Where Is The Real Tiregate Video?

Fan favorite and ESPN pit road analyst DJ Copp appeared on the late night Monday version of NASCAR Now. Host Allen Bestwick ran him through the scenario that found Copp right in the middle of the pit road tire incident from Sunday that changed the complexion of the event.

Copp is a tire changer for the #47 team of Marcos Ambrose and was actively involved in the pit stop that set all the chaos into motion. Over the past two seasons, it has been the plain-spoken Copp who is often the voice of reason when pit road incidents are being discussed on the program.

On Monday, Copp made several effective and simple points. Ambrose stopped a bit short in his pit box, which caused the rear tire to cross-over into Paul Menard's pit box after it was removed and rolled toward the wall. Copp reinforced that it was the Ambrose crew chief who alerted the team to the fact that a tire had come loose and asked them to go retrieve it.

The interesting part of Copp's interview was his statement that a Menard crew member had taken the slightly wayward Ambrose tire and purposefully rolled it out onto pit road. His suggestion was that rising tension between the crews during the race had resulted in this action.

From a TV perspective, all of this leads to a very simple question. Keeping Copp's statement in mind, where is the video of the incident? The single replay offered by Fox at that moment simply showed the tire rolling and then the crew member appeared running to retrieve it. Somewhere, there is much more.

As veteran fans know, in addition to the more than seventy TV cameras aimed at the race track from every different angle, each team records their pit stops for training purposes. This type of video has been used countless times in all kinds of NASCAR TV shows.

There is also a blimp or helicopter flying over all of the Sprint Cup Series races and providing a great overhead view of pit road, especially during pit stops. Finally, the NASCAR Media Group has additional hand-held cameras on pit road. Fans may remember one of them being involved in a little pit road incident last season.

From all these different and diverse video sources, somewhere there has to be a little better accounting of what really happened on pit road Sunday afternoon. While NASCAR has chosen to penalize the Ambrose crew member and the crew chief, perhaps as the late Paul Harvey would say, we should stay tuned for the rest of the story.

It should be interesting to see if it is ESPN, SPEED or NASCAR itself that finally comes up with the video that can back-up the statement from Copp and others that the reality of what actually happened does not quite match-up completely with the penalties NASCAR imposed.

Fans present at Atlanta who may have been shooting video during the pit stops should check their cameras, perhaps it may be a fan who can provide the information to finally set the record straight.

Eventually, the Menard team's potential interference and purposeful disgregard for safety on pit road will either be proven true or false. It might just be one little piece of video that tells the tale.

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Shannon Spake Moves To The Night Shift

This is a weird week for NASCAR on the ESPN family of networks. As many college sports fans already know, it is Championship Week. This week is packed with college sports and that has pushed NASCAR Now to the late shift.

The 5PM original airings of this program are gone this week. The program will instead air in the early morning hours on the East Coast Wednesday and Thursday. The Thursday and Friday daytime versions of this daily show are cancelled altogether.

As luck would have it, the off-week is a perfect reason for ESPN to let this show take some time off, despite the fact that many of the other ESPN daily shows continue with few schedule changes.

Shannon Spake will step into the host role for the Tuesday and Wednesday shows. Spake was impressive in a host role on several other programs and perhaps is better in the studio than on pit road. Fans may remember her from SPEED in a variety of roles.

ESPN will once again convene a reporter's roundtable on Monday. Allen Bestwick gets his second week off this season as it will be Nicole Manske hosting the program. Nate Ryan from USA Today, Michael Vega of the Boston Globe and ESPN's own Angelique Chengelis are the media guests.

This concept has worked well in the past and with Tradin' Paint on SPEED cancelled it should give NASCAR fans their only glimpse into some of the media who do not regularly appear on TV in Ryan and Vega. The absence of diverse NASCAR media members somewhere on TV is a hole that needs to be filled for 2010.

NASCAR Now has been having a stellar season with Bestwick, Manske and Mike Massaro co-hosting. Marty Smith and Chengelis have been appearing regularly with the hard news on the weekends. David Newton and Terry Blount still write for ESPN.com, but have a lesser role on the program. Tim Cowlishaw has been quietly eliminated from the series.

Once the season cranks back up with Bristol, we will all probably begin to see the economic reality affect the sport in new ways. Several truck series teams are struggling to return to action after the break and the valiant efforts of several self-funded Sprint Cup teams also appear to be on the verge of ending.

This year, unlike those in recent memory, the challenge for ESPN will be to balance the sports news and information with the reality of the world around us. So far this year, the efforts of the entire production team at NASCAR Now have been nothing short of impressive.

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"This Week In NASCAR" Back On Track

It's been a bumpy road this season for the Monday night NASCAR show on SPEED. The second year of This Week In NASCAR was supposed to be an easy assignment. The show had ended last season on a high note with a good dynamic among the panelists and the new host was fitting right in.

Rather than staying in the dingy and cramped studios of The NASCAR Media Group, the show was moved to the brand new High Definition SPEED studios in north Charlotte. Instead of an improvement, it was almost a disaster.

In the weeks that followed, improvements had to be made to everything from the studio set to the make-up. Problems with a bad audio mix continued to dog the show and last week the blasting music overpowered the talent and many of the good comments could not be heard.

Let's give credit where credit is due. This week, SPEED and NMG seemed to solve the problems and let the attention go back to the comments of the "expert panel." Michael Waltrip and Greg Biffle were on the show Monday with Steve Byrnes hosting.

This was a key show because of the coming "off-week." Next Monday there will be no highlights and commentary. Instead, NASCAR Hall of Fame Director Winston Kelly will be the guest as he previews the opening of the Charlotte facility. From the bricks in front of the building to the new attractions, Kelly should have some good information.

Waltrip, Biffle and Byrnes are old hands at this "TV stuff" now and it showed on Monday night. A good review of the Sprint Cup Series race included observations from both drivers about their personal struggles in Atlanta and amazement at the accomplishments of Kurt Busch.

That was a perfect transition into the memorable Camping World Truck Series race where Kurt's younger brother Kyle turned in a dazzling performance. Featuring the CWTS highlights after every race has been a welcome addition to the program.

Nothing has changed this series more than the great decision to put the race reviews first and the preview at the end. This show offered a solid video feature on the history of the Bristol Motor Speedway and then allowed all three announcers to reflect on their personal memories of the racing over the seasons.

As usual, the edited features from The NASCAR Media Group, who produces the show, continued to sparkle. Bringing in all of the video and audio sources available to NMG after a racing weekend make for an eclectic mix of the different TV and radio networks covering the sport. Topping that blend off with the "scanner chatter" from the team radios has made for a solid feature since the show began.

There certainly are a lot of in-show sponsored elements for Byrnes to handle, but that pays the bills and he has begun to make his transitions to these elements smoother. Nothing, however, could make the giant GEICO sign on the set more obvious.

It must have been nice for the cast and TV crew to put a clean show in the can from the new studios that was solid from start to finish. SPEED HD continues to expand nationwide and now that the kinks are out, things are looking good.

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