Speed Channel Attempts Program Resurrection

February 3, 2008

By Kim Roberson

Kim Roberson

One of the big conversations I have seen on the internet NASCAR boards of late has been talk of the potential demise of the show that has aired on Monday nights on the Speed Channel for a dozen years. Inside Nextel Cup, formerly Inside Winston Cup, has been the mainstay of the Speed Channel since the days it was called Speedvision.

For the first decade of its existence, IWC/INC had quartet of faces familiar to NASCAR fans telling them about life in the Cup Series: Allen Bestwick was the “host”, with Johnny Benson, Kenny Schrader, and Michael Waltrip as the “panel”.

When the show began the day after the 1996 Daytona 500, the members of the panel drove for three different teams, and drove three different cars: Benson was in a Pontiac (Bahari Racings #30), Schrader a Chevy (Hendrick Motorsports #25), and Waltrip a Ford (the Wood Brothers #21). What was intended to be a race recap show, was almost more an entertainment show with a review of the race thrown in. The show was taped on a makeshift set in a warehouse, and was primarily done off the cuff, with the drivers talking about what had happened over the course of the weekend, as well as talking about whatever happened to be on their minds at the time.

In 2001, when NASCAR reworked the TV contracts for the Winston Cup Series, switching coverage from the ESPN-supported Speedvision to NBC and Fox, IWC was cancelled, despite an outcry from fans. The cancellation was short-lived, however. In 2001, after Dale Earnhardt’s death, the team came together to tape a special called "One More Time," which involved only the regular panelists and frequent substitute Kenny Wallace. In 2002, Speedvision became the Speed Channel, and entered into a formal partnership with NASCAR. The show came back full time, with the original host and panelists.

Fast forward six years. Over the last half decade, the show has changed names (from Inside Winston Cup to Inside Nextel Cup), changed hosts (Bestwick was replaced by Wind Tunnel host Dave Despain), and changed panelists (Benson was ousted at the same time as Bestwick, and replaced with a changing rotation of drivers like Brian Vickers and Greg Biffle). The changes were not received well. Despain was brought in to try and “keep the show under control”. Many original fans complained that the show just “wasn’t the same”, and the fun show they used to turn in to watch on Monday nights just wasn’t fun any more.

“The thing I have heard the most about that original format is that it was comfortable for everyone to watch, and when we got into heavy duty replays and techno talk, we lost some of that” explained Speed TV's VP of Media Relations Erik Arneson. “Dave did what he was supposed to do, but it just didn’t work.”

This week, just as rumors were beginning to swirl about the possible demise of INC, Speed announced the new and improved INC, to be called “This Week in NASCAR”. “Trackside” host Steve Byrnes was inked to host the new show (he will also be remaining on Trackside), which will be returning to the way things “used to be”.

“They (Speed TV) like what Steve did with Trackside and they wanted to bring the atmosphere to this show” Arneson explained this week. “There was an experiment to try and control the group, and I think they just wanted to bring the playful aspect back to the show.”

“Although much of what viewers have become comfortable with Monday nights on Speed will remain, This Week in NASCAR will no longer be all about 'yesterday,'” said Speed Senior Vice President of Programming Steve Craddock. “We want to do more than review Sunday's race ... we want to get NASCAR fans ready for what's coming next.”

“It’ll be mainly the studio conversations, but they’ll also be breaking away to do features from the shop or try more things than they have done with the show” added Arneson. “They (Speed TV) respect that spot…it is the oldest spot we have on the network. How do you keep things fresh without alienating people who have tuned in for 12 years?”

According to the information released this week, This Week in NASCAR will move away from a NASCAR Sprint Cup race re-cap and analysis show, and move into a so-called "handoff" position between events: reviewing topical items from previous races in all three NASCAR national touring series while also looking forward to upcoming events.

Arneson says the driving force behind the change was the fact that there are already so many “race recaps” on TV in the first 24 hours after a race, there was a need to distance themselves from the “rest” of the shows. “If you do Victory Lane, then Speed Report, then Wind Tunnel (not to mention ESPN’s post race shows), it was beyond redundant to have yet another recap.”

Joining Byrnes will be Biffle, Schrader, and Waltrip. There will also be segments with NASCAR crew chiefs, including Chad Knaus, and features done by Speed TV reporters like Wendy Venturini. When asked why more “high profile” drivers hadn’t been brought in to fill the seats, the answer was simple.

“Not many drivers want to do TV.”

The show is a weekly commitment, and is often done bright and early on Monday mornings, even when the race is on the west coast and a red-eye flight home gets the panelists home just hours before they have to show up for taping. If the race is rain-delayed to Monday, they do the show live, often causing the drivers to have to go straight from the airport to the studio.

The show, in the desired format, is barely controlled chaos. Three years ago I sat in on a taping of the show on Memorial Day. It was the day after Schrader’s 50th birthday, and Mikey had just discovered a love of coffee. Back then, it was the original cast, although the show had been extended to a 90 minute format. The only guidance given was a general idea of what the producer wanted covered, and in the order it was to be done. There are no scripts, and not much prep-time. It was the show after the infamous teammate takes out teammate incident when Dale Earnhardt Jr. took out his then-teammate Waltrip, as they came down the front straightaway. Kurt Busch was set to be the “Hot Seat” guest, but he too had had a bad day, and did not show up.

Again, another reason why every driver is not cut out to host a show that makes a point of showing the bad as well as the good -- in what they did the day before.

“There is a certain comfort level with those guys, with Mikey and Kenny. The fans kind of want to have a good time, and pick up their news along the way.” Arneson explained.

Will the fun of the “old days” be back? You’ll just have to tune in to find out.

“This Week in NASCAR” debuts it’s 13th season on February 18th at 8 p.m. on Speed Channel.

Discuss this and other racing matters in the Prodigys@Speed Forum

You can contact Kim at.. Insider Racing News

    Read other articles by Kim Roberson

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Insider Racing News, are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of IRN.

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web Insiderracingnews.com