Notebook: IRS files tax lien against Mayfield
The Internal Revenue Service and the North Carolina Department of Revenue have both field tax liens on Jeremy Mayfield and his wife Shana Mayfield for unpaid taxes from 2006 and 2008, a sum of nearly $300,000.
The IRS filed a tax lien on Mayfield’s property in March will the North Carolina Department of Revenue made their filing in February. Both tax documents were filed in the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Mayfield is currently in a lawsuit with NASCAR to challenge an indefinite suspension from the sport after he failed a random drug test, which was positive for methamphetamine.
The suspended driver/owner also owes $371,973 to Bill Diehl, who once represented Mayfield in his NASCAR case. A hearing for this lawsuit is scheduled for Thursday.
Mayfield also owes $177,320 to Arrington Manufacturing, Impact Racing and Triad Racing Technologies.
Edwards plans to continue tradition of biking to Gateway
Carl Edwards will continue his yearly bike ride to the Gateway International Raceway Nationwide Series race, a trip that’s nearly 200 miles long.
“We’re going to try to do that again,” Edwards said last night during a radio interview with Sirius-XM NASCAR Radio. “The group has gotten bigger and bigger each year and I got a new Trek bicycle, it’s really nice, that they’re going to let me use for the ride. We’ve got a couple of people who say they’re going to go. [Driver] Max Papis says he’s going to go. Jim Schertzer from Scotts [Miracle-Gro Company] says he’s going to go. I’m trying to get some of the Aflac folks to commit to it but it’s a fun trip, man. We always try to do something fun like that during the summer, take a little trip, and that’s a good one.
The Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 at Gateway International Raceway is set to take place on July 17.
ESPN’s Nationwide Series TV Rating down
Ratings for the Nashville 300 last Saturday were down from last year’s, according to ESPN. The final rating for the telecast was a 1.1, down from a 1.3 last year. The broadcast drew a national audience of 1,378,643 viewers.
ESPN posts double digit ratings increases for Nationwide series
It’s been a good year for NASCAR on ESPN, so far. The self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports posted 19-percent ratings increase over the first two Nationwide Series events this year.
Last weekend’s race at Auto Club Speedway was seen by an average of 2,282,563 viewers, earning a final rating of 1.7, which is actually down from the 1.9 rating the race had received last year on the ESPN2 network.
The ratings increase for the series differs from Fox, who has seen single digit rating drops for the first two Sprint Cup Series races of the season.
The increase in ratings may be attributed to the debut of Danica Patrick, who has raced in the both of the events so far this season. Patrick will race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend before taking a break to focus on the upcoming IZOD IndyCar Series season.
TV mistake misleads fans, Harvick at the Budweiser Shootout
When you televise as many races and events as Fox and their sister network SPEED have, you’re bound to make a mistake sooner or later. This time, the mistake confused both fans and some drivers.
“The entry blank was ‘green-white-checkered’ one attempt.”
—Kerry Tharp
During the two Budweiser Shootout practice sessions, as well as other moments of their coverage from this weekend, Fox and SPEED had explained that the Budweiser Shootout had to end under a green flag. However, when NASCAR only gave one go at the green-white-checker, fans began scratching their heads when the race was declared over.
The blunder by the broadcast network even caused eventual race winner Kevin Harvick to become a little confused when the caution came out as the field took the white flag on Saturday, thus ending the race under yellow.
Drivers are introduced prior to the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway on February 6, 2010 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR)
“I was a little bit off kilter on that one,” Harvick said in his post-race press conference. “They knew. But I thought myself, I didn’t say a word on the radio. That’s why I didn’t say a word. I read on something somewhere, it wasn’t the entry blank, I know that for sure, but I read race will end under green. Maybe it was on a TV telecast as I was delusional sleeping in bed on Thursday. I don’t know. Maybe I dreamed it. But they knew what was going on. As long as they know what’s going on.”
Kasey Kahne and Jamie McMurray were also asked about the confusion that arose as a result of the mistake made by Fox. This was their exchange:
KASEY KAHNE: I’m happy I’m right here. I mean, I don’t know. I thought it was ‘green-white-checkered’.
JAMIE McMURRAY: I’m the same way. On TV it said it must end under green. There wouldn’t have been anything left. They would have just kept wrecking.
KASEY KAHNE: In the drivers meeting they did say one attempt at a two-lap ‘green-white-checkered’. That’s what I understood. The way it ended was normal.
