| By Mark Spoor, NASCAR.COM
September 15, 2005
02:42 PM EDT (18:42 GMT)
SPEED Channel is changing its lineup once again. This time, things will be heavily slanted on the Chase for the Nextel Cup. Most notably, NASCAR Nation will be scaled back to just one show per week, on Mondays at 7 p.m. ET. Taking its place the remainder of the week will be several Chase-oriented shows. NASCAR.COM fans will be particularly interested in Wednesday night's offering, Back-Seat Drivers hosted by Shannon Spake and our own Marty Smith. SPEED said the show will be focused on "the hot topics in the garage." "Even if your favorite driver is Jeff Gordon, you still want to know what's going on at DEI or Roush Racing during silly season," said Hunter Nickell, SPEED Channel executive vice president and general manager. "Back-Seat Drivers will talk about driver changes, crew changes, sponsors coming and going -- everything is fair game." One-Track Mind, which will air Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. ET, will be a weekly, long-form interview with each of the driver-crew chief combinations in the Chase for the Nextel Cup. In addition to the new shows, the network also is expanding the popular Thursday night program Beyond the Wheel to a one-hour Beyond the Wheel -- Chase Edition. On Thursday, beginning tonight, Dale Jarrett and Ralph Sheehen will host The Chase is On a show that will analyze NASCAR's postseason party. Speaking of the Chase, TNT will interview all 10 drivers who earned spots last Saturday at Richmond during Sunday's pre-race show from New Hampshire. In addition, Bill Weber will have a story about lessons that we learned during last year's Chase. Also, in a special edition of "Wally's World," Wally Dallenbach will welcome Jamie and Kris Rose of Lexington Ky., the winners of the charity auction held earlier this week to benefit the hurricane relief effort. Kurt Busch, last week's winner, is among the guests slated for a live edition of Trackside this week from New Hampshire (7 p.m. ET Friday, SPEED). If you're heading there this weekend, the SPEED Channel Stage Truck will be located outside Turns 1 & 2. The ratings news was disappointing for TNT on Saturday night at Richmond. The overnight rating was 4.1, down from 4.3 a year ago. Last year's race drew 3.829 million homes while this year's event attracted 3.676 million.  |  | | TNT/NBC producer Sam Flood |
|
In this week's "Ask the Producer" question, we deal with another popular inquiry. Several users have written in to ask what happened to the Golden Benny Award that Benny Parsons gave each week to the top pit crew from the week before. NBC/TNT producer Sam Flood had an interesting answer. "It was a curse," said Flood. "At the end of the year last year, teams took a sledgehammer to it. It was as bad as the Sports Illustrated cover jinx." Each week, we'll choose a fan's question to ask a NASCAR on NBC/TNT producer. Send your puzzler by e-mail using the link to the right. In this week's version of "The Rant," Jimmy Pettit of Parts Unknown is seeing, well, yellow. NASCAR seems to be "yellow flag" happy at certain times during the races. A car can slightly rub the wall ... yellow flag. Back marker spins ... yellow flag. |  | EMAIL | |
|
I understand the concern for safety, but many times it seems not justified and leads to more commercials during races and longer races. It appears as though NASCAR has thrown a yellow to make a race more competitive, which is great for the fans, but very untimely for the leader who has built up a three-second lead and may lose the race because NASCAR does not want to lose interest from fans. Now to this weekend's schedule: Nextel Cup Series: Sylvania 300 Track: New Hampshire International Speedway • 1.058-mile oval
• 12-degree banking in corners
• 2-degree banking on straights
• Frontstretch: 1,500 feet
• Backstretch: 1,500 feet Race length: 300 laps/317.4 miles TV schedule (All times ET) • NASCAR Live: 5 p.m. Fri., SPEED
• Trackside: 7 p.m. Fri., SPEED
• Final practice: 8 p.m. Fri., SPEED (tape)
• Bud Pole Qualifying: Noon ET Sat., TNT
• NASCAR Live: 2:30, 7:30 p.m., Sat., SPEED
• NASCAR This Morning: 11 a.m. Sun., SPEED
• Pre-race: 12:30 p.m. Sun., TNT
• Race: 1:10 p.m. Sun, TNT One year ago, Kurt Busch took his first step toward winning the 2004 Nextel Cup title by winning the Sylvania 300. The most recent checkered flag went to Busch, who cruised to the win Saturday night at Richmond in the race that set the field for this year's Chase for the Nextel Cup. Keep an eye on Dale Earnhardt Jr. Junior gets his old crew chief back this weekend. Tony Eury Jr. comes back to the No. 8 pit box at New Hampshire. Craftsman Truck Series: Sylvania 200 Track: New Hampshire International Speedway • 1.058-mile oval
• 12-degree banking in corners
• 2-degree banking on straights
• Frontstretch: 1,500 feet
• Backstretch: 1,500 feet Race length: 200 laps/211.6 miles TV schedule (All times ET) • Race: 3 p.m. Saturday, SPEED One year ago, after a rain delay of nearly four hours, Travis Kvapil took the lead from Jamie McMurray on the final restart with 11 laps to go and conserved enough fuel to win the Sylvania 200 at New Hampshire. The most recent checkered flag went to Mike Skinner, who captured his second consecutive win with a dominating performance at Richmond, moving him up three spots to fourth in the point standings. Keep an eye on Ted Musgrave. Musgrave was a distant, 227 points behind championship leader Dennis Setzer just three races ago. The margin is now 49 following Richmond's event in which Musgrave finished fourth and Setzer 34th. Musgrave has finishes of second, sixth and fourth in his past three starts while Setzer has failed to finish higher than 14th. Mark Spoor is a senior producer for NASCAR.COM. The Domino's Viewer's Guide runs each Thursday during race weeks. | 
