NASCAR on ESPN. Changing My Tune A Little

If you are a frequent reader of this site, you know that I have been critical to some extent of virtually all of the networks which broadcast NASCAR races. For years, I preferred FOX to other networks, but I, along with apparently a ton of other fans, was glad when FOX handed over the broadcasts to TNT. I think "Digger" did it to me. Cute is just fine, at least for a while, but the great minds behind the broadcasts at FOX might want to remember that too much of just about anything is usually not a good thing. Remember Barney the Dinosaur? I rest my case.

When my step daughter was growing up, I wanted to wrap myself with explosives and blow myself up in close proximity to that purple twerp. That act probably wouldn't have brought me any parent of the year awards, but I'm pretty sure I would have been a hero to many other parents, none the less.

Every network that brings us NASCAR racing has its strengths as well as weaknesses. What I perceive to be a strength or weakness is of course a matter of opinion. Personally, I like Darrell Waltrip and the homespun wit that he brings to the FOX broadcasts. Many fans can't stand Old DW. I understand. I appreciate Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach on TNT, mostly because I feel that they both tell it like it is, and won't hesitate to be brutally honest in their opinions.

ESPN brings what I consider to be two solid personalities in the racing world, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Dale Jarrett is obviously a chip off the old block, following in his father Ned's footsteps not only as a racing champion, but a great broadcaster as well. Andy brings a wealth of experience not only as a winning crew chief, but as an owner to the booth as well.

I suppose my biggest problem lately with ESPN's broadcasts is the play by play man, Dr. Jerry Punch. It's not that I don't like Dr. Punch, because I do. I feel he simply does not fit into the role of play by play announcer comfortably.

Dr. Jerry Punch is one of the best NASCAR pit reporters ever, in my opinion. Dr. Jerry ranks right up there with Dick Berggren, who performs pit reporting duties for FOX. In my opinion, Jerry and Dick are the very best of the best when it comes to bringing us stories from pit road and the garage.

I do want to commend ESPN for the job they do overall when it comes to bringing us the Nationwide and Cup races. Think about it this way: Of the 3 networks that broadcast the races, only ESPN is the one network totally committed to sports. If you turn on ESPN any time of the day or night, you will see everything from NFL and NCAA football to dart contests. I never even knew what curling was until I caught a show explaining it on ESPN late one night.

What I'm trying to say is that ESPN covers virtually every sport under the sun, or the moon, which ever the case may be. If you think about the enormity of such an undertaking, it's easier to give ESPN a little wiggle room when it comes to providing a flawless or perfect broadcast, week after week. By the way, neither FOX nor TNT put on a flawless or perfect broadcast either. ESPN is experimenting with some new camera angles for in-car, or maybe on-car cameras. The results are somewhat baffling at times, but it provides a new perspective for fans who want to see as much as they can. I applaud the network for trying new things. Experimentation is never a bad thing when it comes to bringing the fans something new and exciting to see. Sometimes trying a new thing might be a waste of time, or it might be copied by the other networks next year. If that happens, you know you did something right as a broadcaster.

All in all, ESPN is the best network for sports, period. If you can't find your sport on ESPN, nobody plays it or watches it. ESPN strives to be the best broadcaster of NASCAR racing, and given a little time, they probably will be. I'm just gateful that we now can watch each and every race that NASCAR puts on. It wasn't that long ago that we only got abreviated versions of the action, and rarely got to see any Nationwide or Truck racing at all. NASCAR on TV has come a long way in the last 10 years.

ESPN, keep up the good fight. You're getting better, from a fan's point of view, a race at a time.

My only suggestion is this: Marty Reid is a good play by play man. Please try putting him in the driver's seat a little more often.

Bobby Labonte out of the 96 Ford for 7 Races

It was announced yesterday that veteran driver and past champion Bobby Labonte will not be in his number 96 Ask.com Ford for 7 of the remaining races in 2009.

Bobby will be replaced by 26 year old Erik Darnell for these 7 races. Erik as 11 starts in NASCAR's Nationwide series and has 2 top 10 finishes this year. Erick has 2 wins in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in his career as well.

Erik Darnell has managed to put together some sponsorship deals with Academy Sports and Outdoors and Northern Tools and Equipment for his seven race deal in the 96 car.