After the race, NASCAR spokesperson Ramsey Poston confirmed on his Twitter account that it was clearly stated in the pre-race driver’s meeting that there would only be one attempt at a green-white-checker finish.
A total of 76-laps were ran in the race that was originally scheduled to go just 75 laps.
SPEED Sets Broad NASCAR Foundation for 2010
(SPEED TV PR)
With a slate of new programs, an updated and enhanced Web presence and an upgraded 14,400-square-foot, at-track production and interactive marketing compound offering more to race fans than ever before, SPEED is putting the finishing touches on the most ambitious NASCAR on SPEED season in network history.
Coming off a season of record Nielsen ratings for six NASCAR programs, including its live coverage of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, SPEED plans to keep the momentum moving forward in 2010.
“This isn’t a once-a-year process at SPEED,” said network President Hunter Nickell. “Developing and strengthening ideas across all of our NASCAR on SPEED platforms is ongoing … ideas coming to fruition over the next few weeks were born months ago and ideas just now being discussed will roll out later this year. SPEED is never ‘finished’ when it comes to finding the next cool way to connect with NASCAR fans.”
This week, SPEED signed former NASCAR driver Kyle Petty to a new multiyear deal that will position the veteran television personality with John Roberts, Kenny Wallace and Wendy Venturini on the popular NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pre-race show, NASCAR RaceDay Built by The Home Depot. Petty also will appear on the post-race program, NASCAR Victory Lane, and continue his role on the popular game show, NASCAR Smarts.
“I drove a car for 30 years but my interaction with fans last year seemed double that of what it was my entire career because there are so many fans who come to the SPEED Stage and stand around when nothing on-track is going on, just waiting for something to happen,” Petty said. “Just talking to fans and seeing their perspective. Sometimes you have a perspective of the sport — and mine was always inside those four fences of the garages and inside that circle — but to step outside that offers a little different perspective. I now can see why fans say certain things or do certain things or act certain ways where before I didn’t understand it at all.”
As the season gets underway, SPEED is dedicating much of its effort to strengthening its Monday Night NASCAR lineup, with the following rotation beginning Feb. 15 — NASCAR Race Hub (7:30 & 11:30 p.m. ET), NASCAR in a Hurry – Monday Edition (8 p.m. ET) and a new 30-minute talk show with fan favorite Jimmy Spencer, entitled What’s the Deal?, at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Nicky Morse, The Racing Chef, will join the NASCAR on SPEED team in 2010, visiting restaurants around the race track and highlighting the culinary expertise of race fans who take enormous pride in their campground feasts.
“They are very dedicated and very, very competitive,” said Morse, who will be featured on NASCAR Race Hub to open the season. “Somebody is going to cook 100 pounds of crawfish at their boil, so the next person wants to cook 200 pounds and some shrimp. They are very competitive, but they are very generous. I’ve never walked through the infield or a campground where someone doesn’t invite you in to sample what they are cooking.”
Three additional Monday night NASCAR shows are in development, with a planned rollout following the Las Vegas racing weekend.
Race replays for all three NASCAR national touring series are scheduled throughout the week, beginning with an encore presentation of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Mondays at noon. Tuesday nights, SPEED will air a cut-down version of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, tentatively titled NASCAR Fast Laps, at 8 p.m. ET. The full Cup race will re-air Wednesdays at noon and the full NASCAR Nationwide Series race replay will air Thursdays at noon. In addition, SPEED will air NASCAR Classics on Thursdays at 3 p.m. ET.
In addition to its weekly NASCAR on SPEED lineup, SPEED will continue to be the home for the Gatorade Duel at Daytona, the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, all three NASCAR national touring series awards ceremonies and the NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
The only title not returning in 2010 will be the long-running This Week in NASCAR.
“Everyone at SPEED has a tremendous amount of respect for this franchise,” said Steve Craddock, SPEED SVP of Programming. “While it went through several hosts, set designs and even titles, the basic concept of a little Monday night bench racing amongst friends remained the cornerstone of the production. SPEED grew up with this series, spinning off ideas and building what has grown into NASCAR on SPEED 2010. We owe a lot to this show and the teams that have worked on it over the years.”
