Nationwide Series set to debut, so where’s the announce team??
Quote selected text Published December 27th, 2007 in NASCAR News
There is a big shift this season in NASCAR’s second-tier national series. As fans know, Busch Beer is gone and coming on-board as the new series sponsor is the insurance company, Nationwide.
This transition is completely different from the NEXTEL-to-Sprint change that the Cup Series will undergo for the 2008 season. While that is the merger of two cell phone giants, Nationwide comes aboard out of the blue and steps directly into the NASCAR spotlight.
One key element for Nationwide in sponsoring this series is that all of the races are carried on the ESPN family of TV networks. That consistency is what NASCAR always wanted for this series, and what only ESPN can deliver. The media company has designated ESPN2 as the “home” of the Busch Series, with an occasional race stepping-up to both ESPN and ABC Sports.
After Nationwide came along, ESPN pledged support for the overall effort to turn this brand around and NASCAR pledged to get some consistency in the rules about who can compete in the series. NASCAR desperately needs to turn this series from a Cup practice session into a full-fledged national caliber racing series. 2008 is a pivotal year.
Along those lines, the ESPN PR group has a well-written press release out about the series, including the new schedule and the details of their efforts for this second year of live national TV coverage. The information details the extensive TV distribution and the high-tech electronic toys that the network will bring to their coverage.
While this press release is interesting for what it contains, it is much more interesting for what it is missing. Nowhere in the nine paragraphs of ESPN information about the Nationwide Series are there the names of the ESPN TV announce team. There is not even the name of one ESPN on-air NASCAR personality.
More at The Daly Planet
- JGR to announce Logano replacing Stewart on Monday
- Nationwide Series Logo unveiled
- Logano impresses in Nationwide debut
- Hamlin puts JGR back in Nationwide win column at Dover
- Marlin replaces Sauter at Phoenix Racing
Hey for real, I’ll take the job, if its anything to do with racing, im interested, I know ALOT about racing !!! =-) and race the local tracks myself !!!!
Interesting. I am sure the guys who do things on the cup side will take care of the Nationwide Series as well. Allthough it is a little odd that they didn’t mention names in the press release.
I saw this this morning and I have to say it seems like this guy is making a big deal out of nothing. We all know that Rusty is going to be in the booth, and we all know that Dr Punch and Allen Bestwick are going to be part of the coverage, what more do we need to know?
Dear NASCAR Gods, please, oh PLEASE don’t let it be Crusty. Or those no-talent hacks from ESPN. I promise I will be a good and loyal fan all year if you do this for me. Thank you.
put a monkey in there, it would be a step up from rusty wallace
There is something in the full article that is not posted here that says something along the lines that this crew is doing around 50 races a year plus all the pratice and stuff, and they just like any other announce team get burnt out.
Which is a good point.
I agree rusty sucks…. couldnt stand him as a driver hate even worse now.
Please, get a better announcer team than last year. If I hear Rusty say Hot Rod one more time, I’m gonna shot myself. Hey, maybe thats why the ratings have dropped, the bad announcers. Get Kyle Petty in there for the Busch Series
Ditto on the Rusty comments.
And not to sound racist, but what the hell is the deal with that black guy Brad Dougherty? He’s about as interesting as….a bag of sand.
At least Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo makes us laugh…
True donny and brent musburger wtf…. makes me think of march maddness lol
lol yea its not racist at all. hes jus as exciting callin a race as the white guys. they all give a bag of sand a bad name lol. they jus talk like they readin off lines. it sucks. if they put some emotion behind it (brad) and stopped repeating everything over an over (rusty). the coverage might be decent. alan bestwick is ok. but they shoulda left him on inside nextel cup. i dont like dave despain in every show. its makes it boring. espn has great technology they jus need people wit some emotion behind it to show its true potential
Guys, it could be a heck of a lot worse for announcing teams but I wish we could recruit some of those people from Eurosport who do all of the different sports car and formula car races. I have the fortunate pleasure to only watch their Atlantic telecasts online but they can make a 50-minute Atlantic race WAY more exciting than anyone could put on a 3-hour NASCAR warm-up session (a.k.a. the Grand National Series).
I would like to see old D.W. and his gang, I didnt care for rusty’s bunch they were uninteresting and a dead bunch. DW’ s
gang always kept thing going and made it funny. you need a bunch that are not just bla bla and add to the race news and keep things on the lively side.
Landersfastone
Honestly DW isn’t much better then Rusty.
I want Eli Gold and Bob Jenkins in the booth with Dr Punch, Bestwick and Despain on pit road with Wally and Larry Mac doing the infield stuff. And BTW that is not for one specific channel that is just my lineup.
DAMN!!! an entire 2008 season with boring ESPN Cup & Nationwide oh no no no!!
“live national tv coverage” from espn, oh please,
ESPN doesn’t show much of anything “live” but commericals,and
themselves as the race is going on
what the heck are they talking about and repeating each other,
explaining over & over as if Nascar fans don’t have a clue
They never show all the action, hardly any post race interviews
NASCAR ratings will go further down, if 2008 is anything like 2007 broadcasts
BP I miss ya, Wally, Bill Weber, Alan Bestwick,
oh the days of not only watching & enjoying a race, but listening to announcers
who made it so much more fun to watch.
Fisha is on to something. Eli Gold, Jenkins and Bestwick would be a wonderful team but unfortunately we won’t be getting that. Rusty would be better if he just quit trying to be cool. Saying things like hot rod and cats all the time grates on you. And when DW is on any show, it becomes the DW show first and everything else becomes secondary. He should be hosting “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader” instead of Foxworthy. Boogity my a** DW.
BRING BACK NED!!!!! I THINK HE WAS ONE OF THE BEST!!
gigolo george wrote:
I don’t think thats Rusty trying to be cool, but thats Rusty being Rusty, as far back as I can remember (Im only 19) Rusty has said those things way to much in interviews and stuff.
Richard Petty always talked like that. He’s 70 now. Then Rusty started using that jargon about 10 or 15 years ago. The King can pull it off. Rusty should relax and just be Rusty. He’s a very bright and charming guy. I used to see him all the time at the local short tracks when he had that Afro ( late 1970’s- early 1980’s). He didn’t talk like that then.
I remember the Afro too. It wouldn’t hurt if Rusty didn’t sound so anxious when it was his turn to speak. He appears to cram a lot of stuff into a small window of opportunity. I agree that Rusty should lighten up a little and enjoy that great gig he has. I’ll see you cats later. I gotta get my hot rod ready!
I think Rusty would be a better commentator if he was the Larry Mac of ESPN.
I hope they get DW& his gang back they put excitment into the race big time.I love them.I bet the ratings will go back up too.I love Rusty he was always my favorite driver,but he is not an announcer.
I agree, the announcers on Saturday make the race very boring! I don’t know where they got Dougherty, but he should be sent back.He’s about as much use as t— on a bore hog. Let me announce, I get more excited sitting by myself, watching the race.My suggestion would be Kyle Perry and who he wants with him,at least he keeps you informed and give you a hint of what might happen. He’s very good and keeps you interested, these guys announcing now are so boring, they were boring last year.They must be taking naps during the race, they don’t even get excited. Just sitting there collecting good money for doing nothing.
Someone please get these guys out of there. They are not helping with their announcing at all.