"This is a move that should be beneficial to Yates Racing surviving this difficult economic time," Bobby Labonte said. "Of course I'm disappointed that the sponsorship environment is so challenging right now, but I intend to make the most out of the remaining races that I'm behind the wheel for Ask.com, DLP, and Hall of Fame Racing."

Hall of Fame Racing would like to keep Bobby Labonte as its Sprint Cup driver in 2010, according to team co-owner Tom Garfinkle. Ask.com has been the primary sponsor of the 96 Ford for all but seven of the remaining races in 2009. Garfinkle said that discussions are still taking place with Ask.com for sponsorship options in 2010, though it is doubtful that the team will be affiliated with Yates Racing next year.

Bobby Labonte has started 568 consecutive Cup races and has won 21 Cup races, including the Cup championship in 2000. Labonte has also won 10 Nationwide series races, including the championship in 1991. Bobby Labonte has also won a Camping World Truck Series race in 2005 and an IROC championship in 2001.



Sources: Jayski.com, SceneDaily.com, Yates Racing PR, Racing-Reference.Info.com

The Montreal Demolition Derby

I didn't get to see all of the NASCAR Nationwide series race from the road course at Montreal, but I did get to see the last 25 or 30 laps or so. Those relatively few laps took about 2 hours and change to watch, since there were more cautions in those closing laps than often occur in many local figure 8 track races. With school buses racing instead of cars. That's about how bad it was.

If you like seeing torn up cars, Montreal in the rain is the place to be. I did notice the absolute king of the wrecking machines though, and that was one Steve Wallace, driver of the number 66 Five Hour Energy Drink Chevy. In the closing laps of the Montreal race, I think even the driver's seat in that car must have gotten bent a few times. I still don't understand how Steve even finished the race, as beat up as his car was. Had there been about 2 more cautions, Steve would have needed the Ten Hour Energy Drink as a sponsor.

The Tasmanian Devil, Marcos Ambrose dominated the race, leading by far the most laps, and lead right up until the last corner of the last lap when he shot his car airborne over the rumble strips and went wide, opening up a hole for race winner Carl Edwards to shoot through. Marcos was obviously unhappy in his post race interview, giving a short, terse one sentence summation of his day and then walking away from the microphone. Marcos did give us his winning grin though, and that was nice, though it must have been very hard for him to do.

Carl Edwards gave us his trade marked back flip, and for the second time in his career, at least that I've noticed, he landed on the pavement, instead of the grass. I really hope that young man doesn't misjudge his flip and finds himself in the hospital with a concussion. Suggestion to Carl: Leave your helmet on next time you do that on the pavement! Take off the HANS device, but leave the helmet. It would be a shame to lose a driver because he was pulling off a race win tradition, and did it badly.

I'm of mixed emotions about racing in the rain after Montreal. It's pretty cool watching the cars kick up rooster tails of spray as they go around the course, but please, Rusty Wallace Inc., do us all a favor next time.

Find a substitute for Steve Wallace next year, please!

Ceremony

It seems that many things in this life are governed by ceremony. Depending on your religion, you were probably subject to some kind of ceremony in your youth, whether it be baptism or bar mitzvah. Or bat mitzvah, for the ladies who might read this.

I just watched the funeral ceremony for Senator Edward Moore Kennedy, better known as Teddy, who died the other day. I was somewhat taken with the precision of the military casket bearers, as I always am. Military precision is crucial in many ceremonies. I was impressed by the precision practiced by the priests during the actual funeral ceremony. When I was a boy, I went to an Episcopalian school for several years, and was always impressed by the ceremony that is the Holy Sacrament, or as others call it, eating the bread and drinking the wine. In my case, it was grape juice, but the meaning was the same.

Life has ceremonies for practically everything. When you get married, there is a ceremony. When you die, there's even more of a ceremony.

NASCAR has its own ceremonies. Ever notice how the crews line up on pit road for the invocation and national anthem? That's a ceremony. It might be a somewhat informal one, but it's still a ceremony. Seeing the crew members lined up, hands over their hearts, while the national anthem is played is a special moment for me. As jets fly over, showing their thundering might, that's one of the best moments of the weekend for me.

Seeing drivers kiss their wives or girlfriends before they get into the car is a ceremony in itself. In a way, they're saying goodbye, just in case. In racing, you just never know which time might be the last time. We all pray and hope that there will never be a last time, but we are all mortal, after all.