At the race track, the SPEED Stage continues its evolution, as the network teams with Jay Howard Enterprises (JHE) and GMR Marketing to deliver a one-of-a-kind fan experience. First producing shoulder programming from the track in 2004, the original effort took only a single tractor trailer and two JHE employees to deliver. In 2010, the five-tractor-trailer effort now rolls in with three SPEED Stages and a lineup of interactive fan activities, where ‘SPEED Fanatics’ (my.speedtv.com) can experience what its like to operate a camera, sit on mock sets and get autographs from SPEED personalities and other NASCAR stars.
SPEEDtv.com, the online motorsports authority, also is strengthening its NASCAR offerings, recently hiring five-time NMPA writer of the year Mike Hembree to serve as NASCAR editor under award-winning Editor-in-Chief Tom Jensen. Hembree, who most recently worked at NASCAR Scene, also is a three-time winner of the Russ Catlin Award.
“Mike is one of the most talented and respected journalists in NASCAR, a great writer and reporter for more than two decades,” Jensen said. “We are extremely fortunate to have him on board at SPEEDtv.com.”
In addition to strengthening its editorial staff for 2010, and its continued content relationship with NASCAR.com, SPEEDtv.com is working on a number of initiatives aimed at enhancing its NASCAR position, including:
- Fantasy racing and statistical support
- Enhanced standings, results and race schedules
- Re-designed homepage and article templates
- More original and related content and features
SPEED™, anchored by its popular and wide-ranging coverage of NASCAR, is the nation’s first and only cable television network dedicated to automotive and motorcycle racing, performance and lifestyle. Now available in more than 79 million homes in North America, SPEED is among the industry leaders in interactive TV, video on demand, mobile initiatives and broadband services. For more information, please visit SPEEDtv.com, the online motor sports authority.
ABC will only air three Cup Series races this season
CORRECTION: This article originally stated that ABC would not air any Nationwide Series events in 2010. This information was incorrect. Please see the final paragraph of this article for further clarification.
The Worldwide Leader in Sports, ESPN, announced today that only one race in the Sprint Cup Series chase for the Sprint Cup 10-race series will be shown on ABC affiliates this season. This is a change from years past in which ABC was the home for the entire Chase series. ABC will show two other races, both Saturday night events at Bristol Motor Speedway and Richmond International Raceway. The fifth Chase race at Charlotte Motor Speedway will be the only chase event shown on ABC. The other 14 events will be televised on ESPN.
“This is exciting news for NASCAR and our fans,” NASCAR Media Group President Paul Brooks said. “The ESPN subscriber base is larger than ever at nearly 100 million, and the network has the proven ability to attract younger viewers. As the premier network during the most competitive time of the year for sports, having more NASCAR races on ESPN will create more exposure.”
The three Saturday night, prime-time events will be used in conjunction with College Football and the Little League World Series to provide 16 consecutive weeks prime-time sports events on Saturday nights on ABC.
ESPN will begin televising their portion of the schedule at Indianapolis in July. The station’s race preview program, NASCAR Countdown, will also be moved to ESPN2 for races that start at 1 p.m. ET during football season so ESPN can air their Sunday NFL Countdown show on ESPN. For all other races, ESPN says, NASCAR Countdown will air on the station in which the race is scheduled to broadcast.
The Nationwide Series will feature a select number of races on ESPN and ABC, while a majority will be aired on ESPN2. The final broadcast schedule for the Nationwide Series is still to be determined and will be announced at a later date.
2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Schedule on ESPN Networks (All Times Eastern)
| DATE (Day) | LOCATION | NETWORK | TIME |
| July 25 (Sun.) | Indianapolis Motor Speedway | ESPN | 1 p.m. |
| Aug. 1 (Sun.) | Pocono Raceway | ESPN | 1 p.m. |
| Aug. 8 (Sun.) | Watkins Glen International | ESPN | 1 p.m. |
| Aug. 15 (Sun.) | Michigan International Speedway | ESPN | 1 p.m. |
| Aug. 21 (Sat.) | Bristol Motor Speedway | ABC | 7:30 p.m. |
| Sept. 5 (Sun.) | Atlanta Motor Speedway | ESPN | 7:30 p.m. |
| Sept. 11 (Sat.) | Richmond International Raceway | ABC | 7:30 p.m. |
| Sept. 19 (Sun.) | New Hampshire Motor Speedway | ESPN | 1 p.m. |
| Sept. 26 (Sun.) | Dover International Speedway | ESPN | 1 p.m. |
| Oct. 3 (Sun.) | Kansas Speedway | ESPN | 1 p.m. |
| Oct. 10 (Sun.) | Auto Club Speedway | ESPN | 3 p.m. |
| Oct. 16 (Sat.) | Charlotte Motor Speedway | ABC | 7:30 p.m. |
| Oct. 24 (Sun.) | Martinsville Speedway | ESPN | 1 p.m. |
| Oct. 31 (Sun.) | Talladega Superspeedway | ESPN | 1 p.m. |
| Nov. 7 (Sun.) | Texas Motor Speedway | ESPN | 1 p.m. |
| Nov. 14 (Sun.) | Phoenix International Raceway | ESPN | 3 p.m. |
| Nov. 21 (Sun.) | Homestead-Miami Speedway | ESPN | 1 p.m. |
Showtime’s ‘Inside NASCAR’ will be readily available
Showtime’s new weekly “Inside NASCAR” show will be available via the Internet and mobile phone, which required clearance from NASCAR’s rights holders in that space.
