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TAZZ
Buc Waterboy
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:48 pm Post subject: ESPN/ABC Announcers |
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By Michael Hiestand, USA TODAY
ABC/ESPN, after returning to NASCAR racing last year, will retool its coverage this season.
The moves, being announced Wednesday, include removing Rusty Wallace as lead race analyst. He'll become lead analyst in the prerace show, which last year didn't have anyone in such a role.
Wallace's replacement on races: Dale Jarrett, who'll retire from racing after the first five races in this season's Sprint Cup Series (the former Nextel Cup Series).
"Before last year, (TV) wasn't something I'd given any thought to," says Jarrett, who called 10 Busch Series races a circuit now called the Nationwide Series on ESPN2 and ABC last year. "I was 100% focused on driving," he says. "But once ESPN gave me the opportunity last year, I found it was something I really enjoyed a new challenge."
Not that his new TV job, working in the booth with Jerry Punch and Andy Petree, should seem foreign. Jarrett's father, Ned, was an ESPN NASCAR analyst from 1988 to 2000. And Dale Jarrett, Punch and Petree grew up in the same town Newton, N.C. They even collaborated in 1979 on a race car driven by Jarrett and funded by Punch, with Petree as the mechanic.
Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, says Jarrett's Busch race calls last year showed he can "take you inside the event." He says moving Wallace to the studio, and appearances on SportCenter and ESPNews, will help create a NASCAR "anchor team people can identify with, like College GameDay's Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler."
Given NASCAR's TV ratings, there's no reason for anybody to stand pat. The Nextel Cup, NASCAR's top series, averaged 4.2% of U.S. TV households last year as it aired on Fox, TNT, ESPN and ABC down 9% from 2006 and 21% from 2005.
NASCAR CEO Brian France said Monday that the circuit is "getting back to basics" in focusing on its longtime fans "we're going to embrace the past" and "we've had all the change the sport can stand."
ABC/ESPN's coverage includes the final 17 Sprint Cup races as well as all 35 Nationwide races, which begin Feb. 16.
And its new on-air lineup suggests more emphasis on using people closely associated with racing. The roster changes will include:
Allen Bestwick, a NASCAR TV veteran who was an ABC/ESPN pit reporter last year, becomes studio show host replacing Brent Musburger and Suzy Kolber, who were largely new to NASCAR. ESPN reporter Shannon Spake replaces Bestwick in the pits. |
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BF57
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| Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 11:01 pm Post subject: |
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Rusty was always my fave driver, but as an announcer was not very good at all.
Kinda saw this coming.
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tbbucs99rulz
Buc Waterboy
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| Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Rusty is my favorite driver too and I really wasn't impressed with his reporting,but he'd be great doing the one on one's with the drivers, or better yet, get back in the car |
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fan4ever
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| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:53 am Post subject: |
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Jarrett, Punch and Petree ought to have some good chemistry since they know each other so well.
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