Racing is a dangerous business. People die doing it. There is always the risk that in any given race, a driver will die. Thanks to safety improvements, that doesn't happen as much anymore, but cars moving at 200 mph provides a lot of circumstances which might push the balances a little. Sooner or later, someone dies while they're racing. HANS device or not, it's going to happen.

Do we as NASCAR fans have a morbid curiosity about death? No, we don't. We don't want to see drivers die, and we especially don't want to see fans die. It's happened a couple of times throughout NASCAR's history, but they, ahem, we, don't talk about that too much. Death is a pretty final thing. Kenny Irwin. Adam Petty. Neil Bonnett. Dale Earnhardt. Too much death. Not a good business model for NASCAR.

A lot of new NASCAR fans don't get what this sport is all about, sometimes. Gentlemen in taxi cabs driving around in circles. Guess what, unless you're drag racing, you are ALL driving around in circles when you race. Your are all driving around in circles when you go to the grocery store. Think about it. You are basically just driving in a circle every day of your life.

Ceremony. It's a part of life. It's a part of NASCAR. Ceremony is part of everything we do. We aspire to it. We await it, in some way, always. We dream of it.

Ceremony. It's all about life.

Personally, I hate ceremonies. I don't like them. I drink free beer and leave them as soon as possible.

Bristol Night Race Lives Up to the Hype

Saturday night racing at Bristol! Does it get any better? My short answer is not really.

A lot of people have criticized the racing at Bristol Motor Speedway lately. Personally, I thought the Sharpie 500 was a good race. I was not surprised that Kyle Busch won the race, because he is, after all, a very good race car driver. Like him or hate him, Kyle Busch can wheel a race car.

Besides Kyle, one of the drivers I was most impressed with was the always smiling Aussie, Marcos Ambrose. The 47 team uses Michael Waltrip engines and chassis, and I've been very impressed with this team this year. Ambrose never ceases to impress, it would seem. The Tasmanian born driver came to the USA just a few short years ago, and is only a gnat's eyelash away from winning his first Cup race, I think.

Some drivers with high hopes for Bristol had much worse than expected finishes. Tony Stewart, who still owns the points lead, took a hit on Saturday night. Tony experienced radio problems from the very beginning of the race, and only got them sorted out relatively late in the race. The car had problems as well. At one point, Tony needed a push from a NASCAR truck to get started.

Kevin Harvick was running well at times, though he had some bad pit stops. Kevin's day was ended late in the race after a collision with his teammate, Clint Bowyer. Clint's day was ended a few laps later after another collision with Michael Waltrip. Clint and Michael both were having pretty good runs until a couple of Big One's ensued at Bristol, as they almost always do.

I think my biggest surprise of the night was how magnanimous Kyle Busch was in his victory lane interview. Kyle almost apologized for winning the race ahead of Mark Martin, who had a very strong car and was the lap leader for the race. Kyle was in the lead when it mattered, at lap 500. Kyle was also very good on late race restarts. Kyle Busch won the Sharpie 500 hands down, even though he probably didn't have the best car. Kudos to the 50 year old guy for making the race exciting though. Oh, yeah, I'm talking about Mark Martin there, not Kyle Busch. I have a feeling that Kyle will probably be getting people excited when he's 50 years old too. They may boo, or they may cheer, but they will be making noise, never the less.

There are many more stories to be told about this Bristol night race, but I'm only telling you the ones that got my attention.

My congratulations go out to Dale Earnhardt Jr., for securing his second consecutive top 10 finish of 2009. Is it possible that the 88 team is finally turning a corner and becoming more competitive? For the good of the sport, I hope so.

Remembering Legends of NASCAR: Curtis Turner

You think Little E parties too much? No way. Curtis Turner was the king of parties back in the day. Curtis was a former bootlegger who turned NASCAR driver back in the early days of the sport. Curtis won in every kind of car he ever drove in, but was especially known for his talent on dirt. Nobody could beat Curtis on dirt.

They called him 'Pops', not because of his age, but because he had a reputation for 'popping' other cars on the track. Dale Earnhardt was not the first NASCAR driver to do that!

Curtis was not only a race driver, he also flew his own planes long before most NASCAR drivers even flew to race tracks on private planes.

Fact: Curtis Turner once landed his Aero Commander, a 2 engine private airplane on Main Street, Easley, South Carolina, way back in the 1960's. It's true. Check it out.