NASCAR Media Group, which manages those multimedia rights, had to clear the broadcast of “Inside NASCAR” with its TV, web and mobile partners before giving final approval for the new show, which will run for 38 weeks a year on the premium channel.
“It’s the first time that all of our rights holders were in total alignment on an idea,” said Jay Abraham, the group’s COO. “They saw the value of this concept for the sport, and they worked with us to navigate what’s a pretty complicated rights landscape in a short period of time to get this done.”
NASCAR’s TV broadcast rights are with Fox, Turner Sports and ESPN, while its web rights are with Turner and the mobile rights are with Turner and Sprint. All of those deals run through 2014.
Turner originally owned all of the mobile rights but has subleased much of them to Sprint, the top series title sponsor.
“Inside NASCAR” will debut Feb. 10 on Showtime, and it also will be available on Showtime On Demand and Showtime’s website, sho.com. Plans for the show’s mobile distribution are being formalized, but Abraham said the show will be available in its entirety on mobile handsets.
Michael Smith is a reporter with SportsBusiness Journal.
Fox, Time Warner Cable reach agreement in principle
Nearly a day after Fox was set to pull the plug on its programming on Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks channel lineups, the two sides announced that they have reached an agreement in principle on Friday night an hour before the Sugar Bowl kickoff.
“We’re pleased that, after months of negotiations, we were able to reach a fair agreement with Time Warner Cable — one that recognizes the value of our programming,” News Corporation’s deputy chairman, president and COO Chase Careysaid in a joint statement with Time Warner Cable.
Time Warner Cable’s CEO, president and chairman Glenn Britt continued to say, “We’re happy to have reached a reasonable deal with no disruption in programming for our customers.”
Despite the intense negotiations and heavy negative advertisement campaigns each company employed against each other, customers on both cable companies did not live without their Fox programming the entire time.
Fox’s parent company News Corp. threatened that it would take its channels off of Time Warner’s and Bright House’s lineups if a deal was not reached. However, Time Warner Cable, which also operates Bright House, said that it would continue to air its programming by retransmitting their signals from over-the-air and fiber optics, instead of using a satellite to receive Fox’s feed.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Fox was rumored to have requested one-dollar per subscriber for each of their channels. Time Warner Cable’s reported counter-offer was 30-cents per subscriber.
UPDATE 4 (1/01/10 at 5:39 p.m. ET): According to the Wall Street Journal the two sides are nearing an agreement that should be completed by tonight to avoid a blackout of Fox stations on Time Warner and Bright House Cable. The Journal is citing sources who are “familiar with the matter.” The paper is owned by News Corp., which is also the parent company of Fox.
UPDATE 3 (1/01/10 at 3:50 p.m. ET): Fox and Time Warner Cable have extended their deadline, again. The new deadline is 6 p.m. ET. Both sides hope to reach a deal before the 8:30 p.m. ET start of tonight’s college football bowl game (The Sugar Bowl).
UPDATE 2 (1/01/10 at 1:10 p.m. ET): Fox channels are still available on Time Warner Cable’s channel lineup as of now. Both companies continue to negotiate.
UPDATE 1 (12/31/09 at 11:52 p.m. ET): Time Warner Cable and Fox have agreed to a three-hour extension past their original midnight deadline. The new agreement moves a deadline for a new agreement to 3 a.m. ET.
With just a few hours remaining before their current deal expires, the Federal Communications Commission released a statement urging Time Warner Cable to agree to a short-term deal with Fox to avoid over 14 million cable subscribers around the country from losing their Fox-owned stations.
