NASCAR TV/Media React To Childress Penalties

Tuesdays are normally when NASCAR penalties are announced, but just like the incident itself, things were a bit different when it came to veteran owner Richard Childress. That is Childress above shown speaking to fellow owner Joe Gibbs.

After already exonerating Kyle Busch in the weekend tussle, the sanctioning body announced on Monday the penalties for Childress. It was a 150 thousand dollar fine and probation for the rest of this season. That drew a quick response from both the fans and the media.

Click here to read SBNation's Jeff Gluck and his column titled "NASCAR Flubs Penalty Call By Not Suspending Childress." Meanwhile, click here to read Jeff Hammond over at FOX Sports who posted "NASCAR Goes Too Far Against Childress."

On the social media side, things were plenty busy on Twitter.

"I wonder if Pop Pop will get a senior citizen discount on his fine?" tweeted Austin Dillon.

"According to Forbes, Richard Childress Racing has a value of $158 million and last year made a $5.9 million profit. A $150,000 fine for RCR isn't going to harm them too much. Just as Childress' punches didn't harm Kyle Busch. They could probably make that up with an RCR golden gloves diecast," tweeted SPEED.com Editor-in-chief Tom Jensen.

"Only issue like this from RC we have ever had. Long-standing member. Don't see it repeating. Kyle fans unhappy/RC fans unhappy. That's understood, it's our job to make decisions, not always popular but part of it. Thanks for the feedback," offered NASCAR VP of Operations Steve O'Donnell on Twitter.

On the TV side, NASCAR Now on ESPN2 was up first. Host Allen Bestwick seemed rather surprised by some of the strong opinions expressed by his panelists on the show.

"I think it (the penalty) might have been a little bit light," said panelist Ricky Craven. "What if Kyle Busch had been injured or somehow wasn't able to race the next day? That's why a precedent has to be set. Drivers accept the risk of what they do on the racetrack, but Richard was not on the racetrack."

"We heard Mike Helton talk about the severity of these things that go on," said Johnny Benson. "I really thought he was going to get some races (off). This is kind of different with an owner getting involved, he's lucky."

"After a man tears my race cars up so many times, I might just go kick his ass," said Tim Brewer. "I'm tired of hearing about the drivers. Richard Childress does not sell cars, he sells racing. He is a dedicated person to that and I don't blame him for what he did."

The second and final TV series of the day was RaceHub on SPEED hosted by Steve Byrnes. Larry McReynolds and Elliott Sadler are the usual Monday panelists.

"Joey Coulter, he has struggled a little bit this year in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series," said McReynolds. "He finishes fifth and there is not a mark on that truck and Kyle Busch door-slams it after the checkered flag and puts a lot of damage on it. I just think it pushed Richard Childress over the edge."

"I do know for a fact," continued McReynolds. "He (Childress) told Kyle Busch if you want to confront my driver on my race team that's fine but leave the race car out of it. I felt like 150 thousand dollars was a little strong."

"I think when he (Busch) pulled up and ran into the side of the 22 after the race, it just sent him (Childress) over the top," said Elliott Sadler. "Honestly, as a driver, if my owner is going to stick his neck out on the line for me like that it says a lot for Richard Childress as a person and an owner."

"Honestly, I would love to race for a team owner like that," continued Sadler. "It's like all for one and one for all when you are messing with RCR. It's always been like that."

You can use the links on the right side of this page to read more on this topic from NASCAR websites and blogs. It was interesting to see the various opinions being offered on this rather unique topic.

What we are looking for is your take on how the media handled the Childress suspension and how you got the news about this topic. It was a Monday theme on TV, radio and online. To add your comment, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

TV Police: NASCAR On FOX From Kansas Speedway

Joseph R. "Joe" Mannix worked the Los Angeles beat as a private detective in the 1970's. TV viewers loved the fact that he was just a regular guy. He was of Armenian heritage and fought in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He was hard to impress, tough as nails and loved to mix it up with the bad guys.

This week, the big news was a dust-up in the garage area after the Saturday truck series race. On Sunday, the track was going to be slippery and the weather was going to be very hot. Tempers had the potential to boil.

Before the race, Chris Myers hosted a rather rowdy pre-race show featuring Jeff Hammond and Darrell Waltrip. When Waltrip gets fired-up he stays fired-up. Myers directed some traffic and Hammond made some good points. But Waltrip was the show.

FOX also offered the feature on Jamie McMurray visiting Joplin, MO that had been seen on ESPN2's NASCAR Now and SPEED's Race Hub. Great heartfelt story.

Waltrip got "Revved Up" about those who have passion for the sport. Richard Childress was his example although he actually included Kyle Busch in the same rant. His point was that real feelings and emotions still had a place in a sport now dominated by polite drivers with marketing agendas.

Kyle Busch appeared with Matt Yocum and repeated the content from an earlier interview with Wendy Venturini on SPEED. Polite answers to all the questions about the incident, confirming he did not participate and was the victim. In both interviews, Busch made a point to remove his sunglasses so TV viewers could see he did not have a black eye as reported earlier.

The FOX coverage of a track like Kansas starts strong and then hits a groove that many know all too well. The cars are strung out, there is little real racing and rarely is a caution flag caused by an accident. In this event there were several cautions for debris like water bottles and trash on the track.

