Last year, ESPN received a ton of flak for their NASCAR coverage. Fans accused the "Leader" of not being ready to cover the sport, and a lot even thought that the network tried to create drama, to create story lines. Well this year ESPN has another chance, and so far, it's not off to a good start.

During Monday's makeup day in Pocono, Kasey Kahne got into the back of Juan Pablo Montoya on a restart. Kahne apologized to Montoya after the race, but ESPN reporter Vince Welch didn't see it that way. Welch accused Montoya of being the aggressor, and the driver of the 42 car didn't appreciate it at all....

You can obviously put some of the blame on Montoya's reputation, but that was pretty much an epic fail for Welch. Hopefully ESPN can get their act together for NASCAR fans, but it's not looking good.

Montoya Pwns ESPN's Vince Welch (All Left Turns)

Tom Cruise knows a thing or two about NASCAR, and the actor is scheduled to make an appearance on the February 6th edition of ESPN2's NASCAR Now. Cruise will discuss everything from "Days of Thunder" to Daytona Motor Speedway. Via ESPN PR....

The Friday, Feb. 6, edition of ESPN2’s NASCAR Now will include an original interview with actor Tom Cruise at 5 p.m. ET. Cruise discusses his interest in NASCAR and how he drove a race car at Daytona while filming the 1990 movie Days of Thunder. The movie featured a young Cruise playing the role of Cole Trickle -- a hotshot rookie driver looking for success in NASCAR's premiere division. From the big screen to real life, Cruise has had a lifelong passion for racing. The NASCAR season begins this weekend at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Excerpts:

Cruise on NASCAR racing:

"You know it's just...it's just America. It's something about driving in a car. For me as a kid growing up, I always wanted to race cars. I came up with the idea to make this movie about NASCAR, it's just a piece of America and these icons who were there in the beginning and created this sport, you just see our history through time, our love affair with the automobile. It's a very unique kind of racing that feels very American. Rubbin's racin', you know."

Cruise on filming at Daytona:

"My personal Daytona memory is getting up close to 200 mph, personally driving on that track in the car. Having that opportunity to drive those cars on the track, meet those drivers that I got to meet. Making movies, I love it because I get to enter into a world and you meet these people, and the generosity that I've been extended by these people -- whether it's NASCAR or Jerry McGuire -- it's a great life because I'm interested in life and in engaging in life, and to have those experiences I feel very privileged."

What's that? You want a clip??? Happy to oblige....



Sorry it isn't longer, but that's all ESPN provided from the interview. Oh yeah, and another thing that I almost forgot. Apparently NASCAR is starting up again! Boy that ridiculously long layoff time of three months seems like it took forever!

Back near the end of August, Stu Scott played a little one-on-one with Barack Obama, and after that you knew it was just a matter of time before John McCain got his turn on the network. According to MDS at Fanhouse, Bob Ley sat down with the Republican Presidential candidate and the interview will more than likely air sometime this week....

ESPN's Bob Ley interviewed Republican presidential candidate John McCain today at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, as the Worldwide Leader attempts to give equal time to both candidates after Stuart Scott interviewed Barack Obama last month.

The problem, though, is that Scott gave Obama a puff piece, complete with a game of one-on-one that ended with a hug. Somehow I can't see Ley and McCain hugging it out at the NASCAR track.

ESPN tells me they don't know yet when the interview will air, but I'm betting that when it does air, we'll see that Ley asked tough questions, because he's a good journalist. And I'm sure the McCain campaign will use Ley asking McCain tough questions and Scott asking Obama softball questions to bolster their claims that the media is biased against Republicans, because that's been one of the key McCain talking points in the last couple of weeks.

It is really odd that ESPN decided to use a different interviewer for each candidate when you think about it. If Ley does grill McCain it will obviously come across like ESPN set it up that way (whether they did or didn't), and about six months back that's the reason they originally said they weren't even going to bother with interviews. I'm not sure what changed their mind but one thing is for sure. They really should have thought this out a heck of a lot more.

