hunter from NASCAR updated the Hamlin situation on the radio broadcast, ESPN simply passed along that Hamlin was alert and talking. As the network went to commercial while Hamlin was loaded in the ambulance, rock music blared as the network followed the script once again. One fan simply emailed us the word...tasteless.

It was with 55 laps to go when a Goodyear spokesman finally addressed the single biggest issue of the race. Dave Burns asked good questions, but was unable to get anything of substance from the rep. The tire questions went unanswered.

The challenge of Talladega is to show the full field or the bunched pack lap-after-lap. ESPN consistently focused on one car and would zoom-in to that car or cut to the in-car camera. The problem with that is the race perspective is lost. Many times, by the time the network returned to the race, the lead would have changed hands and the reason why was never explained.

Petree and Jarrett have worked well with each other to address the issues that the Producer points in their direction. Both have also taken it upon themselves to interject on a continual basis the real action on the racetrack. They truly do provide the play-by-play for these races.

The final runs began with 19 laps left and Punch failed to raise his voice or set the table for the fans. Punch was talking about Casey Mears' girlfriend having a baby and Paul Menard leaving DEI. Jarrett stepped-in and talked about the top cars being seen on the TV screen.

The second "big one" took the air out of the any remaining possibility of excitement where the race telecast was concerned. After the replays of Edwards turning Biffle, it fell to Shannon Spake to speak with Jack Roush. Her single question was "what did you see happen?" Roush was diplomatic in his response, but the mystery of what happened was not the issue.

The restart and final runs put the telecast well beyond the scheduled off-time. Petree and Jarrett worked well to layout the options for the remaining drivers. The pit reporters spoke with several crew chiefs to try and set the field.

Two short runs finished the day, but even with a smaller number of cars the ESPN on ABC Director showed mostly the leaders and used in-car cameras frequently. The fan frustration had to be at a climax with the lack of full field coverage and field rundown. Who was actually racing in the lead pack was rarely made clear.

What was even less clear was the finish. Punch did not know the rules and confusion was everywhere. Jarrett and Petree offered opinions, but the rules were explained in the driver's meeting and ESPN should have been able to quickly settle the matter.

Punch was once again absent at a critical time and another call of the final lap was blown. How much more of this ESPN and NASCAR can take is anyone's guess. The 2008 October race at Tallageda will certainly be known for a lot of incidents. Not all of them were on the track.

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