The race quickly settled down into what was destined to become a gas mileage race. Larry McReynolds was great in keeping viewers up to speed on strategies. Waltrip was not in that loop and just observed.

FOX followed the usual script of hyper-tight coverage with two or three cars on the screen. Replays were again used for every item being discussed, including passes under green that were missed due to poor coverage. FOX has lived on replays this season.

The pit reporters worked well but were not used down the stretch very well. Final fuel stops were called, but the best team of pit reporters on TV was not allowed to offer strategy updates or opinions. It was a tough way to close out the season.

FOX ran one split-screen late, sped up the ticker a bit and tried to use multiple video boxes at critical times to show multiple races. The weather stayed good, the suspense at the end was over fuel and the finish was a bit anti-climactic.

This post is used to allow you to offer your opinion on the FOX production of this race. To add your comments, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Richard Childress Takes Off His Watch

Everyone knows if you are about to get in a fight the first thing you save is your watch. Richard Childress reportedly took his off and headed for Kyle Busch in the Camping World Truck Series garage after Saturday's race.

Here is the rest of the story from SBNation's Jeff Gluck:

Upon approaching the driver, Childress – a 65-year-old grandfather – initiated the altercation without a discussion, placing Busch in a headlock and punching him two or three times. Busch then went to the ground in a defensive position to avoid further injury, but Childress attempted to punch Busch again after he rose.

Busch had a tough race, was upset about the changes he made to his own truck and was then raced hard for fifth position by Joey Coulter, who drives for Childress. Coulter basically put a mini-slide job on Busch on the last corner to take the fifth position. There was no contact involved.

On the cool down lap, Busch pulled alongside of Coulter and made contact. Busch apparently did not like Coulter's final lap pass. Both the original final lap pass and the later dust-up on the track were shown by SPEED, the network televising the event.

Most fans were long gone to either Nationwide Series qualifying coverage on ESPN2 or Grand Am sports cars racing on SPEED immediately after the truck race was over. Childress was not watching either, as he apparently had some unfinished business with Busch.

As word of the altercation got around, details from reporters were scarce. SPEED's Ray Dunlap was the first to use social media for an update.

This from Dunlap on Twitter:

Hot news from the track. Grandpa Childress put a whipping on Kyle Busch in the truck garage. Look for big sun glasses on kubu Sunday.

During the Nationwide Series pre-race show on ESPN, host Allen Bestwick made a small comment about the incident and directed fans to tune into NASCAR Now on ESPN2 at 9AM on Sunday morning. In today's world of instant communication, that just did not wash.

Over on SPEED, the host of Speed Center Adam Alexander had truck series analyst Phil Parsons call into the show. All Parsons could do was relate what he had heard and recap the history between Childress and the Busch brothers. For the network that carried the race, it was not a good effort.

Once the Nationwide Series race was over, SportsCenter took to the air. It was very clear that someone in upper management had forced the stick-and-ball boys to put NASCAR highlights and stories first. They were not happy about it.

On-air talent John Anderson presented dreadful highlights of the race which included the same awkward mistakes Marty Reid made when calling the finish live. The end result was NASCAR being made to look like a bunch of redneck idiots who run out of gas.

Moments later, Anderson got NASCAR Now Lead Reporter Marty Smith on the phone for an update on the Childress incident. Anderson, who gleefully calls big hits in NFL games, fights in hockey games and loves a good base-brawl was appalled by the behavior of Childress.

Anderson simply could not understand why these NASCAR types could not just get along. Luckily, Smith is a veteran of such nonsense at ESPN and took his sweet time explaining exactly what fans wanted to hear but the SportsCenter anchors could not absorb.

The confirmation of just how much SportsCenter hates NASCAR was clear when the awful segment was over and some baseball highlights popped-up. "Now, we got some baseball!!," Anderson screamed. His long four minute NASCAR nightmare was finally over.

It will be Shannon Spake hosting the Sunday morning edition of NASCAR Now with Smith and Nicole Briscoe reporting from Kansas. This is the first NASCAR show on Sunday, so it should be interesting to watch exactly how the Childress news is presented.

NASCAR has been completely quiet on the issue, saying that the organization is gathering facts and investigating the incident. While Tuesdays are the normal NASCAR penalty day, that is more for infractions involving cars and equipment. If the sanctioning body acts overnight, it could make for a busy news morning.

NASCAR RaceDay on SPEED is up at 10:30AM. This will give Kyle Petty an opportunity to offer his views on the subject while Wendy Venturini and Hermie Sadler will do the reporting. Kenny Wallace is also on the program, but his wild rants recently have left his credibility in the dust.

By the time FOX comes on the air at 12:30PM, fans will have been exposed to three hours of pre-race programming. The words Kyle Busch and Richard Childress will have been said many times. It should be very interesting to see how FOX chooses to begin this final race telecast for the network in 2011.

This post will serve to host your comments on the Sunday pre-race shows on ESPN2 and SPEED. We will open the live race blog for comments on FOX. To add your opinion on this topic, just click on the comments button below. We are not asking about the incident, but your reaction to media coverage of it.

Thanks as always for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.