Reporters Take-Over "The Roundtable'

ESPN continues to tinker with NASCAR Now as they work to build a new relationship with the fan base. On Monday night, with the Sprint Cup Series off, host Allen Bestwick gathered a group of reporters to review the season-to-date.

Originally, ESPN's Tim Cowlishaw was going to join Angelique Chengelis and David Poole on the panel. Chengelis is a Detroit News veteran, and has been a regular on NASCAR Now since the show began last season. Poole is one of the most recognized NASCAR journalists and creates original content for radio, the Internet and newspapers.

The choice of Cowlishaw for this show got lots of email and comments on this site. His 2007 NASCAR Now appearances consisted mostly of hype and conjecture that did not play well with the personalities in the sport. This season, he has been seen infrequently on this series and has not worked the NASCAR trail.

As the show began, Bestwick welcomed Poole and Chengelis. He never mentioned a word about Cowlishaw, who was noticeably absent. Unfortunately, Cowlishaw was not replaced on the panel by another ESPN NASCAR personality like Marty Smith or Ryan McGee.

Chengelis and Poole teamed with Bestwick to present exactly the type of program that viewers could enjoy. The topics ranged from grading the Cup teams to the resurgence of the newly-merged IRL. ESPN took what had been a worthless off-week and created value through simple conversation.

Poole was outstanding, and while he is finding his "TV legs" in terms of fundamentals he continues to bring a unique perspective wrapped in an interesting personality. His dry sense of humor and ability to speak candidly about the biggest stars and owners in the sport works best on his Sirius radio show, but translated to the little screen with good results.

Chengelis was appearing for the first time, and proved to be much more than many viewers may have imagined. Normally, she is seen in tightly-scripted weekday appearances on NASCAR Now as a reporter. On weekends at the tracks, she has a little more freedom but once again the questions are all rehearsed.

In this hour, especially without Cowlishaw, Chengelis was front-and-center. Her response was to step-up and participate equally with Poole and Bestwick. This was a big moment for her on ESPN2, with fans now understanding the personality and the depth of NASCAR knowledge that she brings to the table.

Bestwick was solid in hosting, although he had to walk the line between host and participant on several occasions. His extensive NASCAR background, along with his ability to deal with the ups-and-downs of a TV career have made him a fan favorite.

This season he may be at his professional peak as the new leader of the NASCAR on ESPN gang. Last season, this was a title that Jerry Punch did not want and Suzy Kolber could not handle. Bestwick has solved so many problems for ESPN because of his "utility player" status that the network must be smiling.

NASCAR Now continues to be the surprise of the season. This Sports Reporters format worked well, although it could have used a third opinion. Perhaps, ESPN2 will consider adding "specials" in this format to the line-up at specific times of the season. It certainly is a good way to get the journalism side of the business more TV time and expose the personalities of the folks who craft our NASCAR news.

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David Poole: New Knight Of The "NASCAR Now" Roundtable

Part of the change in ESPN's commitment to the sport this season is the continuation of the one hour NASCAR Now show on Mondays. Even when there is no Sprint Cup race, Allen Bestwick still brings together a panel for the weekly "roundtable." This has been a great investment.

While This Week In NASCAR will take Monday off over on SPEED, Bestwick and company will once again talk racing for the full hour. Taking advantage of the off-week, ESPN2 has put together a panel of three reporters to talk about a wide variety of news-related topics involving NASCAR this season.

Joining the show will be Angelique Chengelis. A regular reporter on NASCAR Now since its inception, Chengelis is a veteran of the Detroit News Sports Department with a long history of writing about racing. She graduated from the University of Cincinnati and currently contributes NASCAR-related coverage to the many media elements of ESPN.

Also on the program will be Tim Cowlishaw. A graduate of UT in Austin, Cowlishaw is perhaps best known to ESPN viewers from his regular appearances on Around The Horn. He joined the Dallas Morning News back in 1984 and has covered a wide variety of college and professional sports since that time.

