All Purpose NASCAR Thread

Congrats, Jay -- very happy for you! That's terrific.

 

Jay, when you can get me a gig down there, let me know. I'm hating this snow.

 

Saw the first edition of that NASCAR Now show last night. Hideous. Eric Kuselias is grating. Makes me yearn for (gulp) Totally NASCAR.

 

second that wicked, EK needs to find some decaf and Rusty Wallace needs to find a damn brain

 

Now waitaminute...are you insinuating that a crew chief will blow a motor on purpose solely for the purpose of putting a brand-new engine in the car in an effort to gain an advantage on the field? Why, why that would be downright dishonest it would...

 

Kuselias sucks on radio and blows on television. I can think of several people who would be better for that job.

What happens when/if NASCAR Now breaks a news item France & Helton would prefer not be reported? Would F&H be able to just blow the show up a la NASCAR Nation, or is the deal with ESPN different from the one Speed/Fox had?

 

Kuselias always has been annoying, and he fits in with a fine ESPN Radio tradition that includes Freddie Coleman (who doesn't know the English language) and John Seibel, among others. Oy.

So I tuned in to the last segment tonight. Unoriginally, they do the schtick that now pervades every ESPN "news" program, "Fact or Fiction." The last question: "Will Dale Earnhardt Jr. be driving for Toyota in 2008?" Dumbass question, I'd think. So Rusty Wallace and Tim Brewer say fiction -- then you have Kuselias railing on about it for another minute that Toyota could buy away Junior. Now, of course that is possible. But it's not realistic as of now. Do their producers follow NASCAR news? Both sides have said they are working on the specifics of a deal for more than a month.

And NASCAR Nation just sucked. Don't remember it being blown up because of "tough" reporting.

 

Are you thinking of NASCAR Nation, the nightly news show with Ralph Sheheen and Krista Voda that Speed aired in the first half of the 2005 season, or are you thinking of NASCAR Nation, the once-a-week feature-y "lite" type of thing with Lee Ann Tweeden, Craig Reynolds and Shannon Spake that Speed aired in the second half of the 2005 season?

NASCAR Nation did such a good job trying to grill Robin Pemberton two months or so after Johnny Sauter got mysteriously DQ'd after the fact from the Texas Busch race1 that suddenly, Speed couldn't clean that house fast enough to please somebody. Apparently Helton was upset that the incident was even mentioned on TV.

For a week in June, Speed showed repeats and then the new, not-so-improved version debuted.

BS DQ, to this day. He had a legal carburetor through several pre-race inspections, but after the race the carb was suddenly too big.

For the record, Sauter finished 14th that day, a lap off the pace.

1 And brought up the name of now-former NASCAR inspector Woody Neese (whose departure was connected to the incident2) in their reportage. Helton believed that NN broke that little tidbit, but NN was passing along something the Charlotte paper reported first.
2 I have been told that Neese, who was in charge of engine inspections, was the inspector who found the illegal carb in postrace inspection after every other inspector had approved it. However, I have also been told that Neese was not the inspector who approved the carb on Thursday before the race and sealed it.

 

I watched NASCAR Now last night (tivoed it actually) and I didn't want to say anything. It was sort of like seeing an ugly baby and, instead of speaking the truth, just not saying anything at all.

I used to love that Sports Bash show (when I could hear it in NC) with Kuselias. Even liked the radio show with he and his brother (Sports Brothers?). But he was waaaay too wound up on NASCAR Now...just calm down, speak clearly and take a few deep breaths. I think that would make the show better. Same goes for Rusty.

I'm sure the show will get better as the season goes on and the talent gets more comfortable.

By the way, I don't think it was NASCAR Nation that was blown up -- wasn't it that show with the media debates (Poole, et al) that was a "Sports Reporters"-type deal? It was called pit lizards or something like that, right? Someone help me out here...

 

Was thinking of both, but I had not seen heard about the Johnny Sauter incident. Interesting.

 

Jeff, Pit Bull. I loved it the one or two times that they had Robin Miller on, and Miller was tearing NASCAR to shreds. Also was were Marty Smith got his TV start, IIRC.

 

I remember Pit Bull from 2004, but that was a different show than NASCAR Nation, which aired in '05. Pit Bull was the show with Mike Mulhern, Marty Smith and David Poole that Jimmy Spencer called "anti-NASCAR" --- hell, if JS didn't like it they must've been doing something right.