“I have urged Fox and Time Warner Cable to agree to a temporary extension of carriage if they do not come to terms on a new carriage agreement today, in order to prevent disruption to their viewers,” FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement released on New Year’s Eve. “Companies shouldn’t force cable-watching football fans to scramble for other means of TV delivery on New Year’s weekend.”
The request for a short-term agreement comes just after Sinclair Broadcasting and Mediacom, America’s eighth-largest cable company, agreed to an eight-day extension to prevent Sinclair’s stations from being pulled from Mediacom’s cable system.
Sinclair owns local television affiliates from Fox, ABC, MyTv, The CW, CBS and NBC in over 58 markets, reaching 22 percent of televisions in the country.
“I commend Sinclair and Mediacom for agreeing to an eight-day extension of their retransmission consent agreement, which was set to expire tonight,” Genachowski said. “This extension, to midnight January 8, 2010, will avert the frustration that Mediacom customers would have experienced if Sinclair stations had ceased to be available over Mediacom systems at midnight tonight. It will give Sinclair and Mediacom additional time to resolve their negotiations successfully, as hundreds of other broadcasters and cable companies have done throughout the country, so that viewers will have uninterrupted access to popular broadcast programming.”
Time Warner Cable and Fox’s current agreement expires at midnight on Jan. 1. If an agreement is not reached, all of Fox’s national and regional networks, as well as many Fox-owned local stations will no longer be available on America’s largest cable provider. The two sides have been negotiating since this past summer to reach an agreement.
According to a website set up by Time Warner Cable, www.keeponfox.com, Fox is trying to increase their former rate by over 300 percent. Fox, however, denies this claim on their website, www.keepfoxon.com, saying, “Time Warner must be referring to one of their other negotiations, because 300% is off by a large multiple.”
“It’s unfortunate that Time Warner Cable has yet to offer us reasonable compensation for Fox’s programming, and regrettably, because of its decision, viewers may miss the Fox BCS games, the NFL on Fox, American Idol and more,” Fox added in a statement. “We sincerely hope Time Warner Cable reconsiders its position prior to the expiration of the agreement tonight and doesn’t deny its customers this marquee programming.”
Fox broadcasts many sporting events and some of America’s most watched TV shows on its nearly 20 TV networks and over a dozen local affiliates. In addition to NFL and BCS games, the broadcast giant offers MLB’s World Series and NASCAR’s Daytona 500, as well as TV hits American Idol and House, M.D.
Bright House Networks, a smaller cable company, is also in negotiations with Fox to prevent a loss in signal. Their contract also expires at midnight on New Year’s Day.
NASCAR fans innocent victims in Time Warner/Fox battle
Come January 1, 2010, over 14 million cable customers will no longer have Fox networks. Fox, of course, televises many of sports’s biggest events, including a large bulk of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule. Unless Time Warner Cable and Fox can come to a deal and renew their contract over the next three days, many NASCAR fans will be without their Sprint Cup Series until June, when TNT and ESPN take over.
Even more greatly effected is the Camping World Truck Series, which has boasted improved ratings each year it has been on SPEED. However, The SPEED Channel, which is owned by FOX, may go “dark” in the new year, which could end that streak promptly.
According to numerous internet reports, Fox now wants cable companies to pay their local Fox stations a monthly fee along with a fee for their other regional and national networks, such as FX, SPEED and the Fox Reality Channel. The change of charging an extra monthly fee for Fox’s local stations would only apply in some markets, as Fox does not own every local Fox affiliate. However, people that live in Dallas, Los Angeles and New York will be among those affected.
The added fee is believed to cause a 300 percent increase over the price that Time Warner paid Fox in their previous agreement. Time Warner, however, says they will not pay the added fee because it will in turn force them to raise their customer’s monthly bill. Fox, on the other hand, claims that the nation’s second-largest cable provider is more than able to pay the extra price for their networks.
With all of this at hand, NASCAR fans could be one of the many innocent victims in this battle that appears to have no resolution in site. With the season-opening Daytona 500 less than two months away, this disagreement is sure to cause an uproar amongst NASCAR fans, who join NFL and MLB fans as those who will be greatly affected by this clash.
