// MotorSportsNews.Net(work)Home of the FREE Stock Car Gazette e-zine!

Fox’s broadcast of that Sunday’s UAW-Dodge 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway earned an overnight Nielsen Media Research rating of 6.2 and a 12 market share, Street & Smith’s Sports Business Daily reports. The rating is 12.7 percent higher than the 5.5 Fox earned overnight for the Las Vegas race in 2007.

The SPEED Channel adds two NASCAR programs to its line-up. Beginning last weekend with the introduction of NASCAR Confidential and NASCAR in a Hurry. NASCAR Confidential premieres March 23 at 8 p.m. on SPEED, offering a new twist on the behind-the-scenes genre. Instead of focusing on at-track competition, teams or drivers, the program will tell a unique and untold story on a variety of subjects through the eyes of several participants. It will be a one-hour, highly produced narrative covering a 24-hour period.

NASCAR in a Hurry, a 30-minute weekly program hosted by Adam Alexander and a number of rotating SPEED on-air personalities, premiered last Sunday at 11 a.m. ET. It will recap the weekend’s early highlights from the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series, in addition to clips from various NASCAR on SPEED programs. NASCAR in a Hurry will air immediately prior to NASCAR RaceDay on Sundays, while NASCAR Confidential is currently scheduled as a six-episode series with its March 23 premiere focusing on what it took to put together the historic 50th running of the Daytona 500.

Bruton Smith might be in his 80’s but that isn’t stopping the billionaire businessman. The latest deal that he’s interested in pulling off is building a speedway in the New York City area, according to various news reports. He’s not discouraged by the fact that the France family gave up trying to put a NASCAR speedway in the Big Apple. He’s also pressing NASCAR to give him a second race for Vegas and is balking at moving any of his Speedway Motor Sports, Inc. race dates to Glitter Gulch from any of his tracks. Also, he wants NASCAR to give his Atlanta track the final Cup date that he claims the sanction “borrowed” for Homestead. His rational is that Homestead only has 80,000 seats while Atlanta has twice that and it would improve the attendance at that venue. Smith has a knack for controversy that puts a lot media coverage in overdrive. The fact that the media is covering this is good for NASCAR motorsports.

The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) announced that the Association has entered into an agreement in principle to sell the sanctioning, promotional and management rights for its AMA Pro Racing properties to the Daytona Motorsports Group (DMG), based in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Led by Roger Edmondson, the founder of the CCS motorcycle racing series and currently the President of the Grand American Road Race Series LLC, and Jim France, Vice Chairman/Executive Vice President of NASCAR, DMG will assume responsibility for the AMA Superbike Series, the AMA Motocross Series, the AMA Flat Track Series, the AMA Supermoto Series, the AMA Hillclimb Series and ATV Pro Racing. The agreement in principle does not include the AMA Supercross and AMA Arenacross Series, the rights to which are held by Live Nation. Daytona Motorsports Group will license the use of the AMA name and trademarks to promote their motorcycle racing activities.

It was no secret that the AMA wanted out of the racing business and was shopping for someone to buy the business. As a result this latest purchase the principals of NASCAR now own a sports car road racing series and now part of the USA’s top tier motorcycle series. What we can expect to see is a lot of these events possibly moving into other International Speedway Corp. venues, among others, in the future. Also, it was no secret that the AMA didn’t know how to handle some of the more vocal competitors and teams, particularly in the Superbike Series. In some cases it appeared to be the “inmates running the asylum”.

With strong management DMG is expected to take their new franchise up to the next level. We also hope that under the new owners DMG will bring a lot of the motorcycle action back to the Laconia Bike Week in New Hampshire at NHMS in Loudon, NH. Former owner of NHMS Bob Bahre dumped the AMA a few years back because of friction with the sanction and the riders. With NHMS now part of the Speedway Motorsports Inc. things could change for the better.

Let’s see what’s on the tube this weekend for the motosports crowd as the season continues to ramp up. It starts on Thursday night on Speed with F1 Practice from Australia. Friday get things going at noon with Speed offering Sprint Cup Practice from Bristol followed by Nationwide Practice from that same track. Stick with Speed as that channel offers Cup Qualifying from Bristol at 3:30 p.m. followed by Nationwide Final Practice from that same track. More F1 airs on Speed with Qualifying from Australia at 11 p.m. On Saturday it’s ALMS opener at Sebring starting at 9:30 a.m. ESPN2 offers NHRA Qualifying from Gainesville, FL at 11 a.m. Speed returns at noon with Nationwide Qualifying from Bristol followed by Sprint Cup Final Practice. ABC airs the Nationwide Series event from Thunder Valley at 2 p.m. while it’s more of the 12 Hours of Sebring on Speed at the same time. Sunday’s offerings start at midnight with the F1 race in Australia while it’s a 1:30 p.m. post time for the Cup race from Bristol on Fox. The Duce also airs the GatorNational Finals from Gainesville at 6 p.m. while Speed covers the AMA SuperX from Minneapolis at the same time. (END)

NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES, PRESS RELEASES, NOTES AND OTHER SOURCES.