Curtis earned and lost fortunes in the timber industry, all the while driving for NASCAR. Curtis was once banned for life from the sport for trying to start a driver's union. Big Bill France wasn't too happy about that. Curtis, along with a guy named Bruton Smith, financed and built Charlotte Motor Speedway, lately known as Lowes Motor Speedway, in Concord, North Carolina.

Curtis Turner lost his life flying his own airplane, in Pennsylvania. Curtis was 46 years old when he died.

Here's a passage from the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America site about Curtis Turner.

"The Babe Ruth of Stock Car Racing." Tag a sports figure with so mythic a
designation and he'd best be able to live up to it. Curtis Turner, the
original
superstar of NASCAR, whose cars danced brilliant slides across the
old beach
course at Daytona, whose determination behind the wheel made him a
fan favorite
and a threat on dirt ovals and swift superspeedways, and whose
larger-than-life
presence in the sport as a driver-businessman made his
name, wore the
distinction well.
Whether he was setting the then-record
for most wins in a
season (23 in 1956), or raising the funds necessary to
build his beloved
Charlotte (now Lowe's) Motor Speedway, he remained a man
of enormous vision and
talent. As Humpy Wheeler said, "He may have been the
best natural race driver
we've seen." Added Benny Parsons, "Ask any fan
under fifty, ´Who's the greatest
driver you ever saw,' and it's Dale
Earnhardt. Ask anybody over fifty -
including the pioneers who drove at the
beginning - and the answer's Curtis
Turner."
His illustrious career
began as many did during the seminal
southern racing days, driving modifieds
on makeshift tracks while moonshining in
the 1940s. By then Turner had also
begun his millionaire career as a timber
broker; he'd eventually buy and
sell the equivalent of six percent of North
Carolina. But when his good
friend William France started NASCAR, Turner was
there, running in that
first race in 1949, beginning an exceptional ride in the
elite leagues. He
was the first driver to win two-straight NASCAR races while
leading every
lap. He teamed with France in 1950 in the first Mexican Road Race,
and
essayed a final-day run so startling, one historian wrote, "It is doubtful
anyone ever put on a greater performance behind the wheel of an automobile."
When the NASCAR Convertible Division raced from 1956 through 1959, Turner
won an
astounding 33 of the first 74 races, including 22 out of 47 in year
one, the
season he also captured the Southern 500 and the sports first-ever
most popular
driver award. In all, he won 17 times in what is now the Nextel
Cup division,
including the 1965 American 500, the first race at Rockingham,
which sealed his
comeback after four years away from NASCAR.
But he's
remembered most for
doing what others simply refused to. Turner could
execute a perfect 180-degree
turn on a single-lane bridge. A handsome,
dazzling figure, he threw parties that
were legend, his house becoming the
land of a thousand anecdotes. Until he did
it, no stock-car racer had run
the treacherous Pike's Peak Hill Climb in under
15 minutes. He tried to send
satellites into space. And when Jimmy Hoffa and the
Teamsters asked him to
start a driver's union-in exchange for their broken
promise of a loan to
save his speedway-he did so, crossing swords with France,
who banned him
"for life" in 1961. After sitting out some prime years, Turner
was invited
back in 1965, and he thrilled again. It is for these achievements as
well
that he became, in 1968, the first NASCAR driver ever put on the cover of
Sports Illustrated.
And only two years later, he was gone, at 46, after
crashing his plane in Pennsylvania. His peerless legacy remains: Turner is
one
of NASCAR's "50 Greatest Drivers," a revered figure even among current
racers
and a member of many halls of fame. And now, finally, he shines here
as well.
By Robert Edelstein

Sorry about the formatting. I reproduced it just like it was on the site.

Tough Economic Times Takes Toll on NASCAR

From one end of spectrum to the other, America is feeling the effects of a tough economy. Jobs are hard to come by, and many people are feeling the pinch when it comes time to make their monthly payments for lights, rent, mortgages, TV, and anything else you can think of.

NASCAR has also felt the pinch that many people do, in the form of lost sponsorships and lost revenues in terms of ticket sales and racing related merchandise. Grand stands are often sparsely populated during racing events. Some of the merchandise sellers have taken a beating on tee shirt and hat sales.

Is this the beginning of the end for NASCAR?

No, it's not.

