The Dirt Knights Open The 2011 TV Season

You can look all you want on the VERSUS.com homepage for motorsports and all you will find is old IndyCar highlights. Only by typing "Dirt Knights" into the search box will the website reveal the new motorsports series that will open 2011 for racing fans starved for anything of substance.

This time of year, ESPN is long gone to college sports while SPEED is deep inside the endless replays of Barrett-Jackson auctions and assorted lifestyle shows. You have to wonder just how many times each episode of PINKS has been aired?

It seems ironic that a new homegrown TV series centered around some dirt track racers on VERSUS would be first out of the blocks. Click here to view the promo for Dirt Knights on YouTube. This show seems to have the same feel of THC's Madhouse without all the phony acting between the racing sequences.

Corey Dripps, Scott Green, Al Hejna, Mike Spaulding and Jon Tesch are the Dirt Knights. They race in the Unites States Modified Touring Series (USMTS) and are looking to transfer their love of racing through the TV show.

"This is a project that has been in the works for more than two years now," said Dripps in a media release. "For some, racing is a hobby and for others it’s how we make our living, but either way, we all love and respect this sport. We hope that people will tune in and be entertained, but at the same time we want to
convey what the racing life is really all about."

That just might be music to the ears of race fans who have been left scratching their heads over the lack of this type of programming on SPEED. In the meantime, VERSUS picked-up a Whelen Modified package last season and also carried the Quest for the Cup show during the Chase for the Championship. Now, that network expands again with an exclusive new series that already has fans buzzing.

Click here for the Dirt Knights Facebook page. Even before a single episode of the show has aired, there are over 13 thousand fans along for the ride. Click here for the Dirt Knights website, where much more content will be unveiled down the road. Right now, it contains a preview of the debut episode.

There is a lot of heart and soul in this TV effort. It's not a high-priced production company trying to manufacture drama or get ratings. It's a group of real racers putting themselves out there for all to see for better or worse. This is their money, their effort and the result of their hard work. What better story is there to tell?

Sunday at 6PM ET is the first airing and don't miss it because there is no West Coast re-air that night. VERSUS is kind of strange like that as the network's Comcast owners continue to try and figure out how to program a cable network. Each of the 13 Dirt Knights shows will be one hour long and it should be a kick to see this grassroots series finally on TV.

Clicking around the Internet can bring a lot more information about the drivers and series. Each driver has a website and the show is being discussed on motorsports forums all around the web.

Without a drop of NASCAR to be found on TV, Dirt Knights has chosen a nice time to debut the series. It might not be for everyone, but getting some original programming at this time of the year is a nice touch. Perhaps this can inspire other drivers and owners to get together and bring more stories of real racers to national TV.

We invite you to comment on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Silence Is Golden

The off-season has been strangely quiet on the NASCAR TV front. As if we needed a reminder, both the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series struggled on TV. The trucks again escaped that fate, content with a smaller package on SPEED that continued to return consistent ratings.

In the past, ESPN has announced changes in on-air talent shortly after the final race of the season in Homestead. This year, there was silence. For those who believed the new president of FOX Sports, Eric Shanks, might change some faces in the NASCAR on FOX line-up, he has not even addressed that topic.

So, it looks like FOX opens Daytona with Darrell Waltrip doing double-duty in the Hollywood Hotel and then the broadcast booth. Chris Myers has wrapped his first season of Inside NASCAR for Showtime and he is set to return as the NASCAR on FOX host.

Jeff Hammond has been a consistent presence for SPEED on Race Hub, the studio news and interview show. With that series returning on January 24 with host Steve Byrnes, fans should have several weeks of seeing Hammond before Speedweek rolls around.

Byrnes is intending to pull his own double-duty early in the year. He will host Race Hub Monday through Thursday, then travel to the FOX Sprint Cup Series weekends and return to his role as a pit reporter. SPEED has yet to announce if Byrnes will also work any practice or qualifying sessions. Krista Voda, John Roberts and Mike Joy filled that role once Byrnes left last season.

That puts Mike Joy back in the booth with Waltrip and Larry McReynolds. Voda, Byrnes, Matt Yocum and Dick Berggren are the pit road gang while Myers and Hammond man the Hollywood Hotel.

On the Nationwide side, ESPN seems set to return Marty Reid to his play-by-play role with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree alongside. Allen Bestwick, Brad Daugherty and Rusty Wallace should man the Infield Pit Studio. Jamie Little, Dr. Jerry Punch, Vince Welch and Dave Burns are the pit road reporters.

The unknown in the ESPN equation is Ray Evernham. If he has made up his mind whether or not to return to TV in 2011, he has not passed it along. Evernham was said to finally be free of his legal ties to RPM and was mulling his future.

