NASCAR on TV this week

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SPEED’s Action is Tops, While ESPN Needs to Expand Coverage

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Hello, race fans. Welcome back to Couch Potato Tuesday, where race telecast criticism is the main topic of discussion. I’m back from a one-week hiatus imposed because I was in Watkins Glen for the Sprint Cup weekend there, representing Frontstretch. While I was there, I had originally planned to gather information in order to completely update/replace the article I wrote back in 2009 that goes behind the scenes of ESPN’s telecasts. The idea was that since technology modernizes at a substantial rate these days, ESPN would have had to modernize their own setup as well. However, ESPN refused to allow me access to the TV Compound, or to interview anyone associated with the network’s NASCAR telecasts.

Kenny Wallace Driver Diary: Taking Care of Business On and Off-Track

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We just got dirt racing this year. The DIRTCar Summer Nationals for the modifieds (is a series of races where the points are for) your ten best races. We had run nine races. I really like the Summer Nationals because they race a lot during the summer-28 races in 32 days. I wasn’t thinking about the championship, but we just got to racing and all of a sudden we started winning. We won like three out of five and all of a sudden I looked and I was only 39 points out of the lead. Well, my competitors had all already run ten or more. So I decided to go for the championship.

It was a crazy story because on Saturday, I had to be at a one hour Speed TV production meeting at Loudon. So, I came to the meeting and the stars aligned perfectly: Tony Stewart was flying to Eldora and the plane was literally going right over Toledo. So Tony just let me ride in his airplane, he didn’t even ask for any money, and they landed and dropped me off. Now, my guys were in Indiana. I told them to turn around, and they turned around and drove five hours the other way. We showed up, ran second in our heat. It was a 25-lap feature and we led like 18 or 19 laps and then my car picked up a big push—I guess we had it adjusted wrong—and we finished sixth and pulled it off.

Potts’ Shots: Bobbling Busch, Last Lap Push, and Hello — Where’s The Yellow?!

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Lots of questions this week, most of them in personal questions and phone calls from long-time acquaintances, regarding NASCAR’s handling of the final laps at Watkins Glen.

First, the question of whether it’s safe to continue racing on a road course has to be left up to race control, and they have to depend on their observers and course marshals. In my own experience, on a short track, and even up to a 1.5-mile if you’re in a good enough position in the flagstand to see the whole course, the flagman can make that call.

Vexing Vito: Petty’s Saving Grace?

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Marcos Ambrose winning the Finger Lakes 355 at Watkins Glen could not have come at a better time for Richard Petty Motorsports. After spending the better part of the summer dealing with Dodge and trying to secure a deal for 2013, they were caught off guard a bit by the brand’s announcement that they were bailing at the end of this season.

Without a manufacturer in place for 2013, that has put the team who has been on unstable ground for the last three seasons in another pickle. The delay in commiting has as Richard Petty put it, “shuffled them around.” Winning, however, has a way of smoothing things over.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Power Rankings: Top 15 After Watkins Glen

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The caution never flew, but the oil did, and it made for one hell of a race. Whether or not Kyle Busch “deserved” that race doesn’t matter, because Marcos Ambrose was able to last through the chaos and make it to Victory Lane for the second time in his career. Meanwhile, the rest of us were left blue in the face after having held our breath the entire last lap. Oh, but it was so worth it!

So what about our Power Rankings? Did Ambrose’s victory move him up our rankings or did the voters have another driver in mind? Continue reading to find out…

Potts’ Shots: Paying The Price In NASCAR, On The Track And Off

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I suppose, Billy that it’s much the same as everybody’s take on the situation. It’s sad. The guy made a serious mistake, and now he’s paying for it. Also, like everyone else, I have some questions myself. He says a “friend” gave him a pill, supposedly Adderall, and said it was an energy supplement, like you would take prior to a workout.

What does AJ think this is, high school? Even though it was more than 50 years ago, I can remember somebody handing me a pill and saying, “Try this, you’ll love it.” I was lucky. My father was a salesman for a pharmaceutical wholesaler, and I had been exposed to a lot of knowledge of what could happen. That pill went into the next trash can down the hall.