NASCAR has dealt with bad economies in the past. Remember the oil crunch in the 1970's? OK, maybe you don't, but I do. I'm old enough to remember gas lines, much as some of us experienced for a few days after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans a few years ago. The difference between the Katrina fallout and the 1970's was that the initial crunch passed in only a few days after Katrina. In the 1970's, gas was scarce, and sold for very high prices when it was available, for months at a time. The price of gasoline is relative. Today we complain when we pay 4 dollars a gallon for the stuff, and mostly the price of gas didn't reach those heights back in the '70's, but most people earned a lot less money back then too. In the 1970's most people were considered to be 'well off' if they earned $25,000 or $30,000 dollars a year. That can't be said in 2009.

NASCAR has always coped with bad economies. Not just the sanctioning body itself, but the teams involved. Back in the 1970's, NASCAR shortened the advertised length of races, and that seemed to work, to a certain extent. Fewer laps run means less money spent on fuel, tires, and everything else you can think of.

Today, the main crises that NASCAR and it's teams face is not one of fuel, but of sponsorship. Sponsors have been leaving the sport, taking care of themselves in their own ways by consolidating expenditures on advertising. Remember, NASCAR sponsors are driven much the same was as NASCAR itself is. Fans spend the money to support the sponsors, who, in turn pump money into the sport.

Until this year, it's mostly been a win-win situation for all involved. But now things have changed.

Companies such as Home Depot, Lowes, DeWalt, and a myriad of others have seen their sales numbers fall. Consequently, changes have had to be made. Sometimes that means not sponsoring a NASCAR team or one of the NASCAR tracks. For example, DeWalt Tools, a long time sponsor of Matt Kenseth, is leaving the sport. DeWalt has to keep it's company running, and since fewer people have the money to spend on power tools, DeWalt has felt the hit. They figure they can't afford to sponsor the 17 Ford of Matt Kenseth next year. Who could blame them? If you can't afford it, you just can't.

Lowe's is another example. Lowe's is giving up the naming rights at what was originally known as the Charlotte Motor Speedway. People simply don't have enough disposable income to pump into their local Lowe's store, and sales have fallen to the point that Lowe's feels they can't keep pumping money into the race track. As far as we know, Lowe's will still continue to sponsor the 48 Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson, but one has to wonder if that will become a problem soon for the North Carolina based corporation.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the rest of his family have taken their names off of the in-development Alabama Motorsports Park. I don't know for sure if this was directly a product of keeping sponsorship, but it looks that way.

Speaking of sponsorship, Dale Jr. seems to be one of the best at acquiring and keeping such. Robby Gordon could probably show us a few tricks too. But, being the sport's current most popular driver probably doesn't hurt Earnhardt's ability to acquire and keep sponsors. As an Earnhardt fan, who reads and even participates on some the most popular message boards and websites devoted to Dale Earnhardt Jr, I can say that practically all of the Earnhardt Nation have become avid Mountain Dew and Amp Energy Drink buyers. I imagine that that's not true of only the Earnhardt Nation.

If you're a Brian Vickers or Scott Speed fan, you probably don't drink AMP, but tons of Red Bull.

Most Jimmie Johnson fans buy their home improvement items at Lowes. Most Joey Logano fans buy theirs at Home Depot. Fans of Tony Stewart buy their office supplies at Office Depot, and eat there burgers at Burger King. Kevin Harvick fans buy their gas at Shell stations when possible, and use Pennzoil products in their engines. Juan Pablo Montoya fans will drive 15 extra miles to do their shopping at Target, even if there's a Wal-Mart next door.

My point here is that NASCAR has the most devoted fans ever, in my humble opinion. NASCAR fans support their driver's sponsors.

And that's how NASCAR will survive the latest economic crunch.

A fan has a dollar to spend. He buys a bag of M&M's. He just supported the 18 Toyota of Kyle Busch. He could have had Skittles, but he didn't. That's support.

One of the beautiful aspects of NASCAR has been that the fans drive the sport. Fans probably drive every sport, when you get right down to it, but never so obviously as in NASCAR. If a few racing fans hadn't bought tickets to watch Bill France's spectacle on Daytona Beach back in the 1940's, what would we all be doing today? Football's fun, Baseball's great, Basketball's ok, but to me there is only one fantastic sport.

Fantastic is what stock car racing is, the way NASCAR does it. It could be better, but it's still the greatest show on earth, once again, in my humble opinion.