Punch returns to pit reporter, Reid takes the lead at ESPN
Marty Reid, whose 28-year career with ESPN has touched all forms of motorsports the network has covered, will expand his role and join analysts Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the booth as lap-by-lap announcer for ESPN’s full season of NASCAR coverage in 2010. Reid will call the action for all 17 of ESPN’s NASCAR Sprint Cup races as well as many of the network’s NASCAR Nationwide Series telecasts. He was lap-by-lap announcer for ESPN’s IndyCar Series coverage and selected NASCAR Nationwide Series races in 2009.
Returning to a role he helped define for ESPN for more than 20 years, Dr. Jerry Punch will join ESPN’s team of pit reporters for 2010, working both Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races. Punch was lap-by-lap announcer for ESPN’s Sprint Cup coverage the past three years.
“This group gives us the most versatile and comprehensive team in motorsports, and strengthens us in the booth,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, studio and event production.
“We play to the strengths of our announcers, and Marty’s strength is calling the tactical aspects of the race while deferring to the analysts.
“And from the early days of our NASCAR coverage, Jerry helped evolve the significant role that reporting from the pits plays,” Williamson said. “He will bolster our already-strong stable of pit reporters.”
All other members of the NASCAR on ESPN race coverage team will return in 2010, including analysts Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty, Tim Brewer and Ray Evernham, NASCAR Countdown host Allen Bestwick and pit reporters Dave Burns, Jamie Little, Mike Massaro, Shannon Spake and Vince Welch. Specific assignments and schedules will be announced later.
In addition to his expanded role with NASCAR, Reid will continue as the lap-by-lap announcer for ESPN’s five-race IndyCar Series schedule, including the Indianapolis 500.
ESPN’s 2010 NASCAR season begins with live, flag-to-flag coverage of the NASCAR Nationwide Series opener at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, Feb. 13. The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race on ESPN’s schedule is at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 25.
Showtime to begin weekly NASCAR series next year
(SHOWTIME PR)
NEW YORK—SHOWTIME Sports has signed a multi-year deal with NASCAR, America’s No. 1 spectator sport, to produce and televise premium television’s first weekly highlights and analysis show dedicated to auto racing. “Inside NASCAR” will premiere on Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010 (10 p.m. ET/PT) on SHOWTIME® immediately following the season finale of Inside The NFL, and will consist of 38 one-hour episodes corresponding with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ 38-week season.
Produced in conjunction with the Emmy® Award winning NASCAR Media Group, Inside NASCAR will be taped at the new, state-of-the-art production facility at NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C. The host and analysts for Inside NASCAR are to be announced in the coming weeks.
“NASCAR is one of the most powerful sports brands in the country,” said Ken Hershman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, SHOWTIME Sports, “and we are proud to team up with them on this compelling new series.”
Inside NASCAR will feature narrated highlights and in-depth analysis from each week’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, exclusive audio and video of never-before-seen aspects of race week and in-depth feature stories plus forecasts on upcoming races and opinions on America’s No. 1 form of motorsports.
Inside NASCAR is a natural extension of regularly scheduled SHOWTIME Sports programming, which includes the Emmy® Award winning Inside The NFL, live boxing and mixed martial arts events, and the critically acclaimed, behind-the-scenes documentary series Fight Camp 360°: Inside The Super Six World Boxing Classic, among other titles.
“Given the level of access to drivers, tracks and teams afforded by NASCAR, we can offer something truly unique to both hard core and casual race fans,” said Hershman. “We’ll take viewers into new areas of the sport, into the hearts and minds of the world class drivers and teams, and give them inside access to stock car racing and NASCAR like never before.”
“SHOWTIME really understands these back stage, inside access shows,” said Jay Abraham, Chief Operation Officer, NASCAR Media Group. “Inside NASCAR will provide unique insights and sharp commentary appealing to all NASCAR fans. Partnering with a brand such as SHOWTIME for a high-end weekly NASCAR magazine news show in primetime is big news for our fans going into a brand new season.”
20 years later, pit road a safer place for crews—and media
The question gets asked nearly everytime a pit road reporter from one of the four TV networks that cover NASCAR pops in to deliver some of the happenings from the pits. That question is: “Why are they wearing fire suits?”
The simple answer can be found at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 19, 1989—20 years ago.
Dr. Jerry Punch, who currently works in the booth for ESPN’s NASCAR races, was working on pit road in his blue blazer and tie, a standard for pit road reporters at ESPN at the time. However, as he covered the pit stop of Richard Petty—whose car had a broken header pipe—a fire broke out when the car backfired and ignited fuel that had been spilled during the routine pit stop. Before Punch could react, he found himself just ten feet away from a blazing fire.
