June 24, 2008 - During Tragic Times

We lost another race driver this past weekend. Scott Kalitta is gone.

And you know, we’ve heard too many times through the years the phrase: gone, but not forgotten. We all take it for granted, but ESPN2’s drag-racing team of producers, on-air talents and behind the scenes folks made sure we would not forget the son of drag-racing legend Connie Kalitta.

From the moment of Kalitta’s crash, through its qualifying program Saturday evening, “NHRA Race Day” Sunday morning and its Sunday evening coverage of the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals, ESPN2’s coverage of the Kalitta tragedy was outstanding.

Paul Page, whom we’ve criticized many times in the past, was flawless. He chose his words carefully, and he chose them well. His professionalism and composure in a difficult situation was the rock that anchored two days of exceptional work by the ESPN2 crew.

The death of a two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion was handled with class, objectiveness and compassion. In the initial coverage, which was to be fourth-round qualifying, the candid interviews with Kalitta’s Funny Car competitors, including Jerry Tolliver, Gary Scelzi, Ron Capps and the Pedregon brothers, were interesting, informative and highly emotional.

ESPN2 clearly told the human side of the tragedy.

And while its race-day coverage remained solemn, it carried the common theme that Scott Kalitta would be missed and he that he loved racing and he would have approved of the event continuing without him.

Highlighted by outstanding side-by-side drag racing, particularly in the Funny Car division, Sunday’s elimination rounds helped ESPN2’s task of delivering coverage of a race that doubled splendidly as a tribute to a 46-year-old racer, friend, husband and father who was gone too soon.

Spurred on by the raw emotion of the NHRA competitors on what was a difficult day for all, ESPN2’s coverage almost left us with an uplifting feeling. A feeling that — a reality — that the racing community is a true family.

A family that can tackle anything — including tragic loss — together.

June 17, 2008 - Shut Up And Drive?

Shut up and drive.

That is in a sense what NASCAR President Mike Helton told drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series before practice began Friday at Michigan Int’l Speedway.

According to reports Helton asked — well, told — to stop complaining about the car, formerly known as the Car of Tomorrow, and be thankful for how good they’ve got it.

First off, Helton is right to remind the drivers how good their lives are — flying to and from events in private jets and staying at the track in multi-million motorhomes for driving a car in circles, and, of course, putting their lives on the line.

But race car drivers whine. No matter what level they race on and for years they’ve whined about this rule or that rule. This manufacturer has an advantage or that manufacturer has an advantage. This team tested and we didn’t. The Goodyear tires are bad. The Goodyear tires are too good. We’ve heard them all, and NASCAR never told the drivers to shut up.

However, now that, the criticism is levied against NASCAR’s pride and joy, the Car of Tomorrow, and the way it performs as well as the quality of the races on the track, they are getting sensitive about it.

And — gasp — I know I sound like Gary London here, but wouldn’t all of us, including the drivers, like to hear NASCAR, just once, say: ‘Hey, we made a mistake. This car wasn’t ready to race every week. We’re sorry.’

But we have as much chance of hearing that as we do getting million-dollar paychecks in the mail. Not happening.

Instead, the drivers, the media and even the fans are being asked not to talk about the quality of the racing or ‘the car.’ And why? Because NASCAR is worried about the quality of the racing and the performance of the car.

NASCAR has acknowledged it is working to improve the car and has asked for help from the teams. There’s a lot of smart people working for the teams and NASCAR for that matter. Eventually, this car will be a race car.

But in the mean time, I just don’t see what is wrong with calling a dog, a dog.

Well, time to shut up and remember how good we all have it.

June 10, 2008 - Don't Forget Stenhouse

Joey Logano has gained a lot of attention during recent weeks and months.

His recent NASCAR Nationwide Series debut with Joe Gibbs Racing at Dover (Del.) Int’l Speedway was one of the most-anticipated driver debuts we can remember.

Logano is very good, and he has, and will live up to the hype, but there is another young driver, who may have as bright of future in NASCAR stock-car racing, and he’s flying under the radar.

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. earned his second ARCA RE/MAX Series victory of the season at Pocono Raceway and currently leads the standings in the traveling stock-car series.

Stenhouse, who drives for Roush Fenway Racing and is making the full-time transition from open-wheel cars to stock cars, has been fast since his ARCA debut at Daytona.

The 20-year-old driver from Olive Branch, Miss., started racing 360 sprint cars at age 16 and eventually graduated to 410 winged sprint cars and non-winged midgets, sprint cars and Silver Crown cars, having won in all of the aforementioned divisions.

In fact, Stenhouse won in the USAC National Midget Series, USAC National Sprint Car Series and USAC Silver Crown Series in 2007. That’s a feat only a few drivers have accomplished through the years.

Stenhouse drove for Tony Stewart Racing, subbing for injured Tracy Hines last year, and joined Roush Fenway late last year with an eye on stock-car racing. He made his ARCA debut at Daytona in February and his No. 99 Ford has been a front-runner nearly every week.

Having won earlier this season at Kentucky Speedway, Stenhouse became the first ARCA driver to win multiple events this season, with eight races in the books.

He’s back on the track Friday at Michigan Int’l Speedway, flying under the radar, but following the footsteps of Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman and Jeff Gordon.

And it looks like he’s more than capable of keeping pace.

June 3, 2008 - Interesting Viewing For Race Fans

This past Sunday afternoon was an interesting one for auto-racing fans. Three major auto races were televised at the same time.

Picking which one to watch was difficult and flipping back and forth among the three was certainly a battery drain on the ole remote.

While NASCAR easily won the ratings war among the three, with it’s 24 hours (or so it seemed) of Dover telecast, the IndyCar Series event from The Milwaukee Mile and the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series race from Heartland Park Topeka, completed the afternoon viewing party.

Upon returning from a little deadline work at the NSSN office, we tuned into the NASCAR event on Fox to find out many of the key players had already wrecked out of contention and that the race appeared to be another follow-the-leader snoozer with Kyle Busch or a Roush Ford winning in the end.

Both the NHRA on ESPN2 and the IndyCar Series on ABC started at 4 p.m., at which point we only checked in on NASCAR during commercials for the other two races, and for the most part we watched the Indy cars battling traffic before a large crowd at one of America’s most historic racing circuits.

It was captivating stuff, and with less Danica Patrick hype than usual, the event provided plenty of side-by-side racing, and what a drive by Ryan Briscoe. Seriously, at the start of the day who honestly would have thought that Briscoe could drive through the field and give Roger Penske his 300th auto-racing victory.

Meanwhile, on ESPN2, John Force and Hillary Will were working on making history themselves, with Hillary on her way to her first-career Top Fuel victory and the 15-time Funny Car champion completing his comeback from horrific injuries suffered last fall with his first victory in 10 months.

And on Fox, Busch was far ahead, with the only question being how many cars would finish on the lead lap.

Interestingly, the Cup race and the IndyCar race ended within minutes of each other with Briscoe narrowly avoiding a wild crash with three laps remaining while being chased through traffic by Scott Dixon at Milwaukee, and Busch driving routinely to victory lane.

NHRA hogged our attention for the final 45 minutes of its telecast, with Will outrunning Larry Dixon for an unexpected victory and Force getting past Tim Wilkerson to post, maybe, the most emotional triumph of his illustrious career.

It was great viewing all the way around, but maybe we need picture in picture or DVR or something like that.