On a side note, I'm also wondering who picked the locations. If it was McCain's choice, picking a NASCAR race is a pretty transparent move. We couldn't have just conducted both in Bristol? Guess not.

ESPN's Bob Ley Interviews John McCain, How Will It Compare to Scott-Obama Puff Piece? (Fanhouse)
Video: Obama's Sit-Down With Stuart Scott (Awful Announcing)

ESPN was hammered last year for it's NASCAR coverage by those in the know (I am certainly not one who "knows" NASCAR). The network recently made a handful of changes in and out of the booth over the past few weeks, and they're now added current owner Ray Evernham as an analyst.

Ray Evernham, a successful team owner in NASCAR racing and a three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion crew chief, has joined ESPN’s NASCAR coverage team as an analyst.

Evernham, who makes his debut this week from Daytona International Speedway, will appear on NASCAR Now, ESPN’s daily NASCAR news and information show, as part of a rotating panel of ESPN analysts for a weekly roundtable discussion in an expanded one-hour Monday edition of the program. The roundtable, hosted by ESPN’s Allen Bestwick, will discuss the latest NASCAR news and events.

In addition to his duties with NASCAR Now, Evernham will work as an analyst in ESPN’s booth for live telecasts of NASCAR Nationwide Series races from Mexico City and Loudon, N.H. Evernham also will join ESPN’s pre-race NASCAR Countdown show for some races in 2008, including prior to the Feb. 16 NASCAR Nationwide Series opening event from Daytona, and will appear from Daytona on NASCAR Now, SportsCenter and ESPNEWS.

It seems like a great move on the surface, and the insight he could provide is probably immense, but why would you hire an owner of a team in the midst of the season? This has to be an unprecedented move in the History of Sports. I can't for the life of me remember a party with ties to an actual season being an active member of a broadcast.

What would happen if Jerry Jones was hired to work Monday Night Countdown? Just an odd move if you ask me.

(Via ESPN PR)

Well ready or not, the boys of Hendrick Motorsports are going to be on the telecast tonight. Both Jimmy Johnson and Jeff Gordon will be guests during the Seahawks-9ers game tonight, but there's good news! Neither will be in-booth for their interviews. The two Nascar point leaders will appear at halftime via Satellite and will speak with Stuart Scott about the final race of the season that will air on ABC this Sunday.

Wait, that's not good news. My apologies....Stu Scott and NASCAR can't ever be good.

(Source: ESPN)

P.S.- I haven't heard if there will be in in-booth visit from anyone but you'll know as soon as I find out.

ESPN 2 was carrying this past Saturday's Busch Race and everything was going on swimmingly. That was until "human error" cause the network to lost it's signal entirely during Lap #247. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal....you apologize when you come back and go on with the race. Well there was one small problem at Bristol.

There's only 250 laps for this race, and when the signal came back. The race was over...

Human error caused ESPN2 to lose its signal in the final laps of Friday's Busch broadcast from Bristol and caused fans to miss the final two laps ESPN spokesman George McNeilly said.

"We sincerely apologize for briefly losing transmission due to human error and have taken steps to prevent this from happening again," McNeilly said in a statement. "As soon as transmission was reestablished we apologized to viewers and replayed the last two laps of the race."

Dagger. I wasn't watching, but lucky for us someone from NASCAR Nation has created a 9-minute YouTube clip detailing the terrible coverage throughout the race. The dead air comes in at about the 7-minute mark, but the whole thing is pretty hilarious.



Blank Screen (Roanoke Times)

I really tried to watch NASCAR on ESPN today, but the commercials kept getting in the way. I would change the channel and start to get into the race, but talk of "Dirty Air" would lead into one of what seemed like 8 million commercial breaks.

I thought I was just being an ESPN hater until my Inbox started getting flooded with anti-ESPN sentiment. And just like Tony Stewart's (2nd) jab at ESPN the other day, people are pretty upset with the coverage....