The truck series on SPEED also appears to have no changes. Rick Allen, Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip are the team in the booth while Adam Alexander and Ray Dunlap report from pit road. Krista Voda is the pre-race host.

While SPEED has committed to the January test at Daytona, the network has still not released the talent line-up or the specifics of the planned mix of TV and rumored online streaming coverage. In the past, these shows have consisted of recaps after the fact because no TV production trucks were on-site to cover the track. It should be interesting to see what SPEED can do this season, especially with streaming coverage.

Behind the scenes, veteran Charlotte Observer reporter Jim Utter passed along that he was told James "Shifty" Shiftan will step into the ESPN race producer role vacated with the removal of Neil Goldberg last season. Shiftan took a leave of absence from NASCAR last year, leaving Coordinating Producer Jill Fredrickson to produce the final races.

So, as we make the turn and head once again into another NASCAR season it's very quiet in the TV world. It might just be that the NASCAR TV partners are trying to let the memories of 2010 slip away before turning their attention to the new Daytona pavement. Sometimes in TV land, silence really is golden.

We welcome your comments on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

The Queen Of Social Media

You might not know her name or even her face. FOX, ESPN and TNT don't know she exists. She has never won a major NASCAR race. She does not live in North Carolina. She does not sacrifice her dignity in TV commercials. She does not have a rich family.

Yet, Jennifer Jo Cobb has some of the most loyal fans in NASCAR. Cobb races full time in the Camping World Truck Series and runs a limited schedule on the Nationwide side. Although she has not yet won, to many fans that is not important.

In a racing world of egos and millionaires, Cobb is a refreshing change. Since her entry into the truck series, Cobb has chronicled her NASCAR experiences firsthand. Using her marketing and journalism background, Cobb has sidestepped the mainstream NASCAR media and created a direct link with her fans.

There is perhaps no better example in NASCAR of someone who has used social media, amateur NASCAR blogs and the Internet to develop effective sponsor exposure and a strong fan base. All of this is necessary due to one well-known fact.

"No one covers trucks, they just don't," said a popular NASCAR journalist to me in November. The drivers who get the most attention on TV in the truck races are the cross-overs from the Sprint Cup Series. Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick are big draws when they race a truck. For a single truck team owner/driver like Cobb, there is simply little help with exposure from the NASCAR media.

Cobb's answer was to make it personal. She has a thriving community on Facebook of pages for both her race team and for herself as a driver. On Twitter, Cobb speaks easily with fans and has created lasting bonds with many. The Internet is full of NASCAR blogs with stories and features on Cobb.

Here are just a few. Click on the title to read the story.

Jennifer Jo Cobb Is Quietly Making A Name For Herself from Female Racing News.com in October.

Jennifer Jo Cobb's Big Night Out from Corrina B's World in November.

Women In NASCAR Series: Jennifer Jo Cobb from Skirts and Scuffs in October.

Beyond The Cockpit: Jennifer Jo Cobb from Frontstretch in April.

The bottom line is that there has never been a better time for a female driver to make inroads in the sport. Even with 50% of the fan base being female, it's apparent that Danica Patrick did not click with the stock car set.

Cobb has a racing heritage from the Kansas City area where her father still battles on the dirt at Lakeside Speedway. Unlike Danica, fans have been able to watch Cobb make her way into the sport and interact with her from the start.

We all know the big sponsors in NASCAR, but there is just something about an owner/driver who started out with sponsorship from the Kansas City T-Bones Baseball Club, Wagner's Collision Repair and Take-N-Bake Pizza. Cobb is old school and makes no bones about where she came from and where she wants to go.

This year, some help did come from SPEED. The network televises the Camping World Truck Series and featured Cobb dressed as Ginger in the annual Halloween pre-race show. It got Cobb some TV exposure, but more than that it showed her as someone who gets it. A driver not too self-important to poke fun at themselves.

Tuesday, Cobb continues to leverage her position in the sport by appearing on CNN. In the 10PM ET Anderson Cooper 360 show, Cobb will be talking about the very different lifestyle that she has chosen both on and off the track. It's ironic that during the dark time for NASCAR on TV, the only person getting national TV exposure is a mid-pack single team truck series owner/driver.

In February, Cobb is set to make another splash when she shows up in NASCAR 2011: The Game. The new official NASCAR video game offering will have Cobb in the #13 red Ford Fusion with her own racing apparel company on the hood as the sponsor. This will put Cobb on the track with the big boys on gaming systems around the world.

There are plenty of young female drivers currently lurking just outside the three major NASCAR series. There is little doubt that they are watching Cobb navigate her way through the sport in control of her own team with financial and management responsibility. In this changing economy, Cobb may just be laying down a blueprint for female drivers to follow in the future.

We welcome your comments on this topic. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.