Nelson Crozier, who was working as Punch’s spotter, joined ER technician Punch as they attempted to help the situation by tending the team’s gas man, who was on fire, by wrapping him with a rubber mat.
Punch continued to help the crew member until other emergency personnel arrived. Later, he attempted to give a live report on TV. Little did he know, however, his mustache was singed and the windscreen and his polyester blazer was melted.
“As I’m doing a report on camera, my mustache that I had back then is all singed, the hair on the back of my hand is gone, my microphone windscreen is melted—it’s just dripping down across the microphone, and the sleeve on my polyester blazer is all basically melted into a goo—and all you can see is these brass buttons hanger there,” Punch said.
During the entire period these events were taking place, ABC’s coordinating producer of motorsports at the time, Geoff Mason, was watching the entire series of events unfold right on his TV set in New York.
“They had had high cameras on all of this and I don’t realize as I’m giving a report that people in the (TV) truck and people watching back at ABC in New York are just aghast that I was in the middle of this,” Punch said. “Our coordinating producer of motorsports at ABC was Geoff Mason. Geoff was watching back in NY and he immediately called the truck and asked, ‘Why in the world are our people not in fire-protective gear?’”
The Atlanta race on March 19, 1989 was the last race in which a pit road TV reporter did not wear fire protective gear. In fact, all nearly every motorsports that is televised and broadcast on radio with pit road reporters wear a fire protective suit.
Pit road safety for the pit road reporters was not the only thing that changed as a result from this accident. NASCAR also implemented numerous pit road rules to prevent accidents like this from happening in the future.
“It’s not that he (the gas man) was sloppy; that was the nature of pit stops back then,” Punch said. “You’d always see gas trickling down the side of the car and the car would leave and there’d always be a puddle of gas on the ground behind the car. They’d just put a little speedy dry on it and sweep it up.
“After that it became much more sophisticated with really, really tight dry brakes. It made it harder to gas the car. That led to a lot of safety innovations.”
So, next time a pit road reporter is show on TV in a fire-retardant suit, it is because of a call Mason made just 20 years ago.
“To this day, I’m so appreciative of Geoff Mason just steeping in and absolutely making a great call for safety first,” Punch said.
Sprint Cup and Natiownide final ratings from Homstead down
(ESPN PR)
ABC’s live coverage of the Ford 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 22 earned a final national household rating of 3.6, averaging 5,606,608 viewers. The rating was down from a 4.0 for last year’s event that also aired on ABC.
After averaging a 3.8 rating for its coverage of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in both 2007 and 2008, ABC’s average for the 10 Chase races was a 3.5 for 2009.
ESPN2’s live coverage of the NASCAR Nationwide Series Ford 300 at Homestead earned a final national household coverage rating of 1.3, down from a 1.6 rating for last year’s race that also aired on ESPN2. The telecast averaged 1,685,543 viewers.
ESPN2’s average rating for 26 NASCAR Nationwide Series race telecasts in 2009 was a 1.4, down from a 1.5 average in 2008 but even with the final average for 2007.
ABC’s overnight ratings down 11.1 percent at Homestead
Despite an increased amount of drama an excitement for the season finale, overnight ratings from the Nielsen Media Research company were down 11.1 percent when compared to last year’s ratings for the Ford 400 on ABC, according to a Street and Smith’s SportsBusiness Daily report.
The broadcast earned a 3.2 rating, which means roughly 5 million people watched the race. The Ford 400 drew a 3.6 rating last year.
The 3.2 rating is the lowest TV rating of the entire 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup Series.
TV rating for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series have been on a steep decline since 2004. In fact, ratings for the Ford 400 have dropped 43% percent from the 2004 rating of 5.2 during that time period.
Nielson releases the final TV ratings for ABC on Thursday.
ESPN: Cut the crap and display race title sponsors
When ESPN announced its return to NASCAR coverage a couple of years ago, I was excited. The network that did the best job ever of producing NASCAR coverage was finally returning after a six-year layoff, and I had missed them greatly.
I looked back fondly to the days of Bob Jenkins, Benny Parsons, and Ned Jarrett in the booth. Terry Lingner’s production of the races was always stellar, and pit reporters like Dr. Jerry Punch and Bill Weber set a standard that no reporter since has ever achieved.