"Every time we've got to deal with somebody from ESPN it's a sharp knife trying to dig for dirt. I'm not saying they're not fair questions. Do we always have to leave with a dagger on our back from ESPN? That's all I'm curious about."- Tony Stewart

They talk about "dirty air" every 5 minutes. Its like they were told "listen we have these cool graphics ... lets keep the dirty air talk up so we can keep using there". Ive never heard the term dirty air so much in a race ever.- BG

I watched the entire race and saw when Dale Jr. spun out. The thing is, he spun out because of a bad suspension set up, not because of a "blown tire" as every single mention of it on ESPN's Sportcenter and ESPN News has described it. They then show the tire, which amazingly is not "blown out" or even flat.....it had a flat spot from the from the subsequent sliding sideways. Rusty Wallace and the other announcers pegged it during the race; it's officially called a "flat spot" from going sideways, which of course was a result of the bad suspension and shocks setup. But ESPN constantly stated that his spin was because of a "tire problem", even when, during the race, it was plainly clear that Jr. was unhappy with the shocks so much that they had to take out some springs during a yellow flag pit stop. Why does ESPN misinform and misrepresent what the problem really was after the race?- WC

NASCAR on ESPN sucks! Fox does the best job covering NASCAR. The coverage on ESPN stinks, too many comercials, too many past race film clips, poor choice of commentators. I want NASCAR on FOX all season long.- BS

Suzy Kolber has an annoying voice and she doesnt know s*** about nascar. she should stick to football.- AN

I'll tell you what Double A, I caught the last half hour of coverage on ESPN, and I'll tell you what, that was some of the WORST announcing ever, I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what, Rusty Wallace is a complete moron. I'll tell you what, there would be a huge wreck on the track and he wouldn't break off his verbal diarrhea to comment about it, said that Montoya had never driven at Indy before (he won the goddam Indy 500), added a "I'll tell you what" to every single comment.- HW

The ESPN Nascar A-Team has been awful since the start of the Busch season. Punch is a boring play-by-play guy and Wallace talks to the audience like we're children. Also, anyone else notice how much they kept hyping the airflow on the cars just because they had that awful Fox/NHL-esque Draft track stuff?- JW

There's many more that I couldn't put up because of very strong language, but you get the idea. And say what you will about NBC's coverage....at least they get viewers. Last week's ESPN telecast got 24% less viewers than last year's NBC broadcast from the Brickyard.

Not a good start at all for the "Leader".

Tony Stewart Goes Off On ESPN's NASCAR Coverage (Awful Announcing)
Not Since The Invention Of The Glow Puck, Has A Graphic Been This Distracting (Awful Announcing)
Stewart rips ESPN over NASCAR coverage (MSNBC)

So what does $25K buy you in NASCAR? About a million new fans perhaps???

Welcome to NASCAR, ESPN! War Tony Stewart!!! (I have no idea what that means btw)

Tony Stewart Fined $25,000 for ‘Bulls**t’ (Mister Irrelevant)

Tony Stewart won the Brickyard 400 this past Sunday and did so in front of the first ESPN audience in quite awhile. Never one to back away from a fight, Stewart took the network, and his new critics, head on...

And when Stewart's feeling swell, no one is safe — even a new broadcast partner. On the day Cup returned to ESPN for the first time since 2000, Stewart called out the network for criticizing him after he said he planned to celebrate Chicagoland with a case of Schlitz.

"I don't want anybody from ESPN talking about how irresponsible I am," he said. "Heaven forbid you actually have fun in life."

I guess that would be a dig at anyone who critiques a Sport. And while it is a valid point....it's just the way things are. It comes with the territory of being involved in a Sport or even being in the spotlight at all. ESPN is the leader of critiquing, and while Tony may not like it....he's going to have to learn to live with it. Pretty much how ESPN is going to have to live with blogs.

P.S.- I still think it's hilarious that Tony is the only racer who won't go on Jim Rome's show. If anyone has more info on this let me know.....I'd like to hear the story.

Temperatures, Stewart on patented midsummer rise (USA Today)