The first year of NASCAR Now was not kind to Cowlishaw, who often saw himself put in the position of being forced to create hype or controversy in the sport where there was none. Drivers and team owners did not respond positively to his Around The Horn-style comments about the sport and the personalities involved in it. An "Insider," he was clearly not.

This season, Cowlishaw has been used sparingly on this TV series and when he appears things are very different. Much like Brad Daugherty, Cowlishaw is there to simply offer his opinion on various NASCAR topics and that role suits him quite well. It should be interesting to see him interact with Allen Bestwick in conversations about the sport.

Finally, NASCAR Now has opened the doors once again to new things and asked the one-and-only Mr. David Poole to appear on the Monday program. Poole is featured above (center) receiving the Russ Catlin Journalism award back in 2007. Bringing in a writer who is not associated with ESPN for this show is a great idea.

Poole and Bestwick go way back, and those two should have some fun with the myriad of topics on the table from drug testing to the Top 35 Rule. Poole is very creative on his Sirius radio show, his Internet blog and his regular news articles for the Charlotte Observer.

Once again, NASCAR Now has taken a good step forward in turning what had been a boring news day into what could be a TV program talked about for some time. Making sure that the DVR or the VCR has ESPN2 on Monday at 5:30PM Eastern Time programmed on the record schedule would be a good investment.

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ESPN's Mexican Marathon

The theory makes sense, but the reality once again left a little something to be desired. It was time for the Nationwide Series to visit Mexico City and the results were just as messy as last year.

ESPN waded into the fray and televised practice, qualifying and the race. During the Sunday telecast the TV compound lost power, the race was halted by several red flags and the final fifteen laps were absolute chaos.

It was Jerry Punch anchoring the telecast. Alongside for this event was Rusty Wallace and rookie ESPN analyst Ray Evernham. It was strange to have both analysts with specific interests in the race. It certainly affected the ability of them both to speak in plain language. In Mexico City, politically correct was suddenly all the rage.

Marcos Ambrose was knocking cars around like bowling balls and yet Punch addressed this situation with almost a monotone. Incident after incident with different drivers and cars resulted in nothing more than a brief description and then a dead silence on-the-air. Viewers knew one thing, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree were clearly missed.

It was up to the pit reporters to contribute the vast majority of the news about strategy and problems on the track. The trio of Vince Welch, Mike Massaro and Dave Burns turned-in strong performances. They regularly recapped the field and followed-up with enthusiasm on the stories happening in the race.

This information was critical to the broadcast because the race consisted of regulars on the Nationwide trail, road course "ringers," and several Hispanic drivers added for regional flair. Despite all these new faces, the pit reporters were on-top of the game from the green flag.

Wallace was awkward with Evernham, and while they all worked very hard to talk nicely about everyone and positively about their own Nationwide interests, it was the telecast that suffered. "Dead air" is the term for a live sporting event where there is no commentary, and this race had many moments of awkward silence.

Give credit to Jerry Punch, who possibly told every story he knew about the drivers and teams in the race to fill the extended red flag time of this event. Punch also resorted to the old trick of asking questions directly to his analysts to "make" them answer and provide some additional information. Although Jerry Punch is an Emergency Room Physician, in this broadcast he was very much "pulling teeth."

Post-race interviews closed out this broadcast in style, despite the continual assertions by Punch that the Mexican crowds "loved" NASCAR. For viewers who watched the Rolex Sports Car Series race from the same track, they also witnessed the same format of Rolex regulars mixed with Hispanic "guest" drivers. Could it be that the crowds just enjoyed having a fun weekend of racing?

If NASCAR continues to return to this venue, viewers can expect the same type of hard-to-follow TV with pit stops and spins as features of the telecast. Unfortunately, passing and competition do not seem to be in the future of either NASCAR or their TV partners as they struggle to build the Hispanic market.

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