While none of the old team was returning, and the few who were coming back were rejoining in different capacities, I still felt as if, once they got their act together, they’d be an upgrade over NBC since Weber took over as play-by-play announcer.
The first couple years of ESPN’s return have seen a fair share of mistakes. Some have been remedied – namely, placing Rusty Wallace in the broadcast booth, and having college football specialists host NASCAR coverage – but some, like the criminal under-utilization of Allen Bestwick, have not. (I feel as if Bestwick is a better play-by-play announcer than Punch; if I was in charge, they’d swap positions for a couple of races as an experiment.)
Now, I can forgive some of the issues with ESPN’s NASCAR coverage, even though it’s been three years and the kinks should have been worked out by now. It’s better than that infernal Digger character (and if a driver ever hits and kills Digger at 200 MPH, I think he should be given a contingency bonus). But there is one issue with the coverage that I cannot forgive, and will actively crusade against until it is remedied.
Here’s an example: “NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Pocono presented by Old Spice.”
Never has a broadcast network done something so downright money-grubbing nasty as this. ESPN circumvents both NASCAR and the race title sponsors by selling the naming rights to their broadcasts. For a race sponsor to be mentioned on TV by the ESPN announcers, they must pay ESPN as well as the race track.
If you didn’t recognize the race I named above, try the “Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500.”
That’s right; ESPN sold out broadcast rights to take away advertising time from the American Red Cross. That’s like putting a giant Nilla Wafers ad in the back of a church and using them as the body of Christ.
Let’s go a little more in depth: Check out the ESPN.com schedule pages for NASCAR’s top three series, Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Camping World Trucks. I want folks to notice something here. Even on ESPN’s website, they refuse to refer to the races by their proper names in Sprint Cup and Nationwide. They don’t even give the proper names for the races in Sprint Cup that they don’t broadcast.
But look at the Camping World Truck schedule: Everything is completely accurate. Note that the Speed Channel, not ESPN, handles Truck broadcasting duties. Obviously ESPN saw no point in devoting any energy to making a quick buck off that series.
Hell, look at Jayski.com’s series pages – the pages for the two series ESPN broadcasts have shiny new layouts; the Truck page still has Jayski’s old one.
Not only is ESPN cheating the race sponsors out of exposure during their 17 Sprint Cup and 35 Nationwide races a season, they’re showcasing bias and presenting factually incorrect reporting. What ESPN calls the races is not what they are actually called.
Metaphorically, it’s like ESPN is the mafia, charging a poor small business owner for “protection.” It’s also like calling the Super Bowl “NFL Championship Game presented by GoDaddy.com.” Does that fly with you, loyal fans?
I feel like this issue will eventually drive race sponsors away, and that’s one of the last things NASCAR needs. Why should a sponsor pay a race track all that money for exposure when ESPN won’t even mention your product unless you pony up even more?
Worse, it sets a standard that could cause even more problems as television technology improves. What if sponsors begin paying the broadcasters to superimpose their logos over the entire car?
What if McDonald’s decides to tell Burger King “up yours” and pays to have the golden arches superimposed on Tony Stewart’s hood? Would you stand for that?
It’d likely be cheaper for McDonald’s, because they wouldn’t have to pay Tony Stewart anything, but it’d make it pointless for the sponsors to pay any of the race teams directly. With no race teams, you can’t run a race. I know this is an exaggeration, but it is the path on which we’re headed.
We all know that NASCAR is driven by money, but there needs to be a line. I have no problem with ESPN tagging a phrase like “Broadcast presented by Old Spice” onto the end of the race name, but the current system is ridiculous, unethical, and compromises any journalistic integrity ESPN’s NASCAR coverage has. Somebody – be it the NASCAR or the FCC – needs to step up and put an end to this.
ABC’s rating from Kansas drops 8.6-percent
ESPN PR
ABC’s live coverage of Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Kansas Speedway earned a final national household rating of 3.2, down from the 3.5 rating for last year’s race that also aired on ABC. Sunday’s telecast averaged 5,252,060 viewers. The rating rose from the 2.6 overnight rating that was reported Monday.
ESPN2’s live coverage of Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Kansas Speedway earned a final national household coverage rating of 1.2, down from the 1.3 rating for last year’s race that also aired on ESPN2. Saturday’s telecast averaged 1,545,275 viewers. The Kansas race was the first Nationwide Series event to be down in ratings after five consecutive races on ESPN2 to be up from last year’s race or corresponding weekend.
